Battle of Hochkirch 1758 with Field Of Battle 2

Played a FOB2 game today using a Might & Reason scenario of the Battle of Hochkirch 1758.
I used my Prussians and the Dice Demon (my word he was on fire today !!) his Austrians.
Being a M&R scenario units are Brigades which works fine for FOB.
Prussians are outnumbered (20 Brigades versus 34 Brigades)and caught unawares historically so we had them set up first and they rolled against a d10 instead of standard d6 when rolling for Move actions on first turn and also gave Austrians first Initiative with a Move card in hand at start.
In hindsight I was maybe too generous with schedule for Austrian reserves.
However as it was the Prussian right flank around Hochkirch was simply crushed in short order with Grenadiers and Artillery being run down by rampant Austrian Cuirassier (so many rolls of 1 by me accompanied by Evens and high by Stephen) who managed enough Moves to get multi-unit and/or flank charges !
On my left I was tad luckier not to be overrun by Austrian horse as I got my own Cuirassier Wing into action although they failed in chasing off the Austrians.
I simply could not Rally any troops today and several Routed off table as Move cards appeared in quick succession.
As my right imploded my Morale dipped and I was soon giving Morale Chips to Austria.
I did manage to survive two Army Morale tests but succumbed on third appearance.
A bloody afternoon for Prussia.
Once again a fast but exciting game (think we took 3 hours to complete) using these most excellent rules.
Very few house rules used today mainly just Artillery not being able to re-limber (but can pivot for free up to 45deg).





Thin Prussian lines with Mounted commands in reserve

Austrian Commands of Laudon and O'Donnell appear on my right flank

Austrians pressing across the stream on my left

More Austrians...…………….

My right taking a battering as Hochkirch lost

Zietzens Cuirassiers restore situation on left

Prussian losses mounting

Stalemate on the left

As disaster looms on right

Austrian traffic jam

Another push across the stream

Overview of battle

Command Decision: Test Of Battle - 1940 scenario

TOB game played at Johns using his and Stephens excellent 10mm early war kit.
Scenario was set around Hannut in Belgium with a Panzer Regiment with Panzer Grenadier support attacking against French armour and infantry.
The Boche also had some air support (Stukas and ME109s) the French a small chance of air to counter the Luftwaffe.
Both sides had off-table artillery, 75mm for the French and 105mm for the Boche.
I started as a German Commander along with Stephen but after a single turn Stevie P arrived and took over my command and I then assisted John with French.
The Boche were Veteran with morale 9 (i.e. pretty damn good) the French mostly Regular (with a few Experienced) also Morale 9 (not too shabby)
Interesting using early war kit with French tanks having decent armour and similar AT to Boche but with lesser rate of fire (1 man turret/radio less tanks) and slower.
We failed to finish the scenario with the Boche having taken only Hannut (they had to capture 2 of 4 objective BUA and threaten a third to win) but with French infantry lines badly weakened.
Took a bit to explain the LOS/Spotting rules to John and Mr P as both new to TOB but otherwise things cracked along nicely.
Only mistake we noticed was when a Stuka attacked we forgot to reduce morale of enemy with 12" of the attack by 2 for any morale checks.
Again a nice system for this scale of game ie 3-4 Battalions plus support per side.

Field Of Battle 2 - Neerwinden

Another game using FOB2 today this time at Le Ducs using his Nine Years War 28mm stuff.
He set up a scenario based on Neerwinden with he and I as French attackers and Tony and the Dice Demon as defending Williamites.
Another excellent game which with the big moves for 28mm saw us fairly whizz through the game finishing in a mere three hours despite there being some 40 plus units on table.
Le Ducs house rules for the period disallowed any oblique moves and of the opposing mounted arms only French Cavalry could conduct Immediate Melees.
Additionally for this scenario the entrenched Allies could only be attacked by Foot who could then remove a section of hasty defences to allow mounted to break through or at least that was the theory.
I had right flank forces with two Infantry and two Cavalry commands not sure what Le Duc had.
The Allies had more but smaller commands it seemed.
The game was pretty much split into two distinct action areas with my wing fighting Tony and Le Duc engaging the Demon with very little overlap.
However I knew things were going somewhat eschew on my left as the air was turning blue with Le Duc becoming exasperated with his troops ("bloody French b******ds" was heard at least once)
My foot Commands managed to advance 3 moves on our first card and attack several sections of the hasty defences and the Rumsdorp village on my right.
I repulsed two Allied foot units and dismantled said hasty defences and took the village.
However Rumsdorp was lost and retaken whilst it seemed to take an age for my mounted troops to get into position to exploit the hard won gaps.
Eventually did manage to charge through and rout a damaged Allied infantry unit then engage its supporting cavalry being initially forced back then forcing back the enemy with supports.
My second cavalry command was about to assault the other breach just as game ended.
Le Duc on the left suffered terribly from Allied firepower and he managed to lose a whooping 4 Commanders (despite it only occurring on a 1 on a D20 !!) including Berwick and Luxembourg the CinC.
He did take a section of defences on his extreme left but like me could not exploit in time.
When our Morale Chips hit zero the Allies had only a few (8 ?) left themselves but we were unable to inflict any further losses on them before handing over a few to them then of course on the first Morale Card we turned the game ended giving William the field.
Another cracking game of FOB2 and again I hope Tony enjoyed the game and now has a decent grasp of the FOB system and its nuances, strengths, abstractions and indeed limitations.









