The Battle of Chotusitz, 17 May 1742

This week's game, the first of the year, was a cracker. On Thursday, Robbie, John and Dave (Jarvis) joined me for a refight of Chotusitz, Frederick the Great's second battle of the War of Austrian Succession or the 1st Silesian War, take your pick. We used the new Honours of War rules, with some suitable amendments to accommodate the differences in troop quality seen between this and the Seven Years War. For example, the Prussian cavalry of 1742 were still 'requiring improvement' to use a term well known to any teachers reading this, and were downgraded to 'standard' while the Austrian cavalry (Cuirassiers and Dragoons) were 'superior'.  Robbie and I took the Austrians (I am becoming quite fond of my Austrian army) while John and Dave happily took the Prussians. The orders of battle for the game were as follows:

Prussian Army:

CinC Frederick II King of Prussia (Dashing) Off table until turn 4.

1^st Line: GL von Kalckstein (Dependable)

Musketeers x 2

Grenadiers  x 2 (Superior)

6pdr bty x 1

2^nd Line: GL von Schmetau (Dependable)

Musketeers x 3

Guard  x 1 (Superior)

6pdr bty x 1

Gen der Inf Leopold von Anhalt Dessau (Dashing) [Lt.General for the brigades below]

Cavalry, left flank:  GL von Waldow   (Dependable)

Cuirassiers x 3

Dragoons x 2

Hussars x 2

Infantry: GL Jeetze (Dependable)

Musketeers x 3  (superior)

Cavalry, right flank: GL von Buddenbrock (Dashing)

Cuirassiers x 4

Dragoons x 2

Artillery: (Dependable)

Heavy artillery:  1 x 24pdr, 2 x 12pdr (on table centre of Prussian line)

29: break point 14

Austrian Army: 

CinC Prince Charles of Lorraine (Dependable…..just!)

Light troops: [Independent units]

Croats x 3 Inferior (2 on right and 1 on left flank)

Infantry, 1^st Line: GL von Daun (Dependable)

Musketeers x 5

12pdr x 2 (superior)

Howitzer x 1 (superior)

Infantry, 2^nd Line: GL von Konigsegg (Dependable)

Musketeers x 5

Right wing Cavalry: GL Leichtenstein (Dashing)

Cuirassiers/Carabiniers/Horse Grenadier x 3 (superior)

Dragoons x 2 (superior)

Hussars x 2 (Inferior)

Left Wing Cavalry: GM Batthyanyi (Dashing)

Cuirassiers x 4 (superior)

Dragoons x 2 (superior)

Hussars x 2 (Inferior)

31: Break point 15

The  Prussian cavalry counted as inferior for rallying purposes and the player couldn't elect to prevent a unit from following up a beaten enemy when testing. Prussian cavalry also still had some way to go with their retraining so all changes of formation etc took half a move. Frederick and the main body would arrive on Turn 4 but only on passing a command roll. We used random commander casualty replacement which was to have a significant impact in the game. All infantry except grenadiers had battalion guns.  Austrian cavalry also could not elect not to pursue a beaten enemy when testing and although the Austrian infantry were much improved since Mollwitz they were no match for the Prussians in terms of rate of fire so would always get a -1 when shooting.

I won't go into much detail about the lead up to the battle. For a detailed account I can recommend 

http://obscurebattles.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/chotusitz-1742_30.html

Suffice to say that the Austrians caught the Prussians napping, and were in a position to overwhelm and crush the Prussian rearguard under Anhalt-Dessau before Frederick could bring the main body of the Prussian army into play. History tells us that they nearly did it but were unable to exploit their position and quit the field in the face of the Prussian main body. So how did our version play out?

 The battlefield from behind the Prussian right flank. The entire Austrian army facing just three Prussian battalions and all their cavalry.

 The Prussian left wing and centre, with their annoying heavy artillery battery in the foreground.

The Austrian centre and some of their left wing cavalry before they began their advance.

 The Austrian centre begin to advance while their artillery began to soften up the Prussians in front of Chotusitz. 

 On the Austrian right Prussian dragoons forced the Croats to evade, but were unable to catch up with them. In the meantime the remainder of their left wing cavalry is deploying out of Chotusitz.

 On the Austrian left the cavalry of both armies soon came to grips in a massive melee. The honours went to the superior Austrians, who over the course of the first three turns managed to break or drive back the entire Prussian force with the exception of a sole cuirassier regiment which was left rallying on the Prussian baseline.

