It was about time after a long spell of work and holiday related game absence ... to play Seven Years War again. 28mm, the "Seven Years" rules, Prussians (me) vs Russians (Bart) - introducing howitzers in a totally fictional battle!
As the Russians had a lot of logistical problems, the set up would reflect this a bit. Missing Horses the Russian had one unit of hussars less (but two skirmishers instead). The 7 Prussian line regiments were naturally out numbered by the 9 Russian, but had 3 recruit units and their Guard regiment just made it to veteran status. Also the whole Prussian Line were first fire trained and had 2 light and 2 medium guns. The Russians had 2 light and 2 medium howitzers. I gave the howitzer each 6 shots only (after they would be treated just like light guns) to reflect ammunition issues as well.
So I knew I had a soft but large centre that should fire the Prussians into oblivion, before my flanks would be over run or the Prussian infantry would attack my centre!
Luckily for my flanks, the skirmishers just prevented that. Any time a charge was prepared my pandurs would just inflict a disorder, but enough to keep the Prussian horse on their defense!
Less fortunate was my plan in the centre, even though some of my light guns and howitzers could inflict much pain in the opponents centre at first, due to his superior command (1 secured staff officer) - meant that Bart could more easily rally. AND of course as soon as my command luck gave me a dry spell of such staff officers, Bart decided to march forward, while peppering my positions with his medium guns!
Formidable, as they just did what my howitzer did at the beginning, throwing my lines into chaos! That is when Barts centre, the 6th regtiment (“Die langen Kerls") and some converged grenadiers punched my raw/recruit Russian line. Needless to say my response was less stoic than it should have been ... (the russian line gets an extra support (but not exceeding 3).
The result was forseeable: my complete centre brigade run off table or was pulverised, along with other recruit regiments (they cannot be rallied from "retreating" as they are the bottom line of the unit quality levels).
I managed to send 1 (!!! only 1) brigade tumbling towards the board edge, but Bart managed to rally them all just before the end.
The inevitable result was the total collapse of the Russian invaders and the casualty table speaks for itself: 0 Prussians vs 7 Russian units!!! - "Königsberger Klopse" for everybody (barf)! and congratulations to Bart for such a total victory, even without the help of ANY cavalry! :)
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| Initial set up |
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| The Russians and the not so secret howitzers ... |
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| The Prussian line and the hussars (v. Seydlitz and the Black death hussars)... |
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| the rules |
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| The Prussian cuirassiers (Prinz v. Preussen) |
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| The Russian counterpart ... |
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| The Prussian centre (IR 42 v. Brandenburg-Schwedt) |
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| The Russian move first! |
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| ... and mixing up the Prussians just fine! |
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| The Prussians advance and fire! |
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| Both Hussars are left shaken after a clash! |
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| Will the v. Seydlitz rally quicker? |
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| The Russians advance |
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| The Prussian answer with opening the fire fight! |
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| The fire gets intense! |
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| The Prussian Hussars are retreating! |
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| Both lines get disordered and shaken in the exchange of volleys... |
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| The blue line advances ... |
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| The howitzer are running out of ammo and support ... |
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| The cavalry gets checked lines are more or less stable ... |
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| The Prussian grenadiers are about to clash with the Russian Guard! |
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| The Imperial Leib-guard is the only thing that stands between the Prussians and the retreating recruits ... |
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| ... after a fire fight, they are no more! |
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| The Prussian grenadiers are deep in the Russian centre! |
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| ... the centre is (soon) missing! We need staff officers to rally! |
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| Other Russian brigades soon waver as well ... |
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| The last defense line the recruits of the flank brigades shoot ... |
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| ... and grenadiers advance ... |
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| ... but to no avail! Now hastily trained units show their faults! |
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| Another flank fire fight! |
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| The centre get‘s cleaned up! |
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| The Russian falter under Prussian fire pressure ... |
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| ... keeping up the pressure relentless ... |
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| The second Russian brigade gets shot to pieces ... |
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| ... while a Prussian one retreats ... |
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| Chaos everywhere... |
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| The Russian line split into two. |
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| And overall the Russians are retreating. |
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| Even though a Prussian brigade is retreating ... |
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| The Table of Death ... |
Usually played the Allied, but I noticed a big comfort to play with the Prussians. Almost everything worked according to my plan (mostly thanks to always 1 extra officer). Sadly cavalry did nothing, mostly thanks to your skirmishers, who by the way, did an amazing job. It was a lovely game, hope the club will open soon, so we can finally play the rules on standard (4x8) table ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bart! Maybe not every Prussian commander might get the bonus ... in the western theatre maybe, BUT its a good tool to get the Prussians to deal with bigger opponents.
DeleteThe skirmishers and the horse: that might be a way how the "legions" would operate (part cavalry/part light infantry). OR if we adapt the rules for AWi ...
(Trumpet noise) General Pulaski! (Trumpet noise) ;)
Delete