Soldier King Campaign : exploiting victory

Back at my campaign using the 'Soldier King' boardgame for an imaginary sideshow theatre of the Seven Years War, we reach campaign turn six - the summer of 1757.

Initial situation: where will  Prussians strike?

 With  Prussia having achieved a major victory at Rahden, and the largest and best-quality Austrian field force in captivity, could the victors  exploit their stunning success?  I rolled dice for initiative, and fortune favoured the Prussians, winning them the right to move first. That seemed 'right' somehow, as the Prussian commanders would be keen to follow-up their victory while confusion and panic swept the ranks of the Austrians.  The Austrian territories wer protected by a scatter of small forces, many units only new-raised; the Prussians' whole army had concentrated at Rahden, and could choose its target. The dice gave them five 'marches' - each stack requires one march for a move, so they had no great constraint on movement. The priority was to prevent the Austrians from concentrating their troops, so the plan was simple - attack the largest remaining Austrian force with sufficient numbers to  wipe it out. 

 

seek out and destroy the enemy..

And so, leaving a flank guard of infantry at Piesport to cover their left , no less than eight units of Prussians moved to attack the Austrian force of only four units at Wittingen.   The opposing armies stack  up as follows: 

Look at all that Guard Heavy Horse..

It looks very tough for Austria: I did wonder if they should simply try to escape. But the Prussians have three units of Guard Heavy Cavalry against one unit of Lights - there's no way they could cover the infantry's retreat without being overrun. So I'm afraid it's stand and fight, hoping to inflict some damage at the very least, or nothing.

Translating those cardboard counters into troops 'on the table' we have , first the Prussians : 

The Prussian 'steamroller'

 

We have one battalion of the 44th Fusiliers promoted to 'Guard' status, with two battalions of von Kleist Frei Korps and  two of Jaegers ( fighting as Line in this event - this size of force is stretching my resources ! ) making up the veteran foot. Two squadrons of the newly-acquired Spencer-Smiths again represent  the von Preussen Cuirassiers, with  one squadron of von Kleist Horse Grenadiers , all rated as 'Guard', Finally one unit of field artillery seemed proportionate to the overall force.

And their Austrian opponents look like this: 

and the ( possibly worried )  Austrians

Three battalions of the Botta D'Adorno line infantry, one squadron of Grenze hussars and one artillery piece make up the defending force,  who are outnumbered pretty much two to one. 

Now I can imagine some might be thinking 'that's not going to be a balanced game' , but maybe I think the 'balanced' game is a bit of an artificial construct, and maybe one of the advantages of running a campaign is to generate engagements like this - after all, in real campaigns, the last thing any commander is aiming for is a 'balanced' battle.  Surely battles really happen when one or both sides think they have a strong  advantage, or if not, they have no easy way to escape and are forced to fight. In that respect, hopefully this is a 'real' battle. My job now is make it  worthwhile as a game, which  will require a bit of thought - I guess the measure of 'success' will be quite different for each side. I think it also helps that I am playing this solo, so there's not an 'Austrian player' who is feeling like he's on a loser from the start - I have a slightly detached view and can look at  the unfolding narrative as a whole. That's the theory, anyway. I have an idea for a battlefield setting, which will wait for next time - in the meantime, keep safe and well, everyone.