The Battle of Zorndorf was presented for 19 historical gamers on Friday evening at Origins'99 in Columbus. The event was part of HOT'99 (HMGS Origins Team) held the July 4th weekend. The game was run in 25mm at 30 to 1 troop scale with approximately 75% of all the actual units being represented on the table, The rules used were Mitre, Musket & Moustache.

The behavior of the Prussians on this occasion was bewildering to say the least. Almost totally unaggressive until it was too late, they tried to save the forlorn hope consisting of five battalions of grenadiers and two of line musketeers. The center moved forward a little bit, and stopped, as they encountered some opposition from Russian infantry. The far right flank just seemed to stand around looking Prussian but not doing any thing in particular. The Prussian cavalry just wandered about, being lost and collecting cannon balls from the Russian artillery.

The Russian commander, Count Fermor, after getting over being "lost" on the battlefield (well, he doesn't speak any Russian), became uncharacteristically aggressive. The Russian line infantry on the right flank surged forward to engage and destroy the Prussian grenadiers in front of them. Fermor even sacrificed a regiment of horse grenadiers to remove the last effective battalion of grenadiers -- which, except for the cavalry of Seydlitz, left the entire Prussian left flank exposed to four intact battalions of grenadiers and six of line infantry. The center of the Russian line moved, in their ponderous Russian manner, to meet the advance of the Prussian Brigades of the center division. They became hotly engaged with the "blue meanies" for the rest of the night with neither side being willing to yield (miracle roles on several morale checks).

The Corps d'Observation got the night off. The Prussian right flank declined to cross over and engage them at all. The cavalry on the Russian left flank was brilliantly handled as the Hussars dazzled the Bayreuth Dragoons out of position and made them ineffective for the entire engagement. The remainder of the Prussian cavalry on this flank was removed by a conveniently placed 12 ponder.

At the end, in a desperate attempt to snatch victory away the stalwart Green Coats, Seydlitz hurled his remaining cavalry (one cuirassier and two hussar) into the unbroken lines of Russian infantry. Tonight, Russian infantry was clearly unimpressed by anything Germanic and all Seydlitz accomplished was to provide the Russian army with fresh meat to go with their potatoes and cabbage.

The conclusion was a resounding Russian victory. Frederick would be able to escape with what was left of his army as the only intact formation available to the Russians was the Corps d'Observation, which couldn't pass a morale check to advance. This result is clearly a very non- historical result. The actual battle was a hard-fought victory for Frederick, which taught the King that the Russian army would be a tough adversary in the future. For a detailed account of the battle as it really happened, I refer you to "The Army of Frederick the Great," by Professor Christopher Duffy.