28mm, Seven Years War, Seven Years ruleset, Russians (me) vs Austrians (Bart); The fictional scenario idea was that two divisions of three infantry brigades plus an artillery battery and some cavalry mini brigades were converging into each other in front of a stone bridge near the totally fictional but pittoresque town of Cato-witz somewhere hidden in Silesia. Some brigades would be there already, the rest would slowly drip into into the helter-skelter. The Russian had more Infantry, but had a -1 on the dice that decided the entry of the reinforcement brigades. Each gun had exactly ammo for 6 turns/shots. I won the initiative and moved first...
Our cavalry clashed the guns started to fire, the Austrians managed to be fully assembled first, while the Russians dragged behind. Catowitz was soon divided between some beareded skirmishers of doubtful provenience, and they kept it that way until the end, interrupted maybe by stray visit at the local pub, so bad was their shooting.
Then I send Barts Dragoons and some Hungarian infantry to hell! And it looked really, as if I would kick he Austrians back to their mountains, where thy came from ...
But hey, Fortuna! Really?
I didn't made any tactical errors, no sir, I held Bart under constant pressure. Even his orange dice luck, left him, so he wasn‘t particular fortunate this time. I would even go so far to say, that I had him in three if not four situations that would have made and broke his neck. Nothing reckless on my side either, nice softening up pre-work with the final charge in (usually cavalry) ... BUT each time Fortuna didn't left me in the lurch, no, ... she proverbally screwed me BIG time! I missed and didn't do any damage - zero, zilch, nothing!!! While Bart could countercharge on the contrary and capitalise on each of them, unbelievable!
Needless to say that slowly in time my army fell apart. Nicely to see at the ever increasing disorder and missing troops on the field. The cavalry was exceptionally painful, as they just arrived charged and then fell back into disarray ... at the end I killed, one light gun, a line regiment and one dragoons, while Bart tallied up 4 Russian line regiments (a quarter of my army!!!) and 4 guns! The rest of the guns were out of ammo, the complete cavalry shaken and thus unable to attack, while the other third of my infantry was shaken and the rest in isolated in exposed positions ... a clear, concise defeat! Congratulations Bart! A well earned victory and a shambolic performance of my Russian army on their record. I had a basket of fun!
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| Initial Set up. |
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| The Russians already at Catowitz! |
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| The Hungarian Infantry - too slow! |
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| And then to eager to advance ... |
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| ... just to be shot at! |
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| The Austrian grenadiers arrive! |
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| German and Hungarian ... |
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| But then the Russian Dragoons charge! |
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| And supported by Line volleys! |
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| The Hungarians break! |
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| Then the German brigade arrives! |
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| Then the Russian first brigade advance ... |
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| disordering the Austrian dragoons ... |
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| The Germans decending the hill ... |
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| The Austrian main battery aims ... |
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| ... but missing mostly ... |
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| Then the Austrian Cuirassiers arrive! |
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| ... keen to shock and charge! |
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| Again the Austrian guns underperform ... |
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| Then the fire exchange starts. |
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| still protected cavalry ... |
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| The Russian Grenadiers struggle under German fire! |
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| Where is the Russian heavy cavalry? |
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| First Russian Foot charge! |
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| But the Austrians stand ... |
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| the volleys continue ... |
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| The Austrian cuirassiers charge in! |
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| Finally the Russian heavy cavalry is there! |
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| The Austrian cuirassiers in retreat! |
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| The first Russian brigade in disorder... |
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| The Russian Dragoons join the fight |
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| The whole battle descends into chaos |
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| Austrian grenadiers on the advance |
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| The Russian cavalry charges and gets opportunity fire! |
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| But the Russians rally the lines! |
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| Apart from their retreating grenadiers ... |
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| Grenadier volley shakes the Russian cuirassiers |
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| The Austrian light Horse rallies |
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| The volley fight continues |
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| but then the Russian cavalry is repelled |
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| not only repelled but all over the place |
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| meanwhile the Austrians are rallying again .. |
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| Volley fight in the centre! |
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| The Russian advanced brigade on its last leg! |
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| And shot away! |
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| Fire! |
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| A Russian counter charge fails! |
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| It becomes clear that the Russian aren't winning the game ... |
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| The Russian right flank gets shot to pieces! |
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| The Russian centre is surrounded and exposed! |
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| Fire fighting continues while guns are out of ammo ... |
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| The German brigade ready to charge! |
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| The Russian centre and right in shaken disarray ... |
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| The death toll |
The scenario was recycled by myself and stolen from Bart. The terrain was me and Bart, the minis were mine and from Crusader Miniatures and Foundry and Frontrank, while the flags were all taken from the Kronoskaf website.
Who wants to know more about the game rules, can take a look under the following link, I'm about to publish them soon: https://meneken.blogspot.com/p/seven-years-set-of-rules-for-gaming.html)
It was a great game and I had a lot of fun. Hungarians (infantry and Hussars) will be heroes of the day, they kept my ADC dice at 7 dices, therefore I was able to do what I wanted to do. I love the idea of limited ammo, which forced to make decisions, to shot or not to shot. All in plus and my flanking manoeuvre looks lovely on the pictures. Amazing game.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bart, yes indeed agreed! There is a lot of mechanism in there to adjust the game in scenarios. The Ammo, the number or chance for SO‘s, or as it is two dice to fire/melee a re-roll of one, is a lesser bonus than an actual +1...
DeleteIntense and beautiful looking game, wonderful terrain and minis Michael!
ReplyDeleteThank you Phil! The rules are actually quite easy, the decisions not ... :)
DeleteWhat a marvellous looking game that you have retold brilliantly in pictures. So many wonderful photos. I really appreciate and like the overviews of the table, but the one of the Austrian brigade on the hill and the Russian cavalry charge early on really grabbed me.
ReplyDeleteBeaut stuff!
Regards, James
Thank you, James for the wonderful compliment! I try to do a mix between overview/birds view and "action shots"/ close ups. As the rules make room to let the units "show" the state of cohesion they are in, it shows on the table the battle confusion.
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