Kleiner Feldzug 1757: June Passes Quickly!

The first half of June consisted of maneuvers by both armies to consolidate. The forces under Prince Henry of Prussia joined his father the king at Leitmenitz, while Austrian FM von Browne marched west towards Prague.  Marching at the height of summer, von Browne lost many men along the way before he halted at Brandeis.

Keith pursued von Browne with his cavalry force, staying close enough to keep an eye on him before halting as the Austrians continued their forced march. Von Schwerin held position in Koeniggraetz, waiting to see which way the Austrian lion would pounce. And Prince Charles, for reasons known only to him, took a small force of cavalry and marched deep into southeastern Bohemia.

After the road dust settled briefly, scouts and raiders took to the highways. A Prussian attempt to raid the Austrian camp at Prague was turned back, while pandours attacked von Schwerin's cantonments and eliminated 2SP of infantry and 2SP of cavalry.

June II saw even more consolidation. The entire Prussian army converged on Jungbunzlau, while von Browne finally arrived at Prague, taking command from Arenberg in the absence of Charles.

And where is Charles? The de facto monarch of the Austrian Netherlands appears to prefer the Bohemian netherlands, as he moved, slowly from Brod to Hlinska then paused, as if awaiting something.

What will happen next? Stay tuned! Though we are in the grips of winter here in the 21st century, back in 1757 things are heating up! A massive showdown is possible (or perhaps a thorough stizkrieg).

Kleiner Feldzug 1757: Outcome of May II Turn

 After our first battle, albeit not a mighty one, it would seem we may be moving on to earth-shaking confrontations!

As you will see from the map below, the Austrians consolidated, pulling Esterhazy's remnants back into von Browne's force and marching Prince Charles's force south to Prague to join Arenberg.

But Austria also allowed herself a counterstroke. Having absorbed Esterhazy's gallant band, von Browne set forth to the south to avenge the defeat of Hadik at Gitschina.

Von Schwerin stood fast, awaiting the Austrians' approach. We are waiting to hear if he attempted to evade.

In the west, Frederick continued his breakneck marching, moving from Teplitz to Aussig to Lobositz and thence to Schlan. Not content with this rapid advance, he threw his forces forward, losing some stragglers along the way, and confronted the combined Austrian force under Prince Charles at Prague. We are likewise awaiting word whether the Austrians attempt a Fabian manouevere here or meet the Prussians in battle.

May II move results (click for larger view)

If a battle develops at Prague, it will feature nearly 45 brigades or more than half the troops currently deployed in the theatre.

Gitschina: aftermath

After a single-impulse Turn 5 (in which the Austrians passed their first army morale test despite their army commander Hadik being captured), the first impulse of Turn 6 was highly bloody, with the Prussians losing their fusilier unit and the Austrians losing a cuirassier brigade and another musketeer brigade. The Austrian second in command, FML Nikolaus, Count Esterhazy (promoted from -1 subcommander to Poor commander), sent a staff officer with a trumpeter under flag of truce to the Prussians to suggest a cessation of hostilities, offering to cede the field to the Prussians and to retire with colours cased and drums silent. Von Schwerin accepted these terms. At that point, the battlefield looked like this:

The respective armies are in the following state at the end of the battle:

FM Kurt Christoph Count von Schwerin (Kronoskaf)

Prussians  (Army Morale Test Point 4; currently lost 4) 

Von Schwerin: Great commander

Artillery1

Artillery2

Buddenbrock: valorous, +2 command: KIA, replaced by Krosig +1 command

Cuirassier 1: 7SP reduced to 5SP

Cuirassier 2: 7SP, broken

Hussar 1: 6 SP, broken

Manteuffel: +2 command

Grenadier 1: 7SP, broken

Grenadier 2: 7SP reduced to 2SP

Fusilier 1: 4SP, broken

Platen: exceptional subordinate, +1 command

Musketeer1: 6SP reduced to 4SP

Musketeer2: 6SP

Musketeer3: 5SP

FML Count  Nikolaus Josef Count Esterházy (Wikimedia)

Austrians (Army Morale Test Point 3; currently lost 4.5)

Hadik Average commander (POW)

Esterhazy, Poor commander

Stampach: 0 command

Cuirassier1: 7SPP reduced to 3SP

Cuirassier2: 7SP, broken

Bosfort: -1 command

Musketeer1: 6SP, broken

Musketeer1: 6SP, broken

Musketeer1: 6SP reduced to 5SP

Musketeer1: 6SP

Artillery1

Sincere: -2 command

Dragoon1: 6SP, broken

Grenzer: 5SP, broken

After the Battle's Over

Since neither army broke or was pursued from the field, both sides undergo the "End of Day" Process, rallying scattered troops, collecting cadres, and reorganizing units. 

Each unit remaining on the field may attempt two recovery rolls, such as they might make during a battle.

Then each broken unit, although itself eliminated, renders a 1SP cadre of its type--regular heavy or light cavalry; guard, grenadier, or other regular infantry; irregular cavalry; irregular infantry. These cadres may be used to "top up" any remaining units of their type on the battlefield. Cadres that cannot be used are lost.

Finally, units are consolidated, so that only one unit of a given type is smaller than its maximum normal size (7SP for Austrian cuirassier, for instance, or 8SP for Prussian grenadiers). Units thus may end up larger than they started the battle, as the armies are consolidating to the maximum size of units at the start of the campaign, and so making up for attrition losses as well as battle casualties.

