SYW AAR: Refighting Lobositz

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This week’s Thursday game was a re-fight of the battle of Lobositz from the Seven Years War using Valour & Fortitude rules.

As a reminder:

The Battle of Lobositz, fought on 1 October 1756, marked the first major engagement of the Seven Years' War in Europe. It took place in Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic) between Prussian forces led by Frederick the Great and an Austrian army under Maximilian Ulysses von Browne. The battle unfolded in difficult terrain shrouded by morning fog, leading to confusion and intense fighting, particularly around the Lobosch hill and the village of Lobositz. Although Frederick initially underestimated the Austrian resistance, Prussian discipline and artillery eventually forced the Austrians to withdraw. While tactically a Prussian victory, the battle demonstrated that Austria remained a formidable opponent, setting the tone for a long and hard-fought war.

I would command the Prussian against a motley crew in charge of the Austrians.

The view from behind the Austrian lines

Despite the lovely sunshine in the photo above, game-time dictated that we started very early in the morning with the battlefield shrouded in mist. That meant that long range observation and fire was very patchy.

My main objective was the village by the river, which was protected by a strong force of infantry and guns.

To the left, there was an annoying enemy position: several battalions of enemy light troops skulking in vineyards atop the Lobosch hill.

In front of me were large numbers of enemy cavalry blocking my cavalry from sweeping forward.

Finally, I did have one advantage over Frederick as I “knew” that one of the main body of Austrian infantry wouldn’t be moving for a few turns as, historically, that’s what happened.

Dealing with the Annoying Enemy Position

First thing on the agenda was to deal with the annoying enemy positions to the left. Historically these proved very difficult to shift, so I decided to take a bit of time to work a battalion over the steep hill/rough ground around the enemy’s flank, then give them a volley to weaken them before charging in with the Grenadiers.

This all worked very nicely, and although it would take me the whole battle to deal with the situation, it would give me me a decent number of victory points to build on.

Dealing with the Enemy Cavalry

Next on the list was the enemy cavalry: they had to be neutralised in order to avoid them sweeping into my right flank as my infantry advanced towards their objective.

In this period, I tend to find that without one side having overwhelming numbers, big cavalry clashes in a battle tend to lead to both sides losing all their horsemen: either to combat or the pursuit that usually follows. I was happy to work towards a result like that: as I said, all I wanted to do was to protect my infantry’s advance.

Both sides’ cavalry streamed forward and a typically-brutal Valour & Fortitude melee followed. I suffered some initial reverses, but fortunately could support my horse with heavy artillery firing from the hill behind, who wreaked all sorts of damage on the enemy’s first line, and with my right hand infantry battalion, who shot enough enemy horse to pieces to give my remaining cavalry the advantage they needed.

Job done, and I even had two squadrons of cavalry left over to shield my right flank when the stationary enemy infantry and some more of their cavalry on the far right did eventually get moving.

Taking the Village

Everything seemed to be going okay so far, so it was now time to move up my main infantry body and try and take the village of Lobositz: my objective for the day.

Forward went my infantry, rapidly closing with the enemy line. It looked like being a tough scrap as advancing into a line of enemy muskets is never fun, especially when they have cannon supporting them on one flank.

I did, however, have an Ace up my sleeve…or rather a Nine. Valour & Fortitude allows certain special moves dictated by cards that you can draw, and I had drawn a Nine or Surprise Attack. That gives you an extra move followed by an assault.

As my infantry approached the Austrian line, my right hand battalion ‘played this card’ and suddenly shot forward and to the right, charging both batteries of very some surprised Austrian gunners who had previously been looking forward to remaining well out of hand-to-hand combat as they fired cannister at my advancing infantry safe from their position just to the right of their infantry comrades.

Caught off guard, the Austrian gunners turned and fled, leaving the main Austrian infantry line unsupported and outnumbered.

Along with the victory points gained from dealing with the Austrian lights in the vineyard and the victory in the cavalry melee, it was now only a matter of time before I took the final few I needed for an overall victory…espcecially as I had plenty more infantry about to arrive at the schwerepunkt.

So a quick and decisive win for the Prussians, and a great game all round!

SOGS will be demo-ing the above game at the Vanquish wargames show in Bourne End this Sunday.

See you there!

Re-Fighting Mollwitz with Lust!

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Time for another playtest of Lust for Glory. Last time we played, our game was set in the mid-1600s, the lower limit of the period covered by the rules. This time, we’d go to the other limit and re-fight the Battle of Mollwitz, one of the first major conflicts of the War of the Austrian Succession.

The History

Fought on 10 April 1741 in Silesia (modern-day Poland), Prussian forces under Frederick the Great clashed with an Austrian army led by Wilhelm Reinhard von Neipperg. The battle opened in heavy snow, which hampered movement and reduced visibility. Austrian cavalry quickly gained the upper hand, routing the Prussian horse on the right flank and in the centre. Believing the battle lost, Frederick fled the field early.

