Field of Battle 3 - Seasons of Battle - Battle of Thorn - a Seven Years War solo bash

Resurrected my Season of Battle SYW 'campaign' with Russians and Prussians circa 1761. 

Started this off earlier this year (during first UK lockdown) and now getting to second Summer season action. 

Using the SOB Campaign deck the first card turned was a Prussian Battle card and having won the roll off the Prussians decided to get straight into another battle, this time in the Thorn region.

After rolling for battle generation/set up it was Map 22 (Moderate terrain density area) with Prussians nominal Defenders against Russian attack.

Both sides ended up (via SOB system) with one Command (randomly determined) starting off-table, which saw a full Prussian Infantry Brigade being delayed for 5 Move cards and the Russian Light Cavalry Brigade (already less 1 Hussar delayed until Autumn) being a whopping 10 Move cards from the fray.

The Russians are also labouring with an Inferior deck whilst Prussians retained their Superior Deck (not such a swing as in FOB2 with decks though)

Both sides could deploy into 3 extra table squares and Prussians could remove 1 terrain feature (they chose to remove a large wood on central hill mass.

Both forces deployed and action has already started with Prussians massing their Cavalry on their left trying to overwhelm depleted Russian mounted forces.

A unit of Russian Dragoons were charged by 2 Prussian Cuirassier and Routed (and left table toot suite) but a counter charge by Russian Cuirassier has seen one Prussian unit also Routed (but still on table).

Russians are trying (a couple of lowly D8 Leaders) to push their left wing Infantry against the Prussian right which is held by a small Brigade although of Grenadiers.

More to follow.....................

Overview of initial deployments (Prussians to the left)

Russian Infantry on their left wing

More Infantry and Mounted in Centre

Brigade of Cossacks and Horse Grenadiers delayed for 10 Move cards !!

View from Russian lines

Prussian 'delaying' force on their right wing

Their main forces on central hill mass

Russians advance up the slopes

Prussian Infantry Brigade delayed for 5 Move cards, a substantial part of overall force

Prussian central deployment with Cavalry massed on left

Prussian right

Cavalry action on hill

Russians left advances

Field Of Battle/Seasons Of Battle - First battle completed and post battle adjustments

Finished off game today with the Russians failing their Army Morale at first attempt.
This then leads to a Post Battle Adjustment phase in Seasons Battle which I will outline here.

Russians finished with of course zero Army Morale with Prussians on a mere 5 remaining but with having 8 'awarded' from Russian pool, as once an AMP level reaches zero any further losses are transferred to enemy as 'boost' to their AMP level.

Both sides calculate effect on their Campaign National Morale Points which is a combo of original AMP, lost/gained AMPs and VP level of Engagement Area if winner.
Will not bore you with the simple equations/calculations suffice to say the Russian NMP plummeted from 63 to 38 whilst Prussian victory at Blomberg saw their NMP adjusted to 40 from 44.

A Margin Of Victory is established based on a ratio of remaining AMP for victor vis starting AMP.
In this case the Prussians were deemed to have won a Decisive Victory (levels possible are Marginal, Decisive or Crushing).

The Russian Commander then checks to see if he is replaced rolling an adjusted Leadership dice vs a D12, but in this case Fermor remained in command.

Rolls on a D12 (sometimes adjusted by use of Discretionary Points -see below) are made for Eliminated units, units that Routed Off-table, units Routed but still on table and for Leaders, with a 1 indicating degradation of unit or a 12 an upgrading.

A winning side gains what are termed Discretionary Points after battle essentially his total remaining AMP in this case 13 (5 plus 8 'transferred' from Russian pool).
These can be used in a couple of ways namely:

1- to assist in Pursuit of remaining on-table enemy by allocating a max of 3 points which are added to 1 then a D12 is rolled and if equal to or under this Pursuit Level the enemy drops one Quality level (or Combat level if a minimum D4 quality)

2- as Recognition Points with again a max allocation of 3 points being added, this time around, to a D12 roll for a friendly unit with any total of 12+ granting recipient a Up1 to quality level to max of D10 (or to Combat Level to max of C12+1 if at max quality).

In my example the Prussians had no Eliminated or Routed status units (!!) at game end but still roll for possible adjustment.
I allocated 3 Discretionary Points to Recognition for 1st Artillery Battery (started out a lowly C6 D6) but no change occurred.
But vagaries of dice rolls saw NR17 Musketeers and Dragoon Regt 5 both degraded (they then roll anew of Unit Rating table for next battle) but Kuirassier Regt 2 upgraded to a lofty D10 (however they turned out as C10 D10 overall, still petty good as the D10 with give them an Up1 in melee combats).

