Mini FOG

[rtaylor]

I have looked at ways to streamline FoG but it is harder than you might think. Base removal and cohesion combine to give the subtelties of the combat system and if you reduce the number of bases then you really have to lose base removal at the very least. It would certainly be more than a page of rules and so far I have failed to get the essence of FoG into a more condensed package.

I think base removal can be dealt with. Assuming a condensed base represents two bases of frontage, then that base has four (or two for elephants, artillery, etc.) notional bases. "Base losses" can be tracked with a marker on the condensed base. I would see a base-to-base combat in condensed scale resolved as two bases of frontage as in normal FoG. For example, a base representing a four-base BG with one loss fights as one rank of two bases and one rank of one.

As I see it, the bigger problem with such a condensed scale is BGs that are not a multiple of four bases. Do you just require all BGs to be 4, 8, or 12 (i.e., 1-3 condensed bases) and forget about BGs of 2, 6, and 10? Also, you lose the flexibility to deploy an eight-base BG in three ranks, or knights in two unequal ranks, for loss insurance.

[gavin]

Well, we are going to give this a try with some of the suggestions already made.

We find the 800 point games just a little to much for an evening (it seems to take us an age to get a game started, to busy standing about and chatting like old women!!) so if we can get a 'mini' version working then FoG will get played a lot more. At the moment, FoG is being played less and less.

I will post details of how it went once we have tried it.

[hammy]

There seem to be a lot of DBA players here in the Pacific Northwest corner of the U.S. Apparently the U.K. is a different matter? Was the bigger battle-esque DBM more popular than its smaller progenitor then?

Either I don't go to the events where DBA is popular or DBA is a realtively small fish in the tournament pond in the UK. There was a 'big' DBA comp at the Triples in Sheffield that got a dozen or so players. I think the DBA national championships might get 20. None of the big tournaments have had DBA comps in the last 10 years yet 100+ DBM players has been common.

We find the 800 point games just a little to much for an evening

Try 600 or 650 points on a 5 by 3 table. It's much quicker.

[Landsknecht]

The smaller the army points the shorter the games tend to be. It could be an advantage if the have very little time to play.

[lawrenceg]

I have looked at ways to streamline FoG but it is harder than you might think. Base removal and cohesion combine to give the subtelties of the combat system and if you reduce the number of bases then you really have to lose base removal at the very least. It would certainly be more than a page of rules and so far I have failed to get the essence of FoG into a more condensed package.

While I can see that people who really only have DBA armies are not going to be able to scale up to even 600 point FoG games I fear that less than 400 points a side would simply not be FoG. I hope to be proved wrong as there are a fair number of DBA plyers out there even though there don't seem to be thant many in the UK.

IMO the "essence" of FOG is that you have about a dozen manouevre elements, sometimes needing CMT to move, fighting is by POA, morale is by CT. I think you could dispense with a lot of the detail such as base removal, quality and different kinds of commander and end up with a game that bore the same relation to FOG as DBA does to DBM.

I think you could do it with something like:

1 base = 1 BG (or 2 bases in column for pike for a better look).
Each base get 6 dice in close combat or 2 if in overlap.
Spear and pike always count 2 or 4 ranks POA unless fragged or disordered.
For shooting give each base 2 dice (3 for MF) and require 2 hits to cause a test. Same dice for missile foot shooting in the impact phase.
For 15 mm use 1 MU = 1 cm (or half an inch in the US).
Only two terrain types (open and rough).
Only one commander, 12 MU range but only +1 adjustment.

BG priced as if 6 bases, or 3 bases of things with 2 dice in melee and artillery.

If it was official you could publish the complete game with pre-done army lists in a similar format to DBA as a cheap, simple, entry-level game to recruit new players who would move on to full FOG later. However, the only official things we're going to see in the next few years are the FOG army lists.