Background
In August 1760, Fredrick the Great of Prussia and his army made ready to repel further Austrian incursions into Prussian territory. When the Austrian offensive did come, it came in Prussian-occupied Silesia. However, a second Austrian army of 25,000 men also began advancing upon Frederick’s holdings in Eastern Saxony, putting the Prussians in danger of being caught in a large pincer movement. To counter this threat, Frederick dispatched Lt. General Johann Dietrich von Hülsen and 12,000 men to hold the west bank of the Elbe river at the town of Strehla while Frederick dealt with the Austrians in Silesia. Five days before the engagement at Strehla, Frederick and his army defeated the Austrian forces in Silesia at the Battle of Liegnitz, effectively rendering the Austrian pincer plan defunct.
Hülsen and his army arrived in Strehla, and began to fortify their position. Rather than risk fording the Elbe at Strehla, the Austrian commander Frederick Michael, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken instead chose to cross the river at a different point and then march parallel to the Elbe until he encountered Hülsen’s forces.
The Prussian army dug in on the high ground around Strehla’s suburbs and behind a wood to the west of town. The Austrians arrived from the south, with Zweibrücken splitting his larger army in order to attack the Prussian lines from multiple directions. Despite being aware of this flanking maneuver, Hülsen resolved to fight a battle centered around a static defensive line.
The battle began at 5:00 A.M. with an exchange of fire between the Austrian and Prussian artillery. Soon after, several Prussian battalions broke through the woods near Strehla, forcing a much larger body of Austrian infantry to redeploy to counter them. Meanwhile, the main lines of Prussian and Austrian infantry engaged each other on a field to the immediate south of the town. After two hours of fighting, the Prussians counterattacked and began to push the Austrians back to the south. In the meantime, the Prussian cavalry succeeded in driving back their Austrian counterparts on the Prussian far right flank. Rather than pursue the retreating Austrian cavalry, the Prussian horse reformed, charged, and overran several isolated Austrian infantry battalions. Emboldened by this success, the Prussian infantry in the woods advanced and succeeded in driving back more of the Austrian infantry. With both flanks of his army being forced back, Zweibrücken ordered a withdrawal, and the fighting was concluded by 7:00 A.M.
The Prussian army remained in the field until 1:00 P.M., waiting for a second Austrian attack. When one did not materialize, Hülsen withdrew his army from Strehla and marched to Torgau. The Austrian army returned the next day and occupied the former Prussian position at Strehla.
Hülsen was personally thanked by Frederick for his delaying action and successful repulse of the Austrians.
The Austrian army lost 1,800 men killed, wounded, or captured at Strehla. The Prussian army sustained casualties of 900 men killed or wounded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Strehla
The Game
I planned the next game to try my lace wars variant for Bloody Big Battles. I had four players lined up, with three of them not having been in the last game. So, I would get a few fresh set of eyes! Since I needed something somewhat small to allow for the players learning curve and our usual afternoon time limit, I settled on the Battle of Strehla. It would again allow for mixed quality troops on each side and a spread out battle with manageable forces for each player.
I found a scenario on the Volley and Bayonet site, I figured would save me some time. I also looked over the scenarios in the Charles Grant book. That, with the information on Kronsgraf pretty much gave me enough to set things up.
I played out the terrain per the maps (funny how all are somewhat different). We had the river Elbe on one end, with the town of Strehla along the banks and the various villages sprinkled around. I set up the defense line and had the bergs on the other side. I added a few rises here and there, as the actual ground is not flat in the area.
I decided to rate most of the Prussians veteran, so they would hang around longer and hopefully match their historical performance! The excepts were the fusiliers and Freikorps which got the trained and raw ratings respectively. The freikorps also had the skirmish rating. None of the cavalry was heavy, so they would have to live of their veteran status!
