Mollwitz tonight and the final game of 2017.

Peter asked to have a game over the weekend so I've chosen Mollwitz. Why? Well, I still had snow cloth and most of my Prussians on the table for post-battle repairs after Leuthen earlier this month as I hadn't had time or the energy to put them all away. Just as well as it turns out.

We will use Black Powder this evening as they're the set Peter is most used to, him being a very infrequent wargamer. It should also guarantee we get a result by the end of the evening. I've played Mollwitz a few times over the years, using both BP and Honours of War and its not always been a smooth ride by the Prussians to an historical outcome. The game is a (hopefully) finely-tuned balance between superior Prussian infantry facing decidedly uninspiring Austrian infantry, and numerically and qualitatively superior Austrian cavalry.

Terrain wise, apart from Mollwitz and a couple of other built up areas the cloth is completely open, on the basis that the roads, streams and marsh are all covered by deep snow and/or frozen solid.

I shall report back tomorrow.

Battle of Mollwitz: How I lost the battle.......

Well, we played the long-awaited refight of Mollwitz this week. I cocked up a bit on the left flank and the Austrians lost one of the few chances they had of winning, albeit a slim one, and were crushed. FIN.

Seriously though, we diced for sides and Paul and I had the pleasure of taking the Austrians while John and Robbie had the Prussians. The roads, marshes and streams were there for show as the ground was covered in snow and frozen. We used 66% distances for everything to allow for the effects of the snow and weather. The orders of battle can be seen on the previous post so here's how the game played.

 The armies deployed prior to the commencement of the Prussian attack. 

 The Austrian centre deployed to the front of Mollwitz

 The Prussian left, and below the Austrian right

 My newest unit of Prussian dragoons set to do great things in their first game........not

 FML Neipperg samples a glass of brandy, accompanied by his manservant Curt and his mistress Countess Ingrid von Pitt.(ok showing my age)

 The cavalry on the Austrian left flank crash into the Prussian cavalry who will be completely shattered as a result by the end of the first move.

 The Prussian infantry in the centre advance.

 This was the point I bottled it. Having driven off most of the Prussian cavalry I should have tried to exploit my success, but I chose to regroup instead and the moment was lost.

 Robbie threw the final cavalry unit on the right straight into the Austrian cuirassiers, but, unsupported, they were destroyed.

 On their left the Prussians were slow to advance, but not as slow as the Austrians who refused to move.

 A large gap previously occupied by the Austrian Los Rios regiment. They were pounded by Prussian artillery and musketry and eventually broke under the pressure.

 Paul's cavalry on the Austrian right finally got moving after a slow start.

 They charged the Prussian cuirassiers who were unable to countercharge and drove them back. 

 Frederick on the 'Mollwitz Grey' just to the rear of the Prussian first line.

 The Prussian infantry advances closer and closer, apart from the rear two battalions that threw a blunder and retreated in the confusion.

 One of several attempts by the Austrian left wing to punch a hole through the Prussian line. 

 ...and another.

 ....and another. It so very nearly worked...

 The centre of the Austrian lines before it began to crumble under the incessant pressure from the Prussian advance.

 Almost the final chance for the Austrian cavalry to burst through the Prussian right flank. The target battalion was dangerously exposed, unsupported, and unloaded.....10 or less and I would get in, and I threw an 11 on my command roll so failed to charge!

Robbie, John and Paul all deep in thought.

 Looking down the battlefield from the Prussian right.

 Prussian IR 28 about to receive yet another Austrian cavalry charge (below)

 Above and below, Austrian hussars catch Prussian II/IR15 in the flank.

 The hussars failed to cause any damage and were forced to retire shaken

 The Austrian artillery had finally made it onto the battlefield. Out of shot, a 12pdr battery hit the grenadier battalion seen here and tipped them over the edge. Robbie failed their break test and they routed.

The loss of the grenadiers together with both cavalry brigades was enough for Frederick to have to roll on the 'Frederick leaves the field' table. He can be seen here leaving the battlefield having failed the test in the moment of victory as the Austrian army was shattered.

It was a good game despite the fact that I blew it! I was too timid in move 2 and should have exploited my success in destroying the Prussian right wing cavalry by sweeping round the open flank. One move later and the Prussians had plugged the gap so true to history the moment was lost forever and I spent the rest of the game battering my cuirassiers and dragoons against Robbie's infantry. 

By the close of the battle Paul's right wing cavalry had also managed to destroy John's cavalry on the opposite flank, but exhausted themselves in the process. Our infantry were no match for the Prussian automatons and although they did well in holding up the advance for quite some time, the outcome was never in doubt, especially thanks to the very late arrival of our artillery.

The new winter terrain mat looked good and only Robbie began to complain of snow blindness. Thankfully nobody ate the snow, yellow or otherwise.

Oh, and Black Powder (with suitable tweaks) worked really well; their unforgivingness was completely impartial.

The next big game will be Rossbach!

Mollwitz - a fast game and speedy conclusion.

It seems like a long time since I've had my 28mm Prussians and Austrians on the table, so with Conrad Cairns and Dave Jarvis coming up for a game today I thought it'd be a good battle to fight. I've played Mollwitz a couple of times over the years, indeed it was the first game I played using Black Powder when they were first published. Remarkably the Prussians lost on that occasion (or maybe unremarkably given that we didn't know the rules and  were unaware that in BP cavalry have a good chance of breaking formed infantry from the front). The next time the Prussians won convincingly, using Honours of War, the set we used today.