Despite this, the Prussian infantry maintained remarkable discipline. Under the direction of Kurt Christoph von Schwerin, they held their lines and delivered controlled, effective musket fire that steadily drove back the Austrian forces. What began as a near-defeat ultimately turned into a decisive Prussian victory.

Our Game

Rather than the snow enjoyed by the original participants, our game began with sunlight streaming onto the table from behind the Prussian positions.

Taken from just behind the Austrian line. Note the massed Austrian cavalry in the foreground.

As one of the Prussian commanders, I was obviously very concerned about the superior Austrian cavalry, particularly as, in command of the right wing and first line of infantry, I was facing them!

The battle, however, began on the left wing, where the Prussian cavalry there was fairly quickly overwhelmed by more Austrian horsemen. This necessitated moving some of our infantry from the second line across the cover that flank, leaving me wondering how we were going survive once we lost our first line to the main body of enemy cavalry!

I needn’t have worried, however, as the main body of Austrian cavalry were having a bad day - a very bad day - getting thoroughly trounced by the combination of Prussian infantry and cavalry that faced them.

While the Prussians were still digesting the fact that they hadn’t been overrun on the right, the Austrian left-centre forces launched an attack to support their success on the Prussian left, and the next phase of the battle really consisted of dealing with that and sorting out the traffic jam of Prussian units now eager to get forward and into action on the right and right-centre.

That left the situation overall as shown in the pictures below. The Prussian left was still under some pressure (Mark was having a very bad day) but the centre and right were steady, re-organised and ready to steamroller the remaining Austrians.

We called the battle at this point: a decisive Prussian victory as although the left flank was currently still looking a bit shaky, there were reserves that could block that off, and the centre and right were now just about a foregone conclusion.

A great game, with the rules really starting to flow. Mark’s beautifully painted figures looked amazing and all in all it was a great morning’s gaming. I can’t wait for the final version of the rules to be published.

Another Lust for Glory Playtest

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Lust for Glory is the chronological successor to For King & Parliament i.e. the same basic game structure, but covering the period from the late-17th to mid-18th centuries.

Today’s playtest would be a huge, 300-point battle between the Austrians and the Danish fought in 6mm on 10mm squares.

Before we get to the report, a brief confession. I must admit that I’ve never really got on with figures smaller than 10mm. In fact, 15mm (or perhaps Epic scale at roughly 12mm) is about as tiny as I care to go. I do, of course, recognise the many virtues of these smaller scales: the splendid god’s-eye view of the battlefield, the ability to refight vast historical encounters and so on, and all at a pleasingly modest cost.

Unfortunately, there is one insurmountable problem—I can’t actually see the blighters. At any sort of distance, unit identification becomes guesswork, my strategic acumen evaporates, and the whole affair starts to feel less like generalship and more like shuffling around a collection of indistinct Kriegsspiel blocks and hoping for the best.

This is no slight on the figures we used themselves, which were beautifully painted given their diminutive proportions. Still, they failed to stir my soul in the way larger miniatures do. I felt no emotional bond, no heroic attachment, nothing. I won’t let this stop me playing games when offered, but 15-28mm is really my thing!

Now, with that off my chest, on with the report…

Commanding the Austrians, I thought I saw an opportunity on the left flank, where I had superior numbers of cavalry that I could back up with infantry and artillery. I therefore sent my horse forward, but was somewhat dismayed when they were roundly beaten by the outnumbered Danish cavalry, who then followed up their success with their own infantry and put my whole left flank at risk!

Meanwhile, on the right of the battlefield, the reverse was occurring, as the Danes led their superior numbers of cavalry forward, supported by infantry.

Equally similar to what happened on the left flank, my horse, despite the fact they were outnumbered, pushed the Danish cavalry back, but foundered against the wall of Danish infantry that followed.

I advanced my foot to support, but had little success: the initiative was firmly with the enemy and, despite my best efforts, I was soon being pushed back.

Fierce fighting took place as both sides fed units into the melee, but it was unfortunately the Danes that prevailed again and, now under overwhelming pressure on both flanks, my troops crumbled and fled!

A defeat, but at least I know what I did wrong! Firstly, I need to support my horse more closely with infantry: combined arms is definitely the way to win. Secondly, I let me desire to keep the area in front of my guns clear so that they could shoot at the enemy interfere with my tactical thinking far too much: I should have moved infantry to the left sooner than I did and taken a turn’s worth of not firing the guns as the cost of improving my position. I shall do better next time!

The real good news, however, is that overall the game played very smoothly, with the need to look things up gradually disappearing as the morning went on. We had a couple more questions and suggestions which were sent on to Mr Miller, but it looks as if Lust! is coming along nicely, and we will hopefully see them ready for publication soon.