 The Austrians had similar but less spectacular or speedy success on the right wing in dealing with their Prussian opponents, loosing a number of units before the Prussians were crushed.

 The Austrian right slowly pushing the Prussians back.

 In the centre the Austrians were slowly advancing (too slowly as it happens) towards the outnumbered Prussians. Robbie's hussars are being positioned to exploit any gaps in the Prussian line while the Austrian reserve line move to the left.

 The Austrians were then struck a decisive blow as General Daun, commanding the front rank of the attacking forces was struck down by a musket ball. One of the best aspects of the rules are those around command and control, and your brigadiers really need to be up there with their men in order to keep things moving. This also brings with it risks, in the form of the odd errant musket or cannon ball. Any general within command radius (15cm) of a unit that has taken casualties must test to see if they are hit. A throw of 11 or 12 on 2D6 (thrown by the enemy) and they are knocked on the head. In the rules the 'commander' comes back the following turn but with one less level of ability than their predecessor, e.g. a 'Dependable' commander would return as a 'Dithering' one. 'Dithering' is bad, very bad. I changed the rule so that the ability of the replacement is decided randomly as per the appropriate national characteristic table. In the Austrian case, on a throw of a 1 or 2 they are 'Dithering', 3-5 they are 'Dependable' and 6 means they are 'Dashing'. Dashing is a very good thing for a commander. Robbie threw a 2 so Daun's replacement was 'Dithering'. This meant that in the command phase it was possible for orders to go astray etc which would result in the entire command not moving at all. This happened 3 times to Robbie (he threw three 1's in successive turns) so effectively the Austrian assault ground to a halt.

 Once the ability of Daun's replacement was known the army became quite dispirited as the photo above shows.

 At the same time as Daun met his maker the reserves under Fred arrived. Eight battalions of nasty Prussians, with two 6pdrs, right in the centre and behind their heavy battery which had been proving to be a thorn in the side of the Austrians. At the start of the battle this battery of 24pdrs and 12pdrs had been rather isolated and provided a fragile link between the troops in Chotusitz and the cavalry on the Prussian right. Could be budge it? No. Advancing towards them proved to be futile as several hundred Austrian and Hungarian soldiers could attest to.

 The Prussian Guard of IR15 lead the advance in the centre.

 On the Austrian left, I was still mopping up the remainder of the Prussian cavalry. The regiment shown actually became done for in the process of shattering their opponents, and most of my cavalry on this flank were carrying one or two casualty points. 

 In desperation my favourite Hussar regiment (the Palatinal Hussars made up of venerable Hinchliffe one piece castings) charged the Prussian battery. They were unsuccessful and routed (they always run away) but at least the guns didn't fire at our infantry that turn. 

 The cavalry fight continues on the Austrian right. The Prussians are being slowly ground down but at not insignificant cost to Robbie's Austrians.

 The following turn it was going to be the von Reusch Hussars turn to feel the edge of Austrian steel. To the left are the Prussian Garde du Corps, busy rallying for not the first time.

 The Austrian artillery proved to be overwhelmingly ineffective although I suppose they did pin down the Prussians in and around Chotusitz and gradually wore them down, but too gradually.

 John's reserve brigade swung round to cover the flank of the main Prussian line from any interference from my Austrian cavalry, who were in no fit state to even contemplate any frontal charges against formed infantry.

 The Austrian centre dissolving before the Prussian counter attack.

 The Austrian centre, what's left of it.

 The battlefield from the Austrian left. Massed cavalry impotently facing the Prussian infantry, a very large hole in the Austrian centre, then in the background the remains of Robbie's victorious right wing cavalry.

 The Prussian centre faces where the Austrian centre had been!

The battle over, a Prussian general officer retires to the loo to contemplate the battle.

Well, game over and what a cracker! It was definitely a game of two halves and defeat snatched from the jaws of victory (which seems to be an Austrian habit these days!). The game presented some challenges for both sides, the main Prussian one being to hang on until Frederick and the main body arrived. This they did. Command and control is for me an important aspect of any war-game. In the 'old days' the  all-seeing eye of godlike commanders was the norm but I like the uncertainty of not knowing if my troops will do what I ask of them, for whatever reason. When Daun was replaced by a 'Ditherer' everything went pear-shaped for we Austrians, as our advance and opportunity to close with   and overwhelm the few Prussians in the centre before their main body arrived went down the pan when order after order failed to get through, and the strength of the Austrian centre was literally blown away by Prussian musketry and that damned artillery battery. 'C'est la guerre'

The rules worked really well and I think we are all warming to them as the ruleset of choice for mid-18th century games. Players need to think and make careful decisions to avoid squandering their troops. I'm certainly looking forward to two weeks time when we shall be having another go at Kolin, using these instead of Black Powder.