The Prussians allocated 2 Pursuit points to 5 Russian units to try to downgrade them but not a single such unit was affected.
However in other adjustment rolls the 2nd Grenadiers who had been destroyed are now permanently lost to the Campaign (ie roll of 1 when Eliminated) and Serbski Hussars were downgraded and additionally will miss next Engagement (returning as C12 D4 instead of original C10 D6).
++ In my previous post I stated that I thought there was less Routing units in FOB3 this proved to be a fallacy for the Russians at least who ended up with 3 units Eliminated and a further 6 units Routed all told !! ++

Leaders are also rolled for POst Battle but in my case none were affected on either side (they can go Up or Down 1 Command level).

Bit of confusion re what happens after battle on Campaign Map (queried with Brent) but I decided that the Prussians could advance the Engagement marker one Region.

So that completes one Full Season of SOB with one battle generated and completed.
Next it will be to re-deal the SOB cards and play another Season and its battle at wherever this may occur.
Found it all slick and easy to pick up (just a matter of following the rules !) and indeed play through and a tad more difficult to outline succinctly.
It is tempting to think "I could adjust this or that or add this or that" to system but I do think the KISS principle is best as it works as is and as stated (ie quick battle generation system).

However if not playing a full SOB campaign I would likely use FOB2 Fate system as bit easier for stand lone scenario/game.

Hopefully some insight to SOB for the uninitiated and I hope to proceed further with it at future date but couple of other projects in my tiny mind at present (not least a game with FOB WW2)




The game ending Army Morale roll, although a sensible Russian would likely have yielded voluntarily on this card to avoid further 'Campaign' damage.

Cossacks  have managed to out flank Cuirassier but not able to immediate melee

Russian losses mounting

Two of these three Routing units ended up off table

Battle of Blomberg concluded

And in other 'news'...........................

Field Of Battle/Seasons Of Battle - Seven Years War solo bash update

Managed a couple of sessions with SYW game generated by Seasons Of Battle system and being played out using Field Of Battle 3.

After deploying both sides the Prussians have managed to gain the Initiative consistently (a D12 vs a D10) and have thus far made most of it too !

Their forward deployment gained through SOB meant they kept Russians out of the town sections which their skirmishing Frei Korps unit promptly occupied (I included a unit of skirmishing Infantry purely to test new skirmishing aspects of FOB and for variety as not a very widely used unit type by any SYW army bar the Austrians).

On Prussian right their Cuirassier Brigade had mixed fortunes with one unit smashing Russian Serbski Hussars outright by inflicting 4UI losses over 2 combats.
However a lowly unit of Cossacks forced their supporting Cuirassier unit back (twice now !!) despite seeing another Cossack unit Rout (this has now recovered).

In centre both Infantry formations have clashed with Russians suffering greater losses including a unit of Grenadiers shot to destruction.
One Russian Infantry Brigade has failed to activate and engage the enemy.

On Prussian left their Dragoons and Hussars were assaulted by Russian Cuirassier and Horse Grenadiers but despite being forced back initially they managed to Rally and Rout 3 Russian units.

Only Prussian Cavalry can use Assault Column in SYW in FOB3 which I thought was of little use (bit easier to manouvre) as now no upward dice level benefit in Melee but it does mean that when charging 2 Prussian unit can contact frontage of 1 Russian unit in line.
This garners a Down 1 for defenders, as outnumbered, so potentially potent as it so proved.

Charging Infantry in Line in this period is a hiding to nothing for Cavalry (unless foot well disrupted) as the foot gain an Up 2.

As it stands Russians in real difficulties with huge losses and currently no Army Morale left meaning Rallying is tougher to achieve and in danger of quitting the field on an Army Morale Card.

Prussians have taken significant Morale Losses but have managed to Rally off most hits on their units and have 'received' some Russian Morale Points (this can have an effect on level of Victory in SOB).

Will be interesting to see how this all works out in the SOB campaign.

Only second outing for FOB3, it being all brand new and all, and so far again liking the changes (particularly to the Period Specific rules).
I am using only 2 House Rules namely:-
1- Russian Foot can be upgraded by 1 level to the Quality level (to maximum of D8) at 'cost' of reducing Combat level by 1.
This generates Average units as C8 D8 units (compared to C10 D6) which I feel better reflects their Stoic reputation and preference for cold steel and their poorer firing abilities.
2- Close Artillery Range Bands I have reduced slightly as I believe Artillery in this period not as effective as later Napoleonic types (Up 2 at 0-4" and Up 1 at 4-8" with no change at 8"-16")
Otherwise playing rules as is.

