Field Of Glory Napoleonic game played

Simple 800 points game today using FOGN version 2 with Stephen today.

I used Spring 1813 Prussians and he Spring 1813 French both from recently published 'Triumph Of Nations' version 2 lists.
No major changes although the Prussian do lose ability to field Fusiliers as Light Infantry units as essentially subsumed within the standard Infantry Brigades that a table unit represents.

We both had 13 units although French had several Large Infantry units due to having a large minimum of Conscript Infantry to field.

We both chose Flexible Defence as a strategy but Stephen won dice off and selected to be defender.

Most terrain ended up on his side of table and so I set up with a refused right flank with a French strong-point ensconced in the central town area.
I had a Poor Reserve unit in a Town on my extreme left.
I had a Dragoon Division in Reserve off-table and Stephen had a Young Guard Division in his Reserve.

Another excellent and fast playing game ensued.

The Large Infantry are pretty good as hard to Disorder or Waver due to cancel 1 Hit and I suffered several Disordered and then Wavering units from French volleys.

A Cavalry encounter on my right saw both my Dragoon units defeated one by a Cuirassier (no surprise) and the other by Chasseurs (damn well should have beat them !).

In FOGN once an Army suffers a lot of Cohesion drops it is rather hard to recover as a General can only attempt to recover 1 be friendly Recovery Phase (with CinC able to try recovering a further unit) and this helps make the rules pretty decisive.
This means those that fail or have to sit in Disorder or are Wavering are in real danger of being Wavered or Routed.

This occurred when I had 10 out of 13 units in either Disorder or Wavering status I did manage to Rally 5 but then in next French turn those left in Disorder, Wavered and then were Routed in following Fire Phase (ie before getting any chance to Rally).

Having 3 units in Rout and a further 4 Wavered put me at 10 (ie 40% loss level) losses and with French only having 2 losses (ie less than 10%) the game was up for Prussians.

The rules are very slick and fast playing and I have to say very well written with every query easily answered.
Nice set for a Corps sized game playable in a few hours.





Prussian deployment on the left

French opposition

French Cavalry advance on their left

Armies clash around the central town

Cavalry about to cross swords

Overview of battle from Prussian right

Prussian units suffering Wavers and Disorders

Prussian right

Even after good Rally phase Prussian units still holding Cohesion hits

Field Of Glory Napoleonic - Peninsular action

Games at Stephens today using FOGN again (so easy to just bring a long an army).
1810/11 French against British in Spain was the match up with the fate of France in my hands once more (the fools !!)
Another very quick playing game (3 hours plus waffle saw this one to a conclusion) but a bit frustrating as once more I simply could not out roll Stephen anywhere of consequence.
I had a unit of Guard Chasseurs a Cheval (Superior Veteran Guard) which faced off against a unit of British Dragoons (Shock with an attached gun) so being Lighter types I had 5 dice to his 7 and he hit of a 3+ to my 4+, of course he scored 5 hits Wavering my lot and I managed a single hit without any re-rolls (2s and 3s only !!!) so was forced to perform an outcome which of course went 8" so facing away from Brits.
They being Impetuous followed although failing to maintain contact in the pursuit but whilst I managed to Recover from Wavering to Disordered I was subsequently hit in rear (back to Wavering) and broken in 2nd melee.
A Hussar unit on my left was shot to bits and I lost an Infantry unit to a 4 hits out of 4 roll by an Extended line leaving me with 3 Routed units which with 3 other Wavered units took me over 40% losses (vs only 10% British) and defeat once more
Think I may be better off just fielding lots of cheap Conscripts maybe a Spanish army !? :-)