The Austrians were all rated as trained. The small Grenz and Hussar units got the skirmish trait. Their grenadiers were all veteran and got the shock rating. The ReichsArmee units were predominantly raw. The grenadiers and Hessian got the average rating, with the Grenadiers getting shock. All the Kuirassiers were rated as shock. The Austrian units would be passive the first six turns (ReichArmee would not)
The Prussian were set up in their respective historical areas, with the option of adjusting a bit in their deployment areas, as they wished. The ReichsArmee also was set out in their respective historical areas, with the two wings of the army split on their respective sides of the battlefield. However, I gave them more on how they wanted to set up facing the Durrenberg. The players decided to concentrate their forces behind the Ottenberg and ignore the flanking option. The main army concentrated in front of Strehla.
Victory points would be assigned based on casualties and who controlled Strehla. The Prussians would get a victory point (unknown to the Reicharmee players) , if they held the heights of the Durrenburg.
The ReichsArmee would get the first turn. The game would last twelve turns, with the winner decided then. If Strehla was contested, we would go to a variable turn end (4+ on 1D6).
With that all laid out, the two sides made their plans. The Prussians decided they would go defensive alongtheu front and see where the RA made their attacks. They would use their cavalry in active defense to force the RA to adjust. The RA players decided they would pin the Prussians on the Durrenburg and shift their light troops to the center to help the main Austrian attack on Strehla.
With that, we got to rolling dice! Both sides pretty much followed their plan. The Ausrtians struggled to keep their brigades in line and supporting one another (passive can be a challenge), but slowly moved forward to assault Strehla. The left flank just positioned their forces forward and started to sent troops into the center to support the right. Seeing this, the Prussian cavalry intervened and disrupted that advance.
With their grenadiers to the front, the Austrians made the assault on Strehla. Do the tenacity of the grenadiers attack (luck die rolls!), the grenadiers were able to push back the defenders and get a foot hold into the town. The Prussians tried to swarm them and push them out initially, but these attacks fell against the bravery of the grenadiers!
The RA left flank kept their pinning forces in place and tried to parry the Prussian cavalry attacks in the center with their light troops. This did not go well, with the lights being destroyed in the open and Prussians pushing deep into the open center. The RA reacted by shifting forces from behind the Ottenburg to stabilize the front. The right flank also had to redirect forces to protect their own flank, from the cavalry threat!
The fight in Strehla ground on, with the Prussians giving up on direct assaults and trying to out shoot their opponent using massed fire. This grenadiers stood firm as their casualties began to add up, giving better than they had taken. They regrouped and pushed forward and cleared the entire town of Prussians! Their delayed support arrived and helped them secure the entire town to await the expected Prussian counter attack.
The Prussians decided they would continue to try their luck on their firepower, but this we not successful. A few indirect attacks went forward, but not enough to change the situation in the town.
The Prussian breakthrough in the center was the last chance to try to secure a victory. However, while the cavalry started to wreak havoc in the rear, it was too little too late. With the loss of Strehla and their heavy losses around the town making it impossible to retake the town, the Prussians decided to cede the field. An unhistorical ReichsArmee victory!
Rules After Thoughts
Everything played out well. I changed the melee modifier from +1 for veteran and -1 for raw to plus or minus for having a higher rating. I thought the two point swing was a bit much (especially if you through in shock). The seemed to work out well. I meant that the ReichArmee units did not almost automatically loos combats!
The one challenge I had was dealing with town squares. With the brigades having such large frontages, compared to the squares, I allowed them to cover more than one, when they deployed into them. I still limited the to no more than one unit deployed in the square. However, I can see this as problematic, if the units get much larger. I guess the easy thing is just to make the town squares bigger for larger footprint units… I will need to fiddle with that!
In the last game, it was one battalion per base. In this game, I went with two bases per battalion. That seems to be the sweet spot. This makes most brigades six stands, which I think is a good average for the rules. I think three bases would look better, but then I would need to factor the units to strength points. Then there is the problem of having a table big enough to fit them!
Well, I will need to plan my next game now….
- Manteuffel