The Seven Years War, Die Kriegskunst, 28mm

This week we played out the “Bridgehead Breakout” scenario from Charles S. Grant’s Scenarios for Wargamers (1981). Like most of Charles’ scenarios, winning the game is harder than it looks. The Prussians (behind line G-H) were trying to break out of their bridgehead over the River Saale, although most of their small force was still on the far (southern) bank of the river. In our map, we’re treating norht as being to the right, rather than the top. The French – or rather Reichsarmee troops in French service – were trying to pen them in, and were deployed along the line E-F. To win, the Prussians needed to capture the ridge. For the French, victory would only be assured if the Prussians could be pushed back across the river.While Dougie Trail and Kevan Gunn took charge of the Prussians, Mikowai Stazek and I commanded the Reichsarmee.Our first mistake was to go over onto the attack. Our plan was to hit the Prussians before they could be reinforced. On the left, a brigade of French cavalry prepared to charge the Prussian right flank, while my Lower Circle Brigade trudged forward to pin the enemy in place. Our guns did well, softening up the waiting Prussian line, but from that point on things started to unravel.First, the Prussian reinforcements managed to get across the bridge faster than we expected – we should have tinkered a bit more with the scenario, to make more of a game of it. Then, the Reichsarmee cavalry spent two turns waiting for orders, giving the Prussians even more time to get their act together.The result was that when the charge came the Prussians were ready. One French regiment charged the Prussian guns, but they faltered in the face of canister shot, and failed to charge home. On their left, the second French regiment took on the waiting Prussian cuirassiers, but came off worst in the melee, and were pushed back.Soon the entire cavalry brigade was routing off the table. So much for our big attack. Over on the Prussian left the Reichsarmee brigade found itself outnumbered and outgunned. Worse, a unit of Prussian “green” hussars worked their way round behind them, and headed towards the French guns on the ridge.The isolated Reichsarmee troops began to withdraw back to the ridge, where the last Reichsarmee brigade (the Upper Circle one) was defending the guns, and acting as a rallying point for their fleeing companions. By that time it was clear that the Reichsarmee had no chance of holding the ridge against a determined Prussian assault, and so we conceded the game. While I don’t like letting Dougie win, I have to admit that his tabletop performance was much better than ours. Still, no doubt revenge will come early in 2011!

Tags: Die Kriegskunst