The Battle of Gross-Jagersdorf, 1757
3rd November 2007, Comments Off
Seven Years War, Die Kriegskunst, 28mm
On 3rd November we laid on a demo game at the Targe 2007 show in Kirriemuir. We refought part of the Battle of Gross-Jagersdorf (1757), with my Russians pitched against Dougie Trail’s Prussians. The battle turned out pretty much as expected – my cavalry were trounced (they were both outnumbered and had “inferior mounts”), although my magnificently attired Russian Horse Grenadiers performed splendidly, even if they did pursue the Prussian hussars off the table and didn’t come back.Then the Prussian horse charged the Russian infantry line, which was tougher prospect.
Two regiments faltered through close-range musketry, then the right-hand Prussian unit was shredded by canister fire from a small battery of Russian guns – all very satisfactory. The only Prussian success came on the other flank, where more hussars (borrowed from Dale Smith for the day) forced a Russian regiment to retire precipitately before having to pull back and regroup.
On the other side of the table the two sides advanced infantry brigades into a large wood, and began a musketry duel which lasted throughout the game. The Russians were having the worst of the exchange, although with the cavalry threat dealt with it was likely that the Russians could have reinforced their hard-pressed colleagues if we’d fought the game to its conclusion.
Of course, that’s the problem with games of this kind – you rarely get to play them through, as you spend more time speaking to interested onlookers than you do shuffling lead across the tabletop. Still, that’s what makes it fun – and I was delighted by the number of people who called it “inspiring”, or who wanted to try out the rules for themselves.
In the end we won some sort of runner-up prize for the game, which was pretty good considering the scenery wasn’t scratch built – just rolled out and laid on! Again, many thanks to Dougie Trail and Chris Henry for running the game with me, and to Dale Smith and the Kirriemuir Wargames Club for running such a small, tight and enjoyable show.. We’ll be back.