Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz

 

None of the generals in the Garrison range are of generals so I simply used a cuirasier officer with the plume cut away.

Technically Von Seydlitz was a cavalry general, but he'll do.

I wanted him on a black horse which made black horse trappings an issue. So I just painted the lot black. Problem solved.

7 Years War Prussian Fusiliers

 

My original thought was to produce 3 infantry regiments, 2 cavalry and 1 gun. This unit completes that so everything else is a bonus!

Colour scheme and standard make this my interpretation of the 38th Regiment. 

To be fair, I did the red to match the rest of the army then found a regiment and flag to fit!

Uniforms look so similar I decided to use a French officer to add a bit of variety.

7P14 Fusilier Standard Bearer, Infantry standard Type 1 from Uniforms of the Seven Years War Prussia.

7P13, Fusilier Drummer

7P11 Fusilier on guard

Prussian cuirassiers, 1st Regiment

Uniform details and flag taken from the Greenwood and Ball/Garrison booklet 'Uniforms of the Seven Years War'. A slightly enlarged second edition  is available from 18th Century Press and has nothing to do with me!

Anyway, finally got round to finishing a Cuirassier regiment:

Two companies made up a squadron. Or it could representing two of the five squadrons in the regiment.

The standard is from page 11 of  the booklet.

7PC1 Cuirassier officer

7PC2 Cuirassier

7PC3 Trumpeter. The trim is silver with two lines alternating yellow and red. There should be some blue triangles in there somewhere but I didn't bother with them...

7PC4 Standard bearer. No idea what colour the ribbon should be, probably red, but I've just done it the same as the trumpeter's trim.

So with a squadron of cavalry finished, perhaps I'll be able to speed up a bit...

7 Years War Prussian artillery

 In a bit of a messy period re periods and painting. I've got the Byzantine moulds back so should be getting on with then, meanwhile sidetracked by the 7 Years War...

Prussian gun crew, very much basic wargames standard!

There are four artillery figures for each of the powers.

I'm thinking of doing small armies of four nations - Austria, Prussia, Britain and France. Garrison don't do Russians and I probably won't do  a Hanoverian army. The Austrian one will be done last because I already have an Austrian army that I bought on ebay - very low chance of doing another...

One thing I will be looking at is very small armies - 3 12 man infantry units, 2 6 man cavalry squadrons and 1 gun crew with a choice of 3 guns!

Somewhere in Europe - the battle

 

Everything just about in position. Except for the French artillery - they arrived late. Mainly because I forgot about them...

The Guard attempted to attack the Prussian troops in the cornfield flanked by the Bavarians.

Meanwhile the other French infantry regiment attempted to attack the troops in the churchyard while they also tried to use their superiority in cavalry to outflank the Prussian army.

The guns finally arrived and started an artilley duel with the Prussian guns. They completely failed to have any impact on each other throughout the battle. Incidentally, the horse teams are the Rose teams I did for my Rose ACW armies.

Forcing the right flank, the French took a lot of casualties - not helped when the Prussian cavalry charged into the Bavarians!

Things weren't really going well for the French on the left. The cavalry couldn't break through and the infantry  bounced.

Things were no better on the right. Especially as the Prussian cavalry were starting to make an impact! So the French decided on a tactical withdrawal at this point.

Which makes a lot of sense when you look at the respective casualties! Quite simply, attacking troops behind walls while in column without outnumbering them by quite a bit doesn't work. Likewise, having to cross a fence into withering fire is a bad idea, especially when the enemy has cavalry on that flank and you don't! I made a deliberate decision to split the Prussian cavalry but keep the French cavalry together - I thought that the French would benefit most by having theirs together - wrong, it was the Prussians who gained the most!

So an interesting battle that I completed in one day. Perhaps this will help me kickstart the Napoleonic side again? Need a lot more infantry regiments for meaningful battles!

Somewhere in Europe - the armies arrive

 

The Prussians start arriving first

 

The Prussian heavy cavalry are basically Russians, though this particular unit is painted as Prussians!

 

The army starts to take up positions...

 

Nearly there...

 

As the French start to arrive.

 

And start to take their positions ready to attack the Prussian line.

 

 

The Prussians split their cavalry equally to each flank whereas the French kept theirs together.

 

Only having 2 French infantry regiments I've assumed that Bavaria in this battle is still on the French side.

A skirmish at the crossroads

 Not sure when I'll get this game finished - visit to the hospital on Wednesday and it involves being rendered unconcious! So not sure when I'll be recovered. (Don't ask. It's a Urology thing...) Meanwhile, Blogger being a pain and I've started to have issues replying to blogs again - keeps asking me to sign into Goggle, (I am), then click on the link and it does nothing!

Anyway. The game. The game will have a provisional title of 'Somewhere in Europe' but I thought I'd start with scouting parties meeting up first.

The Russian church doesn't mean this is happening in Russia. The game is between France and Prussia!

Chasseurs a Cheval versus Hussars. Straightforward encounter between equal forces to see who gets to initially control the battlefield!

Well, that was short and sweet!

So took it as first rank of Chasseurs dead, rest make a tactical withdrawal in route mode.

So I'm giving the Prussians a couple of free moves to get their forces set up.

Some Prussian cuirassiers

Now right back on track for a couple of days...

Russian cuirassiers painted up as Prussians.

Helmet crest not quite the same, but then the horses aren't the right ones anyway.

Still, they do the job.

Comparison with the original Russian test figure. The uniforms are similar enough so that I'll probably still use Russians as Prussians and Prussians as Russians when I need to.

Somewhere in Germany 3

Bit of a difference with this game over the Greek/Persian one which lasted 3 moves!

In the infantry shoot out, both sides having problems. However, the French Chasseurs are learning.

On the French right, the guns have arrived and the Carabiniers have seen off (destroyed) the surviving Landwehr - left here as the route goes in every direction - I diced to see who the Carabiniers would 'follow'.

Infantry on the Prussian right are having reverses on both sides - but the French are coming worse off.

An overview shows that the French, having two cavalry squadrons across the river and guns in position, are starting to gain the upper hand.

At this point the Prussian left is looking very shaky.

The centre is definitely going Prussia's way...

With the cavalry threat on the Prussian right the infantry are forced to form square...

Despite being shot at by two guns and charged by the Carabiniers the Prussian left flank gun survives!

At this point the game had finished 17 moves! As most standard 'days' are around 12 moves, and as this battle was far from finished, I decided that the best option was to say that night had fallen. During the night the Prussians quietly slipped away... on balance, probably just a French win - they had a foothold on the Prussian side of the river - but the Prussians had held them up and left with most of the army intact.

Lots learnt from it. Obvious ones  - the French needed an extra infantry battalion, I should possibly increase movement rate of limbered artillery, plus it might be an idea to sort some formal rules regarding squares. I made no use of the buildings in this game - again, perhaps I should sort out some rules for that. The river made a big impact but the rules there worked pretty well - those lancers were going back and forth like a yo yo as they 'broke' and routed under fire, but kept coming back as there were no negative factors around to stop them rallying - perhaps I need to limit the number of rallies?