Field of Battle 3 - Ramillies scenario with 10mm chaps

Played a scenario based on Battle of Ramillies May 1706 using FOB3 today with Stephen.

Stephen chose the French defenders and I therefore took the Allied force.

We used a free set up for units rather than historical deployments with units equating to roughly Brigade/Regimental level units.

Great game once again with FOB3 that played really quickly (3 hours in total with 2 1/2 decks run through).

French cannons in center were deadly early on causing Dutch cavalry a lot of hits as their foot compatriots attacked Ramillies directly.

I did manage to contest the town (before getting thrown out later in game) but a single unit of French cavalry ran roughshod over my mounted units despite being outnumbered in several melee combats.

My Dutch Foot Guards at least lived up to their elite status but were eventually overwhelmed.

Game really turned on my left where I had deployed the elite English foot and cavalry around Taviers.

The French did occupy the village so easily taken but my elite units completely failed to make any headway against French opposite numbers and the English were all to quickly decimated.

This left the overall Allied effort essentially stymied and morale losses were mounting and in reality we should have called game at this point, but I fought on to then see the Dutch in center repulsed from Ramillies and pulverized in turn.

The Allied German/Danish/Prussian foot survived mostly unscathed as the just demonstrated against the French lines across the Pitite Gheet.

FOB3 is certainly a very decisive game especially with my rolls (so many ones...so many ones.....) but I just love its unpredictability and narrative style. 

The battlefield view from Allied lines

French right wing behind Taviers

French center and left wing (around Ramillies and Petite Gheet)

Allied foot on right support Dutch foot in center

Dutch foot advance on Ramillies as their cavalry get pounded by French cannon

The ill fated English advance begins on left wing

The English are suddenly absent from the field.................

Malburian game with Black Powder

Game at Billys tonight with Bryn and Shane using his excellent 15mm Malburian troops and Black Powder rules (they use original version).
Big game with 8 Allied Brigades against 6 Franco-Bavarian Brigades.
Franco-Bavarians (Bryn and Shane) where set up in nice defensive posture behind a shallow with a few walled areas as well and some 'Forlorn Hope' units of dismounted Dragoons occupying 3 Town areas across the river.
Billy took the British contingent with a Danish Brigade whilst I commanded a Dutch and a German Infantry Brigade with 2 Brigades of Dutch Cavalry.
Being Black Powder it was a fun fast and furious game with Allies coming a cropper on the river banks and being overwhelmed on our left by 2 large French Cavalry Brigades.


For the period I personally would have a couple of house rules especially regarding shooting ranges and arcs of fire, and I still dislike the standard Black Powder charging through units system.
Billy had given Platoon Firers +1 dice shooting which is quite powerful (at least potentially !) I would have made a bigger difference between 'Shock' doctrine Cavalry and 'Firepower' doctrine but not sure how best to do so ?

One nice house rule chaps use I would use for all games is that Cavalry that charges takes a minimum of 1 hit (to reflect Blown Horses) which works quite well meaning mounted essentially only have 1 fresh charge per game.
The game certainly flowed well with minimal issues arising despite ALL of us forgetting the -1 to Command Rolls when close to enemy !!!

One odd occurrence I have not seen before was a unit charging but being forced to do a Break Test from Closing Fire and being destroyed but this has no effect on nearby friends, whereas if it had closed to combat and been destroyed all nearby friends would suffer a Break Test.
Seemed tad odd but maybe with the brutality and all or nothing nature of Break Tests its just a game balancing issue ?
Easy to house rule of course and bend things to your own ideas for any period (pretty much as I do for FOB).





Dutch horse on right wing with German Infantry

Dutch Infantry in centre

Billys Brits on our left

Centre of French deployment

Shanes formidable defence lines (Brigade of Swiss in red)

Dragoon unit in town which took 5 turns to be turfed out by Dutch Guard !!

Approaching town on right

Billy advances but note massed French mounted array on their left.

The Franco-Bavarians (Shane and Bryn)

Overview of Allied centre and left

Assault goes in on town

And I try to turn French left

Bavarian Infantry move to support their left wing

Still fighting for that damn town !!

Game tomorrow evening at Le Ducs with Mr B using his 10mm WW3 kit and Seven Days To The Rhine rules then its Battle of Kolin with Warfare In Age Of Reason rules at Mr B's on Thursday and Elimination Club begins again in Friday, tis a hard auld life being retired and a war gamer :-)

  

Field Of Battle and COIN system games played

A grand days gaming at chez Steiner yesterday with JB, RM, SP and later SB in attendance (ie usual suspects sans Le Duc who was awol) and a brief visit from Billy.
A good days craic and banter (and weirdly a bit of knee touching the 'culprit' remaining nameless although the "I thought that was the table" excuse was paltry at best !!)

I had set up the Battle Of Ramillies using my 10mm units for Field Of Battle 2.
74 units on table with both sides split into 2 wings with a CinC (so a mere 3 commanders per side).
Marlborough was a D12+1 with a Superior deck Villeroi a D10 with average deck and both sides sub- commanders were D10 types)
Both sides fielded a mix of Average Crack and Elite troops in fairly equal proportions (36 French units vs 38 Allied).
I approximated historical terrain and allowed players to split their forces as their nominated CinC saw fit (RM and JB)
Terrain sort of compels cavalry to be on open left/right wings but I was tad surprised that French  deployed  on their right with no gun support (these and all nearly all foot being on their left behind Petite Gheet)
Allies deployed with British on their right as per history but they essentially refused this flank rather than cross the Petite Gheet.
Billy temporarily commanded the Allied left (as did I) then S 'the dice demon' B to the chagrin of JB & SP, although Marlborough was none too shoddy with his dice.
The Dutch horse deployed on open left flank but with a good deal of foot in support with guns in a sort of 'massed battery' opposite Ramillies (which was garrisoned by Elite troops)
As anticipated (and as in history) a huge cavalry battle ensued between Taviers and Ramillies which could have gone either way but arrival of British Horse (as per history) helped swing things in Allies favour, also forcing however the French foot to surge across the Petite Gheete in response).
The French right was imploding as their foot emerged from the boggy area around the Petite Gheete and engaged the waiting British and Dutch infantry.
After several ineffectual volleys (one or two fall backs) the British managed a couple of morale sapping (I wont describe the reactions of the French for sake of propriety !) routs and by this time the French morale pool was empty and they 'noisily' yielded the field.
Game took just under 5 hours and reached a decisive and pretty much historical conclusion with pretty much no rules queries or problems a real strength of FOB in my experience.
I hope to introduce players to it at club which it should suit well with the 4hr time slot.



