Tag Archives: Valour & Fortitude

The Winter Battle: Valour & Fortitude 1807

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I recently played a decent-sized solo game of Valour & Fortitude (2nd ed, v3.1) with my 10mm Napoleonic troops, snow mat and 6mm buildings. The action-packed game did not disappoint!

The scenario played was “Set Piece Battle” and after selecting about 360 points each of French and Russians from the V&F 3.1 list, I diced for the attacker (per scenario instructions) and the Russians rolled highest meaning they were the attackers. The Battlefield was already set up for my Eylau Scenario for “Eagles Cheaper than Brain Cells” and I kept it including the hills and villages. The Russians selected 2 x villages. The French selected the large town on their baseline (the “defensible terrain” town of Eylau) and the large woods on their right.

Turns 1-4

Looking from the French Baseline. 2 Brigades of Troops – the left is 1st BDE (with attached Hussars) and the right is 2nd BDE (with attached Light troops). The large town in the center is Eylau, presumably.
Russian baseline – also in 2 large Brigades. The Brigade on your left (Russian right) is 1st BDE with attached Dragoons. The Russians heavily weighted their left flank because they intend to attack the woods on the French right (the weaker target than attacking directly into the town).
Note the woods on the French right. The Russian target for the day’s battle.
French light troops holding the objective in the woods. The woods are treated as “rough” in this game and are not defendable terrain.
Lots of French combat power around the woods!

The rules suggest when playing with 10mm troops to halve all measurements, which I did but it felt a little fiddly and next battle I might try 2/3 measurements intstead.

Elements from 1st BDE garrison the town
The French division forms a battle-line against the oncoming Russians!
Another view of the French Battle Lines from 1st Brigade in the foreground and 2nd Brigade in the background.
Russian units come off their perch as teh Russian attack begins! Note the casualty markers on the lead french unit! a result of constant bombardment from Russian guns!
Russian “flank guard” infantry battalion fires against prowling French Hussars!
Les Grognards! +1 to their Tenacity!

Turns 5-8

The fight for the forest objective begins! The Russians assault the light troops in the woodline. French battalions on either side of the woods are prepared to support as are the Russian units approaching!

The gallery above shows the Russian attack against the French right taking shape. It’s important to note here that Valour and Fortitude handled the attack easily with little to no questions so far as the Russians shelled French units across the field and the French responded in kind!

view from the woods as the French descend upon the forest! Combat ensues!
The French win the combat but neither side has to test yet. While the lights are shaken, they have not taken any casualties above their tenacity level. The combat could continue another round but the French commander decides “discretion is the better part of valor” and withdraws the lights while moving up a fresh Battalion into the woods! A Battle Hand-Over which was planned the entire time!
Meanwhile in front of the large town, the Russians are demonstrating and trading volleys. The French cannister is doing its deadly work!

Turns 9-12

A swirling cavalry battle taking place on the French left. The Dragoons end up getting the worst of it!
French reinforcements assault the Russians at the woodline! The Russian attack breaks down as this unit loses the combat and fails its valour check!

The Russians have experienced a setback to their plan but they still have the combat power to shift some units around. There is an intense firefight going on in between the woods and the town and also more Russian units are demonstrating in front of the town. A cavalry battle is occurring on the extreme left of the French line as supported Hussars charge full in against thte Russian dragoons.

Meanwhile in front of the Woods, the Russians, already suffering from 1 “defeat” prepare for another push this time against Les Grognards to the left of the wooded area.
Meanwhile the units in front of the town are suffering from the repeated cannister and small arms firing!

The Russians attempt to gather up their forces for one final push into the woods but trading fire with the French sees the French come out on top!

On Turn 10, the Russians pull back to try and consolidate their inner lines. They have 2 turns left to take a French held objective. Note in the pper right how the French line is starting to look refused. Meanwhile the French near the town have actually started to advance! More shooting and melee ensue but the Russians concede on turn 11. The game is over and the French have won, 6-2 (captured 2 objectives and inflicted 4 defeats on the Russians. The Russians captured 2 objectives.

So what did we learn?

For starters, the attacking force has a tough job in Valour & Fortitude. Attacking units must be properly supported and preferably with no hits on them. An enemy should be softened up and close to being shaken when you assault them. This is easy to say, but if the dice aren’t with you and you’re on a tight schedule, you should have a “Plan B” lined up!

The terrain rules are still a little hazy to me but for the most part the game flowed really well. Basing the units on 2×1 stands, with 3 stands to a battalion was no problem and I think this will be my basing scheme moving forward.

Obviously, V&F plays better with lots of units, as units dry up pretty quickly. Once committed to a course of action, you have to see it through. In this battle, the Russian “Brigades” should have cooperated with each other and both supported each other to seize the wooded area. Imagine if an entire brigade would ahve assaulted the woods, instead of one single battalion! The rules are clever and pack alot of punch into a few pages. I like that and I can completely see the “Black Powder” DNA evident in these rules, but they are just so much more streamlined and efficient.

Anwyays that about wraps up “Napoleonic Month” here. I still want to get the Battle of Lindenau, 1813 on the table, but I am furiously cranking out 20mm WWII units for an upcoming game at a friend’s house. More to follow so stay tuned!

Napoleonics Month Coming to a Close!

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It was a lucrative month in terms of historical wargaming. I was able to play a large refight of the battle of Eylau, along with a few “pick up” games of “Valour & Fortitude” with my 10mm Napoleonic figures. I plan on posting some photos from the Eylau game and a battle-report from the V&F game soon.

According to my 2026 Wargaming Schedule, next month (March, 2026) is “Cold War” month and I am going to run some experiments with the US Army’s old “Dunn-Kempf” rules and see if I can bring them ever-so-gently into the 21st century with some standardization and streamlining. I may post some ramblings about that soon and a Quick Reference Sheet for future games. March will culminate in a large “Fulda Gap” styled battle with the old US Army H or J-Series MTOE (Modified Table of Organization and Equipment).

Here are some pictures from recent games:

The Emperor at Eylau
Old Bennigsen.
Heavy Combat!!
Soult and Augereau’s attack go in! Davout’s Corps is in the right-middle of the pic, still a long ways from Serpallen!
Russian and French units trade volleys across the snowy landscape!
Murat’s Cavalry go up the slope! Just like in the real battle, the French infantry corps’ exhaust themselves against the stalwart Russians. Murat’s hard-charging cavalry are desperately needed to punch through the Russian lines and secure victory!

So while I’ve been playing mostly Napoleonic games this month, I’ve also been continuing on with re-building my 20mm force once my son expressed interest in playing “Bolt Action”. Since Santa got my son his first pack of 1/72 scale toy soldiers this past Christmas (Italeri American Paratroopers) and 20mm was my first-ever scale going back to when I was 12, I decided we would play BA in 20mm / 1/72 scale and I’ve started building a German PanzerGrenadier platoon next to Andy’s 101st Airborne troopers. Here are some pictures so far of the progress:

I really like the way these Italeri troops came out! Only about 30 more to do!
Armourfast M4A3 sherman. I used a large paint-brush bristle for the whip-aerial and chopped up an MG34 to look like a .50 caliber machine gun!
German HMG Team before finishing their basing. Also Platoon Leader and Platoon Sergeant for the German PanzerGrenadier platoon are above.
My 9 year old son painting US M1 steel helmets

Anyways that is all for now. Stay tuned as a Battle Report is coming soon. I may also post a Napoleonic Scenario (Lindenau, 1813) for Valour and Fortitude next.

-DF