Field of Battle - first game

Over the course of yesterday morning and the previous evening, I played through my first full game using the Field of Battle rules by Brent Oman. Now in their 3rd edition, the rules are an evolution of Piquet, a system originally written by Bob Jones. You don't need Piquet to play FoB; it's an entirely stand-alone game.

Field of Battle is structured around each side using a set of cards to dictate movement, combat and leadership. Play alternates from one side to the other depending on initiative rolls. The number of cards being turned also depends on the result of those initiative rolls, so there's an exciting and unpredictable flow to the game. Opposed dice rolls are used to resolve the action, with polyhedral dice being used instead of just the standard d6. For example, to conduct a melee I might be rolling a d10 for one side and a d8 for another. Any action modifiers will modify the dice type up or down, rather than the actual result rolled. It's a wonderfully simple and effective idea. To extend the example above, the side rolling a d8 might find itself being attacked in the flank, in which case it would have to roll a d6 instead of a d8.

Before getting stuck in, I did wonder if all the various situational dice modifiers would end up being too much for my brain to handle, but I'm happy to say this wasn't the case. Probably by around the half way point of the game, I'd managed to memorise most of them.

In short, I really like this system! Other people have said how much they enjoy Field of Battle (and other Piquet games) for solo play, and I have to agree. Although it is primarily intended for two or more players, the use of cards to drive everything makes it very solo-friendly.

My game, as always, was a Napoleonic battle between the French and the Prussians, and a real nail-biter it was too! Both sides had beaten each other down to zero Army Morale Points, which is the point at which an army is in danger of capitulating if its CinC fails a command roll on turning the appropriate card. In the end, it was the French who failed theirs first, so victory belonged to the Prussians, but it was only a marginal one.

I don't have a full battle report to present this time, but here are a few photos from the game, and a few comments along the way.

The battlefield was a farily simple one, selected from the 'Season of Battle' maps that are included in this latest edition of FoB. There's a single road running through a town, with large hills on either flank. In the photo above the game is well under way with the Prussians (nearest the camera) deployed in strength on their right flank. However, the French took control of the town first and managed to cling on to it all day.

The action at the other end of the table was more spread out, with Prussian and French cavalry duelling it out. The Prussians also had guns dug in on the hill here, which did cause some damage to the French cavalry but otherwise spent most of its time engaged in futile counter-battery fire.

Above: a view from the Prussian side as they try to storm the town. The small coloured labels are unit and command group identifiers. I used a roster to record unit stats and hits.

In the centre of the battlefield, outside the town, the Prussians took up a holding position. The two French command groups opposite them gradually moved closer, with the French guns eventually taking their toll.

On the right, the Prussian cavalry got the better of their French counterparts. Both units of French chasseurs were eventually either eliminated or routed from the field, but by the end of the battle the two French hussar units were still holding their own.

With the cavalry combat going the way of the Prussians, they decided to send the landwehr over to attack the French centre. This helped drive the French back a bit and gave the Prussian centre some breathing space.

By the end of the game, the French left was in danger of being overrun, but their first command group inside the town had rallied well and was proving difficult to shift. Along the top edge of the above picture, you can just make out two Prussian infantry units routing off the table. The Prussians did manage to fight their way into one of the town sections in the end, but never came close to knocking the French out entirely.

The action in the centre of the field ended up being a bloody affair for both sides. The above photos shows the landwher cavalry routing, not far from a lone French infantry unit that has punched through the Prussian lines. On their side, the French have one unit in rout, whilst their main artillery command had to redeploy further back after being badly damaged. At top-right, you can just make out one of the Prussian foot artillery units having turned round to fire on the remaining French cavalry (off screen)

For most of the game, the French were actually outnumbered. One of their command groups (containing four infantry units) was found to be delayed in arriving (part of the Season of Battle pre-game set-up process, which I decided to use even though this wasn't a linked battle). A series of horrible command rolls meant that by the time this command group finally reached the field, the battle was over (somebody's going to get the sack for sure!)

So, a very close-fought battle that easily could have gone either way. In my mind I think of it as one of those ones from history where both sides claimed victory.

A view of all the figures that took part in the game. (Still a few command figures to finish off.)

Field of Battle gets a definite thumbs-up from me. I'm looking forward to giving it another game, perhaps with slightly altered command groups. As far as table and figure sizes go, I found my 20mm collection worked quite well on my 6 x 4 feet table. I used the measurements in the rules at 75% of what's stated, with my units having a frontage of approximately 3 inches. There were six command groups on each side, with roughly four units per command group. I think my table could have accommodated at least a couple more command groups per army, so there's definitely scope to play a bigger battle if I wanted to.

A spot of painting next, I think. I'm planning to finish off some command figures for the French and Prussians, and then have a go at painting some limbers.