FOUR LOST BATTLES

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:
'The failure to defeat the three Coalition armies in detail was the beginning of the end, leading directly to the Emperor's retreat and the great "Battle of the Nations" at Leipzig'.

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'....