After this, they are in the following state:

Prussians

Von Schwerin: Great commander
Artillery1
Artillery2
Cuirassier 1: 8SP
Grenadier 1: 5SP
Musketeer1: 7SP
Musketeer2: 7SP
Musketeer3: 3SP

Austrians 

Esterhazy: Poor commander

Artillery1

Cuirassier1: 6SP

Musketeer1: 6SP

Musketeer2: 6SP

Thus, the Prussians, who entered the battle with nine infantry and cavalry units totaling 55 SP, lost four units and 25 SP in the battle, while the Austrians, who entered with eight infantry and cavalry totaling 49 SP, lost five units and 31 SP. For the weaker force, facing a much superior commander and on the strategic defensive, the Austrians acquitted themselves very well.

Von Schwerin's army holds the Gitschina area. Since Gitschina is not a fortress, Count Esterhazy does not have the option of standing siege; he must withdraw either to the depot at Koeniggratz or to join von Browne's army at Muenchengratz.

Lessons Learned

While protracted, bloody, and unsatisfying for, I fear, everyone, the battle of Gitschina did teach me a few lessons.

1. We need a quicker way to resolve battles. There's a simple and gruesome way to resolve combats in the campaign rules, which lacks finesse and grandeur but would get the job done. If all else fails, I will use that in future to prevent a battle producing a 4-5 week real-time pause in the campaign. Before I resort to that, I would rather devise an algorithm that will take into account more than just how strong the point totals of both armies are and how good their commanders are. But far and away I would prefer a battle that they players themselves get to fight. I'm still trying to figure out how to build a Might & Reason module for TTS or VASSAL, or how to set up a game on a platform like Zoom or Skype that I could moderate but have the respective army commanders involved, making decisions and giving orders for me to implement, while other folks could hang out and kibitz.
2. Might & Reason is an interesting game. The battle rules (which are the point of M&R--the author stuck the campaign system on for fun) are typical Sam Mustafa: they don't abide by a lot of the traditional tropes and mechanisms of classic miniature wargaming, but they do have a lot of period flavour, they play fast (relatively speaking!), and they have ingenious mechanisms that have a good deal of subtlety to them. I was reminded of a lot of details of rules as I played this battle out, and I learned some interesting depths to some elements of the game.
3. I need to get painting! If we are ever to have a tabletop game of M&R, whether via the Internet or eventually face-to-face, I need to get more figures painted and based. I have some Prussians and Austrians ready to go, but they would not have been sufficient even to do this moderately-sized battle, so I have work to do. I am actually tempted in the long term to adapt Et Sans Resultat to fight 18th century battles, but I think if I do that I will build new armies with Baccus figures, which aren't available right now. My old stocks of Heroics & Ros figures will be fine for now, but they need to be something more than Primer White (even for the Austrians...)

Gitschina: the battle that wouldn't die!

So, here are the results of Turn 4 of the battle. I was sure this would be the decisive turn. It may have been that, but it was not the last turn! We will see at least one more turn.

Overall, this turn was remarkable for playing to type (or stereotype). The Prussians were wizards of command and of musketry; the Austrians were feeble at command but doughty fighters.

Both sides spent the first impulse resting and trying to rally their cavalry. Schwerin pulled in double his opponent's CDs (10 to 5) so he could do almost anything he wanted that could be accomplished with command dice. He kept moving his reserve of musketeers forward and to his left, while volleys of Prussian musketry devastated the Austrian dragoons that last turn had wiped out a brigade of Prussia's finest cuirassiers. It was a good thing they had targets, as Manteuffel uncharacteristically stalled. Also stalling most inopportunely was Sincere, the Austrian light division commander, who left his dragoons out on a limb that proceeded to fall out from under them. Prussia unlimbered their second brigade of field artillery, the better to bombard the grenzers that had blocked them from advancing.

Pulse 2 the initiative was won by the Austrians, but all three generals proceeded to fail to activate. More volleys of fire smashed the Austrian dragoons into nothingness, and the Prussian infantry advanced, preparing to bring the Austrian infantry in their sights at last. The small brigade of Prussian fusiliers was detailed to guard the flank of the advance against the grenzers.

The revived Prussian cuirassier brigade charged forward against their Austrian foes but, failing to break them, had to fall back and collided with an advancing brigade of musketeers, who were thrown into disorder (loss of 1 SP for involuntary passage of lines).

On Pulse 3, Schwerin reclaimed the initiative, and Prussian grenadiers poured thousands of bullets into the Austrian fortifications (which protected their defenders well this turn, saving them three of the five Prussian hits). The combined forces of the Prussian batteries and the fusiliers at last dispersed the pesky Croats. The latter had, however, done their work, as the Prussian guns were now situated at extreme range from the enemy defences.

After the previous impulse's reverse, the Prussian cuirassiers rallied again. The grenadiers ahead of them, having emptied their barrels, fixed bayonets and assaulted the Austrian works.

Here was where one of the most unexpected events of the battle so far occurred. One brigade of grenadiers gave better than they got but were not able to break through and so retired. The other brigade, apparently encountering some unexpected Austrian minefield or simply bested by the muttonheaded imperturbability of some Swabian musketeers, was broken! (Schwerin's combat die rolled a 1; he spent a CD to reroll it and got another 1! The Austrians rolled a 6, and while the grenadiers were 6SP to the Austrians' 5, the fortifications' -3 was the decisive factor.)

