Field of Battle - Lutzen next Initiative phases

Another 2 Initiatives completed (a total of 10 cards per side).
Mixed fortunes for the French with a follow up victory at Rahna evicting the Russian defenders, however a repulse at Klein-Gorschen on their left flank.
No real advantage to either side as yet with the Cavalry units still not engaged and only Rahna changing hands, but early stages still
A meat grinder scenario in essence as per 1813 actions generally.

Field of Battle initial action at Lutzen

Managed a few card turns this evening (4 per side) and with forces starting so close there has been some incident and casualties already !
Sort of general advance by French and a faulty deployment noted as the weaker Young Guard Brigade (rated as Regulars not Crack) are lined up against Russians occupying Rahna.
Subsequently one Regiment has been Routed by close fire from the village but hopefully weight of numbers can prevail.
Elsewhere some desultory artillery and skirmisher fire from both sides has caused only minor morale hits.
French cavalry Brigade on their right has sortied forward to try to overwhelm the single Russian Guard Hussar, but support arriving from Prussian Dragoons and Horse Artillery.
An early commitment of an Allied reserve however.
Early stages..........

Further game prep for ‘The Guard Counterattacks at Lutzen’ - Field of Battle

Decided to go with FOB for game and set up completed.
Rather than my usual classing all similar units with the same stats I decided to roll units up as per standard FOB with couple of minor tweaks (Russian foot classed as D8 defence but rolled as Regulars for combat stat).
More akin to classic Piquet and some interesting outcomes with some lowly units gaining high combat stats.
More ‘work’ involved but fine for a solo experience as more variety always helps, but I would likely keep standardised stats for ‘normal’ games.
French deck became Poor with a D8 General but sub commanders mostly good.
Prussian and Russians fairly average but with D12 General and a Skilled deck.
Units deployed (I made up a couple of deployments for both sides then rolled to select)
Nature of scenario has units starting pretty much eyeball to eyeball but Allies have some Brigades in Reserve.
Will get to action over next few days, as no real rush at present.

Field of Battle - Zorndorf Frederick triumphant

Completed my solo game of Zorndorf with Prussians coming out as clear winners (FOB generally gives a decisive result).
After a few initial wobbles the Prussian superior leaders came to the fore being able to rally off nearly all hits and restoring command, including Rallying a couple of Routing units (not easy to do in FOB).
Manteuffels Grenadier Corps eventually exited the Stein Busch and after some desultory Russian musketry they set to the task with cold steel punching a hole in Russian centre.
This despite Manteuffel falling from his saddle, as a Leadership card appeared right away and command was restored.
Kanitz and Dohna combined in attack on Russian left and whilst the failed to break through they did decimate Russian ranks with superior volleys.
Russian forces had a lot of units destroyed, pretty hard to Rally routers with lower Command levels (and a lack of Leadership cards).
It was however not bloodless for Prussians as they lost a lot of Army Morale points (at one stage far more than Russians), but they inflicted a lot more on the enemy who saw their Morale pool dwindle to nought and then failed their first Army Morale roll to end the battle.
The Prussians were on a mere 4 (3 plus 1 owed by enemy)
Biggest disappointment for Russians was the Cavalry Corps of Demiku failing to move several times and then once they got into a great position, outflanking their Prussian opponents, they failed (ie no melee or move cards) to capitalize at all !
This meant Prussians were free to manouvre as they wished.

Fun stuff and hoping FOB3 will appear soon for another game.

 

Field of Battle - Zorndorf (a mornings action)

Played through several phases of Zorndorf with FOB2 this April morning and as ever with FOB what a fine time to be had even on ownsome.
Used historical set up but not sticking to historical course of battle.
Instead I flung Seydlitz mounted 'Corps' (will call commands Corps though not strictly a SYW formation) straight at Russians under Gaugreben (whose Corps is 'beefed' up by 2 extra Cossack Regiments) on Prussian left whilst Manteuffels Grenadier Corps advanced into the Stein Busch with Kanitz forming his troops into columns to march to Prussian right (ala Le Ducs tactics in previous game).
Dohna pushed his Infantry forward to engage the Russian Observation Corps under Browne.
Schorlemers Cuirassier extended the Prussian right to guard against intervention of the more numerous but poor Russian cavalry under Demiku.
Russians pretty much on hold orders.
Corps Demiku intended to float around the Prussian right wing but failed to move on three seperate opportunities and only managing a single move segment on last Move card !
Seydlitzs attack was caught by some effective Russian cannon fire and then Cuirassier unit Routed !!
To cap off a bad start Seydlitz fell in battle putting whole Corps in jeopardy, but a timely intervention by Dragoon formations under Bieberstein saw off Russian threat destroying 2 units of Cossacks.
Seydlitz replacement has managed to restore command and morale in his Corps so things now looking grim for Russian right wing.
The massed Prussian cannon under Frederick opened up on the Infantry of Saltylovs Corps but no real damage inflicted.
Manteuffel stuck in Stein Busch (no Move cards as despite having 4 in deck re-shuffles did not help).
Musketry exchanges between Dohna and Brownes Corps saw Prussians falling back but Dohna has also restored Morale.
Kanitz slow (those missing Move cards again having an effect) slow getting across but has now deployed his troops to assist attack on Obs Corps.
The mounted Corps of Schorlemer and Demiku also on move and due to clash...........

FOB works so well for solo actions with the card initiative system.

Hopefully more to come..................