SYW Black Powder

[Leman]

Mehr sounds like a sheep noise.

[kustenjaeger]

Mehr sounds like a sheep noise.

In French it is called l'affaire de Meer, in German usually 'Der Schlacht bei Mehr'.

Entertainingly the local press in 2008 referred to it as the Prussian victory over the French, despite the fact that the troops were from Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, Brunswick, Saxe-Gotha and Schaumberg-Lippe. 

Regards

Edward

[FierceKitty]

Sheep to Teutonic shepherd, complaining that they haven't had enough food: mehr...mehr...mehr.

[FierceKitty]

Chickens telling Gallic farmer's wife they've had enough: beauCOUP,beauCOUP,beauCOUP ...

[nikharwood]

 

Nice battle, Leman 

[Leman]

Had a go again last night, but this time with slightly bigger armies and using FOB2. The preliminary work took 1 1/2 hours, so we only played about two hours. As a result battle is still in full progress so photoreport in a week's time. With the dicing up of armies however the poor Austrians have got their work cut out. They rolled for an abysmal general and then rolled for an abysmal card deck - 6 lull cards!!!

[Westmarcher]

If you are looking for spare Leadership cards, I can send you some, Bob, because I have more than enough. For some reason, I got 20 of them in the pack I ordered from Brent (Oman). As he did me a nice deal on the shipping, i felt it was a bit churlish to draw his attention to it - and besides, I have enough of the other cards to do me for the level of FoB2 games I play anyway.

[Leman]

6 lull - lol! Think I should be ok for cards, but I'll check the deck again to make sure. Thanks for the offer Westie.

[kustenjaeger]

Greetings

Do you think FOB2 works well for SYW?  I keep thinking about picking up a copy especially as Lancashire has a sale on until tomorrow. I've got FoB1 (sans cards as I have buried them somewhere) and they look useful. 

Regards

Edward

[Westmarcher]

Horses for courses, KJ. I have various SYW specific rules but (other than Maurice) generally only use FoB and Black Powder because their 'generic' nature (with period specific adjustments - which can be your own as well as those recommended in the rules) suits my old brain and enables me to use them for other periods.  I have fun so I'm happy with them.

OK - you are possibly under pressure to buy FoB2 because of the Lancashire Games sale. Well, I bought FoB2 because I liked FoB1. In your case, probably best to play FoB1 to see if you like them first (unless Lancashire are offering a really good deal). I'm sure you could get a copy of the Sequence Deck cards somewhere (if I find mine, I'll contact you).

[jambo1]

Lovely looking pics, looking forward to seeing more. Edward the Mehr battle sounds very interesting as well, must look into that one myself.

[Leman]

KJ - IMO FOB2 is an improvement on FOB1 as some of the new cards allow for a variety of actions to be taken, eg. it is now easier to initiate a melee and it is then fought to a conclusion over as many rounds as necessary within that turn. One of the melees I was involved in last night took three rounds to conclude. One reason last night's game took a while to set up was that we used the new scenario generation system. as the fates (dice) would have it the Austrians turned up on the battlefield first but their brigade of cuirassiers and carabiniers took a wrong turn, and so will not turn up until I turn my 4th movement card. This has left four Austrian dragoon and hussar units facing all the Prussian cavalry. Fortunately the Prussian cavalry command leader is abysmal. If you like card driven games I'd go for it. I intend to use FOB2 for FAW, APW and FPW for smaller actions.

[kustenjaeger]

Greetings

Lovely looking pics, looking forward to seeing more. Edward the Mehr battle sounds very interesting as well, must look into that one myself.

Mehr is more interesting the more one reads about it. I need to spend some more time on the 8 pages of the German General Staff history that cover it - deciphering the Fraktur is a bit of a pain.  However it is pretty clear from Chevert's relation, which I think was written on 13 August, that the French had 12 guns - 4 4pdr suedois 'regimental' pieces with the advance guard and 8 4pdr long Valiere guns in two detachments marching with the Brancas brigade. 

Regards

Edward

[kustenjaeger]

Greetings

KJ - IMO FOB2 is an improvement on FOB1 as some of the new cards allow for a variety of actions to be taken, eg. it is now easier to initiate a melee and it is then fought to a conclusion over as many rounds as necessary within that turn. One of the melees I was involved in last night took three rounds to conclude. One reason last night's game took a while to set up was that we used the new scenario generation system. as the fates (dice) would have it the Austrians turned up on the battlefield first but their brigade of cuirassiers and carabiniers took a wrong turn, and so will not turn up until I turn my 4th movement card. This has left four Austrian dragoon and hussar units facing all the Prussian cavalry. Fortunately the Prussian cavalry command leader is abysmal. If you like card driven games I'd go for it. I intend to use FOB2 for FAW, APW and FPW for smaller actions.

Thanks - very useful.

Edward

[sebastopold]

hi, this is very nice. just a quick question : what is the size (length) of a bataillon (I mean the 32 figures) in cm or inches? thanks

[Westmarcher]

As Leman is not currently logged in, hopefully I can answer your question. His battalions are 4 inches wide. Each base is 1 inch or 25mm wide. Coincidentally, although I've never met Bob in person, never seen his units before I joined this forum and live hundreds of miles away, mine are the same(!)
(If I'm wrong, I'm sure he will correct)

[sebastopold]

thanks

[Leman]

Quite correct Westie. My chaps are on 1"/25mm squares, including the cavalry. Generally I base 8 foot or 3 cavalry to a square, but only 3 jagers/Croats. Using the generic standard bearers to bulk a pack up to 32 helps. I also miux packs up as well. eg front rank kneeling, back rank standing firing and maybe a standing figure on each end base as a NCO. Sometimes I base the fourth base as two infantry, a 3lb gun and two gunners as a battalion gun, but only for show. In all respects it acts like a normal infantry base.



Some of my earlier efforts are shown in the above photo where I only used 6 per base, but they just didn't look right for C18th linear warfare. The unit front right is the one with kneelers and standers, done as a large unit for use with Black Powder. Take a base out for use with FOB2.

[jambo1]

Very nice!! Some good ideas for me when I come to basing up my armies.