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!

Der Finckenfang bei Maxen: November 20-21, 1759

Well, this is my first post ever about the Tricorne era, specifically the Seven Years War. It was prompted by some material that my friend Ingo in Dresden sent me, knowing of my interests

"I stumbled upon the battle of Kesselsdorf just west of Dresden, and the "Finckenfang" in Maxen, just south of Dresden in the third Silesian War when the Austrians won the battle and captured Prussian General Finck. Was in both small towns (villages) recently, both quite nice. I'm going to attach some pictures taken in the museum in Maxen, they have a nice exhibit on the battle."

Here's a bit more detailed background to the battle, which I was vaguely familiar with as a well known Prussian defeat, taken from the excellent Kronkskaf article on the battle:

"From July 1759, Austro-Imperial forces proceeded to the invasuion of Saxony, capturing Dresden and several other cities.Prince Henri  <of Prussia>  soon led a counter-offensive which allowed him to retake possession of most Saxon towns with the exception of Dresden.  On November 13, King Frederick II (Frederick the Great) arrived from Silesia where he had operated against a Russian army and made a junction with the corps of Prince Henri. Copunt Leopols Daun , the commander-in-chief of the Austrian forces, gradually retired towards Dresden, closely followed by Prussian forces.  On November 15, Frederick detached Finck's Corps to Maxen to cut off the communications of the Austrian Army with Bohemia. However, this manoeuvre placed Finck in an isolated position. Daun resolved to encircle and attack Finck's isolated corps."

Flats were my very first wargames figures, and they look especially grand in dioramas like this, don't they? By the way, Der Finckenfang bei Maxen more or less translates as the "Trapping of Finck at Maxen", the name by which the action is often referred to in German

More of the diorama at the Heimatmuseum-Maxen, as photographed  by Ingo. The battles of Friedrich der Grosse were one of the inspirations for the development of Zinnfiguren in the 18th century... I must resist getting pulled into another period almost as vast as the Napoleonic Wars!

Another display from the museum - the plates looks like ones from Funken by their style, as opposed the the Knoetel plates one might expect to see!

Another nice exhibit from the museum

The outside of the museum. From its website, admission is free, but it is open only very limited hours.

The side of the Museum building also gives a hint of what lies inside. The last two images from this short tourist guide article  on the museum.

Re-enactors at Maxen during 2009 - the 250th anniversary year of the battle. The surrounding countryside looks beautiful, too!

Painting of the Battle of Maxen. It hangs in the War museum in Vienna, celebrating one of Austrian Feldmarschal Daun's great victories.

Well, it turns out that I did once start a 7 Year's War project over 25 years ago, and here is the proof - this one unit of Prussian Musketeers!

I believe these are 25mm Garrison figures; I think I also have the lead for a unit of Prussian Cuirassiers and a Prussian foot battery somewhere, also by Garrison.

With no one else in my group being interested in the 7YW, this one unit was as far along as the project ever got!  I don't even recall which Regiment these troops represent.

Old School style bright green bases and block painting, with hand painted flag. Were I to do the Seven Year's War in the future, I'd be inclined to use a gridded board and simple rules. Or maybe "Die Fighting 2". Or...

Oh, and I would stick to just Prussians and Austrians for once!
(yeah, right... like THAT would happen, LOL!)