Re-Fighting Mollwitz with Lust!
/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.
