Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Seven Years War

I set up a sort of Auerstadt scenario with a small force of elite Prussians defending against a large force of poorer quality French.
Prussians (Jim): 14 infnatry, 3 Hussars & 2 artillery. All elite troops with superior command, better firing, HTH & morale.  Unit & army break tests only.
French (SteveJ & Mike): 3 divisioins each 6 infantry, 3 cavary, 1 artillery. The cavalry was one brigade each of hussars, dragoons & cuirasiers. All with poor morale & command, but standard combat factors. The devisions had to fight as 3 separate commands each with a separate divisional break test.

Initial deployment from behind Prussian lines.  The French are in a long road column.

The French took their time deploying all their forces 3 divisions abreast before commencing their attack.
The French begin their advance.  The Prussians shift cavalry to their left as French dragoons cross the creek there.
The French launch cavalry attacks on their left & centre.
On their right they are bombarding the village with artillery while their dragoons prepare to attack past the village achoring the Prussian left.
On the left the Prussian hussars are holding the line with support from the village, but the artillery fire on the village is relentleslsy effective. 
On the right the French hussars were beaten off easily.
In the centre the cuirassiers were tougher, but have also been held.  French infantry came up to take over the attacks but are suffering from superior Prussian musketry.
On the left the French dragoons have given up their attack & fallen back.  On the right of the village, the French got the worst of the firefight & the Prussians are counterattacking, but with numbers limited because the French artillery fire has shaken the defenders of the village
On the right, the Prussians are holding their line.
In the centre the French infantry fell back to get fresh troops to the front, but came under artillery fire they couldn't reply to.  They began to advance to get back inside musket range but were met with another charge by cuirassiers.
On the left the Prussian counterattack is inflicting heavy losses, but they are running out of unshaken units themselves. 
On the right the Prussians have fallen back to get fresh troops to the front.
In the centre, the French cuirassiers are about to break the Prussian line.
On the left, a charge of the light brigade up the hill took out the French battery & 2 infantry units breaking the right flank French Division.
In the right the Prussians are still holding the line., but with mounting casualties.
In the centre all the Prusians had left were two shaken squares formed by the with drawn previously front line. One has already been broken by arillery & the other is about to follow suit.

The Prussians broke one of French divisions & inflicted heavy casualties on the other two, but have only 3 units left fit to fight & lack the means to finish off either of the two remaining French divisions.  The Prussians concede the battle & order a retreat.

The French outnumbered the Prussians by 59% in numbers & 16% in points.  The Prussians came close to holding on but in the end numbers counted against an enemy also using good tactics.  The keys to French victory included the good placement & hot shooting of the battery on their right & the timely second charge of the cuirassiers in the centere. 

At Auerstadt in 1806 Davout won a similar action even more outnumbered.  We evened up the numbers a little because we don't have any wargamers dumb enough to replicate the poor Prussian tactics in that battle. 

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