The original FOGN appeared in 2012 as a game where the player is a Corps commander and individual table top units represent Brigades. I played it for a while and decided that ultimately, the scattergun layout and awful editing outweighed the enjoyable ideas and game play features, like unit cohesion and a very workable version of a "command points "system.
However, I have just purchase the Second Edition and it looks a different animal.
The rules did establish a following, I think partly because it they had a solid (but not exclusive) tournament element built in. Not something I have ever been interested in but somehow I feel this has kept things ticking over in the face of possibly wider take up of other rules in the past seven years.
For whatever reason, the rules seem to have established strong support in the Southern Hemisphere and that appears to have had a direct influence on where things are now. Originally, the rules were published by Osprey along with all the other FOG titles but now they hail from Word Cinnamon Publishing in Melbourne and I note clubs in Australia and New Zealand feature as play testers.
Interestingly they are produced using Amazons Print on Demand service and as far as I am aware, Amazon is the only way of buying copies, or at least that's how I think this works. Currently you are looking at around £26.93 GBP, $23.74 USD or your local equivalent, so pretty well priced in the current market.
The book is in softback format and slightly larger than the original hardback. It's very nicely produced, with many photos and diagrams like the original but with some important differences.
Firstly, the dreadful 1786 GLC Fournier Normal typeface has thankfully vanished, to be replaced by a larger and altogether clearer font, with a vastly improved and color coded layout. This is reflected in the color coordinated page banding for each chapter and goes a long way to counter the disappearance of previous, if somewhat limited, Index by repeating the listing of chapter sub headings on this right hand margin, as before.
The rules themselves have been cleaned up and clarified (hooray!) and the whole thing just looks like something you would want to read.
I gather that player input over the intervening years has been utilised and that some of the update has actually gone into removing sections that were seldom used, or mostly served to confuse the masses. A lesson a few more rewrites could benefit from in my view!
Over and above that, I'm also given to understand that the original games positives have also been maintained, so one hopes that previous players as well as new comers have something to be pleased about.
One question I would have is over the dread subject of play sheets which like in the original don't appear (I'm sure I had to down load mine from somewhere first time round). That said the turn sequence and every conceivable table (and there's quite a few) are clearly presented in the Appendix.
It may be that in this instance the new authors and or publishers decided to skip play sheets. There are twenty five (25) tables to contend with and while a number of these are literally only one to three lines, the sheets that were produced for the original rules (two double sided A4) were terribly busy and not a little annoying.
The tables in the book on the other hand are clear and easy to read making that twenty five just a statistic and to be honest, I never recall their existence being a pain when playing the rules anyway.
Please note I have deliberately not commented on rule mechanisms and game play in detail as its way to long since I last played and have yet to see how the new edition performs. It's always hard to comment on a new working of any rules without giving an impression of "same old stuff with a few tweaks" even if it's not true, so I really don't want to get into that on a basis of ignorance on my part.
All things considered I'm very much looking forward to getting back in to FOGN and feel that Richard Gordon and Brett Preston – Thomas have done a fine job of updating, overhauling or whatever term they would feel best suits their efforts.
I note that Brett has been active on another FOGN thread so I hope he will be around to fill in the details and answer questions in what has become a custom of increased input from authors on TMP in the past couple of years.
gets started with Flintloque.
