Sometimes I get a random hankering for a game set in a certain period. That's what happened with this report. I was perusing George Gush's A Guide to Wargaming (available thanks to John Curry's History of Wargaming project). Gush includes a Franco-Prussian battle report. This got me interested in gaming the 19th century, although I decided to swap the French for my beloved Austrians.
Here is my version of the Austro-Prussian War using Dominion of the Spear and Bayonet.
Background
Because of disputes over the governance of the provinces of Schleswig-Holstein, Prussia invades the Austrian Empire.
Battle of Eichenwald Hill
The Prussian advance meets resistance from the Austrians.
Note: I am not recreating actual battles. These are all fictional.
The opposing forces:
- Prussians (dark blue) - Front - cavalry, artillery, line infantry. Reserve - elite line, skirmishers
- Austrians (white) - F - line, artillery on a hill, elite disciplined cavalry. R - skirmishers, infantry
Firepower sweeps away both sides' cavalry.
Note: I used the wrong marker for the Prussians. They should have a gold marker. I played them correctly, though.
Then the opposing line infantry wipe each other out.
This leaves the Prussian offensive in the hands of their jaegers. They come through, driving off the Austrian artillery.
It is a bloody victory, but the Prussians pursue the defeated Austrians.
Battle of Bergheimdorf
The Prussians catch up to the Austrian army near Bergheimdorf and launch an attack.
The opposing forces:
- Prussians - F - skirmishers, line, cavalry. R - elite line, artillery
- Austrians - F - cavalry, line, skirmishers. R - elite line, infantry
Looks like I'm missing some markers. Each army is 11 points. This was accidental.
The Prussian center advances but gets driven off. On the left, the Austrian cavalry charges, and gets cut down.
Note: Once again I'm using the wrong markers. In this battle, gray = elite
Skirmishers battle artillery on both flanks. In both cases, the Austrians prevail.
Now it is the Prussians who must retire from the battlefield.
Battle of Grünthal
The Austrian are the pursuers. They seek to drive the Prussians out of the Empire.
The opposing forces:
- Prussians - F - Skirmishers, artillery on a hill, cavalry. R - 2 elite line
- Austrians - F - line, skirmishers, elite cavalry. R - artillery, elite line
The Austrian cavalry drives off the Prussians, but they leave the battlefield in pursuit.
The Austrian attack wipes out the Prussian center and left flank.
But now, the Austrians must deal with those perfidious Italians!
GAME NOTES
- I debated which Dominion of rules set to use. I wasn't sure if Spear and Bayonet is designed for regular vs. regular warfare. I pondered using Napoleon Bonaparte but ultimately, I just stuck with Spear and Bayonet.
- Again, I forgot to use the rally rule!
- I used the random army lists in Frederick the Great, dropping one cavalry unit for skirmishers. Using random lists gave a little variety to the games.
- I used my counters from MicroBattle. I was worried that I would not have enough infantry, but the my armies were sufficient for the random lists.
- I'm loving my approach to gaming:
- Generic armies let me jump into random periods without delay. I normally would not collect 19th century armies so it would require a project to do the Austro-Prussian War. But with my generic counters, I can do it at a moment's notice!
- The Dominion of series lets me do an entire campaign in a morning. This encourages me to try different eras because I know I won't likely have an unfinished campaign.
Great stuff! I have just been working through the battles of the Austro-Prussian War for the soon to be released Dominion of Otto von Bismarck. Like you, I have taken Dominion of the Spear and Bayonet as the starting point. My understanding is that Austrian infantry of this time period preferred to fight in Assault Column as opposed to line, which is one of the main reasons that their casualties were so heavy fighting the Prussians and their needle guns. I would be inclined to make the Austrian infantry Column Infantry (i.e. Bayonets). But in the Colonial rules Line Infantry get +1 v Melee Infantry which while historically accurate unbalances the points system. As a quick fix I would remove this +1 so elite Line Infantry are still attacking first needing a 4, 5 or 6. For a better solution, I am looking at leaving the +1 but changing the rallying rules to increase the chance of Column Infantry rallying thus allowing waves of infantry assaulting the lines of (Prussian) troops. I am still running the probabilities for this.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the ideas. I toyed with using Dominion of Napoleon and making the Austrians column infantry. I wasn't sure if it would work so I got lazy and just used Spear and Bayonet. Looking forward to an Otto von Bismarck version!
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