Chotusitz is a form of an "encounter battle" where successive reinforcements are thrown into battle at the moment they arrive on the field. In my own favorite SYW period rules, Rusty's Rules, the Prussians usually enjoy an advantage over their Austrian infantry counterparts in terms of fire discipline, movement and morale grade; hence a straight up battle of equal forces, as we have a Chotusitz, would generally favor the Prussians. I imagine that the Austrian commanders in 1742 would not disagree with this assessment.

My suggestion for re-creating this battle on the wargame table would be to focus on Prince Leopold's defense of Chotusitz, plus the cavalry action on both flanks, and require him to hold the town for a certain number of turns. Frederick and 21 battalions would theoretically arrive after this time and tip the scales in the Prussians favor. Fighting the Prussian attack from the right would not make for an interesting wargame, so end the game at this point. If Leopold can hold his position for 4 or 5 game turns, then the Prussians win the game.

The engagement effectively lasted from 6 A.M. to 10:30 A.M., with the bulk of the fighting occurring from 7:30 A.M. to 9:30 A.M. Assume that each game turn constitutes one hour of real time and start the game with Jeetze's twelve battalions of Prussian infantry deployed in front of and to the west of Chotusitz. Provide Buddenbrock with six regiments of battle cavalry on the right, and an equal amount with von Waldow on the left. The Prussians may also begin the game with one heavy gun battery (use one casting at a 3 guns equals one casting ratio). And just to prevent would-be Leopold's from playing a passive defense to buy time, the game judge should secretly give the two Prussian cavalry commanders separate victory conditions, unbeknownst to the player(s) taking the role of Leopold/Jeetze.

Both Prussian cavalry commanders were eager to prove that the cavalry performance at Mollwitz was a fluke, and accordingly, were very aggressive that day. Each Prussian cavalry commander wins a victory point for each melee that he wins and one additional point for each unit of cavalry that he can exit off the Austrian's baseline. This simulates von Waldow's ride into oblivion and leaves the bewildered Jeetze without cavalry support. I don't know why, but I like scenarios where players on the same team have different and sometimes conflicting game objectives. Clearly, in this case, it does not help the Prussian infantry commander if his cavalry rides out of the game; yet the cavalry player wins by leaving the field. You can also allow Leopold to draw on reinforcements from Kalkstein, however, don't tell him that he loses game points for each reserve battalion that he brings into the game.

The Austrian victory conditions are straight forward: push Jeetze out of Chotusitz before the end of game turn four or five. The Austrian cavalry commanders can have similar victory conditions as their Prussian counterparts. Give the Austrian right wing cavalry commander, Liechtenstein, bonus points if he captures and stays in the Prussian camp to the north of Chotusitz.

Here are the recommended forces for each player:

Prussians

Prince Leopold 5 btns. infantry and one heavy gun
Jeetze 7 btns. infantry
Buddenbrock 4 regts. cuirassiers and 2 regts. dragoons
von Waldow 4 regts. cuirassiers and 2 regts. dragoons
Kalkstein's Reserve 8 btns infantry and two heavy guns

Austrians

Right Wing Cavalry: 2 dragoon, 2 cuirassier, and 1 hussar regt.
Left Wing Cavalry: 2 dragoon, 4 cuirassier, and 1 hussar regt.
First Infantry Line: Daun 11 btns. Gaisruck 8 btns and 1 heavy gun
Second Infantry Line: Konigsegg 9 btns. Mercy 8 btns and 1 heavy gun

Scaling Down The Action

Both sides had equal cavalry forces in the battle, but the Austrians started out with 36 battalions of infantry to the Prussians 12 battalions. Keeping the Austrian to Prussian infantry ratio at three to one should capture the flavor of the battle for the town. For example, halving the armies would give the Prussians six battalions of infantry plus one heavy gun for one player, and two cavalry players with three regiments apiece. The Austrians could then have eighteen infantry battalions distributed among three players and have two more players commanding the cavalry on each flank, with three regiments of horse each. This gives you a game with three Prussian players and five Austrians.

Actual artillery at Chotusitz was four heavy guns for the Prussians and seven heavy guns for the Austrians. Overall, though, the Prussians outgunned the Austrains 82 to 40. I suspect that a large percentage of guns on both sides were in fact the 3-pound regimental guns and these can generally be left out of the game. The balance of the Prussian guns were with Kalkstein and Frederick.

Battle of Chotusitz May 17, 1742

Historical Background
Austrians Go On The Offensive
Order of Battle
Wargaming Chotusitz

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