With the loss of the hussars and one brigade of cuirassiers, this brought the Prussians to 1 shy of their army morale level, at which point they would need to roll to avoid retreat. The Austrians had lost two brigades, but since the grenzers were irregulars, their loss only counted a half point, so they were still at 1.5 out of 3.

Would the turn end? No! Fate determined that Pulse 4 would be played. Moreover, both generals rolled 2,2 for initiative! Schwerin used his last CD to reroll one of his 2s and got...another 2!!! Since Schwerin had held initiative last turn, Hadik had the initiative marker at +1 and won the tie. Since both had rolled double 2s, both got two more CDs.

Prussian musketeers shot down 2 SPs of Austrian cuirassiers. More musketeers and the remaining grenadiers poured shot into the Austrian infantry. The Prussian fusiliers tried and failed to pick off any Austrian gunners, and both sides' artillery produced no hits.

Stampach threw his better cuirassier unit into the face of the Prussian musketeers, while pulling back the ones who had been shot up in hopes they could retrieve some losses. His cavalry made a doughty attempt, scything down many bluecoats (both sides used rerolls), but had to retire.

Bosfort finally brought his third and fourth brigades across their trenches and readied to hit the Prussian right. He knew his own right was wavering, and only a severe blow (striking down the fusiliers, perhaps) could save his force from destruction.

And saving they would need! Fresh Prussian musketeers finally broke his rightmost brigade of infantry and stormed into his works, while the Prussian grenadiers took yet more losses and fell back a second time (melee was tied, and defenders win ties; Schwerin had used his last CD to reroll the attack that broke the Austrian right).

End of Turn 4. Prussia is one point from its Army Break Point. With the loss of Austrian Musketeer Brigade #1, the Austrians are ONE HALF A POINT from their break test. Neither army tests this turn.

On to Turn 5! 

(I hope to conclude this epic battle tomorrow...) 

Battle of Gitschina continued

My apologies for the glacial pace of the game. I still haven't found a satisfactory way to play Might & Reason online, so I'm proceeding solo with my clumsy manual simulator. Between that and the pace of my day job, I've only been able to resolve another turn, the second of the game but officially Turn 3, as the battle started later than the earliest time it could start. 

This may seem odd at first glance, but it has to do with the way battles can end as daylight fades and the interaction of fate, weather, and seasons. The basic length of a battle starting under overcast conditions in the Spring in Europe (as this one did) is six turns, so at Turn 3, we have three more turns before the game can end because of daylight.

Each turn consists of a number of pulses. Turn 2 ran for a full four pulses (the maximum number). This time, Turn 3 cut off after three pulses.

The state of the field at that point is thus:

The observant reader will see that there are fewer units on the board! Several charges and counter-charges resulted in the breaking of the Prussian hussars and one of their two units of cuirassiers. Their second has retired, as have the two Austrian cuirassiers, hoping to recover some scattered squadrons before returning to the fight.

The Austrian dragoons drew off one of the Prussian cuirassier units, leading to the other's downfall trying to fight both Austrians at once. Buddenbrock, the Prussian cavalry division commander, also fell in the fighting (leader check for Valorous officer in combat) and was replaced by the less valorous Krosig.

As the dragoons valiantly attacked the cuirassiers, the grenze deployed and advanced on the Prussian artillery, massed but limbered, still advancing. The Prussians were forced to deploy half their guns outside range of the Austrian entrenchments; these have fired on the grenzers with no effect.

The Prussian leading infantry division, Manteuffel's, has been advancing and has come under fire, also ineffective, from the Austrian guns. The glittering caps of its grenadiers are aligning as they halt and prepare to give fire on the Austrian dragoons' flank (infantry can't assault cavalry, but they can shoot at them, and MG Sincere, the Austrian avant garde commander, failed to activate his troops last impulse, so the horsemen have not yet turned to face their foe). One Prussian unit, a brigade of fusiliers, has oriented to drive off the grenzers.

Behind the grenadiers, Platen's division of musketeers has deployed into line in position to either support Manteuffel, move right to attack the Austrian redoubt, or move left to ward off a reinvigorated Austrian cavalry wing.

MG Bosfort, the commander of the Austrian main force, has been active more pulses than not (five, versus two inactive) but has had little to do. With the Prussian attack en echelon being now obvious, he is weighing the odds on advancing his left out of their entrenchments in order to support his right and at least for von Schwerin to commit Platen's reserve division.

I will play Turn 4 as soon as possible, pausing briefly to allow Hadik's and von Schwerin's in-game players to give their battlefield counterparts further instruction.

Kleiner Feldzug 1757: The Battle of Gitschina

As we saw in the resolution of the May I turn, the Prussian forces of FM Kurt Christof, Count von Schwerin fell upon the Austrian army of FML Andreas Count Hadik von Futak in the vicinity of Gitschina in the course of the move.

The battle is still being resolved, but I thought I'd share the initial setup.

Hadik's army is to the top of the map, deployed on a ridge with field fortifications protecting its four units of infantry and its artillery in a strong redoubt. On the Austrian right (to the left of the map) are two brigades of Austrian cuirassiers. On their left are a brigade of Croatian grenzers in their red cloaks and a brigade of chevaux legers.