My impression is that there seems to be less Routing Units than in FOB2 .
Rallying is a bit easier, especially for Routers and there a few differences I need to keep checking but nothing vastly different.
The new cards are well laid out and good aids to game play

I did like the old Pursuit rule of take a single hit if rolling odd, as now only Impetuous types (think British Napoleonic Cavalry) Pursue and they now take equal hits to those they just inflicted on defeated enemy.
In my game I have classed only the Cossacks as such Impetuous maniacs.

I have tried to limit my use of 'Daring Deeds' with my Officers and thus far none have suffered ill effects !

As ever FOB is fast playing even when soloing.



Session 1 - Prussian Cuirassier unit has pierced Russian Lines but friends have failed to do the same falling back from some mean Cossacks

General clash in centre around Town

Russian right wing

Frei Korps holding barely holding on to the town as Prussians envelop flanks

Session 2 - Things unchanged on Russian left as Prussian Cuirassier fail again to deal with lowly Cossacks

Action intensifies around the town

Disaster on Russian right as Infantry fail to advance and Cavalry broken or dead...............

Russians have had 3 Units Destroyed (2 on the field and 1 Routing off field)

Russian Mounted in desperate need of a Leadership card to attempt to Rally.
These Routs to table edge were caused by turning a Move card after winning a Lull.

Overview of poor Russian predicament.

Seasons of Battle system tried solo

Having just received FOB3 I have set up as planned a SYW Campaign using the new Seasons Of Battle system included with rules.
Russians versus Prussians and using the generic Campaign Map included with Region names taken from board game 'Prussia's Defiant Stand'.
Prussian Home Base is Berlin and Russian is Warsaw with numerous Regions including Kustrin, Thorn, Kolberg and suchlike.
One could redraw the generic map to better reflect geography but sufficient as is for flavour.
Each Region is assigned (through card play) an overall Terrain type (Open, Moderate or Dense) which dictates which sub-set of Terrain Cards one uses if fighting a battle therein and can effect Movement between areas.
Regions are grouped into several which can effect supply and other aspects depending on how close or far zone is to Homer Base.
Victory Points (awarded if winning a battle in region) are also allocated for each region.
Each Home Base/Capital has VP of 10 the others range from 4 - 9 VP.
A marker is placed on the central region in my case Blomberg to denote the 'Engagement Location ' for both armies.







The Campaign Map and SOB cards played

Army list/Roosters are drawn up for both sides as per standard FOB.
I have fielded 22 Russian units against 18 Prussian, with Prussians under Frederick having a D12 Leader dice and a Superior Deck against Fermor with a D10 and also a Superior Deck (FOB3 now has only 3 deck types - Poor, Average and Superior).
Armies also have National Morale Points which track the progress of the Campaign with  losses of Army Morale Points in each battle, region Victory Points effecting this NMP total.
Losing your Home Base or having NMP reduced to zero losing the Campaign.
Campaign is divided into 4 Seasons these can be standard Spring to Winter or could be Months or Weeks as desired.
At least one Battle will be fought in each such Season (SOB is more of a battle generator than a true campaign system)
A Seasons Of Battle deck is compiled for both sides comprising 2 sets of identical cards (coloured differently) including Move, Battle, Operational Initiative, Supply. Panning and Preparation and Weather cards.
As per FOB a dice off determines who turns first card and tries to act on it.
The opponent has access to a pool of 7 'Opposition Dice'  (a mix of D6, D8, D10 or D12 varied by Army General quality).
So the active player rolls his Leadership dice (sometimes modified by Region or Zone and colour of card) against a chosen Opposition Dice and if active player wins dice roll he can use the card.
As an example on Move card he could move the 'Operations' marker one region (these are linked to 2-3 other regions) or on a Battle card he could force a Battle (or hold to force at later stage of campaign).
In my Campaign I have thus far seen Prussians move East then Russians move back West to Blomberg.
Prussians gained an Operational Initiative card which allows 1 of 3 Tactical options in a Battle (choosing orientation of map, extra Deployment squares or extra Initiative Pips once per battle).
Weather cards were turned but no change in weather occurred (poorer weather effects can adjust dice rolls).
A Battle card appeared which Russians won and they have forced a Battle at Blomberg which is an Open terrain area worth 5 VP.
A Battle Set up dice off occurs with the difference generating (from a chart) a number of effects for attacker (winner of roll off) or defender which includes the number of Terrain Cards attacker gets to choose from.
In my case a difference of 7 in favour of the Prussians allowed 5 Open cards to be drawn (I picked Map 5 a very open card) a 25% Force Increase (not extra units but extra army Morale Points) and 4 Extra squares of Deployment on the battlefield.
The Russians gained 2 extra squares and ability to Remove or Define one terrain piece (they chose to remove a large hill in Prussian deployment area).
And so the battle is now set up ready to go with Force Morale, Deployment adjustments etc in place.







