Massena's eagerly awaited 3 cards for his 8th initiative starts out with a downer... ARMY MORALE!
Fortunately for the French, all of their leaders pass their survival tests... and almost every Brigade commander had to check!
Not a bad card, but TACTICAL ADVANTAGE is only a little boost, and no game changer!
It also disappears at the end of a turn if you haven't used it, and Massena has only 2 cards left to play, and he suspects at least one is a LULL. So he uses it right away, and fires the 8 lber battery of Launay's Brigade, bringing it's shot at the Austrian battalion on the hill up to a D12; this turns out to be a good choice, with the nine pip difference inflicting a 3 UI loss! Apparently the battery's commander trained under Baron DuTeil!
Yep, the 3rd card French was indeed a LULL; Karl is unable to seize the initiative, but he is out of cards for this initiative anyway.
In a dazzling dislpay of symmetry, Karl's first card is also ARMY MORALE. He also has many officers that need to check for survival. All pass...
except one - General Colloredo. His brigade was certainly heavily engaged! All of his units are now thrown into Disorder.
"Use it or lose it!" Karl plays it on a Grenadier battalion in a strong position; it shoots at the column, the TA bringing it up to a D12+2, which will rout the Froggies. The unit's weak opportunity fire back is ineffectual.
The symmetry is broken when Karl turns ARTILLERY FIRE. Massena was pretty sure there should have been a LULL in there for the Austrians as well.
Rout for your home, team!
The French column breathes a sigh of relief... and plots its revenge! The remaining Austrian batteries just use the card to remove their smoke markers.
Massena won the toss for the 9th initiative 8 to 1; but he has only one card left, and Karl but two! As suspected, his last card of the Turn is ARTILLERY FIRE.
A dud!
I must write to the Emperor about the contractors for the Artillery's gunpowder...
The initiative passes to Karl, who turns the anticipated LULL card. As Massena has no cards left, a roll off is unnecessary.
The final card... a LULL as well! Actually, that's the best place for them to have been in the deck, when there was no real cost to them.
A "Turn" in Field of Battle ends, and both decks are shuffled when:
1) The C-in-C Leadership Die rolls at the start of any initiative are tied (a 10% chance here with an LD10 vs LD 8), or
2) either deck runs out of cards. The other side still gets to play and act on any remaining cards it may have coming to it in this initiative, but if it has cards beyond that, they will not have a chance to play them.
All of this action up until now for ONE turn? Much can happen in one turn in FoB. Super looking battle photos, Peter.
ReplyDeleteAs I observed, a Turn is not a very meaningful measure in FoB3; it would be rare to go through the deck more than twice without a decision.
DeleteI too did a bit of a double-take when I saw that this was only the end of Turn One. I suppose there are quite a number of different initiatives within the turn though, which seem more like mini turns within a turn, and if it all equates to three hours then that is a sizable chunk of any battle.
ReplyDeleteYes, exactly. Remember that a "Turn" could just as well be just a few cards played by both sides followed by a shuffle. This, while a "Turn" in FoB has a definition, it really isn't the same as a turn in the sense of most conventioal rules!
DeleteThe passage of 'time' in FOB/Piquet is pretty unique and with the unpredictable sequence of events/play is what makes it shine as a game. The combat/movement systems are fine (again with a high unpredictability element) but if one could be bothered any systems could be grafted on. Its the card deck that makes the game and generates a highly plausible narrative element.
ReplyDeleteNot a system for control freaks I guess but ticks a lot of boxes for me.
Of course, I feel the same. When I first tried Piquet, I tried grafting the sequence deck onto my own combat rules. It worked fine, but in the end there was no reason not to use them more or less as written!
DeleteThat entire initiative was a bit of a lull wasn't it? Reckon we'll be in for hijinks a plenty in the next instalment, amigo
ReplyDeleteYes, relatively anticlimactic. The loss of Colloredo may seriously handicap the Austrian Right if they don't turn a LEADERSHIP card for a while.
DeleteWaiting for turn2. Will the Austrian gunners keep their awesomeness?
ReplyDeleteThe Austrians need a better performance from their gunners for sure!
DeleteAn entertaining and enlightening turn! The Austrians are still hanging in there!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks, Iain. They are indeed. they could use a lucky break in the sequence deck card play in turn 2, except that is more likely to fall to the French.
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