Approaching them is von Schwerin's army, all still on movement formations. On the Prussian left are a brigade of hussars (yellow) and two of their own cuirassiers. In the center are two heavy batteries (outlined in black) flanked by grenadiers (gold edged) and fusiliers (pink edge). Behind those are three brigades of musketeers, making up the reserve.

During the first turn of the battle, the Prussians advanced relentlessly, finally shifting their leading brigades of infantry into line as they passed the town. Their cavalry accelerated, deploying and hurling themselves on the Austrian cavalry, which repulsed them, counter attacked, and were repulsed in their turn.

Seeing the slow advance of the Prussian main body, Hadik launched his light troops in a dash across the front of his army, hoping to strike the Prussian cavalry in the flank. Will they succeed? Will the Austrian cavalry hold out? Look for future dispatches!

Kleiner Feldzug 1757: Results of May I turn

Here's the state of the board after the third turn.

Precis of Operations:

The Austrian forces moved eastward. Arenberg retired to Prague from Schlan. Charles moved from Prague through Brandeis to Jungbunzlau. Von Browne moved from Niemes through Jungbunzlau to Muenchengraetz. Hadik held his ground, fortifying his position as best he could.

Frederick and Winterfeldt moved northeast, marching through Komotau to Brun, ending in Teplitz. Prince Henry held position. Von Schwerin sent Keith with a brigade of dragoons over the mountains to Landeschut to guard the supply line back to Breslau while pressing southwest with the rest of his force to find and fight Hadik.

Next Steps

Feld Marshal von Schwerin has found Feld Marshal Leutnant Hadik's army and is preparing to do battle. Hadik has taken some time to prepare his position to meet the Prussian onslaught. We shall see who is successful! Once the battle has been concluded, I'll post a report.

Kleiner Fledzug 1757: Results of April II

April II Map

Here's the state of the board after the second turn.

Precis of Operations:

As you will see, the Prussians planned a lightning descent on Karlsbad. Winterfeldt marched over the mountains, and Frederick led his troops on a march almost worthy of "Stonewall" Jackson's foot cavalry, almost 100 miles in two weeks, which is blistering speed in Seven Years War terms. However, instead of returning to Karlsbad, the Duke of Arenberg had marched east to join up with Prince Charles at Schlan. But Charles, in turn, had retreated from his cavalry sortie to the safety of Prague.

Meanwhile in the east, Hadik slowly withdrew, with the Prussian FM Schwerin slowly on his heels, a roadrunner versus coyote race in slow motion. FM von Browne, having probed into Saxony and outrun his supply lines, pulled back into Bohemia as Prince Henry and the Duke of Brunswick watched but did not pursue.

Rules Changes

Having seen the rather devastating effect of attrition rolls on both armies, I decided to reduce their deadliness. For all causes, attrition rolls will now be conducted as per the rules, but all SPs targeted for elimination get a confirming saving throw, and if they get a 5 or 6 will avoid becoming a casualty.

Additionally, while both sides were getting one opportunity to raid or recon an enemy force, I was giving the Austrians an additional opportunity to target Prussian forces inside Austria proper. Given the damage capability of even a scaled-back attrition roll, I'm changing that to an additional recon (but *not* raid) roll on a Prussian force inside Austria.

Finally, while I've been allowing a small chance for dispatches sent between commanders to go astray (get lost or be captured), I'm adding a saving throw, as it were, for those as well, allowing for the possibility that extra copies of a dispatch sent by alternate routes may get through even if one is lost or waylaid.

May I Raids and Recons

The Prussians, having seen the outcome of the April II move, sought to raid the forces of the Duke of Arenberg. Arenberg's partisans proved too much for them however (raid result: unsuccessful).

Meanwhile, the Austrians attempted to raid the force of Prince Henry at Goerlitz, but were unsuccessful. Likewise, their reconnaissance of the combined armies of Frederick and Winterfeldt was turned back. The Prussian freikorps contingents were concentrating on defense this turn!

Next Steps

Now we wait for commanders to submit their May I moves...

How To Be Sporting in Games

Someone wrote this up some time past and I saved it. It strikes me that while much of it applies to DBA (or Triumph, which I play instead of DBA now), much of it is simply good advice for sporting play.



The following basic points of etiquette have been recommended by DBA gamers for both tournament and regular play and are collected here for ease of reference:

