1758 - the Battle at Severe Testingenhausen

Well,  as our local wargame club still hasn‘t found any vaccine against Covid or a strategy for world peace,  I just realised I must do some testing on my own - my Seven Years War game rules! 

Also as the new Althann Dragoons needed a baptism, I unpacked my Austrian army and substituted AWI Hessians and some SYW Russians (mostly cavalry) to stand in for my soon to be real Prussian army. OK as soon as another 6 months probably and as real as 28mm tin can get, haha!

I changed the combat resolution and the rally process - in a nutshell more blood and harder to rally back up to normal! The two armies were similar and consisted of 4 brigade each, 2 Horse and 2 Foot with a battery of medium guns and a single medium gun. 

The Austrian started the show and made good progress and then the shooting and pressing started. The Prussians were the first to lose a Dragoon unit that left shaken the field. More and more Prussian line were falling back shaken to recover behind fresh friends. Then the Austrian diced all 5 staff officer dice positive and started an all out attack! 2 complete Austrian brigades with triple depth went in for melee and the heavy horse charged in!

But somehow the Fortuna left the Habsburger there, two out of three combat went ABSOLUTELY disastrous for Austrians. The left brigade had to retreat and lost a regiment just hacked to pieces! The other seemed just to hang on. The heavy cavalry charge was sent back in retreat!

From there on the white coats never recovered, the left cavalry flank disintegrated an after the first infantry brigade seem to hold the second just lost the  melee finally and was shot so that a COMPLETE brigade was in full retreat!

It was clear that the Habsburger in me could never recover from this, but just for the testing I played the game some turns onwards and yes, all the Austrians could do was a shambles of a fighting retreat ...

The changes worked a treat and I will do some more testing into the future, because as we all know how the saying goes:

"At Christmas we will all be back home again..."

Initial set up

Fierce Sparring-Prussians

And stoic Austrians (actually Hungarians this brigade)

Austria made a dash

The Prussian Dragoons pressed to the edge that would cost them

More fire exchange

The centre is near enough to each other ...

to "amuse" themselves ...

on the heavy horse flank the Prussians seem to be pressed badly as well

The Prussian Cuirassiers charge ...

... but fail ... left all shaken

meanwhile further attacks press on

the Prussian heavy horse in disarray

this is the point when the Austrians had all there Staff officer available

an all out attack followed

now or never - the Prussian seem to be weak

one brigade clash had a draw ... ongoing fights can be quite costly

still the cavalry to join in

but the Austrian performance seem to falter

If that would have been a success it would have broke the Prussians so near to the edge!

But even the Curassiers get shaken ...

... and then sound the retreat!!!

This is were the whole turns against the Austrians

the  complete centre brigade is in retreat!

all white coats running - end of game

so I just played a bit further on ...

... but it never got better just worse for the Austrians!

How to beat the Spartans

As the weather up here in Edinburgh developed rather to november-nasty, I decided to warm myself at an mediterranean table with some Peleponnesian hoplites vs some Delian imperialists. 28mm, Hail Caesar plus some add. useful rules.

Initially I geared them up in parallel lines, the Spartans more conservative, i. e. the elite bodyguard of the king on the left and the line up cascading down in troop quality to the right - all nicely flanked by some sorry helots in weapons, as peltasts. Ah, and a cavalry unit purely for embellishment and amusement. The Battlefield was an arid plain flanked by some difficult terrain (olive trees, bushes and rocks), where only peltasts could and would go.

The Athenians had more peltasts on their flanks and a slightly better cavalry (even if in nano measurements), but lacking the punch in the elite units. The Delian set up was slightly more modern as the quality of the line was mixed, still the general, with the elites, was as per usual on the opposite of the Peloponnesian weakest line. It seems not that easy to progress all in one line ... the goal of both would be to beat the opposite lower caste of hoplite unit, and then to roll up the line of the other.

Initial set up

the Kings bodyguard

and their Delian opponents (mere regular hoplites)

First turn - both fail to keep their units in line ...

The helots clash with the free men of Athens

The slingers in the olive grove

again not much movement

... and everybody tries to be in Phalanx (needs here a command check up roll)

the Spartan horse charges!

but is beaten back ... on top the bodyguard and the king charges!!

more peltasts clash

The Spartans charge the Delian moras

the middle field just shuffles into phalanx formation

The Delian general misses the opportunity for a fast charge

the second best Spartan unit has been pushed back ...

... slowly some battle lines are drawn ...

the Kings bodyguard fights alone

The spartan helots are no match for free men!

Finally the Delian General charges unarmored Peleponnesian auxiliary hoplites

still the centre is not ready ...

Then the spartan unarmored hoplites attack in phalanx!!

the spartan helot/light cavalry flank is non-existent anymore!

but still the Athenian general seem to struggle vs unarmored hoplites ...

then the unarmored auxilliares break - the King attacks again!

and nearly destroys the two Delian moras, alas just pushes them back

now all the Athenians have to do is to roll up the Spartan line

Spartans allies, one after the other is rounded up and destroyed

until the Spartan themselves are surrounded and pelted by peltasts!

as the two heavily beaten moras can't get out of their shaken status and attack the only option for the spartans is to die in shame ...