We agreed that the result was a hard-fought winning draw to the Prussians as the Austrians would have to abandon the field. In terms of scores on my league table this means that its one point each as the Prussians did no better than on that day in 1742.

A new look

Welcome to my new look blog. I asked Katherine (Mrs Carryings On Up The Dale) if she could have a go at refreshing it, it being her 'thing', and this is the rather excellent result. I still have some work to do populating all of the pull down menus, and even adding a few, and I would like to add a more 'wargames-related' wallpaper, but I really like the new look. I've just realised now that anyone searching for the UK women's and girls clothing and stuff high street store of the same name might find themselves on this blog due to the title of this post, but am I bothered? Not much :-).

I hope readers like the new blog. Feedback welcome.

Colin

A look back at 2015, and a peek forward to 2016.

2015 has been a great year as far as my wargaming is concerned. LOTS of games. A quick count of games played reveals the following: 18th Century (25); Thirty Years War (3), Renaissance (3) and a single Crimean game. I managed more than the usual trips to war-games shows, and have been very productive in terms of my little men. (This is despite my health and general mobility being pretty dismal but Katherine has been very supportive). To be honest I also used the proceeds of my eBay sales (see below) to have a load of stuff painted for me. The AMG game at Partizan was by far the best wargaming experience I have had for many a year.  The main focus of this year's gaming has been the Seven Years War, as in a moment of madness I decided that refighting all the main battles in sequence would be a good idea. Mmmm?

Over the course of the year I sold all my VBCW collection as well as a half-finished and dormant collection for the 1st Carlist War. These sales netted me about £2k (long since gone). I am still toying with the idea of selling off more stuff so I can rationalise what I do to JUST the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, but there's nothing much left that I can easily detach myself from emotionally and sell, i.e. my Russian Civil War/Back of Beyond and Darkest Africa collections as well as the American Civil War collection which I purchased off Paul Stevenson a couple of years ago but has only seen the tabletop twice since. Perhaps I shall get rid of a few units as there are far too many to fit even on my table.

On the other hand I seem to have acquired, off eBay and my own and others painting efforts, a good-sized Austrian army for the Seven Years War and a pet project of mine started over two years ago has almost reached completion; I'm thinking here of my 1672'ish French-Dutch War armies. I've also expanded the Prussian and Russian SYW armies (like I needed any more) and built up a modest force of Saxons, several Reichsarmee units and almost the complete army of the Duchy of Modena, both for WAS/SYW.

In the new year I plan to produce (I have the figures and quite a few are almost done) a small (12 btns or so with cavalry and artillery) force of British, Hanoverians, Hessians and Brunswickers so we can attempt some of the battles in the Western theatre and hopefully trounce Robbie's Frenchies. Most of all though I look forward to another excellent years of gaming and all that entails.

Merry Christmas!

Lobositz yet again.......and now we know the Honours of War rules, a much better experience!

Robbie and John returned yesterday for another refight of Lobositz using Honours of War, having felt that last week's attempt lost something as we were unfamiliar with the rules. This time the game flowed extremely well and we fought through to a conclusion in about 5 hours including lunch. John took the Prussians and Robbie and I the Austrians; as usual I had additional hosting duties relating to tea, coffee, lunch and dog control.

The orders of battle and terrain were exactly as last week and we were able to get cracking on the game without any delay beyond that caused by a natter, negotiating a bouncy labrador, and a cup of tea.

The battlefield, Prussians on the left. The Austrians behind the marshy stream on the right could not be seen or activated until turn 4.

Kollowrat's Austrians 'hidden' behind the Morelenbach. The plan, I think, was to suck the Prussians into the centre so they could attack the town, defeat their cavalry with ours and then sweep round with five fresh battalions infantry and hit them in the flank. Ha! Ha!

This has got nothing to do with the battle but I'd just finished it. Its a Westphalia Miniatures Saxon siege mortar. Very nice it is too. 

This is another new wagon, bought off Cran Tara at the Stockton show the other week. Its from Westphalia too, or it might be Fife and Drum.

Back to the battle, the two lead Prussian brigades advance, with one battalion covering their exposed flank from the Grenzers on the hill.