• All games should be conducted in a spirit of good sportsmanship for the purposes of fun and friendly competition.
• To avoid confusion over often similar looking elements in a game, it is customary during the deployment phase to identify your army list, identify each element deployed by type, and indicate which element is your CnC. This includes identifying any elements set aside for use as a littoral landing force.
• It is permissible to pre-measure move distances and/or to check distance shooting ranges at any point during either player’s bound, and to use markers to help indicate zones of control, and special rulers to assist in wheeling lines of troops.
• All movement should be carefully measured to ensure that elements do not exceed their allotted movement allowance. When moving an element, the initial starting location and/or the proposed ending location can be marked so that the move distance can be verified by measurement and/or the element restored to its original position if the movement is challenged.
• Once an element has been moved, as in chess, the move is final and should not be retracted or adjusted unless correctly challenged by the opponent.
• If you are not sure when moving an element whether it will end the bound in or out of ZOC, in or out of shooting range, in or out of bad going, etc., it is appropriate to communicate your intentions to your opponent and then mutually agree on the final location and status of the element. For example, Player 1 might say -- I want to move this element up, but end just outside the range of your archers. Player 2 would respond by indicating range line or by agreeing that the element is outside of the shooting range in its current location.
• Dice should be given a good, solid throw, bouncing on impact and landing within plain view of your opponent. Use of a dice cup or dice box are encouraged. Avoid rolling dice into your opponent’s figures. Any thrown dice that rolls out of your opponents view (e.g. off the table) or does not end up flat on the rolling surface is “cocked” and should be rerolled.
• When an issue can’t be resolved amicably by the players using the published rules, reference should be made to the tournament umpire or a neutral third party if no referee is readily available, or by use of a standard reference (e.g. the WADBAG Unofficial Guide) or, if necessary, resort to a dice roll.
• Players should not handle the figures of other players or using their dice or gaming implements without their knowledge and consent and should always be careful to avoid causing damage to all game components.
• At a tournament game, players should arrive on time, ready to play, and should be available to continue play at the start of each scheduled round.
• Players should avoid engaging in activities of a distracting nature (e.g. talking on a cell phone) while involved with a game.
• At the conclusion of a game, it is customary to shake hands and thank your opponent .

KF 1757: Supporting Mechanisms

Models of Austrian military wagons and limbered gun, Wagram Museum (http://ultimaratioregis.com)

Attrition

Attrition is a fairly simple mechanism in Kleiner Feldzug. Jolly simple, but jolly deadly.

From a different war...

Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead : [Adendorff has explained the classic Zulu 'buffalo' battle formation]  It looks er... jolly simple, doesn't it?

Adendorff : It's, er, jolly deadly, old boy.

In Kleiner Feldzug, troops have to take attrition checks when they take actions that may cause substantial non-battle losses. These include force marches, marching when out of supply, marching during the winter, marching through hostile terrain (primarily in Europe marching through mountain passes, though extensive swamps or other dense, unpopulated terrain would count). Simply sitting still, if in a fortress under siege, will cause an attrition check, though sitting still while otherwise out of supply will not (some amount of foraging will supply basic needs, though it cannot replenish military supplies).

Attrition checks happen for each instance so, for example, if one force-marched two points, one of them over a mountain pass, while out of supply, one would take four checks.

Attrition checks are fairly brutal. One rolls a die per attrited unit; two-thirds of die rolls will result in one or two SPs of losses. Most units have 4-9 SPs, with average units possessing 6 or 7. So that rash command in the example just mentioned that takes four attrition checks will suffer from 0 to 8 SP losses PER UNIT, with an average loss of around 3 SPs per unit. Needless to say, for a force composed of mediocre to average troops (4 to 6 SP per unit), this would be crippling; even for a force composed of good troops (7, 8, or 9 SP per unit), this would be a severe blow.

The lesson? Don't undergo attrition checks if you can avoid it!

Dispatches

Beautifully painted Minden jäger zu pferde delivering a dispatch (altefritz.blogspot.com)

This subject is not addressed directly in the original Kleiner Feldzug rules. Since we're playing this online by email, I thought it would make life ...interesting...for players if they could not communicate immediately and directly with each other unless the officers they were playing were loacted at the same point.

Thus players wanting to send messages to other players (friendly or, I suppose, enemy) have to send them to the umpire. The umpire then determines if the messages get through, get lost or delayed, or get captured/intercepted. Since commanders were likely to send dispatches via multiple couriers, these results are not exclusive of each other--one copy of a message might get delayed, while another got through and another was intercepted.

For the moment, I'll leave it at that.

Kleiner Fledzug 1757: Results of April I

April I Map

Here's the state of the board after the operations of the first turn.

Precis of Operations

The Prussian flanking columns moved forward cautiously, crossing different parts of the Sudetes mountain ranges into Bohemia from Saxony (Winterfeldt) and Silesia (Schwerin). Arenberg's Austrian column fell back from Karlsbad on the west while Hadik's column advanced up towards Schwerin's advancing troops in the east.

FM von Browne, the Grand Old Man of the Austrian army, pushed forward into Zittau, with Prince Henry falling back before him. Though battle briefly threatened, Mars kept his countenance and no combat ensued.

The two dueling commanders in chief, meanwhile, took very different approaches. Prince Charles of Lorraine (brother to the Empress's husband and husband to her sister) took a portion of his forces and moved west from Prague to Schlan, leaving the remainder as a garrison of Bohemia's ancient capitol.

King Frederick, by contrast, led a mighty blue-clad flood across the border, moving swiftly and decisively to Aussig, a crossroads from which he may now strike west, east, or south at Prague itself.

As the armies moved forward, it became known that the Austrians had cleverly prepositioned supplies near the frontier, ready to supplement their main supply bases deeper in Bohemia at Pilsen and Bruenn. Three of these were originally established, but two were expended in the first weeks of the campaign, that at Budin being called on to support Arenberg's retirement over the mountains to Saaz and the one in Jungbunzlau being used up supporting Browne's march into Saxony. This leaves one supplementary depot in Koeniggratz.

Next Steps

Moving on to the April II turn, the CINCs will get to nominate raid or recon targets, then when the results of those are distributed, commanders will submit their next orders.

Questions and Clarifications

Several questions came up about general officers which left me thinking I had not explained the limitations of command well enough. Here's my attempt to remedy that.