Armies deployed with Prussians (on left) taking advantage of extra Deployment 'squares' to deploy forward.

All in all pretty slick to play through the SOB system (quicker than my pre-amble above might indicate) and faster than play test version I tried a couple of years ago, which had another deck to generate the Battle Set Up and a more fluctuating (but ponderous) method of generating the battlefield.
Bit more to it than I have outlined but hopefully you get the gist.

Testing of the FOB3 system to come at Battle of Blomberg................

Field Of Battle 3 in the house

FOB3 and card decks arrived today (many thanks Lancs  Games) and so I set up a SYW bash using the new Seasons of Battle system.
More to follow on this but much changed from version I play-tested couple of years ago.

Season of Battle with Field of Battle and a Seven Year War bash

Game with Stephen today using his SYW Austrians against my Prussians.
We tried out the play test version of Seasons of Battle I have along with FOB2 for the tactical battle rules (why ? because I luv's 'em and SOB designed for use with).
Using SOB with couple of minor house rules I use (relating to set up of terrain) we had a smooth process yielding an interesting battlefield with Prussians able to force Austrians to deploy a command first (Deployment Advantage) but with Austrians gaining a morale pool boost (Strength).
We also used a tentative points system (still needs minor refinement) to establish the SOB Armies which worked out quite well with Austrians have 18 units and Prussians 17 (we later changed points a tad which would reduce Prussians by 1 unit of Infantry).
I had Frederick as a D12 General with an Exceptional Deck (only available to him) whilst Austrians had a D10 General with an Average deck.
As a special rule (and under points system) the Austrians bought an extra Artillery Firepower card and the Prussians an extra Infantry Firepower card.
We both had 4 Brigades, Austrians having 3 Infantry and 1 Horse with 3 Guns (2 heavies which we will restrict to 1 max in future) whilst Prussians fielded 4 Brigades of 2 Infantry  and 2 Horse with 2 Field gun batteries in support.
As Morale pools the enhanced Austrians had 22 and Prussia 17 (more in this later however)

The actual game followed standard when playing the 'dice demon' with a seeming constant stream of rolls of 11 on a D12 against my low rolls with all dice types !
This was especially prevalent early on as Demon got a run of Artillery Firepower cards which dealt a wealth of damage to my units.
These weakened units then succumbed to charges and further shooting damage and soon I had several units destroyed and several routing with little damage caused in return.
A major cavalry battle occurred on my left which after some to and fro saw my units wiped out and the flank of my adjacent Infantry Brigade exposed.

It was however at this point that after a lot of losses I suspected that something was in error as my Morale Chip deck seemed never ending and upon checking I realised that I had 44 cards instead of 17 !!?? as I had used the SOB National Moral Points total (used as overall National Will level) in lieu of the battle total of 17.

So result as per SOB kind of screwed although it was certain Prussians would have lost decisively.
But this made the Post Battle rolls (for enhancing, degrading, pursuing or recognising units) impossible to work out correctly so we will restart campaign at later date.

Still it was as ever with FOB a fast flowing and exciting game fought to a definite conclusion.

Hopefully the game gave Stephen an insight into the SOB system and we can revisit at some point.





Initial Prussian advance

Austrian lines

Infantry face off on central hills

Austrian left moving forward

The two central Prussian Infantry Brigades supported by Mounted on flanks

Central Austrian Brigades

Nice orderly lines

Prussian horse on left disintegrating

As Infantry units suffer

Clash on Prussian right

Overview

Prussians would have been tottering on edge of defeat here had I used correct Morale Pool level

Stand off on my right as Cuirassiers faced by Grenzers in town and loaded Infantry

Prussian guns silenced

Hits accumulating

Gaps appearing in Prussian lines

Prussian right withdraws leaving guns to their fate (we don't allow guns to re-limber in this period)

Excessive Prussian losses (those on window sill would be enough to seal their fate)

Rallied Prussian Grenadiers return to fray but alas too late

As Austrians destroy Infantry Brigade (it was at this juncture I realised error)










And a couple of little vids as messing about (one in slow mo) with apps on new iPad