7 Years War, Voronoi style

 Ian brought us another of his area movement game designs, this time covering the Seven Years War, 1756-1763. In fact I'd missed this originally as I was away, but it returned by popular demand, and I was glad to get a chance to play it.

The starting positions with Prussia and Austria preparing to fight over Silesia and Saxony. The map is area movement, but the density of areas and the way they intersect models political and  geographical boundaries (rivers and mountains typically) to reflect the difficulty of movement. Evidently it conforms to some sort of mathematical thing called a Voronoi diagram, but tbh, it just looks like a standard area movement map to me, I did much the same thing for my old 'Arnhem in an Afternoon' game. 

Anyway, the game covers all seven years, with three seasons in each - the spring, summer and autumn campaign seasons I guess. Movement and combat is pretty simple, armies move 1 space with a stacking limit of three and fight other armies in the same area, hitting on a 5+. Frederick gets a combat bonus, naturally. The side which inflicts the most hits wins or the attacker wins any draws, and the loser retreats towards their LOC.

I rather like the 'attacker wins draws' thing for this period. 

And here are all the various other armies, French, British and Russian. The French and British are mainly contesting Hanover (the red bit in the top left) while Russia is at first fighting Prussia but interesting in grabbing bits of the Baltic States/East Prussia. Plus ca change.

Crucially, if/when Empress Elisabeth dies, Russia changes sides and starts to support Prussia instead. There is a simple dice roll to see when this happens, becoming progressively more likely as time proceeds.

The various armies roll for reinforcements at the start of each campaign year, which arrive in their LOC area.

I took over as Britain, which had engaged in a very bloody battle for Hanover, even losing it to the French for a time but by 1760 had ejected the French albeit at the loss of all their forces apart form one Corps!

Prussia was in firm control of Saxony with the Austrians grouped east of Prague. The Russians had changed sides and had a number of Corps on the northeast border of Bohemia in Silesia.

I just occupied Hanover to defend it, but the Russians and Prussians launched an offensive into Bohemia. The Austrians concentrated on the Russians.

Things swung against Austria although they inflicted heavy losses on the Russians. Frederick managed to take Prague.

Things took a wild turn in 1762 though. Large British reinforcements landed in Hanover just as a new French army appeared on the border. The existing British forces marched to meet them. In a shock development Frederick was defeated and ejected from Prague, however new forces were being raised in Prussia. 

The Prussians and Austrians massed to retake Prague while the impudent French defeated the first British army, and it fell apart in a catastrophic rout. Fortunately the British had another army...

As 1762 came to a close, the Prussians failed to retake Prague, but the British managed to chase the French away from Hanover. Despite the failure at Prague, it was a pretty convincing Prussian victory.

Despite the very simple nature of the rules, the game worked really, really well. It was a nail biting experience, and having multiple players added to the atmosphere. This system would work well for a range of conflicts and Ian has more games planned for the future.

Lobositz

 John put on another eighteenth century game using Brown Bess, this time went off to the Battle of Lobowitz in 1756. Frederick the Great faced off against General von Browne and the reformed Austrian army on the Elbe.

We were a bit light on numbers for this one, so myself and Mark took the Austrians, while Tim and Tim took the Prussians.

The battle was fought on a foggy morning in the Elbe valley as Fredericks army debouched from a mountain pass. He wasn't sure what was ahead, but decided it was an Austrian rearguard and attacked. Little did he know that von Browne had laid a trap...

This is what things looked like from the Prussian pov (Blue units). In fact there are a ton more Austrian  (red units) units lurking in the mist in the marshes and along the sunken road. We kept track of those secretly. Hard to see in the screen shot, but there is a brigade of elite Grenzers in the hills on the top right.

This is what the Austrians actually had around Lobositz. Four additional infantry units and a pair of Cuirassier units, all hidden from the Prussians!

The battle opened with a cannonade. This was fine from my pov as it gave a chance to push the two Austrian brigades with their backs to the Elbe forward and support the Grenzers. The odd hit the Prussians inflicted I could just rally off. I was also able to move some units to garrison the BUAs, which proved to be crucial.

Eventually Frederick got bored with this as he realised it wasn't having much effect, and moved to contact. This revealed a few more Austrians, and their defensive fire wreaked havoc. The Austrian artillery was particularly effective at close range.

Contact was made on the Austrian left. One of the Prussian infantry was routed by point blank cannister fire, but the elite Prussian cavalry engaged our horsemen in melee.

The Prussians rolled forwards in dribs and drabs. One of the Austrian cavalry was defeated, which just exposed the French to close range musket fire from the village. Meanwhile the Grenzers had managed to tie up two entire Prussian brigades.

A bloody point blank firefight raged, but our chaps were supported by close range artillery and defending buildings. The Austrians had the edge and the Prussian infantry began to disintegrate.

After a few turns pounding, there wasn't much left of Fredericks army. The Prussian cavalry found out the hard way that defended villages flanked by swamps are really hard to take.

The Austrian reserves now appeared, and Prussian morale plummeted. The Grenzers also turned out to be really tough in the mountainous terrain and shattered the Prussian infantry stalking them.

The Austrians began to close in on the remains of the Prussians, and realising he was now outnumbered 2:1, Frederick decided it was time to withdraw. The Battle of Lobositz was over. Ah well, in real life it was a close run thing too, and Frederick was still learning his trade but managed to pull a victory out of an unpromising situation. 

As someone who has played with Austrians a lot, it was very pleasant playing with some Austrians who had a degree of professional competence. Well done von Browne for reforming the army so effectively.