Leaders and Movement

Each side has a number of officers. Some of them are rated for army command (Poor, Average, Good, Great). Those leaders can lead commands (groups of units on the map: call them armies, columns, corps, or divisions).

Other leaders are capable of directing troops in battle, but are not able to lead commands on the map. These should all be marked "subordinate only" on players' orders of battle, but the dead giveaway is that they have no army command rating (Poor, Average, Good, Great).

Units do not need an army commander to hold their position and defend it. They do need an army commander to move on the map.

Eight of the nine Prussian officers are rated for army command. Only four of the seven Austrian officers are. This, unfortunately, is a cross the Austrians have to bear.

Leaders Moving Without Troops

In other questions, one player asked, "How fast is a general moving alone?"

So, in design terms, I don't want to encourage players to start sending generals off on their own. Unless there are historical examples I've missed, that doesn't sound like something commanders at this level did (jumping around from army to army). So I'm going to say, as a provisional rule, that if they really need to, they can strategically reposition, but that this takes them out of play for a turn. They may leave the board at the beginning of Turn X and can be placed at the beginning of Turn X+1 with any friendly force they could have traced a route to free of enemy armies and fortresses.

Replacements for Attrition

Another question that came up: "Can armies that lose troops to attrition replace them?

In the context of a single campaign season, generally no. Armies were prepared over the winter and early spring, then marched out on campaign. Some drafts of replacements might be sent out from depots to individual regiments but, by and large, the forces one had at the beginning of a campaign were those one had to fight that campaign. In case of dire emergency, forces already in the field in a different theater might be diverted to shore up an army after a disaster, but a steady flow of replacements were not forthcoming.

Camp Defenses

One question that came up revolved around field fortifications: "Can armies construct fortified camps?"

There isn't a standard mechanism in Kleiner Feldzug for field fortifications, but given that armies often constructed defensive works when remaining in place for some time, I'm going to allow commands that remain stationary for a turn to acquire defenses. It wouldn't take a whole two weeks to build something, but giving up the local initiative should gain you something, in my opinion. What will result will not be anything like a fortress, but more like the defenses constructed by the Prussians at Hochkirch or the Russians at Zorndorf.

Whether you're playing in the campaign or watching at home, please feel free to post in questions, if you have any, about the campaign.

More Quick Briefings on Kleiner Feldzug

A very fine wargame.

All right, well, this didn't end up being the next day. But here we are to finish off describing Kleiner Feldzug.

I mean this brief precis to be enough of an explanation for players to muddle through our campaign or for readers here to follow along. It is not an attempt to provide all the detail of the rules themselves, which are available as part of Sam Mustafa's Might & Reason tabletop battle rules, and which I highly recommend the discerning wargamer to purchase for a paltry fee on his website.

Raids and Reconnaissance

During the game, at the beginning of each turn, each side's commander in chief (CINC) gets to make the "recon and raid" decisions for the army.

Each CINC gets to choose one enemy force to either raid (possibly attrit) or recon (possibly determine some information on its makeup) with a chance equal to his "raider" value. The defender gets a save against a successful raid but none against a reconnaissance. Normally in Kleiner Feldzug, each side gets only one of these checks per turn: in this scenario, I am giving the Austrians two (2) checks per turn provided at least one is of an enemy force inside the Austrian borders, to represent their historical superiority at ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) in friendly territory.

Movement and Supply

Armies normally move two (2) spaces per turn unless they are 100% cavalry or commanded by a Great general, in which case they can move three (3) spaces. Force-marching is allowed, with capabilities definded by each scenario. In this campaign Austrian troops can force-march one (1) additional space per turn but will suffer (additional) attrition. Prussians can force-march up to two (2) spaces, but will undergo additional attrition in each.

Normally troops only check for attrition if they move(/evade/retreat) along a mountain path, move while out of supply, or spend a turn in a besieged fortress.

Armies must stop on entering a point occupied by an unbesieged enemy fortress.

Commanders may move by themselves. Troops may not move by themselves; they must have an officer capable of army command to lead them. As might be expected, the Prussians tend to have more of these independent-minded and initiative-seizing gentlemen than do the Austrians.

Troops can be left at a point by themselves. They will not be able to move, but they can defend adequately.

Supply extends six (6) spaces from a supply source (Austria's are Pilsen and Bruenn; Prussia's are Dresden, Goerlitz, and Breslau) but do not extend through a point with an enemy corps, enemy-held city, or unbesieged enemy fortress.

Battle and Siege

Armies may attempt to evade enemy armies they do not want to fight. This is easier to do if one's army contains light/irregular cavalry units and/or is lead by a Good or Great general.

Likewise, if armies decide (or are forced) to fight, they have an advantage in pre-battle scouting and post-battle pursuit based on having light/irregular cavalry units and better generals than the opposition.

To besiege fortresses, one needs an army with more units than the total of the fortress value (usually 3) and the enemy infantry and artillery sheltering inside. Sieges may reduce a fortress over time and/or by means of assault.

Armies' Starting Positions

Here is a map of the campaign and the forces deployed at start. I should have an update this weekend with their new positions. Refer to the previous post for a version of the map with no units, so you can see all the place names that are obscured here.

Some basics about Kleiner Feldzug

So...erm, how does it work?

