A training exercise - Anglo-Portuguese vs Anglo-Portuguese Meeting Engagement (LoA Tournament game #4 Jan 2021)

A  British Army training exercise - Anglo-Portuguese Army vs Anglo-Portuguese Army

 (LoA Tournament game #4 Jan 2021)

 

 With LISBON safe and secure following three successful defenses of the LINES OF TORRES VEDRAS, Lord WELLINGTON has decided to conduct a TRAINING EXERCISE.

 

The exercise is designed to test the offensive power and maneuvers of his ANGLO-PORTUGUESE army. 

 

Two different corps of troops will conduct a MEETING ENGAGEMENT while umpires will observe and report the results...

 

Portuguese, British and Scottish troops observe the approaching "Red enemy force" from a hill top.

For my 4th game in the League of Ancients January 2021 tournament,  I played another Anglo-Portuguese Peninsula army 1809-11 army  Dave has defeated me multiple times, though I did get one victory when he was/is teaching me the game in my 2nd ever game.

Dave literately wrote the book on how to win Field of Glory Napoleonic battles...and he was using the same basic army list as I was. I did not go into this battle with much confidence...

My answer to a reddit post on "Looking for a Napoleonics / Pike and Shoot game"

"Hey everyone, I've been looking for a game for quite some time now."

From this reddit thread asking:

Hey everyone, I've been looking for a game for quite some time now. I have some wargames already, but I wanted to get into a new period, pike and shoot, napoleonics and the american civil war. I had some games in mind, black powder, fire and fury, general d'armee, blucher, and many others, but I coundn't find much about them. First of all I wanted a game where you can create your army, so a point buy system, nor just fixed scenarios. Second, I wanted a game on a large scale, so a unit would represent something like a brigade or regiment (I think this can be adapted, so this is not a priority). Any recommendations? Thanks a lot.

FOGN is built for tournament and club play, but it also does historical battles at the corps level very well. A 3-4 person a side game can do an army level game quite well in a day. Normal 1v1 is a corps level game- you command 1 corps and move brigades around.

 

As it's built for a club game or tournament vs a random person, the points system allows everyone to make pretty balanced armies. Games go for about 3 hours, though you can do a points result for tournaments too. The two army list books cover every single major time period and country.

 

The 2nd edition rules are well laid out, though if you're coming from another game like 40K it can feel strange (you do charge declare, firing, THEN movement then assault) and I found some of the rules didn't make sense...Until I understood that's how you get OUTCOMES that are Napoleonic in nature.

 

eg- British troops in the Peninsula don't get +1 for being behind a hill, but the game rule outcomes encourage them to deploy behind ridge-lines to avoid French Artillery. Austria armies tend to get more cavalry because their army list encourages it, though it has limits. The French Cavalry charge at Waterloo at infantry in square will tend go around or bounce and then get counter charged by fresh British Cavalry that will then tend to go overlong and be outstretched where a canny general will counter charge them with Lancers.

 

Luring the enemy off the Prazten Hights and then hitting his centre to break it can work, but as a function of how the rules work and not because of a character bonus to Napoleon. Your enemy will guard his Line of Communication and be forced to fall back if you threaten it...unless they can fight like Wellington and be supremely confident in ultimate victory.

'Corse, the best answer is - what does anyone else play near me? I'm,lucky in that there's a "large" community in my local area that do play it, which is how I ended up doing it. I know there's people who play Black Powder, but have yet to meet them :(

 

 

 Another question and answer after this break:

A French OPFOR for the Peninsula War

 With my own army on it's way from Stonewall Figures, I need a French army in Spain to act as my OPFOR for my inevitable solo games and maybe campaign.

A French Corps in Spain 1809

It started as a rough version from the French VI Corps at Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro. 

And then became more ... story based.

Future blast/wavering/disorder markers to order?

 

 

 

I need to buy some disorder and wavering counters,. I'm currently using glass beads I had, but I think the're a bit ugly on the table, even if I was using red ones for damage.

 

I COULD either make my own, use some printed cardboard ones or buy some plastic ones, but I've found THESE. 

GAJO games painting service

From a TMP post I discovered http://www.gajominis.com/ptdfigures.html

It's 15mm and 28mm, so wouldn't quite work for  my FOGN armies at 18mm, but I shall make a note. The paint job and figures might be better than Stonewall, but more expensive too I suspect. 

They do 15mm American Civil War too, which might be useful whenever I get the Warlord Plastic set next month.

 

Also, their page hasn't been updated since 1995.  Yeikes!

Places to post battle reports too - am I missing someone?

 I'm re-posting links or copies of the battle reports to multiple places, but I wounder if there's anywhere else I should.

1. The FOGN official forum (full copy)
   
2. The Something Awful Historical wargames thread (full copy)
   
3. The Miniatures Page forums - Napoleonic Battle reports, FOGN forum, Australia wargaming, 19th century battle reports (Link and description only)
4. FOGN Facebook page. (Link and description only)

Lead Adventures don't seem to get much battle reports and I'm afraid mine are too long for a full post and a link wouldn't be appreciated and be treated as an advertisement. :( 

Reddit wargames and wargaming posts get maybe 1-2 visitors and there doesn't seem to be much point in posting battle reports there- no one ever comments or bothers to click the link. :(

edit- I'm going to post updates on dakka dakka.  Maybe I'll get some more comments on there.

The third attack on the Lines of Torres Vedras (LoA Tourny game #3 Jan 2021)

The third attack on the Lines of Torres Vedras

(LoA Tournament game #3, Jan 2021)

 

Following his second failure to break through the LINES OF TORRES VEDRAS, the EMPEROR  of France, NAPOLEON, has launched a third assault to break the ANGLO-PORTUGUESE army and complete his CONQUEST of EUROPE.

Losing patience with the repeated FAILURE of the subservient allies of Russia and Austria, The Emperor commits a full Corps of FRENCH infantry to launch a PROBING attack to discover a weak point in the defenders line. 

Will the mass of SUPERIOR infantry,  HEAVY artillery and OUTNUMBERING cavalry break the lines this time, or will the outnumbered defenders continue to HOLD THE LINES OF TORRES VEDRAS...

Viscount Wellington with his ADC's and staff, observes the French advance guard from a ridge line.

In my third game of the League of Ancients January 2021 Field of Glory Tournament, I faced a French 1805-07 army lead by Paul Graham, who was also at his first tournament. Despite playing less games, he was much more familiar with the rules and was able to correct and help me with them several times. My apologies for getting so many wrong.