The Grenz unit posted in the sunken road advanced to take some pot shots at the Prussians. The accuracy of their fire, combined with the effects of being shelled, caused the Prussian battalion facing them to break. Shame on them!

The main Austrian line. The right wing wheeled round to enfilade the Prussian advance while the reserve battalion from Lobositz moved to cover the left of the grenadiers' line. Marshall Browne can be sneezy the house.

The Prussians attacked the Austrians, but in every case were forced to retreat and rally before other battalions took their place. John did well to preserve most of his troops, only loosing another battalion during the assaults. The Austrian grenadiers held but were taking casualties.

A rather shaky shot of the centre of the battlefield with the Austrian reserve cavalry from the left facing off against the Prussians. The cuirassiers and combined elite companies of Robbie's central cavalry brigade of Radicati had been lost earlier through Prussian artillery fire and by coming off badly against Kayau's Prussian brigade.

For some reason I had decided to bring the Austrian left wing cavalry across to the centre before Radicati's brigade were lost, so was able to plug a large gap in the Austrian line. The hussars were the last remaining unit of Radicati's brigade but were soon to be driven off in route as their status as my favourite unit of Austrian cavalry made them cannon ball magnets.

Gessler's cuirassiers had earlier broken the combined elite companies regiment and followed through into the centre of the Austrian line, catching an artillery battery and then an infantry battalion in the flank. They then charge the flank of another Austrian battery but didn't quite make it, halting about 1" short. My cavalry were rooted to the ground as I was unable to get them to move. Eventually the cuirassiers did charge but came off badly against the Prussians and were lost.

On the far right Robbie's Grenz charged the flank of one then another Prussian battery, driving off the crew. The Grenz then beat a hasty retreat back to the wooded slopes of the Lobosch Hill in their rear.

I finally managed to get my reserve infantry to advance, but far too slowly, and they began to take casualties from the Prussian massed battery on the Homolka Mound. They spent at least 2 turns unable to move, which contributed to the result of the battle as it wasn't until perhaps the last move that I managed to get them moving and successfully break one of the Prussian batteries, the gunners retreating and abandoning their guns on the field.

The Austrian centre in danger of being rolled up. Despite loosing another battery the line held and the Prussian cuirassiers had to withdraw as they were perilously close to becoming spent.

The Austrian centre again, still hanging on.

The grenadiers were charged in the front and the flank in the last turn. There is no doubt that they would have been broken in the melee. (Indeed I threw the dice after Robbie and John had left and the Grenadiers were destroyed).

At the close of the battle an Austrian aide rides through the town en route to Vienna with news of the battle's outcome.

Nothing in the Austrian centre remained except for a lone regiment of very hesitant dragoons.

This time the result was a victory for the Prussians. Not a resounding one but a win nevertheless. There was a time where it looked like the Austrians might have held on and driven the Prussians off but a series of dreadfully badly-timed crappy initiative throws and awful command throws for our troops guaranteed that we pulled defeat out of the jaws of victory yet again.

The rules are great. The only change we made was to ignore the -1 for not having battalion guns when shooting and canister was reduced to musket range. We also ignored the +1 when shooting at cavalry in two ranks. Using my bigger units made no difference to the game other than to make it look a pretty and rather impressive affair, though I say so myself. I shall certainly be using these rules from now on for my Seven Years War and War of Austrian Succession games in preference to Black Powder. I still do like the latter but these rules give a better 'feel' to the game.

Interestingly, this time only two generals became casualties as opposed to almost everyone in the the last game.

I shall now look forward to refighting all (well maybe most) of my Seven Years War games again using Honours of War.

Thanks to Robbie and John for coming and its a shame I couldn't find a 4th player at such short notice but there's always another day.

Honours of War rules

We shall be refighting Lobositz again now we have a better understanding of the rules. In fact I am inclined to start my Seven Years War odyssey all over again and use HoW instead of Black Powder. We will soon catch up to where we left off after Kunersdorf........

The Battle of Lobositz, Honours of War version

This week's game was a refight of our first SYW refight, if that makes sense. We had played Lobositz back in February using Black Powder but with the advent of the new Honours of War rules it seemed like a good idea to try them out on a battle we'd already done using BP, hence the choice. The rules contain a Lobositz scenario but I used the same troops fielded for my original game, based on  Kronoscaf, Charles Grant's scenario in Wargaming in History vol 9 and the excellent Obscure Battles blog. I also use much bigger units than the rules are apparently geared up for, but proportionately the unit footprints were about the same. So we had infantry battalions of 36 covering 300mm, Grenzers of 12-16 and cavalry in 24's deployed in 2 ranks (we ignored the rule in HoW for shooting at cavalry in 2 ranks on this occasion). Saying that, the rules allow for large units of up to 7 stands, which would give a frontage of 280mm so not much difference especially as the number of figures is not relevant to the game mechanics. The author has produced a QRS for larger units such as I use but we didn't see the need to use them, and in the end as everyone was based the same it didn't really matter.