Frederick after the battle of Kolin (Carl Röchling retouched by kabinettskriege.blogspot.com)

So we have the map set for our campaign, and the armies are being marshalled. The scenario determines the starting positions of the Prussian and Austrian commands (call them armies, corps, or columns--terminology was a bit loose at this point). But while the approximate size of each force is known, and the starting position of most of the general officers, some details are still unknown, to be determined by the commanders in chief (CINCs) on each side.

While we wait for them to make these decisions, let's review the rules by which the campaign is governed. I won't post the whole ruleset here (they are part of the Might & Reason battle rules, which can be found for sale at the author's website), but let's go over some of the basics.

Victory

The most important question of any military campaign, and of any game--how do you win? As I mentioned in the first post, each army is seeking to occupy each other's supply sources (Dresden, Goerlitz, and Breslau for the Prussians; Pilsen and Bruenn for the Austrians). The Prussians also want to capture and hold Prague, the capital of Bohemia. And each seeks to defeat the other's armies in battle. If the Prussians manage to accumulate at least two more victory points than the Austrians do by then end of the campaign, they win. If the Austrians get more, or even if the Prussians are a head by only a single point, Austria has defeated the invader.

The Seat of War

The area of campaign constitutes most of the northern portion of the Austrian-controlled Kingdom of Bohemia, as well as parts of Saxony (conquered by Prussia the year before our campaign, in 1756) and Silesia (a part of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown lost by Austria to Prussia in 1742 in the treaty ending the First Silesian War). From these two conquered territories, emboldened Prussian armies make ready to plunge their knives into Austria, front and flank.

Each of the points on the map represents a town, a city, or a fortress. The points marked with a circle represent towns and cities without substantial or well maintained fortifications, while the diamonds represent fortified locations, whether a city or town or simply a fortress located at a strategic site. Three Prussian fortresses and two Austrian-controlled towns are marked as supply centers. Armies in the field will depend on those places to keep their men from starving and running out of munitions.

The lines connecting points follow the roads available for movement and mostly represent distances of 15 to 25 miles. Paths through more difficult terrain--especially the routes marked with small triangles, corresponding to mountain passes--represent shorter distances, as these defiles will take more time to negotiate. For the sake of simplicity, no other terrain is represented; assume that river crossings, dense forests, and poorer than normal roads are factored into the frequency of routes. The mountain passes will cause more attrition (explained later) to troops crossing them than other routes.

The campaign will last for five months of game time; it begins at the beginning of April and ends at the end of August. Each turn represents two weeks of activity.

Prussian grenadiers advancing at the battle of Leuthen (Carl Röchling)

Armies

Each army in the campaign, Prussian and Austrian, is represented in the game by several commands. Each consists of one or more general officers and a number of units. Each unit is roughly the size of an 18th century brigade, something like four battalions of infantry (perhaps with attendant light artillery), ten squadrons of cavalry, or several batteries of medium or heavy artillery.

Units possess varying numbers of strength points (SP), which represent the combat power of the formation--a combination of manpower, training and discipline, experience, and morale. A unit with solid esprit de corps but fewer men might still have a higher SP total than a larger unit of untrained recruits or militia of limited experience and training.

Units cannot move operationally by themselves. To move, they must be under the direction of an army commander. Each side has a number of these individuals, of varying skill and ability.Several commands may be present at a point. Troops may be left at a point by a departing general if he wishes to garrison it, but they will have to remain there until another commander arrives to take charge of them.

Frederick the Great addressing his generals before the battle of Leuthen (Drawing by Menzel)

Officers

These commanders mentioned above are rated for command ability, for personality (how aggressive they were), and whether they typically showed exceptional signs of valor in battle. Not all generals are cut out to be commanders, however. A general in charge of an army will need subordinates to command elements of his army in battle, and some of these subordinates were remarkable enough to be called out as individuals; other subordinates may appear at battle time but are generic enough they fade in the background at the level of the campaign. Each commander has a seniority level (the lower the number, the more senior), and whoever is most senior in a force if and when it comes to a battle must command.


Tomorrow:

Raids and Reconnaissance, Movement and Supply, and Battle and Siege

New Kleiner Feldzug campaign starting

With the help of the gamers in the Army of Central Maryland, I'm starting a new run at the 1757 campaign of Prussia against Austria (the "Kolin" campaign). You can read all about the historical events here on Wikipedia's page about the Third Silesian War.

Here's the map we'll be using:

Without giving anything away that the players won't know to start off with, the Prussians start with corps at Dresden, Freiberg, Zittau, and Landeshut.

The Austrian forces start at Prague, Karlsbad, Reichenberg, and Koeniggratz.

Each army is seeking to occupy each other's supply sources (Dresden, Goerlitz, and Breslau for the Prussians; Pilsen and Bruenn for the Austrians). The Prussians also want to capture and hold Prague, the capital of Bohemia. And each seeks to defeat the other's armies in battle.

More posts to come on the generals, the armies, the history, and of course the campaign!

Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new...

So, with time at home on my hands, I've been nosing around a couple of options for a new miniature wargaming project, mostly because (inconceivably, given all that I have to work with) I'm bored with my current projects. (Admittedly, if I actually enjoyed painting figures, I'd be happy as a sandboy; I guess I far prefer organizing and planning to painting and modeling.)

Of course, actual gaming is pretty hard to do right now in any case. I've heard of folks having some success playing games through the Tabletop Simulator module in Steam, but I haven't explored it yet.

