Seven Years War, Die Kreigskunst, 28mm

In the latest Battlegames (Issue 14), Charles S. Grant offered up a new “Tabletop Teaser”. Well, we planned to have a Seven Years War game today, as a sort of warm-up for a much larger game up in Kirriemuir over the weekend. Charles’ scenario looked ideal. It involved two forces, each of six units, chosen from a “menu”. The map is reproduced, courtesy of the Battlegames‘ editor. Both forces (in our cases Russian and Prussian) had the same objective – the capture of a strategically important “Area of Control” containing a hamlet, a road junction, and the entrance to a pass. Both columns were preceded by a unit of light cavalry (Cossacks in my case), followed two turns later by the rest of the force, appearing in the order its commander had laid down in his order of march. Like all of Charles’ scenarios, it all sounded pretty straightforward – until it played out on the tabletop!We also made a couple of changes. First, rather than set it all out on the 9 x 6 table used by Charles, we opted for a smaller 6 x 4 foot table (bounded by the orange lines shown above), because we were too lazy to lay out all that extra terrain. We also used map movement to deal with our approach marches, which seemed to work quite well. We also used much smaller units. Charles uses humongous 54 man infantry units, with cavalry to match. We wargame at a figure ratio of 1:40, so our units are about a third of the size.However, our objective was to remind ourselves of how the rules worked, not to spend the evening shuffling large quantities of lead around, without reaching a conclusion. It worked for us. In our game, the force approaching from the left was a Prussian one commanded by Dougie Trail, while my Russians approached from the right.My Russians (coming on at B-B) led off with a unit of Cossacks as an advance guard, followed by a regiment of Horse Grenadiers, two infantry battalions (one of them grenadiers), a battery of guns, and another infantry battalion bringing up the rear. The Prussians elected to lead with their hussars, followed by two units of heavy cavalry (one of cuirassiers, the other of dragoons), followed by a gun battery, and then two battalions of infantry. Strangely enough both light cavalry units moved to the right, which meant they never clashed on the tabletop.Instead the Cossacks ran into the Prussian cuirassiers, and rather optimistically they charged them. The result was largely inevitable! However, when the victorious cuirassiers pursued, they ran into the Russian horse grenadiers, who chopped them up (with the help of a “double 6”).On the southern side of the table things weren’t going so well for Mother Russia. The hussars neatly sidestepped a battalion of grenadiers deploying in their path, and instead they charged a unit of Russian foot, which was caught in march formation. Despite a brave fight lasting a couple of turns, the Russian infantry were all ridden down. By that time the Prussian infantry and guns had come up and secured the village, forcing the Russians to deploy their infantry for an assault against a defended position.Before the attack went in the cavalry battle on the northern edge of the village reached its climax. The Russian horse grenadiers charged and pushed back the Prussian dragoons, only to be caught in the flank by the pesky remnants of the chopped-up Prussian cuirassiers. The cuirassiers – all five of them – had managed a fluky rally after taking 70% casualties! In the melee which followed the Prussians had their revenge by rolling a “double six”, and caught on two asides, the Russian horse were duly routed. It was all over for my Russians. With half my army ridden down or routed, it was time to call it a day. The battle had been short, sharp and hard-fought, but Dougie’s handling of his hussars was irritatingly effective, pinning my column down just when it needed to be racing for the town. Then the swine’s luck turned just when I needed the dice to fall my way! Still, I’m sure I’ll have my revenge next time …

Tags: Die Kriegskunst