Aug 1st Game Review

Hey gang, you should've been there. Nine players showed up for the game of which seven brought their own figures. We picked up a new player, Doug, and look forward to seeing him again at the next game. Now if we can just get Jeff J. to finish up those pesky Bavarians for Noel...

The game was an Austrian v Prussian smash with each side having some allies. The Austrians had some infantry from northern Germany (read Hanoverians and Hessians,) while the Prussians had some help from the Neapolitans and, later on, Turks. Due to the enhanced qualities of Prussian infantry, the Prussians had the onus of attacking even though their army was slightly smaller.

Each player had two brigades under their command, either all infantry or all cavalry. At the start of the game there was one less Prussian player so I gave the Prussians one extra infantry brigade and the Neapolitans decided that they wanted a mixed command of one infantry and one cavalry brigade. When the Turks arrived they also got a mixed command. The Austrian side kept with the homogenous starting brigades (either all infantry or all cavalry.) Both sides were given two regiments of hussars and two battalions of light infantry.

The Prussians deployed all of their infantry on their right and all of their cavalry on the left, with the Neapolitans in the middle. The Prussians anchored their lines between two towns which would both protect their flanks and inhibit their mobility. The Prussians also decided early to use their hussars as a battlefield cavalry and not as a string. They also initially forgot that they had a couple of battalions of Freikorps which they eventually threw into the town on their right.

The Austrians deployed a little more traditionally with two brigades of cavalry on each wing and their infantry in the center. Both flanks were screened by hussars and the light infantry was posted in woods on either extreme end of their line.

The Prussian plan was simple, their victory condition was to clear a path through the Austrian army so that they could exit the board and they decided to weight their right with excellent infantry to punch through the Austrian center. The problem was that the Prussians had lined their infantry up facing the Austrian left flank cavalry which had been posted in front of a woods. Unfortunately, this is where the battle started to unravel for the Prussians.

The Prussian infantry and artillery on the right punished the covering hussar regiment in front of them and the Austrians took 60% casualties in the first turn of fire. The hussars made their morale and stood an extra turn. It took an extra round of fire the next turn to remove the hussars and, of course, this delayed the Prussian advance. The heavier Austrian cavalry behind the hussars got two turns without being fired on, which would prove critical a couple of turns later when they finally were unleashed on the Prussian infantry. The Prussians advanced two more turns at the cavalry before the Austrians turned on their tormentors and, in a haze of slashing swords and charging horses, got their two lead brigades cut to pieces, with four of the eight battalions destroyed and another routed at a cost of two and a half regiments of cavalry for the Austrians.

On the Prussian left terrain and deployment cooperated to deny the Prussian cavalry from deploying more than two cavalry regiments out in a line at a time. The same was not true of the Austrians, who managed to get their lead brigade of cavalry deployed in line with the hussars forming on the right of the brigade. The first Prussian line was made up of their hussars. The Prussian heavy cavalry brigades deployed side-by-side each other behind the hussars, each with one regiment behind the other. Both sides charged furiously forward, the Prussians to gain room to deploy out and the Austrians to keep them from doing so. The melees lined up so that the Austrians were able to focus two regiments (a dragoon and a hussar) on one of the hussars and one (cuirassiers) on the other. The first Prussian line (hussars) did not fair well against the Austrians, both regiments routed. The second line (a dragoon and a cuirassier regiment) didn't fair any better during the Austrian breakthrough. A charge by the third line saw a similar result to the first two, but the Austrians--due to exhaustion and a destructive fire from a paniced Neapolitan infantry brigade-- were finally brought to a halt. As the smoke cleared the badly mixed up Prussian cavalry discovered that there was one more brigade of Imperial cavalry which was fresh and champing at the bit to get at the Prussians waiting for them.

In the center the Neapolitans had been ordered to advance towards the hill that marked the center of the Austrian position. On top the hill was a brigade of Hanoverian brigade with a Hessian brigade to its left and two Austrian brigades to its right. The Neapolitans came forward with their infantry forward and their cavalry to the right rear (just in case...) Bravely they advanced up the hill though, with the momentary collapse of their left flank, the advance stopped well short of musket range and the Neapolitans with their four battalion guns got the worst of the Hanoverians and Hessian with their eight battalion guns and four 12 lbr.s.

At turn 5 we called the game. When we called it the Prussians had lost 1/3 of their infantry, 1/3 of their cavalry, and four guns. All of the Neapolitan infantry was in rout, though their cavalry was still fresh. On the Austrian side the losses were 60% of their cavalry and a battalion of Hanoverian infantry routed. It was hard to see how the Prussians were going to be able to push against all of that Imperial infantry and we called the game in favor of the Austrians.

And what of the Turks you ask... There were three roads that they could have come in on and we diced for their entry. They ended up coming in on the town that was covering the Prussian left flank and, though they had cavalry, they marched on with their infantry first for the town. By the end of the game the town was full of Sekhans who were watching the battle from the safety of the town and saying to themselves, "No way am I coming out for this one..." Why they turned right for the town rather than left for the open fields beyond and behind the Austrian right flank is anyone's guess, however, the redoubtable Pasha Bey-bey was overhead commenting, "Look, what a lovely church. Hehehehehe....."

Fitz