FOUR LOST BATTLES
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It is a boardgame
(from now FLB) designed by Kevin Zucker and Alessandro Fontana and
edited by
Operational Studies Group in 2005. The FLB's subtitle:
'Quadrigame of the Dresden Campaign, August-September 1813'
and the artwork of the box fully describes the scope: is a recreation
of the battles of Gross-Beern, Katzbach, Kulm and Dennewitz, four
battles lost by the Napoleon's subordinates (Oudinot, Macdonald,
Vandamme and Ney). Using the words of the designers: |
FLB uses some of the OSG's proven mechanisms. The scale is 480 m per
hex /1 hour per turn / 400-600 men per Strenght Point and is card-aided.
This feature allows a winning chance to the French player, because the
game (as in the real world) is heavily biased against the French. The
cards modify the start-up of the battles and add some fog of war:
reinforcements do not arrive, a second day of battle becomes posible,
thunderstorms, retreats... Tha cards also marks the maximum movement
allowances of the forces and increase or decrease you victory points.
In 2006 OSG added a new game,
'Napoleon at the Crossroads', more strategical in scope, and in 2007 OSG has added a booklet
'The Companion to NAC and FLB' with a lot of information about the campaign and the
design of the games.
I am not a boardgame player but the characteristics of FLB makes it
very adequate for solo-gaming.Thus, I bought FLB with the last goal of
using it like a frame (specially the cards or a modification of
these) to play the battles of the campaign using
my miniatures and Napoleon's Battles.
four lost battles and the leipzig project
The 1813 campaign in Germany is one of my favourites. After the disaster of
Russia, the breach between the tactical abilities of the French Army and
its enemies practically disppeared, whereas the Emperor's genius was not
the same than before. All those considerations lead to more equilibrate
battles. I use Napoleon's Battles and
that rule-set acknowledges this fact by lowering the French army
statistics so the flavour of the campaign is maintained.
In tha past I have
played some of the battles (see the PREVIOUS NB SCENARIOS' at
right) with variable results generally following the real world ones. Now
(April 21, 2006) I want to replay, practically from scratch, the 1813
autumn Campaign starting with the 'four lost battles', Gross-Beern, Katzbach, Kulm and Dennewitz.
I will use the previously designed Scenarios as a starting basis, modifying the OOB's when
necessary and adding the fog of war using chance cards following the
FLB style.
This is my 'Leipzig Project'....