"Warfare in the age of Auftragstaktik..." Topic

Part 1 in a series regarding rules and basing for the 19th century.

witaoasffar.blogspot.co.uk

Keep 'em coming Rhysius I'm really interested in Bob Jones's new stuff.

FOB is an excellent rule set I've now played a number of C19th games with it and enjoyed every one of them very much.

If the 4 stands per unit bothers you it should be possible to use 1 stand per unit and measure attrition with counters. Just a thought.

Thanks very much – I will do. I have next week off work so part 2 (which will be miniature photo heavy) will probably be published early part of next week.

I haven't actually played FOB yet but looking forward to giving it a try. Even though currently Zouave II and 1870 have taken precedent.

Thanks for the suggestion, once I get everything based according to my absolutely final basing decision, I will play FOB without modifications and then try it with your suggested modification :-)

I've recently been using FOB for the Indian Mutiny.

In the first game the British sent a force to take control of an unaligned princely city adjacent to an important river crossing. The prince had decided for the mutineers and the cavalry advance guard were ambushed at the city gates and effectively wiped out. Nothing daunted the British commander began to deploy from column and bring up his guns. Mutineer sowars caught the guns deploying and cut up the gunners. That was it for the British who withdrew from the field.

In the second game the British were assaulting the Sepoys who were entrenched. The British came on in three columns with their open flank screened by cavalry. The first two columns were to fix the sepoys in place while the third and strongest column delivered the decisive blow.

The first two British columns took heavy casualties from the Indian guns but shattered one of the oppossing battalions and a battery and mauled the others. At that point Indian cavalry appeared in force and drove off the British cavalry forcing the third column into square. The Indian commander took the opportunity to reinforce the entrenchments and the British fearing for their open flank once again withdrew.

In FOB terms in both cases the outnumbered British ran out of Morale Points and failed the test on the Army Card. Both good games and from my reading of the Mutiny very plausible outcomes.

I look foward to your next blog post.

That sounds good and historically accurate. I like the idea of wargames both being fun, flowing and having a degree of historical accuracy.

I have not done any Indian Mutiny gaming but it sounds good. I might do a bit of research. But I cannot take on yet another project, I can't… Can I!?

Ah, Field of Battle! This has become my go to set for 1700 through WWI. I recently ran my first 1866 game using them. These really are my 'holy grail' set.

My game was a Mountain pass battle with a couple of Prussian regiments and a Jaeger Battalion vs the 4 Brigades of an Austrian Corps. The Austrians approached a Brigade at a time. The Prussians got a little too aggressive trying to take the hill outside of the town and Mountain pass. This cost them and they were forced back down the pass since 2 more fresh Austrian Brigades were rapidly approaching the remaining 4 Prussian battalions.

I have used various rules for my later 19th Century battles. Field of Battle provides me with the feel of the period I want. It also provides fog of war that provides me with the chaos of combat I have constantly read about.

I am using 1/72 figs for my games. My 1870 French will eventually see some action. But for now it's 1866.

Thanks,

John

Hi John,

Thanks for the info. Sounds like they worked well for 1866 . Do you think it would handle a couple of corps a side without bogging down?

I like a reflection of the fog of war of the era and FOB sounds like it does this well.

I am starting with the FPW using Baccus 6mm.

Thanks

Rhys

Rnys if you fancy doing the Mutiny then have a read of Hibbert's The Great Mutiny a great read and very affordable. I currently have three projects on the go and have sworn to do no more. I doubt my resolve will last though.

For IM figures I'm using mainly Irregular in 15mm with some Dixon and QRF. Actually Irregular do a 100 piece army deal for £25.00 GBP so you could have both sides for £50.00 GBP

As you can see from John's post above with FOB you get a story as well as game. At the end of it you can think what just happened there-its very satisfying.

If you try 1 base per unit you might be able to game with a couple of corps per side. That is how FOB WW2 works.

Ha ha I was looking at Irregulars stuff last night! Very affordable! Although I just ordered some bases from ERM and an order from Baccus to round out a couple of corps either side. Not far off fielding forces, apart from the basing!

Deffo looking for the story element as I want to run campaigns – free flowing campaigns with historical restrictions applied.

I may well pick up the book you recommended in the near future. Always happy to read a well written account of a period of history I have little knowledge of.

I will deffo give the one base battalion a go then and see how the corps do.

Thanks for all the info and advice :-)

Rhys

Yeah I have a mutiny campaign on the go its a great way to game.

Keep us posted with what you do.

Sounds good. Keep me posted on your IM games too. Genuinely interested to hear how the campaign and battles go?

I do FOB with 2 bases to a unit -works well..
link

Will do Rhys.

Will FOB handle 2 Corps per side? I will say given a few conditions yes. First, if you are running only 2 players and lined up from table edge to table edge then probably it will start bogging down. If you have Divisions arriving at different times and 3-4 players you'll be fine. I have done that in my ACW games using FOB many, many times.

I like the early battles in the Mountain passes in 1866 since you are looking at generally 1 on 1 Corps battles. Sometimes with an extra Division added in. These are an excellent fit for 2 player games!

FOB truly is an exceptional set of rules. The absolutely shocking fact is that they also have a very low learning curve. Toss in the fun factor, chaos and period fell and I hope you begin to see exactly WHY I am such a huge fan of the rules. I think Brent Oman has performed something of a miracle creating FOB.

I need to knock out some more Cav units. But my buddy Rob is nudging me back towards 1815 to use the rules for.

Thanks,

John

Yeah FOB is something special alright it never fails to please.