Battle of Breslau 1757 : SYW

Leaving the Ogres to feast for a while we return to the Seven Years War. The Battle of Breslau 22nd November 1757. Earlier in the month Frederick had defeated the combined French and Austrian army at Rossbach. But whilst he was moving west the Austrians had started to retake Silesia, moving at the end of the month to take Breslau hoping to achieve this before the Prussians could combine their armies in defence. The duke of Brunswick-Bevern was covering Breslau but with only around 28,000 Prussians. The Austrians under the Prince of Loraine and Von Daun sought to combine their forces. They were then further supported by Nadasdy bringing their combined force to between 60-80,000.

The Prussians held a strong position SW of Breslau protected on two sides by the Rivers Oder and Lohe, the later being somewhat smaller. The Prussians had dug in a pretty strong position with many entrenchments, a series of abatis blocking the northern most section of the lohe and had dismantled several bridges. Historically Nadasdy took his corps round to the south, the Prussians under Von Zieten held them off on high ground and this flank attack then came to a stand still. For the purposes of our battle the. We have excluded this section of the fighting. The main Austrian assault was directly across the Lohe river, they had built a number of pontoon bridges. The Prussians held a series of fortified villages where much of the fighting took place. In the end the Prussians held the Austrians off till darkness before pulling back in the face of very superior numbers and the following day pulling out of Breslau all together.

My interpretation of the battlefield some licence but the main elements in place. The Austrians broadly attack in three blocks, infantry followed by cavalry. They have extensive artillery support to help them do this. For objectives the Austrians must try and capture the five villages running from Kosel to Grabischen. We allowed Von Zieten to filter a few troops into the battle from the high ground. Historically the Austrians pounded the defences for several hours before the attack, given our constraints it became clear this wasn’t having the desired effect and the Prussian artillery would be too dominating, so we implemented a rule where by Prussian cannons would have to roll to see if they ran out of ammo during the battle this worked well as the prussian artillery gradually filtered away back to Breslau. One final quirk is using Honours of war we rolled for each brigade commander. Almost every Austrian commander rolled dithering and all,st every Prussian ordered inspiring ! So there was a serious risk the Prussians might go charging across the river on the attack !

The Austrian left wing attack Prussian grenadiers through the village of Pilsnitz

A view down the battlefield the bridge at Pont de Pelz ?can be seen heavily defended beyond that the Austrians are crossing a pontoon bridge in numbers. historically I have read that the Prussian orders were to let the Austrians cross and then counter attack ! Prussian cavalry reserve can be seen on the left holding back for now

The Austrian reserve corps cavalry advances towards Grabischen, Prussians cavalry can be seen sweeping around the village, a significant combat took place ( which I forgot to photo) with both sides cavalry forced to withdraw from the battle exhausted/beaten.

Von Zieten sends some infantry to hold the crossing.

The defenders of Klein Mochbern have been temporarily driven back where they do eventually regroup

To the north the Pilsnitz crossing is proving too tough and the Austrians decide to occupy the village and fire long range cross the river.

The leading Austrians infantry is across the river and fighting and now the Austrian cavalry (lots and lots of it) is moving to the advance

Seeing the risk the Prussian cavalry edges forward seen here on the right behind the villages

Fighting continues in the south but the Austrians have the numbers in any fight in the open

The Prussians pull back to the village

Carnage in the centre, a massed cavalry battle in the foreground, more Austrian cavalry arising in the centre and further back move Austrian cavalry being held back on the Pont de Pelz. Hot work everywhere !

Having won the intital combat the Prussian cavalry is just able to regroup back behind the villages before being destroyed by Austrian artillery. The Prussians have very little in reserve now.

Fighting to the last at Grabischen but the village is about to fall.

Much of the Austrian cavalry has been driven back over the river where it is regrouping, but the Prussian infantry is only just clinging onto the villages at the moment 

The crossing at Pilsnitz has proved too tough for the Austrians to force, where almost the whole Austrian right wing has been tied up

But in the end numbers begin to count as the Prussians held villages are gradually surrounded 

In the end given the objectives we felt a draw was right, the technically both side were holding two villages each with. Third unoccupied but about to be taken by the Austrians.

We both really enjoyed the battle, given the relatively unequal sides it provided a great battle with plenty of twists and turns. The balance was almost perfect, anymore Prussians and the crossings wouldnt have been possible any less and the Austrians would have come galloping across. Interestingly the Austrians did suffer from their dithering command but by virtue of the overall commander being inspiring this allowed re-rolls without this the Prussians may never have gotten off the start line.

Hard not to enjoy this one and wargaming pretty much at its best 👍

Thanks for taking the time to check out my activity in the dungeon

Matt ❤️

Battle of Lydden : Operation Sealion and other New Year activity

Plenty of hobby activity here in the Dungeon. First up, and always a good start to the year we resumed the Sealion campaign. Day 2 and the Germans are pushing North out of Dover along the A2, with the white cliffs and stiff resistance the Germans haven’t been able to open the port yet so to open the A2 towards Canterbury a strong force of Fallschirmjager have been collected to push up the road on foot. The Village of Lydden sits where the road cuts through the hills and the British have blocked the road.

Germans approaching from the south looking to open the A2 and link up with forces to the west, we nominally set three objectives, the railway station, and two houses overlooking the road through the village, one central and one to the West.

Both sides had a double move for troops coming in on the first turn, the Germans making the better of this deployment rushing units of paratroopers close to all three objectives. They have some support weapons teams but only very limited armour.

The British aren’t giving up yet and push infantry along the railway line and an AT gun upto the roadblock

At the other end of the village, Fallschirmjager move into the garage, the house over the road from the telephone box is the objective

The centre of the village the objective being the big house.

