Battle for Rahden : Conclusions

A couple of posts ago, we left the battle for the 'Soldier King' campaign town of Rahden interestingly poised after seven turns, with the defending Prussians  expelled from the eastern hill in front of the town, and attacking Austrians hoping to press home their advantage.  After a longer than expected hiatus, with the opposing troops snarling at each other inside their storage box, I was able to unpack them, re-set the battlefield and resume the game. 

Turn 8 :  Austrians advance

The picture shows the situation at Turn 8 - the defenders have a problem, in that their Fusiliers East of the road are facing two Austrian battalions, and being bombarded by artillery. That battery took a few turns to get the range, but once it did, things got tricky. Meanwhile on the other flank, Prussian Horse Grenadiers face twice their number of Austrian  cavalry on the hill.  The Horse Grenadiers didn't lack courage, making three charges in the next three moves - sadly they were  'bounced back' twice and then suffered 1 SP loss. But they certainly kept the Austrian horse busy!  The supporting von Kleist infantry fought well,  keeping up a steady fire - for example repelling an Austrian cavalry charge and coolly volleying to force the  2nd Botta battalion to retreat, all  in one turn. 

Turn 9 also saw the Austrians really get stuck in - taking advantage of the road, their  remaining Jaeger infantry battalion charged the Prussian guns! There followed several rounds of suprisingly inconclusive close combat as the gunners stuck to their guns behind the shelter of the wall,  and neither side would give way. 

Turn 9 : Intrepid Jaegers charge Prussian guns

 

In Turn 10, things really heated up, with the Austrian gunners getting their eye in and hitting the Prussian Fusiliers - who could not risk retreating from their protected position, and so had to take a loss of 1 SP. To make matters worse, musketry from 1st battalion Botta also hit them, and took another 1SP.  The Fusiliers gave almost  as good as they got,inflicting 1 SP loss on 1st  Botta, but it was a bad turn for the Prussians and left the losses at 7 SPs  each.  

The Prussian infantry defended stoutly, their mustketry repeatedly finding its mark, but the Austrian gunners were even more effective, hitting the Prussian Fusiliers every turn- and those Fusiliers couldn't give up their position, so the casualties kept on  mounting.  On Turn 12 the cannonade  left them with only one SP strength remaining, and then  a volley from 1st  Botta battalion  scored another hit - the fusiliers finally retreated, to avoid destruction. At which point, the Austrian Jaegers were able to take advantage, jumping over  the vacated wall.  

Oops -  by making that move, I had broken a rule.  The Jaegers had been in contact with the Prussian gunners, and according to Bob's 'Portable Napoleonic Wargame' rules,  'if a unit is being faced by an enemy unit that is in an adjacent grid area..it can move..providing it does not move into a grid area that is adjacent to another enemy unit'. So they shouldn't have been able to move adjacent to the retreating fusiliers, only to withdraw away from the guns.  Oh dear!  I only realised this when looking through my notes to write this account, so at the time the game simply went on.  Maybe that's the best way to deal with rules mistakes - just keep calm and carry on. It's possibly both an advantage and a disadvantage of solo play - no aggrieved opponent annoyed at being 'cheated', but equally no second pair of eyes on the rules to point out mistakes and prevent them happening.  Oh well, c'est la (jeux de)  guerre.

Jaegers over the wall : oops, illegal move!

 

Also in turn 12,  the Prussian Horse Grenadiers charged yet again, and finally took 1SP from their Austrian opponents - some reward for their persistence. That left the losses at Austrians 10 SP, Prussians 9 SP - and crucially the Prussians reached their Exhaustion Point. 

Prussian General von Gehirne could use his brains, and knew the game was up - the best course now was to retire with as much as possible of his force intact.  Starting from  turn 13 the Prussian gunners limbered up their pieces and began to retire, while the von Kliest foot and Horse Grenadiers pulled back slowly, with the brave Fusiliers holding position, keeping up constant fire to deter the Austrian follow-up - their Jaegers were repeatedly hit and forced back.  But the rest of Dachs' attacking force made a general advance, the guns limbering up and moving forward to East Hill,  and both their cavalry units charging the Horse Grenadiers, inflicting casualties on them.     Turn 15 effectively ended the game: with all Prussian units near table edge, a volley from 1st Botta finally forced the Fusiliers to retreat off-table, taking their commander with them. 

At this point I called a halt, with the Prussians retiring  and the Austrians taking possession of the town of Rahden.  Casualties were even - 10 SPs lost each, though of course that was enough to bring the Prussians to their  Exhaustion Point.  Both sides had one 'veteran' ( i.e. average ) infantry  unit destroyed and a scattering of SP losses shared evenly  among  various units - though the Prussian Fusiliers were hard hit, losing 4 out of their 5 SPs. All this needs considering in terms of the campaign - it's not just a one-off battle, there are consequences, and I hope that's part of the fun. 

The End of the Affair - two remaining Prussian units retire

 

Many of the units should easily replace their losses, but the Fusiliers will need longer to recover. A simple scheme suggests itself - I'll say that  replacements and recovery of the wounded can restore 1 SP per unit per campaign turn, for the moment - only a very small amount of book-keeping will be required.  I've decided that the two routed/destroyed units are gone for good, their survivors having scattered to the four winds, or perhaps been allocated to make up losses in less depleted units.

 Just for fun,  I played out the battle using the 'Soldier King' board game's combat system - and it was a disaster for the attacking Austrians! The fortifications of the town gave a big advantage to the defenders and negated the Austrians' cavalry superiority: after 3 rounds of combat they had lost 8 points out of 12 and only inflicted 2 points - total defeat!   Maybe I should have given more advantage to the defence  on the tabletop, but what the heck, it was a fun game. 

I hope to continue with the campaign. Let's see where it takes us. How will the Prussians respond to this reverse?   Until next time,  keep safe and well, everyone.