My initial advance and one just achieved breach visible at Tonys right hand

Le Duc struggles to attack Neerwinden itself but again note the breach on extreme left

French cavalry approaches  as my foot attempt to clear a path

Rumsdorp changes hands for final time as French push out defenders

Swiss Garde suffer trying to pierce the other breach in allied defences as my cavalry push forward in other breached section

The 'Demon' I don't actually know how well he rolled but can only assume he put a hex on Le Ducs dice going by his fervent outcries !!

Le Ducs dark mood...……………….

Tony armed with hot coffee

My other mounted command swings to assault other breach

Whilst their colleagues at last enter the Allied 'back field'

Field Of Battle 2 - Lutzen scenario played

Game today with Le Duc and a visiting Blogger Tony (prometheusinaspic.blogspot.com/) all the way from East Lothian (over for a weekends FOB familiarisation).
I umpired the game using my 15mm French and Prussians with a replay of a GDB scenario 'The Prussian Charge' at Lutzen May 1813.
Tony took the defending French and Darren the Prussian attackers.
As Tony is a newbie to FOB (he has read the rules and played once ?) I helped him with the mechanics of the rules and card system.
He took no time absorbing the basics and the game soon flowed in the way FOB games do.
Le Duc suffered early on from poor rolls on his move cards and took awhile to get to the initial village target Gros Gorschen but did Rout the French from it rather easily.
However Klein Gorschen proved tougher fare as the garrison beat off its attackers in short order.
Meanwhile both side suffered casualties in the central areas.
The French heavy battery on the hill shot at long range into the flanks of Prussian Cavalry causing them to Rout as another unit was Routed by a French square.
However the Prussian Cavalry rallied and with further mounted reserves arriving they dealt with a square and the French artillery.
A timely arrival by the French Cavalry Brigade shored up that flank before the Prussian mounted arm could run riot.
In the center the French defenders began to rout in droves but again the arrival of a large Infantry Division shored up this area.
Both sides had lost multiple Morale Chips but the French suddenly found their Morale had run out and they were giving chips to the Prussians.
However Tony managed to forestall doom twice by passing his Army Morale check but eventually succumbed on third appearance of the card.
A hard fought action and I hope both Le Duc and Tony enjoyed the game and that Tony was given a good grounding in FOB.
Also hope he saw how well FOB performs for a game such as this with some 30+ units per side.

Off to Le Ducs tomorrow for a FOB refight of Neerwinden with his 25's yee hah

Test Of Battle - Cristot Normandy scenario played

Another try with TOB this time using our 15mm kit and a scenario adapted from the Rapid Fire Normandy supplement.
Action is based around attack in area of Cristot on 11th June by 50th Infantry Division against 12th SS Hitler Jugend.
British were Regulars Morale 8 the SS Veteran morale 9 although if we were to play this again I would make one or other Experienced with same morale level as Veterans are very powerful in TOB with their +1 to hit.
The scenario was based on a 7' x 5' table and so I copied terrain pretty much exactly however the RF villages are a good deal bigger than the TOB built up areas so maybe should have reduced their footprint a tad.
But really made little difference to game overall.
Stephen took the SS defenders and we just had him set up hidden on a map which worked fine.
Tough to spot in Normandy terrain and defenders invariably get first shot in.
We also used the Special Events cards which are a nice addition with some minor but interesting effects for specific units or actions.

The deterministic Spotting rules take a bit of getting used to but work fine, but we still are not 100% sure we are doing Morale checks correctly in terms of some modifiers as to whether they are 'one offs' or last throughout game in particular Forced Back and Eliminated.
Otherwise a slick playable system streamlined a good deal from the earlier CDII we played years ago.

I suspect another outing for these soon





The area of operations pre-battle from German lines, Cristot center/left.

Dragoon Guards run into trouble

As Infantry deploys around Hill 103

Hill 102 occupied by Panther Platoon which which I never got close enough to spot.

Allied advance on left towards Brouray