Robbie and I took the Austrians while John and Paul were the Prussians. Robbie was FML Browne and Paul was Frederick as he had given me the Frederick vignette earlier in the year and it seemed appropriate that he should get to use it.

Prussian Army:

CinC Frederick II King of Prussia (Dashing) PAUL

Lt. General: FM the Hon James Keith (Dependable) JOHN

Left wing, 1^st Line: Bevern (Dashing)

Grenadiers x 1*

Musketeers x 2

Left wing, 2^nd Line: GL von Kleist (Dependable) (Turn 2)

Grenadiers x 1*

Musketeers x 2

Right Wing: GM Pz Henri von Preussen (Dependable)

Musketeers x 2

Fusiliers x 1

Cavalry, 1^st Line: GM Kayau (Dashing)

Cuirassiers x 1*

Dragoons x 1

Cavalry, 2^nd Line: FM Gessler (Dashing) Turn 2

Cuirassiers x 2*

Artillery: Colonel Moller (Dependable)

12pdr x 2

Howitzer x 1

In reserve: (Turn 3)

12pdr x 2 to Bevern

12pdr x 2 to Pz Henri

Austrian Army: FM von Browne (Dashing)ROBBIE

Light troops: GM Draskovitz (Dependable)

Croats x 2

Right Wing: FML Lacy (Dependable)

Grenadiers x 2*

Musketeers x 3

12pdr x 2*

Howitzer x 1*

Right wing Cavalry: GM Radicati (Dashing)

Carabiniers/Horse Grenadier x 1*

Cuirassiers x 1*

Hussars x 1**

Independent unit: Croats x 1

Left wing: GM Kollowrat (Dependable) ME

Musketeers x 5

6pdr x 2*

Left Wing Cavalry: GM Lowenstein (Dashing)

Cuirassiers x 2*

* indicates superior troops; ** indicates inferior troops. All infantry with the exception of the grenadier battalions of both sides had battalion guns.

The Austrian right wing holding Lobositz with Grenzers in the far distance on Lobosch Hill amongst the vineyards. For some reason Marshal Browne and his staff are stood in the middle of the Morelenbach stream having a paddle.

Frederick with Colonel Moller's artillery on the Homolka Mound.

GM Kayau's cavalry brigade advances onto the plain to try and tempt the Austrians forward.

Radicati's Austrians: a regiment of hussars and a combined horse grenadier/carabinier regiment, all venerable Hinchcliffe castings. In the background the Prussian infantry is advancing rapidly towards Lobositz and the waiting Austrians.

The Austrian left wing was hidden behind the Morelenbach, but Lowenstein's cavalry soon made an appearance.

The Prussian attack looses momentum while the Grenzers make a nuisance of themselves harassing  Bevern's command. Who put their coffee mug on the table? (Nice mug, picture of FtG and his staff at Leuthen, bought off Amazon).

  

Kollowrat's brigade stand up, having been hidden lying down in the mist behind the Morelenbach.

  

Gessler's cuirassiers join Kayau on the plain.

The attack on Lobositz intensified, and although the Prussians were momentarily halted the Austrian grenadiers were forced to retire, leaving the centre dangerously empty of troops until the reserves could be rushed across the plug the gap.

The Austrian left wing cavalry made hard going of crossing the stream. For some reason I chose to pledge through the swamp and over the park walls rather than use the bridge, a "Burnside Moment" in reverse!

The gap in the Austrian line is filled while the Prussian infantry rally after their attack faltered. The Prussian cuirassiers were charged by the Austrian hussars as a result of the latter throwing a 6 and having a 'dashing' commander. Predictably the hussars were crushed and fled the battle. The Prussians did not pursue.

The view from behind Colonel Moller's artillery.

Actually at this point the game had to finish as we'd fought through from 11:00 until 3:30 with a short lunch break. The rules had taken some getting used to which had slowed things down a bit but it was impossible to say who would be the victor at this point. I therefore played some more moves on Friday and Saturday evenings.

The Austrian left wing cavalry are across the Morellenbach, supported by two battalions of infantry.

