Field of Battle 2nd ed - pre battle

I used the pre-battle maneuver concepts from the new Field of Battle 2nd edition rules to help set up the next game in the campaign. This system could be used by itself for setting up a one-off battle, but it worked great to flesh out details for my battle.

The general scheme is that a Katzian division is marching to cut the line of retreat of the Poo-Boochen forces defeated in my last battle. The remaining P-B forces at the border have marshalled and are marching to stop this flank move.

The pre-battle system involves two parts. First each army rolls on some charts to come up with modifiers and some "key words" to work into the story. Then, each side assigns dice to roll off against each other in four catagories. The winner get certain advantages.

The catagories are:
Deployment
Recon
Strength
Tactical Adjustment

After making the roles, I worked up how they impacted the campaign story.

During the first part, the Katzian roles gave me: "march", "seize", and "consolidated". The P-B forces had "support distance", "cavalry screen", and "hasty (negative)".

The Poo-Boochen forces won all the role offs and gained some key advanatges... force the enemy to deploy two commands, gained one deployment zone, reposition forces in one zone, and an enemy command being delayed.

All this (done in a few minutes) worked nicely in the story.

The Katzain MG Grumm was quickly marching (march) his division along the valley road with the light infantry brigade screening the right flank across the stream. He planned to quickly seize (seize) a strong position across the enemy lines of communication. Mid-day saw the division approaching the objective with the troops formed up 9consolidated) ready for battle except for the light brigade still looking for a usable ford or bridge.

General Schwartz of Poo-Boochen had a small force protecting the critical border fort taken during the opening battles of the war. His grenadier brigade that had stormed the defenses was almost up to full strength, but there were few other troops available when word of the Katzian approach reached the border. Schwartz quickly gathered some troops and marched to meet the enemy. Luckily he had enough available troops (consolidated), and good intelligence from the two regiments of cavalry (cav screen). Schwartz's only weakness would be in the hodge-podge nature of his command (hasty)...a mixed bag of grenadiers, line regiments, and march columns.


The stage is set... a Katzian victory could place the Poo-Boochen forces in an untenable position and maybe even end the war in the South.