Background image is Les Dernières Cartouches (The Last Cartridges) by Alphonse de Neuville

Saturday, October 31, 2020

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.

Friday, October 16, 2020

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...)

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

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...) 

Friday, October 2, 2020

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.