Seven Years' War - Prussia versus Austria

A Sunday morning gaming slot. I suggested Stephen get his SYW collection out for another dust up.

He's tweaked the rules a bit since last time - restricting command ranges and making it a bit harder to let rip with all guns than in our last game.

I took the Austrians and he had the Prussians.

The Austrian left flank - held by Dragoons.

My centre assorted Russians and Hungarians in Austrian service.

And the right - with the Cuirassiers at the ready.

Beastly Hanoverians

And the forces of Prussia

The Hanoverians advanced into a storm of shot

The Prussian heavy cavalry took on the dragoons.

Whilst on the right it was Hussars against the Austrian Cuirassiers.

The Prussian forces struggled into line

Despite one failed attempt the Grenadiers came to the rescue of the Dragoons

In my centre the Russians came under heavy fire.

The grenadiers having dealt with the Prussian heavies turned toward the advancing Prussian line

The Hungarians dithered.

But the cannon drove off more Prussian line

The Hanoverians clung on grimly

The Austrian dragoons managed to get on the end of the Prussian line.

Despite pressure on the rest of the Prussian forces the grenadiers were determined to strike home and ploughed into the Russians.

Destroying them!
The Hungarians turned to face the threat.

Still the damnable Hanoverian hung around.

The Prussian Grenadiers gave fire

But their counterparts were closing in from the rear

Finally the Hanoverians were vanquished

And with the Austrian heavy cavalry on the way with Prussians ceded the field.

That was jolly good fun. The rules work well for us and Stephen's two armies look splendid.

Whenever we get them out I'm tempted to buy some of my own - but so far I'm remaining strong

Seven Years' War with Stephen

Steve loves a project. He loves to paint big armies and he loves to do it fast. I am a constant disappointment to him as in the time it takes him to paint an entire army I have usually managed about 17 models and then butterflied off to something else.

Not long ago he was hankering after something to paint - I made some of my usual suggestions (6mm Hitites, 54mm Burgundian Ordonanace) but this time one of them stuck. Seven Year's War - bit of lace, tricornes, horsey men, guns, colourful uniforms. I think I may have vaguely suggested I might paint a unit or two of French. For whatever reason it resonated with Steve and he went ahead and made several large orders with Front Rank.

And so on Saturday we were ready to play. I had painted nothing.

We used some homebrew rules because there wasn't anything available that looked like it would do - so why not?

I took command of the Prussians led by the renowned Johan-Tomas Schwanschtucker. Kenton took control of the Austrians commanded by Wilhelm von Stüchy

Austrians assemble

The field of war

Boom, boom, boom!

Johan-Tomas takes the salute

Austrian cavalry

Von Stüchy gazes about

Too war, Austria!

Boom, boom, boom!

The cavalry clash on the right flank

Austrians reach the hedge line

..and begin to exchange fire with Prussian grenadiers.

Meanwhile on the road the Prussians drive back the Austrian grenadiers!

Russians join their Austrian allies.

The Prussian cavalry attempt a rather rash charge

On the road the firefight continues.

The Prussian lights catch the Austrian guns

But the Grenadiers rally and turn to help the cannon.

It has not gone well for either side at the hedge.

At last the road is clear, the guns are gone and there are just a few grenadiers left to deal with.

This takes some time...

The Russians make a belated push toward the Prussian centre

But the death of the Grenadiers mean Von Stüchy concedes the field.

That played well and looked splendid.

Thanks for doing all the hard work, Steve!

The rules were simple but worked. A few tweaks and I can see us just using them for more Horse and Musket games.