Options I'm thinking about:

New Zealand Wars: I ordered some Empress Miniatures figures to see what they're like. From reading about the campaigns, these seem like they would be largely small battles with troops firing dispersed in the dense NZ terrain or British/colonist forces trying to capture Maori pa's (forts). Eureka also do some nice Maori and European figures.

Indian Mutiny: I got a few of Iron Duke's figures too. I wrote to them and pointed out that they have only one mounted leader for the Indian forces (the maharaj' on his elephant). They wrote back right away and said yes, sorry, they hadn't got around to it and probably won't for a while because of all the new lines they're starting. *gloomy face* Who *are* these people who can't stick to one thing and finish it properly before moving on? ROFLOL.

Wargames Foundry does have a good line with pretty of options, as does a company called (appropriately enough) Mutineer Miniatures; it will be interesting to see how they scale to each other. 

I do have some of the Dixon 15mm Mutiny figures, some of which I had painted up. They are handsome figures; the only problem IMO is that like many older UK ranges they have only one pose for a good many of their figures. Sikh, Highlander, Gurkha, mutineer in uniform, mutineer in civvies--all a single figure pose. Some of the Wargames Foundry packs are like that, but most have at least three poses. Whereas Iron Duke had 14 different sepoy packs, each of which has four different poses in it.

Earlier (or later) Indian Wars:  I find that from somewhere I acquired a small collection of Redoubt figures for their Wellington in India range--British troops, sepoys, and Maratha and other local opponents. I could probably field enough for a small battle, but more would be needed to really put on a game. Redoubt are still available, and they're not bad figures, but they are huge compared to other 28mm (they're probably 32mm) so one would have to make do with whatever is in that line. Perry and Wargames Foundry and Artizan Design also have figures for the Afghan wars, the Sikh wars, and various other Victorian entanglements.

Nine Years War/War of the League of Augsburg/Great Northern War: A string of late 17th/early 18th century wars that Warfare Miniatures sell some nice 28mms for and which Khurasson does nice figures in 15mm. The NYW and the WLA have some appeal for me because they're the last time the Dutch were a big power on the battlefield. :-) The NYW is the Irish and Scottish elements of the Glorious Revolution, which was very quick in England but not so quick in the other three kingdoms. Barry Hilton and the LoA folks have always done a good job of making this seem very appealing to do in 28mm. I have a collection of siege equipment in 15mm I bought to use as props for a semi-board/semi-miniature game I planned for a convention once but never carried out. I have some field army troops in 15/18mm but sadly only a small number and from a maker (Venexia) whose 17th century line has sunk without a trace.

Tudor/Valois/Hapsburg warfare: I'm a great fan of a series of books set in the mid-16th century, part of which touch on the warfare among England, France, Scotland, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. Khurasan make a couple of nice lines for this period in 15mm, and The Assault Group has some lovely figures in 28mm. Wargames Foundry has some appropriate bits too and Artizan.

Sub-Roman Britain: I re-read a set of novels recently that got me thinking again about this period. Both Gripping Beast and Footsore Miniatures make nice figures for this period, as do Artizan Design.

Roman urban conflict? While looking at the Footsore site, I was introduced to their Gangs of Rome line. While I'm not all that fascinated by gang-fighting games, I'm a sucker for diverse civilian figures and scenery bits, and the range of buildings they have for this game is just stunning. Again, Foundry has plenty of figures that would supplement those Footsore offers.

Things I'm just not going to look at: The Perry lines of Carlist Wars, samurai, or Korean figures. Footsore's Barons War line. Eureka's 28mm French Revolution line. Steel Fist's Italian Wars and samurai lines. Just not looking, nope, nope, nope. 

Currently neglected projects: Things I could get my head back into, if my head would cooperate, include 6mm, 15mm, and 28mm Napoleonics; 15mm and 28mm American Revolution; 6mm WSS and SYW; 28mm SYW small actions; 6mm and 28mm WWI; 28mm Anglo-Scottish war; various Triumph! armies; various 6mm late 19th century European armies; 15mm wars of the French Revolution; and 15mm WWII. 28mm French and Indian War. Wars of the Roses and other late 15th century European fighting. 28mm Scottish border reivers.

Rules

I'm quite happy, for larger battles of almost any of these periods, with the Carnage and Glory rules

Of course, at the end of the day, what one lacks most is a good set of rules for playing smaller actions, the sort that one instinctively wants to play with larger figures that take up a lot of table space and budget and so prevent you from acquiring them in gigantic heaps. I have yet to find a good set of rules for recreating what *I* would call skirmishes. Most that are available these days are simple and easy to learn but don't give the sense of recreating an actual battle any more than the average Hollywood movie does. They consist mostly of moving unformed mobs of figures back and forth and are won mostly by rolling dice better than your opponent, not by employing actual military tactics.

In my opinion, the best of a bad lot, ironically, are Black Powder, the latest in the long line of products from the brain of Warhammer designers Rick Priestly and Jervis Johnson. They're generic horse and musket rules, and they have their silly side, but they are simple to learn and to mod, they don't involve figure removal (a game mechanism I find wildly unrealistic), and they have broad distribution. They have earlier period cousins in Pike & Shotte and Hail Caesar. Pike & Shotte, ironically, do least well at handling the pike & shot period, as they had to be retrofitted for units that consisted of both pike and shot!