The battle for the railway station begins early and proves a key focus for both sides. The Germans have some heavy artillery support, to reduce the impact of this we agreed it would only hit on a six. Haha first turn it demolished the British AT gun, lucky for the British the Germans don’t really have any armour !

The British push forward an AT rifle team only to find the paratroopers have 2 flame thrower teams to help clear the village ! toasted Tommies 🔥

The fight for the railway station hots up but some lightheaded Germans choose to charge across the railway line only to be caught in cross fire and wiped out by the British defenders !

Germans reserves move up, whilst the British seek to outflank them with one of their two Vickers Tanks

The Germans have secured the western objective and just need to hold it now 

British infantry advancing through the village

Dash it the British manage to snatch the station when the two leading Fallschirmjager units both fail an activation test in the same turn , the Vickers tank can now be seen burning and the British are almost broken. They have even resorted to deploying the Beaverette ! In the end the station is contested.

At the west of the village the Germans have secured the house by the Junction despite a late attempt by the British navy unit, the other Vickers tank is also now burning.

The ‘big’ house has changes hands a couple of times, especially when the pinned Fallschirmjager unit in the building rolled a FUBAR and fled the village !!!! But in the end the objective is contested with British in the back garden. This gives the Germans a minor victory, with the only clear objective held and more troops left on the table.

Star of the show definitely goes to the German artillery, their 105mm Howitzer which we only allowed to hit on 6’s hit at least 4 if not 5 times during the battle. This caused a huge amount of laughter and fun even form the British commander 😂

I also played a game of CoC down with George, what a beautiful setup but the result was rather lacklustre from the Germans. George has covered the details on his blog so I won’t repeat here, but the scenario from the campaign is a really tough one for the Germans with very little scope for the Germans. We are moving the campaign on rather than slog this one out again and again.

And some painting since Christmas…

My first completed Perry Spanish unit marches into formation, extra Grenadiers as this will represent the 1st Battalion. More to come…..

I also have a desire to ‘complete’ my SYW collection so I worked on the second unit of Austrian Draggons these representing the 1st Regiment.

They only just fit in the Austrian cavalry box though 

Following Jon’s lead the pile of shame, thankfully much smaller…..

Here are the currently unmade 1/48 aircraft I have collected in the Dungeon six in total, I need to make some progress on these I think.

Well that’s it for the update in 2026, I have some thoughts about projects and battles/ campaigns for this year and I’m already on with prepping the Greeks I got at Christmas. More games planned in the next few weeks.

Thanks as always for taking the time to check out the blog 

Matt ❤️

Some wee fighting men painted 🙂

After a week at home with quite a few family commitments things are settling down, and with lots of rain I have found some motivation to get painting again. Long overdue I’m going to focus on my ECW collection for a while, or at least till I get bored.

First up though I had these larger artillery pieces prepped for ages so I worked my way through them. Prussians and Austrians in equal measure.

Some Cavalier cavalry in red uniforms

A second unit of Scot’s for Montrose army?

 

I have prepped loads more ECW figures so we’ll see how I get on in the next few weeks. If I kept a record of figures painted this week would have been a bonus week 👍

That’s it for now some games coming up in the next few days so if I don’t get distracted some more reports soon.

Final question to fellow blogger I have seen a massive increase in ‘views’ over the last month I assume the blogger system if just failing to weed out the bots again. Unless there are 10,000 people in my Holiday snaps, which seems unlikely 

Thanks all Matt

Battle of Reichenberg 1757 : SYW

It has been a while since we played with our SYW collections, we have fought the majority of the larger Prussian vs Austrian battles so we are now exploring some of the smaller battles. The battle of Reinchenberg on the 21st April 1757 was part of the Third Silesian War. The battle involved a corps or so on each side, the Prussians commanded by Marshal Von Bevern and the Austrians were under Count Konigsegg.

The two armies were marching somewhat in parallel when the Austrian took up a defensive position close to the town of Reinchenberg, but when they came under serious pressure they chose to pull back giving the victory to Bevern who captured a significant amount of Austrian supplies.

A couple of useful map from the web

Martin had set up the battle, the Austrians holding the two emplacements on the higher ground. The objectives for the Prussians are to take the high ground and if possible cut the road and thus trapping the Austrian army.

The Prussian left wing prepares to assault the high ground

Both forces have their centre dominated by cavalry, the Prussians seek to block any Austrians crossing the river

On the Prussian left wing they are assaulting the earthworks on the high ground, the Prussians have split their cavalry who have then been able to turn the earthworks and support the assault

On their left the Prussians have a tougher job, fighting up hill into defensible earthworks !

The rest of the Prussian cavalry has been thrown back from the river, but luckily reserves have arrived to strengthen their centre

After a hard fight the Prussians have forced the earthworks on the left, but they don’t have enough strength to push down the hill to the villages on the road

The Prussian cavalry has regrouped in the centre and their reserve infantry brigade prepares to cross the river and drive the Austrian cavalry away

On the Prussian right, the earthworks have been taken but at significant cost and when the Austrian reserves arrive they can’t hold onto the objective

Prussian reserves crossing the river

They drive the Austrian cavalry gradually back towards the road

The position at the end of the battle the Prussians have snatched a victory having taken and held one earthwork and cut the road. The Austrians have retaken the second earthworks, with the Prussian right wing pulling back to a defensive position.

A great battle and it reminded us how much we enjoy these SYW battles and we are now searching out some more for the future 👍

Also managed a bit of painting this week completing some KGL Hussars for my British peninsular army

This gives me two units of Hussars for the British which is enough, I certainly don’t enjoy painting Hussars way too much lace and bits. These will have to do and are ok if you don’t look too closely.

That’s it for now thanks for checking in this week

Matt ❤️