Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Field Of Glory: Napoleonic game - Prussian versus French Autumn 1813

Game with Stephen today and for a slight change of tack from MEG (V2) I chose to try FOGN (V2).

Selected Autumn 1813 and my Prussians so Stephen fielded French from same period.

Been just over a year since we played these last so a bit rusty but soon got into swing of things.

I had forgotten how inspired the set-up process is with the selection of 'stance' (as amended by enemy). 

As it was we both ended up selecting Flexible Defence for which I became attacker.

Both ended up keeping respective Dragoon Divisions off-table in Reserve.


Game however followed familiar format of my being out-diced at just about every juncture (my units shooting today was truly dreadful).

Things did not start well when 3 Units of Cavalry engaged 3 enemy units and all 3 lost.

Just no way to recover from that in FOGN as too few opportunities to try to recover, mitigated only by the French Cavalry all being Spent (just as well as I had an Infantry unit nearby that failed to form square 3 times).

Stephens shooting was awesome with above average hits on my units with little impact on him by my lot.

After 5 turns my Army was mostly disorganized or wavering (or worse !) and his still mainly intact.

FOGN has nice system for victory and defeat and with over 30% of my army damaged compared to less than 10% of Stephens the game ends (no point flogging a dead horse)

This is unforgiving (no chance of a Marengo here) but does mean games are decisive and playable in 3-4 hours.

Hope to get another outing with these rules but with Covid restrictions returning here in NI/UK that may not occur for a period. 

I am personally a bit less on board/undecided than back in March as it seems rather odd to not be allowed to meet in our houses but we could in a pub and whilst two cannot meet together in a home several can at other venues, will have to have a ponder about issue..............................














9 comments:

  1. Very interesting, I've never played FOGN but it appears to give a good result. I've also just played a Prussian vs French 1814 game with a completely different result! The UK COVID rules do seem a bit odd. Cheers Greg

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    1. FOGN well written and playable but very much a points based competition style (certainly less free and easy than Black Powder) but do give a good game.
      UK Covid rules all over the show at present.

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  2. Lovely looking game. I think you did well to get back into FOG so easily after a years gap.

    As for Covid, I just think that every meeting less that we have socially with another human is a victory against the virus and that each of those occasions just helps the economy to rattle on without them having to take the restriction hit as well. I note New Zealand is doing very well, so there is light at the end of the tunnel.

    On the boardgame front, you might enjoy a little look at Antietam and Shiloh from Worthington Publishing, first two games in what promises to be a series with just 8 pages of series rules. My copies are en route to me, so can't judge until they arrive, but hopes are high.

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    1. Hi Norm
      FOGN well written and some great how to play videos by author.
      Not a big ACW fan but sounds interesting with 8 page rules !
      As to Covid I agree in principle but since my social interaction is minimal at present anyhow bit grating to not be able see family etc except at bar/restaurant or similar. UK and NZ literally worlds apart :-)

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  3. Great looking game. Thanks for sharing. How does this rule set compare to Shako II? If you’ve played it that is.

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    1. Different scale to Shako II (which I love btw) as a standard 4 base unit represent a Brigade sized formation 3-4 Bttns with maybe 1-2 base substituted for a Skirmish, Artillery or Cavalry attachment. Units grouped into 3-4 Divns making for a Corps sized game. We like to have the option of a points based game playable in a few hours. Shako tends to need scenarios (although the standard OOBs with optional picks works ok). FOGN has a couple of accompanying army list books which give a lot of historically based variety. Both sets playable with same basing. I like both sets for different reasons but if pushed I would plumb for Shako for a deeper more involving game but slower playing overall. Minimal preparation required with FOGN which has a superb scenario/game set up sysyem.

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  4. Sgt Steiner, would you mind opening comms with me at deltacoy1976 at hotmail.com, I have a question I want to run by you. Cheers Greg

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    1. Sent to your id :-)

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    2. Not sure f my reply got through to you ?
      Try emailing me directly on sgt dot steiner at btinternet dot com

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