Cavalry about to clash

Initial advantage to Dutch as British horse arrive (near Ramillies)

French foot cross Gheet and engage Allied foot

Then after a local Indian takeout it was on to evening game with Fire In The Lake.
I had planned to referee this one as well in order to best teach the system and control things but sadly RM had to go so I took over the ARVN from him early in proceedings.
SB was  VC, SP theNVA and JB the good ol' USofA.
Played the 3 deck short scenario and a very good game it was too and pretty close in the end.
A different dynamic (obviously) when full (a couple were by this stage) complement playing game with a few dodgy deal/back stab moments.
Easy to teach the game mechanics but really down to players to digest the Op and Special Activities sheets and the interactions of choices/events/VP impact that this game presents in myriad fashion.
VC won on last Coup card (which was also very last card !) with score of 37 (+1) ARVN then on 48 (-2), NVA on 15 (-4) and US on 36 (-14) caused mainly by a massive 12 piece surge on first Coup card Commitment phase causing a 12VP drop US struggled to get back although they did fix a fairly large NVA army pretty much in place in Quang Tri.
Great game this and I hope the chaps got at least a little flavour of its playability and depth.

Sekigahara game played (and preparation for Ramillies scenario)

Played this at Stephens today (he owns a copy) and very impressed with it.
Only 6 or so pages of actual rules but a lot of strategies to learn to play well.
Combo of blocks (very nice they are too) and cards with point to point movement.
Castles and resource locations are key to winning or one can auto win by killing certain 'personalities' such as the boy Emperor (difficult as well protected) or killing either chief Daimyo.
I came very close to killing Ishida Mitsunari with army led by Tokugawa Leyasu by killing 6 deployed blocks of which he was one, but Stephen was able to deploy one extra block to save his Daiymo !!
By game end both sides were decimated but Stephen had captured more castles and won on VPs.
A very enjoyable and close game.
Hope to play this one again.

Pics not best as variable light and reflections, the game is very much prettier in reality

I also set up Ramillies scenario for a 4 player game this coming Saturday (we will also play Fire In The Lake) for which the ever excellent Piquet: Field of Battle 2 rules will be used along with my 10mm kit.

Ramillies re-done this time with Field Of Battle

Re-fight of Ramillies again today with Le Duc again but this time with 'the one true set' Field Of Battle.
And what a difference a much more fluent and exciting game helped of course by our familiarity with rules.
Game so much faster playing and yet with so much narrative built in as attacks ebb and flow with crushing charges along with ignominious versions !

Le Duc took the Allies today and I (should that be moi ?) the French.
Inevitable cavalry clash on my right wing (Thatcherites as I termed them) saw me gain upper hand but unable to exploit as Dutch foot shot up some Horse.
In my center (the Libtards) Duc De Villeroi was killed very early on reducing me to a D8 Command roll.
He did manage to pass around Ramillies as Le Duc drew back his Dutch foot as my mounted force threatened.
On my right (yes you guessed it the Corbynites) I was trying to advance across the river but was hampered by failing move rolls.

On both sides there was a steady drain of casualties from artillery fire and I suffered greatly on left as Corbynites rashly advanced as Le Duc had to go (ie taxi duty to perform for daughter) which saw my Morale Pool of 35 crumble.
Le Duc was surprised thinking such a fate was to befall him although he had 8 of 40 left.

Had toyed with trying couple optional rules regarding units offering each other support in Line but felt it was not worth effort as they tend to mutually support each other anyhow.
Only went with no oblique moves for Infantry and canister for guns only at point blank range (ie 1 base width or 2") also no movement for guns once deployed other than to rotate in place.
Also gave Allies a 'Special Infantry Firepower' card being an extra card that only Platoon firing Infantry could use (ie English and Dutch foot).
Only formations allowed are Line and March Column with Assault Column being restricted to attacking towns, fortifications or across bridges or similar

Marlborough was D12+1 with Superior deck whilst Villeroi was D10 (prior to death) with Average deck.
Bulk of units were C10 D6 with one or two Elite D8s and a couple of Guard units of D10

Great fun with such a super set of very slick rules and a fun way to see out the old year.





Central (Libtard) French command deployed at start

Right wing (Thatcherites) French horse

And French left wing (Corbynites) command

Early clash on right as Maison Du Roi ride down two Dutch horse units! alas they were later shot from saddles by flanking Dutch foot.

General view of initial Allied advance

Le Duc fearing his left was about to fold

Left wing later in game as French pour across stream

And move forward in center as Allies retire

Central command pushes on

Stand off on right (note Allied Infantry 'squared' to left from where they destroyed the Maison Du Roi)

Allied center

And Orkneys command of high quality English and those bloody guns

French pushing past their damaged horse

And left heads to its doom against English despite killing a unit of Elite horse