5 games in Oz

[KeefM]

In March 2014 I found my way to Melbourne, Australia and through the good graces of Richard Gordon I managed to get in 5 great games against some of the Melbourne FoGN stalwarts. Indeed, mention must also be made of Nic Robson from Eureka Miniatures (and who has provided such a fantastic service in supplying all my AB Miniatures) who put me in touch with Richard.

I took over my not-entirely-balanced 1812 French LC Horde (a link to that 800pt playing list is here: viewtopic.php?f=198&t=48345 ) and managed to get games against an array of armies and opponents. In brief:

Game 1 was vs Richard Stubbs 1812 French Infantry Corps d’Armee was a fantastic arm-wrestle of a game that we called “time” on at 2am after playing for some 6 and a bit hours. His army combination was a brilliant mix of a vast conscript infantry horde supported by (or more accurately, ‘supporting’) 4 veteran artillery units and a veteran infantry division. Richard’s 4 artillery batteries made it extraordinarily difficult to close with any of his infantry while at the same time his veteran infantry units were able to continue applying pressure on one flank. At “time” I had managed to occupy his LoC and had broken 1 division of his conscript infantry for the loss of a couple of LC units; but a game that had swung both ways in its course.

Game 2 was against Richard Gordon’s 1812 Russian Infantry Corps featuring 2 fortifications filled with artillery placed one each at either end of a very solid defensive position. This game was most notable for the complete inability of Richard’s left hand fortification artillery to land a single cohesion loss on two units of my LC over a 3 or 4 turn interval.

Game 3 saw some 1813 Prussians under the very able command of Tyler Jefferson. While I’m sure Tyler might have a different view, I remember this game most of all for a single turn in which he failed to turn up a single 5 or better on any of his 15 dice thrown for rallying. And to add insult to a lack of recovery, a village at one end of his line proved the recipient of some rather lucky shooting on my part which led to the speedy routing of the (yet again non-rallying) Prussian unit charged with its defence.

Game 4 was a clash against Steve Green’s 1809 Saxons. A hard fought tussle which had tilted my way by the end of our time. One of those tit-for-tat exchanges where we traded cavalry units followed by us both rallying them followed by them getting trampled again.

Game 5 was facing a 1813/14 Mixed Russian Corps fielded by Dave Inglis which had 2 Russian infantry divisions and a Russian Guard Cavalry division - the lack of a need for any troop minimums make this a flexible force to be reckoned with. While a relatively small army, the presence of 4 guard cavalry units (2 shock HC and 2 LC) also makes it a really strong army to face. By now I was somewhat exhausted (I think the 2am Friday night finish had finally caught up), so after running a ‘full court press’ and trying my luck with my light infantry against his infantry centre, I bailed out for a very lame/tame dead-square draw.

There were very few rule interpretation questions that occurred as a result of this international foray which is reassuring given the various (continuous) forum traffic and rule questions. Two did come up and these are currently awaiting a response from Terry:

1. Are cavalry “spent” from taking 4 hits from any shooting or just from assaulting ??
2. Can commanders attach to units in either players turn or just in their own ?

Otherwise, we all agreed that the one improvement that could be made is to very quickly convert errata in “official” status immediately so that we aren’t constantly referring to “I saw Terry’s post on this last week” sort of discussions !! The quicker this becomes a stable rule-set the better all round.

Lastly, I simply can’t be too effusive in my praise for Richard and the other Melbourne gamers hospitality. Richard Gordon in particular allowed me the use of terrain, table and a dedicated room to play 4 games at his house over the course of a single weekend as well as keeping every one well supplied with food and Pepsi ! Richard Stubbs, too, was also a very gracious host (especially seeing as we didn’t call “time” on our game on the Friday eve until 2am !).

So, if you were remotely considering attending the FoGN competition in July in Melbourne, then you should definitely commit to going – they are great folk and they play a very good game !!!

[BrettPT]

That's a lot of FoGN in a short period Keith!

I'ld be a starter for a trip across the ditch to Melbourne in July.
Perhaps the organisers could post some details in due course?

Cheers
Brett

[pugsville]

FIELD OF GLORY NAPOLEONIC 19 & 20 JULY 2014

The tournament to be scenario based, with pre-set terrain and games modelled on historical battles
4 rounds = Players need a 650 and 800 point list from the same list and period.
Loam armies are available

Lists submitted to the umpire Richard Gordon by 18 June 2014

richard.gordon@simplot.com.au
Entrance free $30 ($15 if playing one day only)
9am start both days
Club Tivoli 291 Dandenong Road Windsor Vic

[richafricanus]

Hi Brett, looking forward to seeing you here. Hopefully Pug's post gives you some info. I'll be working on more details after this coming weekend, especially rule interpretations (based a lot on the NZ ones Keith sent me) and sending them out. I'm playing a Fog R tourney which I've had to paint 250 Swiss for in 5 weeks so haven't done much planning for the Fog N event. I was going to send out the scenarios but on reflection have decided to keep them a surprise so nobody masters them in advance.

Cheers
Richard

[deadtorius]

Good idea, keep everyone guessing. Should make for better games.