Friday, July 28, 2017

Battle of Reichenberg at Historicon

Longtime wargames freind Eric Burgess from North Carolina ran this great looking Seven Year's War game, using he 2nd edition of the Cartouche supplement for Piquet. Eric used some house rules, most notably for this convention game, the looser of the impetus roll got half that of the winner, rounded down.


The battle field set up before the troops were laid out.


Now the troops are ready to go as well. I commanded the near half of the Prussian Infantry, a 12 lber battery struggling to make it's way forward to deploy, a Hussar Regiment and a Grenadier battalion in the far distance. We needed to assault and over throw the Austrian defensive position before their reinforcements could intervene. 


An old freind, Dave Sweet, commanded he Austrian Cavalry and reinforcements.


The opposing cavalry soon came to saber cuts.


We Prussians opted to make a somewhat Oblique attack upon the Austrian position, taking heavy casualties in the process.


Our other command closes with the Austrian defenses - the yellow chips indicate declared opportunity fire declared. 


The attack continues - note Austrian reinforcements coming up in the rear.  It seemed like most of the time when the Prussian Infantry was poised to close, the Austrians had an "Infantry Reload" card showing. Ouch!!!


The action becomes general! Don't Eric's figures (15 mm) look grand?


Top down view shows heavy Prussian loses.


The Cavalry action showed the Prussians and Austrians trading honors.Eric uses magnetized markers that attack the metallic bottoms of his stands for hits, dirosrder, rout, blown status (cavalry) and more. Very clever, no issue with the markers not staying with the unit that way!


I finally manage to get the lone Prussian battery in position to fire!


Aftermath of the cavalry clash... a lot of blown cavalry!


Still more Austrian reinforcements march onto the table, this time arriving on the Austrian Left. The presence of the nearby Prussian cavalry with the new arrivals in March column made it effectively impossible for the infantry to deploy without triggering an Opportunity Charge by the Cavalry. 


The Prussian infantry finally achieves several local breakthroughs!


Not all of Frederick's men have the stomach for trading repeated volleys at close range, however!


Somewhat to my surprise, we Prussians ultimately prevailed. 


Eric relaxes after his stint as GM.Note the shirt; I joked with Eric that Stark's Winter Ale was one of those products that was advertised but never delivered;  after all, everyone knows that "Winter is coming..." Turns out the shirts were made for fun by a freind of his - cool (literally) idea!

21 comments:

  1. Lovely looking table of minis. Big effort to over come so many defensive positions! I totally miss read the out come.

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    1. I was actually surprised when we "won"; a Pyrrhic victory at best!

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  2. Thanks for the AAR Peter, this was a near run battle, and very costly for the Prussians. All three games we have played with this scenario gave a different story line.

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    1. Thanks for running it, and providing my Baptism of fire as far as 7 Years Wargaming is concerned!

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  3. The Stark Winter Ale shirt was made by Jeff Valent. Not sure if he sells them anymore.

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  4. SYW games with lots of troops in 15mm sure look good. Prussians managed a victory in assailing the fortifications? Well done, Peter!

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    1. I assure you, it was largely do to the effoyts of Mark (the other Prussian player) much more than myself!

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    1. Agreed, Victor. As I observed, it was also a sort of poetic justice as well, having me assault a strong defensive position after inflicting many such on players myself, LOL!

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  6. Great looking game, really nice for 15mm!
    Best Iain

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  7. A great looking game with what looks like a good amount of space for manoeuver.

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    1. There was definitely room for maneuver in this one!

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  8. Hurrah for the Prussians, but... that is the 18th breaking... my favourite unit :-(

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    1. Yes I believe it is. They had plenty of company from other units in my command!

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  9. Excellent report. Looks like you had fun. Eric and Brian C (?) are enjoying that beer.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it, Mark>! Yes, that's Brian partially seen in the last shopt!

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  10. Excellent! I'm glad losing your SYW cherry was a memorable event.

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