Field Of Glory Napoleonic - 1812 France vs Russia

Another game with FOGN against Stephen this time using a French 1812 force against his Russian 1812 selection.
Russians ended up with Frontal Assault against my Envelopment (first time trying this) which I used to send a Chasseur Division on a flank march.
This along with 2 Skilled Commanders and several Veteran units allowed me to cause Russians a lot of problems by out maneuvering them at least initially.
My flank march arrived promptly on turn 2 but was thwarted somewhat by facing Cuirassier on that wing and getting slowed by some rough ground.
I had a large battery of Veteran 6pdrs which caused two Russian foot units to Waver with one withdrawing and it seemed I was gaining upper hand.
I had two shock Cavalry units (Carabiner and Cuirassier) on my left which charged an approaching Russian Infantry Division.
The Russians formed square and my Carabiners bounced off whilst the Cuirassier Passed Through the other square.
This proved fatal however as they were Disordered/Spent and were then charged by a supporting Hussar unit which duly broke them !
Stephen had fielded a couple of Large Russian Infantry units and these proved very tough especially with an Artillery and Cavalry attachment.
They put out a lot of firepower and are hard to damage with the ignoring 1 hit, this was also true for my Large Artillery.
Game turned when Russians managed to Rally 3 Wavering units and then in my Rally phase I failed to Rally 3 Wavering Veteran (!!) units which I knew would spell my doom.
So it proved as one of these units was charged by Cuirassier and they failed to form Square and also a Cohesion test for being charged.
Their breaking then broke two adjacent Veteran units as I singularly failed each and every test with these Veterans again.
With losses mounting I was one Wavering unit from defeat but then lost my 2 Chasseur units on my right as a Cuirassiers broke one then another in pursuit.
So a promising start which I failed to capitalise upon as my dice rolls in key match ups failed me and the inability to Rally Veteran units (which roll 3 dice) proved disastrous.
But once more an excellent and quick game.
We are finding games last 5-6 turns with the decisive shooting & combat outcomes of the system.




French left with Shock Cavalry and Veteran Infantry in centre

French right with Conscript Division on hill

Russians approach with Hussars hanging back in case my flankers arrive on left

Russian centre and left with Cuirassiers heading off to met my flanking Division

My flanking Light Horse arrive on shallow approach but have to cross rough ground

Large Russian foot unit absorbs attention of my whole Conscript Division

Field Of Glory Napoleonic - French versus Russians, Autumn 1813

Played another game of FOGN against the 'Dice Demon' in his lair today.
I fielded French circa Autumn 1813 against contemporary Russian force as Stephen wanted to try the Ivans.
Evenly sized forces at 14 units each.
We both used Flexible Defence with French choosing to be actual defenders.

Another interesting game with this decisive and fast playing rules.

However the 'Demon' was on form yet again.
First dice roll he had for firing was with unit of Heavy Veteran Russian guns against a unit of French Conscripts defending a Town so needing 5 or 6 to hit but re-rolling 1's so he dutifully rolls 3 hits plus a 1 which re-rolled to a 4th hit ! he done this twice !!!

Biggest 'Demon' event was when I charged with my 3 Drilled Dragoon Regiments on my left flank against his 3 Dragoon Regiments (one of which was Superior with an Artillery attachment).
First melee had 6 dice each needing 4's and we both rolled 4 hits so both Wavered (he would then retire) second melee same (but both included our Divisional Generals) we both rolled 5 hits each for same result (note no melees actually won by me).
Then it was third melee with 6 French dice vs 7 Russian (due to Gun) I roll 2 hits....uh oh....'Demon' rolls 5 with 2 re-rolls both of which he converts for 7 hits and Rout of my troops !!!
Of course to add insult to injury one of my Wavering units dutifully fails its Cohesion test and also Routs and the attached General also dies......aaarrrggghhh....................
Just no way to thwart such fortuitous rolling on his part and despicable rolling by yours truly.

Still great game with lots of decision points and key combats such as above to decide a game.
We had a post-game discussion about whether 2 Large Dragoons against 3 Small was better.
Hard to say.

++Edit - seems a unit cannot be shot out of a town they must be assaulted to remove them one to remember for future ++

Field Of Glory Napoleonic - 1814 battle Prussia vs France

Another run out with FOGN against 'dice demon'.

I used 1814 Prussian list and Stephen their French counterparts.
I ended up using Probe set up against Prepared Attack.
We both minimized terrain selection so fairly open table.

This one ended up a bloody affair indeed only ending when I topped 50% losses first.

Couple of lessons learnt about mutual support of units to stop 'ganging up' 2 on 1 (which is seldom winnable situation) in particular I had missed that in this particular context Mounted can support Foot and vise versa.

Really liking this set as gives a good Napoleonic game with decisive action thereby meaning games complete within 3-4 hours easily.