Battle of Paltzig

I had the extreme good fortune on Saturday to be involved in a re fight of the battle of Paltzig, 1758, Prussians against Russians. I knew very little about the battle apart from the Prussians were outnumbered and got beat. The lack of knowledge made the game for me. Give the role of Prussian C-in-C by my erstwhile colleagues Dave and Neal, we thought we had come up with a cunning plan. Concentrating our small force, using the Hussars to screen the advancing infantry, protecting them from the numerous Russian guns, we aimed to smash into the Russian Left wing. Dave with a small force of cavalry and Infantry would use a small ridge to hide his progress to hit the same Russian position in the flank.

Mick, our host had already set the Russians up in their original positions, they looked rather numerous, however what we didn't know was due to the nature of the terrain we could not see what was behind these Russian positions and boy did we get a surprise. Our initial attack was all we could hope for with the added bonus of the Hussars knocking out 3 Russian batteries. Dave's cavalry got to grip with some Russian hussars and cossacks forcing them from the field. Neal's infantry attack got stuck in and after some fierce Russian resistance their line broke. We had captured a ridge and continued the advance. This was when a second Russian line appeared and we slammed straight into it.

So far the Russian left wing had remained stationery, silly I thought, if they turned and marched on our flank it could prove very problematic. It wasn't until game move 14 that they eventually began to move, their duty done. They had screen yet more Russian and Infantry which moved to support their right wing.

As our attack continued the Russian right began to fragment, Neal continued to push on breaking a second and then a third Russian infantry line. Myself with the reserve continued to cover our right flank, the cavalry getting heavily involved with more  Russian Hussars and Cossacks before sending them packing. It was then that what we thought was a decisive moment when the Russian heavy cavalry appeared on their Right and slammed into the attack. Dave first held them before forcing them back and destroying the formation. With most of our units now nearing exhaustion, the whole Russian army was revealed. We hadn't been just outnumbered, it was between 2 and 3 to 1 odds. Russian Infantry, thousands of them counter attacked and after a desperate struggle the Prussian infantry was forced back, committing the last of our cuirassiers to check the Russian assault. Our position on our left was still strong but the centre was fought out, the Russain numbers began to tell and we called it a day. We had failed in our objective of smashing through the Russians and re opening our lines of communication to Berlin.

We did though take a moral victory, we had performed substantially better than the Prussians had on the actual day. We inflicted between 30-40 % casualties on the Russians but to no avail. Great game with great opponents and friends.

A few photos of the game for you.

Starting set up

Russian left wing

Prussian assault on the Russian right wing

The link below shows more photos of the game. Photos

Minden 1759

Sunday saw me involved in a refight of the battle of Minden, I didn't know too much about this battle except that it was an allied victory and the British infantry performing very well. This time I was determined it would go differently. I was given command of the French left flank which included their Saxon allies, Jon took the centre and Mike (C in C) took the French right. Our opponents were Harry with the allied right, Mick in the centre and Charlie (C in C) the left. To say the early stages were slightly difficult is an understatement. On our left the British and Hanovarian infantry did heavy damage to my first line of infantry who gamely hung in until the second line could reinforce them. These extra fresh troops began to tip this flank into my favour and forced the allies back. The French centre struggled to deploy and saw heavy casualties mount up especially among the grenadiers. Eventuually Jon formed up and began to push the allied centre back, even being able to send a full brigade of infantry to support my counter attack. The French right wing, predominatly cavalry was severley worsted by the allied horse in early exchanges and only the eventual arrival of infantry support turned the tide in their favour. All in all a great game with great opponents. The figures are from Mick's collection, the rules were a homemade set by Mick which facilitate fast play and were very effective. I've added some photos I managed to take of the battle.

Weekend Ahead

Received an email from Mick detailing this weekend large multi player game. Its going to be the battle of Minden. Don't know much about this battle apart from French and Saxon allies against British, Prussians and other allies. So far I have been allotted to the French Command with Mike the CinC and me and Jon 2 of his divisional commanders (think I have the Saxons). Must admit really looking forward to it, will have to crash learn the rules as I play, though with movement on hexes it shouldn't be an issue. Will try to remember to take the camera and get some photos.