BIG SUNDAY GAME - and why not yet again a wonderful Seven Years War bash! Bart and myself brought our collections out, I played the outnumbered Prussians (6 brigades, my collection) versus 12 Austrians (mine as well) and Saxonians (all Barts collection) brigades, to test some new minor rules amends and of course to enjoy such a huge heap of wonderfully painted lead.
Bart would come on in at the short edge of a 12x6ft table with the whole might of this Austro-Saxon moloch of an army, while I had already 2 cavalry brigade on the table. The overall objective was that Bart had to cross the river AND get both towns (villages) to claim victory, unit kills would not count!
To prevent such unstoppable magma from pouring over the river let alone the table, was just futile, so I gave him the bridge town (which we named Osgiliatow) send my horses to the front to harrass him (and mostly to screen my deployment from his cavalry) to defend the town we duped Minas-Tiritzen. He shall / cannot pass!
In the first hours, Bart was getting stronger and stronger, while my few feeble attempts to attack his cavalry were repelled. It was becoming clear that he would dominate my initiative soon, but also that he would struggle to bring such a force to bear any effectiveness in time - movement logistics mainly (but we might also alter the march column bonus for such scenarios).
After some time his artillery finally arrived and prompt shot one of my medium batteries off the table. Austrian gun batteries are and should not to be trifled with!!! My cavalry was slowly melting away and losing its effectiveness and my guns started to give fire. I had more shots than the Austro-Saxonians... but to no avail, my firing and aiming was ABYSMAL. The bulk of the white flood was slowly coming nearer ...
At 18pm I had to leave, so we finished things up, Bart did unleashed the last fire and some attacks, but he could not dislodge me from Minas-Tiritzen in any near turn... maybe, if we would have played until midnight. But even then he would be running out on ammo, I would so as well 2 turns later, our cavalry would have little or no effect (both rallied and "coming back" as raw units). So the Infantry would have to fight it out again, and he had still a ratio of 2:1. So - he accepted defeat under the given, very difficult, scenario settings, but the Prussian would have just about held out until nightfall (and would be gone in the morning very likely).
Maybe I should have been more aggressive, who knows. But we were both, very typical of the era, not to eager to engage into any daring attacks as we know it can have dire consequences ... ;)
The game was a total blast of fun, apart from my uncharacteristical aiming fumbles, and the testing was successful as well - I will update in due time soon.
If you are interested in the rules we played, please see under:
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| The Prussian initial deployment |
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| The Austrians And Saxons all off table initially |
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| Our first cavalry encircle around Osgiliatow ... |
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| ... to keep the Austrians at bay ... |
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| ... as the Prussian army needs some time to deploy ... |
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| But the emperors horses stay in line ... |
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| screening for their lot to come ... |
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| All the Prussian cavalry is as far as possible up front ... |
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| Let them come - huzzah! |
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| While the rest of the army is in position ... |
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| The we retreated to one line. |
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| Waiting for the storm to come. |
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| But the Austrians took their good time. |
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| Let them come. |
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| Our guns were primed. |
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| All Austro-Saxon forces were finally on the table! |
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| The last 2 brigades were all grenadiers!!! |
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| The cavalries had done their best, now the guns would start ... |
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| The beautiful Saxons march! |
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| The Austrians on the other side of the river... |
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| ... a bit bottlenecked ... |
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| Then they started to fire ... |
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| The Prussians took it on the chin ... |
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| ... as their guns had 4 shots ... |
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| ... but we had 6 ... |
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| Then half of my medium guns were shot to pieces!!! |
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| 6 medium guns is a lot! |
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| While the infantry slowly crosses ... |
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| The huge battalions of the emperor! |
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| The guns that shot my guns ... |
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| But then my skirmisher sand my light gun did the same ... |
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| Blasting away and destroying 3 guns of the Austrians ... |
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| My cavalry was rallying ... |
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| My line were starting to waver, but the grip on the town was still firm - when we stopped the slaughter. |
