BBB – Battle of Kesselsdorf, December 1745.

Background

The Battle of Kesselsdorf was fought on 15 December 1745, between the Kingdom of Prussia and the combined forces of the Archduchy of Austria and the Electorate of Saxony during the part of the War of the Austrian Succession known as the Second Silesian War. The Prussians were led by Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, while the Austrians and Saxons were led by Field Marshal Rutowsky. The Prussians were victorious over the Royal Saxon Army and the Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Emperor.

The Prussians were slightly outnumbered 35,000 to 32,000. Additionally, the Saxons and Austrians had the advantage of the ground. Dessauer, a long experienced general now sixty eight years of age perceived that by taking the town of Kesselsdorf, the enemies’ flank could be turned and therefore concentrated his efforts against the Saxon portion of the army. The Saxons had Kesselsdorf defended with twenty-four heavy cannons, their engineers and carpenters enhancing its defensibility. Leopold made dispositions for an attack by an elite force of infantry and grenadiers, however the ground was very difficult and the first attack was repulsed with considerable loss, including the officer leading the attack, General Hertzberg. A second, reinforced attack was made and this too failed with the Prussians fleeing in disorder. The Prussians had suffered some 1,500 casualties from the attacking forces of 3,500.

The Saxon grenadiers, seeing the flight of the Prussians, left their strong defensive position and made an impetuous pursuit of the Prussians which exposed them to a massed charge by the dragoons of the Prussian cavalry. The shock of the charge sent the Saxons tumbling back and through their former position in Kesselsdorf, driving them from the field. At this same time, Leopold’s son, Prince Moritz, personally led an infantry regiment which broke through the Saxon center. The regiment, although isolated, held its ground while other Prussian regiments attempted but failed to link up with it due to the stubbornness of the Saxon defense. Eventually, Leopold’s success in taking Kesselsdorf bore fruit and the Saxon flank was turned causing the Saxon line to collapse and their army to flee at nightfall.

The Prussians’ losses amounted to over sixteen hundred killed and more than three thousand wounded, while the Saxon losses were less than four thousand killed and wounded with almost seven thousand Saxons taken prisoner as well as forty eight cannon and seven standards. During the battle, the Austrians on the right never fired a shot, while Charles, who had reached Dresden and could hear the cannon, failed to march to the aid of his ally.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kesselsdorf

The Game

It has been a while since we were able to put together a Horse and Musket game, due to both TJ and I being away on various travel excursions. Well, I think the long pause was too much, so TJ stepped up and put together our next game a week ago. He decided to use the Lace Wars variant of BBB we had play tested a few months ago. A few more tweaks and pulling together some miniatures and it would be the Battle of Kesselsdorf!

Since the last game, there were a couple of tweaks to the game. First, was an added modifier for units with flank support in melee. The other was moving totally away from the standard pivot after movement rule in BBB. Instead, units would move more like other games and have to pay for their turns by wheeling.

For this game, TJ decided to represent a base of figures using three of our troop bases. So, the brigades looked very long (and very linear). Basically, a battalion would equal one base (2-14″ wide), represented by three bases of figures (each 3/4″ wide). This works with smaller battles of the period. Where the fight is larger, the scaling would be adjusted for each battalion being one or two bases.

The battlefield was able to fit on a five foot deep by nine feet wide table. Everything fit great with enough room for maneuver. The Prussians were given better commanders, with a few +2 and +1 mixed about. Both forces were set up in their historical fighting position, so there would be no maneuver to combat.

There were a couple of scenario special rules. First, the Prussians would get a right column shift if they fired while stationary to represent their superior fire discipline. The down side to this, would be they would also run low on ammo on a roll of 10-12. In addition, the Saxon infantry was rated as impetuous. This meant that any non disrupted brigade would have to roll for movement, as normal. However, if they rolled a 10-12, they would have to charge towards the closest enemy unit.

With the troops set up, we got to playing. The game started with the Prussians advancing across the line to engage the Saxons and Austrians holding their defensive line. The attacks came in somewhat disjointed, with the Saxons fire being quite effective in chewing up the advancing Prussians. As time went on, the Prussians ranks started to get quite thin, particularly in the center.

On the Prussian left, the cavalry force attempted to get through the bogs and turn the flank. This advance was plagued with issues and managed to get caught in column and totally bogged down in a slog.

On the Prussian right, the advance moved forward with some heavy losses to incoming fire. The cavalry attempted to turn the flank, but this attack, while successful, was too slow and was unable to turn the flank before the Austrians sent in their reserves to anchor things down. This resulted to the Prussians coming around and then attempting to overwhelm Kesselsdorf. Initially, this did not work, as the Saxon grenadiers threw back the attacks, giving time for some cavalry to come forward and thinking up the defense. At one point, the Saxon grenadiers went impetuous and attacked the Prussian musketeers, throwing them back. However, despite the initial setbacks, the Prussians were able to reorganize and drive the Saxons back, bit by bit, taking the town.

In the center, the Prussians attack to the burnt of the Saxon fire, with the brigades all getting chewed up by the heavy and accurate Saxon fire. The Saxon line seems to hold, taking some casualties. When it looked like the Prussian advance was over, the Saxon center bridge failed its move order and fell back from the objective they were holding. With that move, the fight was over and the Prussians held two of the three objectives, giving the Prussians the historical victory. We deemed the battle a minor Prussian victory, as the Saxons held better than their historical equivalents. It looked like the Saxons might actually live to fight another day!

We went through the rule modifications at the pub after the game. Generally, everything seemed to flow well. We agreed we need to tighten some of the movement modifiers. Other than that, things went well. We finished the entire game in three hours and it looked the part!

• Manteuffel