Wednesday 24 February 2021

Soldier King Campaign: Opening Shots at Rahden

Let battle commence..
 

Returning to my fictional Seven Years War campaign based on the 'Soldier King' boardgame, we last saw the Prussians attempting to co-ordinate their three separate columns in an attack on the city of Rahden, against a small but elite Austrian occupying force. Using my improvised 'mini-campaign' setup, we had the two smaller Prussian forces linking up on the western road, while Austrian cavalry kept a watchful eye. 

And so, on Turn 6 of map-moving the Prussians managed to bring on their largest force from the North. The Austrians were just not getting any intelligence from the local population, however ( i.e. terrible dice rolls ), and were blissfully unaware and unable to react until Turn 7.  At that point, they became aware of all three Prussian forces - what to do?  Actually pretty obvious, as the first two enemy groups   were much closer to the city - better meet them first!  Accordingly, the Austrian infantry hastily formed up and marched out on the West road to meet the aggressors -  which they pretty soon did, as shown in this hurriedly-drafted  Austrian intelligence service map:

 


Within a table's width: contact!

To create a battlefield, I started with the rough map above - the game table occupies '4 by 4' of the small squares, and we have the road running SW to NE, with part of the town at the NE corner. Given that, and my '9 by 9 hexes' table,  I then used Bob Cordery's Terrain Generator system and rolled some dice, just to add some hills and trees. That produced four grid areas of  hills and four of trees, which tended to cluster south of the road, leaving the northern section quite open - good cavalry country? Interesting.

The respective forces were as follows: 

Prussians:   

    Brigadier-General  von Stocke :  6 SPs 

    2 battalions Fusiliers, 1 battalion Frei Korps, all classed 'Average' and each 4 SPs 

    2 squadrons Uhlans ( Light Cavalry ) , Average, each 3 SPs,

    1  Gun and crew, Average,  2 SPs

    Total 26 SPs, exhaustion point at 9 SP lost.

Austrians: 

    Brigadier-General Rupert den Baren  ( victor of Weihnachten ) , 6 SPs

    3 Battalions Line Infantry, classed 'Elite' , each 5 SPs

    2 Squadrons Heavy Cavalry , Elite,  each 4 SPs 

    1 Gun and crew, Average, 2 SP, 

   Total 31 SPs , exhaustion point at 11 SPs lost. 

In the board game there are no artillery units,  so I decided that adding one gun for each  five units was about right - so one each. 

Even numbers of units, but the Prussians are about to find out that they are up against Elite troops, and their Light Cavalry have to deal with 'Heavies'. They need to at least hold the Austrians, and do some damage, while their main force tries to  'march to the sound of the guns'. The Austrians need to hit the enemy hard but also husband their own strength, ready to turn and fight the larger Prussian force.

I positioned the forces approximately as shown on the map,  and so it begins: an 'encounter' battle, both sides marching into action: 

Enemy in sight! Prussians nearest camera

For rules, I am using Bob Cordery's 'Portable Napoleonic Wargame' with my homespun amendments for the Seven Years War - and also thought I'd give  Mike Lewis'  close combat system ( from his amendments to Bob's rules ) a try, as it does look like it might be an improvement on the original, and also distinguishes between Light and Heavy horse - useful for this battle. 

And so, battle is joined...  now, 'Time and Space' considerations now apply, and the outcome is going to have to wait for another time.   Can the Prussians do enough to weaken those elite Austrian units? Can the Austrians sweep aside the enemy without too much loss?  We shall see.  Until then, keep safe and well, everyone..








 









13 comments:

  1. Like the way you transferred the strategic map action to the table top. Great system. Gotta love those hexes too!

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    1. Thank you - map to table transfer (with map squares representing table areas) suggested by Donald Featherstone's campaigns book, I think. And yes, the hexes have been great, glad I got them!

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  2. Ooh, that’s a teaser. That’s cruel.

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    1. ha ha, indeed! But tbh I simply ran out of time, only got a couple of game moves done and had to pack up, as the table is also my 'office'. I don't have a vast amount of hobby time at the moment - what you see here is pretty much 100% of what I am doing! Will try to pick up the game again in a few days, watch this space!

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  3. Glad this is moving forward so well. I look forward to future dispatches.

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    1. Thank you, Alan! It's all a bit improvised but that's part of the fun. More next week..

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  4. I like what I see! I look forward to seeing how the changes you’ve made to the rules work.

    All the best,

    Bob

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    1. Thanks very much, Bob! For this game I thought I would try Mike's system just for close combat, as it does look like it might be a bit more decisive. There will usually be a 'winner' of each round = and for example I suspect that a cavalry charge on infantry would either 'bounce' or 'break in' quite quickly? Having said that, I do prefer your system for effect of fire hits, with the choice of retreat or lose 1 SP - that seems 'right', units would quite likely retire a bit under heavy fire, I suspect.

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    2. p.s. I thought the terrain generator worked very well - thanks!

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  5. Always interesting to read about your steps to setting up the game, and now looking forward to the game report.

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    1. Thanks, I admit I am making it up as I go along, but hopefully in a sensible way! And trying to stick to just one 'D6' for all the decisions..
      Wish I could draw maps etc as well as you do!

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  6. Hello there old chap,

    Nicely poised, nicely posed and looking really spiffy! This will be a brutal action methinks! I like the campaign counters - very neat.

    Looking forward to the AAR for sure!

    All the best,

    DC

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    1. Thanks, David, yes I think it might be 'hard pounding'..
      Counters are simply paper, done with coloured pencils. If '3 Inf' splits into '1 Inf' and '2 Inf' I can just cut and colour two more counters. Though I suppose with larger sqaures, I could have just used the boardgame units..
      More action next week I hope!

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