Mollwitz is a battle with problems and opportunities for both armies. For the Austrians its a race against time for them to crush the Prussian cavalry on both flanks quickly before turning on the infantry in the centre. For the Prussians they need to hold back the far superior Austrian cavalry to give their infantry in the centre time to close with and dispose of the Austrian infantry. With the exception of the hussars on both sides who were inferior, all the  Austrian horsemen were classed as superior and all the Prussians as standard. The Austrian infantry was a mix (50:50) of standard and inferior battalions to reflect the large number of recruits present, while the Prussian infantry were all superior. None of the Austrians had battalion guns present, although what artillery they did have once it arrived, were classed as superior for firing.

Conrad wanted to be von Nieppberg in command of the Austrians so Dave took command of the Prussians as Frederick assisted by me.  The roads, marshes and stream are there purely for show as the ground was frozen and covered in snow up to 2 feet deep in places.

 The armies deployed for battle. What can't be seen off to the top right is von Romer's Austrian cavalry, waiting to sweep away the Prussian right wing.

 The centre of the Austrian line, eight battalions of infantry screened by some hussars of dubious value.

 The aforesaid cavalry of von Romer.

 Facing von Romer's cavalry was a much weaker Prussian force, stiffened by a battalion of grenadiers.

 In turn 1 Conrad threw a 5 and got two moves with the dashing von Romer's command, which formed column of regiments and steamrollered towards the waiting Prussians who gamely charged. The result was never in doubt and the Prussians were forced to retreat, closely pursued by the weakened Austrians.

 The Austrian centre remained immobile as the Prussians very slowly advanced thanks to some unlucky command rolls by both Dave and I.

 Von Romer's cavalry crashed into the rallying Prussian dragoons and drove them off the field, unfortunately following them off table for a couple of turns.

 Conrad's cavalry continued their assault and hit the second regiment of Prussian dragoons, breaking them easily! So far so good for the Austrians and pretty much as expected.

 The Austrian hussars seemed happy to stand in the middle of the battle field while the Prussian artillery took the odd pot shot at them!

 Meanwhile on the other flank the Austrians had beaten the first line of Prussian cavalry, destroying one regiment of dragoons and forcing a regiment of cuirassiers to retire.

 Historically, Frederick was advised by Marshal von Schwerin to leave the battlefield on the collapse of the Prussian right. To represent this, once three Prussian units had been broken Frederick had to throw anything but a 1, with a further minus 1 per extra unit broken. Dave threw a 2, minus 1 for an extra broken unit, so Frederick left the field in haste.  This was actually good for the Prussians as von Schwerin took over and he was classed as a better commander than the young King.

 The victorious Austrian left wing cavalry reformed but was unwilling to risk attacking the Prussians who had turn to face them.

  The remains of the Prussian right supported by a further battalion of grenadiers and a battery of artillery.

                      The Prussian front line closes to musket range and opens fire, creating a growing number of casualties on the Austrians.

 Over on the Austrian right, the Prussians had pushed their hussars into contact in order to slow the Austrian advance, while one battalion from the front line had been held back to cover the exposed flank. The Prussians were driven back but the Austrians didn't pursue. A succession of poor command rolls for both sides plus the effect of Prussian musketry on the Austrian cavalry meant that the action on this flank ground to a halt for a while.

 The Prussians in the centre are poised to close with the Austrian centre.

 A lucky cannonball hit the Austrian Commander in Chief and he was bowled out of the saddle minus his head. Amazingly his headless corpse managed to avoid spilling a drop of the wine it was holding!

 The Austrian 3pdrs have finally deployed, making the task of dislodging the Austrian infantry just that little bit harder.

 Dave closed the range to point blank an won the fire initiative, and one crashing volley down the line saw the entire Austrian first line destroyed or forced to retreat in confusion. In return, the Austrians caused few casualties on the Prussians except for their artillery that forced the Prussian Garde to withdraw,

 The extreme right of the Austrian infantry.

 On the Prussian right the line had been reformed and any thoughts of rolling up the Prussians were quickly banished from the mind of the Austrian cavalry commander.

 The Austrian second line was about to be engaged by the Prussian centre.

 The Austrian second line about to dissolve in front of the Prussian advance. Two battalions sought refuge in the town while another was broken.

 Von Schwerin (centre) urging his men on to victory.

 A lone Austrian battalion on the right/centre, exposed and out of command.

 The Prussian flank guard.

 A period of inertia set in on the Austrian right flank with neither side either willing or able to advance.

 The lone surviving Austrian battalion in the centre.

Austrian 3pdrs. They did succeed in driving off the Prussian 'Garde' and another battalion that stepped up to replace them, but that was not enough to stem the Prussian advance. The late arrival of the other Austrian artillery meant that they didn't get a chance to deploy before the battle was lost.

Much to our surprise, we had reached a conclusion and it was only lunchtime!  The Austrian success on their left had not been as decisive as it needed to be, and the Austrian right was too focussed on destroying the Prussian cavalry before sweeping round onto the Prussian flank when it would have been quite possible to commit fewer troops to the former task and have sufficient left to execute the latter part of the plan. The Prussian centre had been slow to move off, but once they got into rage the effect of their superior musketry immediately began to tell, leaving the Austrian centre crushed and reeling in the smoke.

A cracking, fast-paced and enjoyable game (I hope). It went more or less according to history and it really was a race against time for the Austrians on the flanks and the Prussians in the centre, a race won this time by the Prussians.  But at least the Austrians had the pleasure of seeing the Prussian King gallop from the field of battle with his tail between his legs!