Threat to the flank. The battle
Yesterday night we had a great game with Mauro and Luca.
We played this old scenario from C. Grant, as described here.
Just added a bastion to show that the attacking prussians are trying to cross the river to lay siege to a very depleted garrison. The Austrians have just arrived with a standing army to defeat the enemy and avoid a very difficult siege.
The first moves saw the Prussian flanking force advancing quickly, crossing the bridge with cavalry first, the with the Grenadier Brigade. Prussian grenadiers are superior infantry, they are accompanied by a medium artillery battery. The cavalry is composed of two dragoon units, average troops.
The austrians have positioned two brigades to counter the flanking force. One brigade of Curassiers, superior cavalry, and one infantry brigade composed of one infantry battalion, one Grenz light battalion, inferior and one medium battery.
The infantry unit moves very quickly, the Grenzers occupy the swampland, a rough terrain position, while infantry and artillery wish to deploy to fire on any unit crossing the bridge.
The Prussian Dragoons are faster and deploy very quickly to the right of the bridge.
The austrian cuirassiers do not wish to move from their initial position, they deploy in line.
The Prussian dragoons advance very boldly and they manage to charge the cuirassiers without having suffered losses from the enemy. The Austrian Curassiers finally decide to move and countercharge.
The Grenzers are ready to challenge the flanking force.
Also, the grenadier brigade manages to cross the bridge, forms line and attack the enemy, withstanding a very weak fire from the enemy infantry and artillery.
But the prussian battery fires at point blank and causes heavy losses to the Grenzers.
Now let us look what happens on the main battle line, on the right.
Here the Prussians are facing an Austrian Dragoon unit coming from the reserve. The cavalry tries to cross the river to attack but it is annihilated by the fire of two battalions. We did not even have time to draw a good drawing sketch of this charge since it ran away so quickly!
Also the Prussian cavalry brigade crosses the river, to try to attack the rear of the force defending the bridge, but they are met by a fierce fire from artillery, infantry and the Grenzers, they retreat badly damaged across the river.
The bulk of the Austrian army reaches the river. A musketry exchange starts, with some effect.
The bulk of the Prussian infantry does not dare to cross the river. Somebody says they are waiting for the outcome of the flanking attack.
Also the Austrians are waiting for the outcome of the flanking attack. It will set the fate of the town garrison.
Some more pictures of the Austrians standing firm around the village.
The Prussian main force is able to see, from a distance, that the flanking force has managed to rout the enemy, at the expense of one Dragoon regiment and a Prussian grenadier battalion.
At this point the main Austrian force is flanked, the rest of the army starts to retreat, the garrison is left on its own.
Very nice game, the Honours of War rules played very well, we did not see a single flaw in the rules. Many thanks to Mauro and Luca for joining.
We have from time to time forgotten a few rules, like risk to generals and lost Battalion guns, nothing really affecting the joy of the game.
I have now prepared something to be used for the next game. I would like to play other scenarios described in C. Grant books, which contain single squadrons, infantry companies. As suggested from the Honours of War Blog, I have added rules for tiny units. Here you may find a custom Playsheet with some additional information:
