"Fate of Battle" Rules at Cold Wars '13

Co-authors Buck Surdu and Dave Wood put on a combined four "Fate of Battle" (aka- "Look, Sarge, No Charts: Napoleonics") Napoleonic games at Cold Wars this past weekend. All were well attended, and most all the players seemed to have a good time, and picked up the rules quickly.

The Battle of Laon, 1814 using "Fate of Battle" rules and 25mm figures.

Dave Wood's game was The Battle of Laon, 1814. Dave re-purposed his old 25mm Minifigs by putting them on magnetic “sabot” bases and adding labels. You can see the game looked great and was a nice way to play the game without the effort of permanently rebasing his figures.

Another view of The Battle of Laon, 1814

Close up of some of the figures used in The Battle of Laon game.

Buck ran three "Fate of Battle" games, using his collection of 10mm Old Glory figures. He writes of his games:

   "I ran three games at Cold Wars 2013 with 10mm Old Glory figures. All three were 1814 scenarios from a scenario book we are writing: Vouchamps, Montereau, and Craonne. The games went very well. Each of the battles was very tight until the end. At Vouchamps, the French captured two of the three roads along the Prussian line of retreat. At Montereau, the French only penetrated one of the three phase lines needed to achieve victory, so the Austrians eeked out a victory. At Craonne the French had initially achieved all their victory conditions; however, when their cavalry routed and a Russian brigade pushed through a gap in the French line, the Russians emerged victorious. The players quickly caught on to the rules and were running the game by themselves after a couple of turns. I saw a bunch of folks walking around the convention with copies of Fate of Battle under their arms."

 

The Battle of Vouchamps, 14 February 1814



Close up of some of the units used in The Battle of Vouchamps

Players move their forces during the Battle of Vouchamps game.

The Battle of Montereau, 18 February 1814.

Close up of some of the forces inThe Battle of Montereau.

The Battle of Craonne, 7 March 1814

Buck Surdu, (in blue, on right) helps players work out a melee during The Battle of Craonne.