Gessler's cuirassiers turn to face the threat, but have already suffered some losses from Austrian artillery fire and musketry from across the Morelenbach. Nevertheless, both units are superior class cuirassiers and a match for the Austrian facing them.

The Prussians have rallied, reformed and launched another assault. The lead battalion is shattered by a combination of close range musketry, and is enfiladed by artillery, but the supporting units are unscathed.

The Austrians lost control of the Lobosch Hill and although an Austrian bayonet charge drove off one Prussian battalion the attackers were forced to retreat after being mauled by the Prussian reserves.

The Prussians drive back the central Austrian (Hungarian) battalion exposing their artillery to charges. The Grenadiers on the left are repulsed by close range canister, but the battalion on the right took the battery in the flank and overran it, exposing the flank of another Austrian battalion.

On the Prussian right the cavalry clash in a massive melee. 

In the centre the Prussians surge forward. The combined elite companies cavalry regiment had been driven off earlier by the Prussian artillery on the Homolka Mound, leaving only the Alt-Modena cuirassiers. Thankfully, the Prussian dragoon regiment in the centre had been targeted by the Austrian artillery over the brook and had also been forced to retire. 

Opposing cuirassiers clash in the centre. The Prussians already have some casualties from earlier in the battle and are a slight disadvantage as a result.

Prince Henry of Prussia and his big brother on the left encourage their troops forward into the centre of the Austrian line.

The Austrian right has crumbled, save for a lone grenadier battalion and a 12pdr battery.  Prussian guns had climbed the Lobosch Hill and helped drive off another battery and kept the retreating Austrians on the back foot. Unfortunately the Prussian troops in that sector were all straining under the weight of their casualties, and any further attacks would be risky affairs.

The Prussians have broken through in the centre.

The de Ligne regiment and the supporting howitzer battery are in full retreat, the guns abandoned. The Austrian CinC suddenly finds himself in the front rank!

Back to the cavalry melees, in the centre the Prussians are broken having come off worst in the combat, but the Austrians are also forced to withdraw to rally.

The Austrian dragoons were broken, routing through the infantry to their rear, but again their opponents (on the right) had taken enough casualties to force them to retire. The other Prussian cuirassiers fought dismally and were broken.

I called it a day at this point. The Prussians had broken through in the centre but had no cavalry left to speak of. They could basically ignore the Austrians on their right but whether it could be called a Prussian victory is open to discussion. Technically it was a Prussian minor victory, as despite their own losses, the Austrians had lost more and their right and centre were more or less broken.

So how did it play? We slowly got the hang of the rules as the day progressed but ran out of time. We made a few mistakes and there are a very few aspects of the rules we didn't like but overall the unanimous decision was that rules are good and we had an excellent game. Very satisfying in fact. The command sequence in the rules is critical to getting your battle plan into action. The Prussians got bogged down as they advanced, and were held up by having retreating units pass through several supporting ones, causing losses in their wake.

It wasn't a good day to be a general. Browne was a casualty quite early on, dropping from 'Dashing' to 'Dependable'. Bevern on the Prussian side started as 'Dashing' but was hit twice in rapid succession and finished the game as a 'Ditherer'. Quite a few other commanders were 'knocked on the head' as well. To explain, if commanders are within 15cm of a unit that takes a casualty there is a chance (an 11 or 12 on 2D6) that they have been hit by a stray bullet or cannon ball. It is amazing how many times were all managed to throw 11 or 12 during the course of the game. Of course, they're not necessarily dead, but their ability to conduct the battle has diminished due to a wound, death, the need to change their pants or losses amongst staff and aides de camp. It all added to the fun of the game.

We didn't like the fact that battalions without battalion guns (i.e. grenadiers) had a shorter firing range (20cm as opposed to 30cm) AND a minus1 when firing. It made quite a difference and I don't really think the absence or presence of a couple of 3pdrs should have such a significant impact on a fire fight. We also thought that canister range was much too long (50cm for a 12pdr). We did like the grazing fire rule and the ways the rules make you manage your casualties and units carefully.

Using my large units made absolutely no difference to the rules or the game. We just used the standard rules for 28/30mm figures and there were no issues (although we ignored the minus for shooting at cavalry in 2 ranks; it had to be more than 2 ranks, in say, column of squadrons.

Excellent game, and having spoken to John I have decided to leave it set up so we can refight it again now that we know the rules better. I think the Prussians certainly went into it with a Black Powder mentality (the Austrians did), but these rules are much more subtle, require much more thought, and feel right.