Bloody Big Battles – SYW Playtest, Kolin 1757.

Frederick II of Prussia had won a bloody battle against Austria and was now besieging Prague. Austrian Marshal Daun arrived too late to participate in the Battle of Prague, but picked up 16,000 men who escaped from the battle. With this army he slowly moved to relieve Prague, forcing the Prussian forces to split.

Frederick took 34,000 of his men to intercept Daun. Daun knew that the Prussian forces were too weak to both besiege Prague and keep him away from Prague for a longer time (or to fight the Austrian army reinforced by the Prague garrison), so his Austrian forces took defensive positions on hills near Kolín. Frederick was forced to attack the Austrians, who were waiting on the defensive with a force of 35,160 infantry, 18,630 cavalry and 154 guns. The battlefield of Kolín consisted of gently rolling hill slopes.

Frederick’s plan was to envelop the Austrian right wing with most of his army. Along the Austrian lines (Prussian right wing and center) he kept only enough troops to hide the concentration on the Prussian left wing. The Prussian main force would turn right toward the Austrians to attack their right flank. The Prussian left wing would locally outnumber the Austrians. After the Austrian right wing was defeated the battle would be decided.

Frederick’s main force turned toward the Austrians too early and attacked their defensive positions frontally instead of outflanking them. Austrian Croatian light infantry (Grenzers) played an important role in this; harassing the regular Prussian infantry under Generals Christopher Hermann von Manstein and Joachim Christian von Tresckow, they provoked them into a premature attack.

The disunited Prussian columns blundered into a series of uncoordinated attacks, each against superior numbers. By the afternoon, after about five hours of fighting, the Prussians were disoriented and Daun’s troops were driving them back. Prussian cuirassiers under Oberst Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz (promoted to major-general on that day) finally showed up. There were many charges and counter-charges on the Křečhoř Hill. The first Guard battalion under General Friedrich Bogislav von Tauentzien saved the Prussian army from a worse fate, covering the Prussian retreat.

The battle was Frederick’s first defeat in this war, and forced him to abandon his intended march on Vienna, raise his siege of Prague, and fall back on Litoměřice. The Austrians, reinforced by the 48,000 troops in Prague, followed them, 100,000 strong, and, falling on Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, who was retreating eccentrically (for commissariat reasons) at Zittau, inflicted a severe check upon him. The king was compelled to abandon Bohemia.

With things opening up a bit, we finally were able to get our group of grognards together to play test our Bloody Big Battles SYW variant. We opted to go with Kolin, as it was one that we thought would five a good feel for a SYW battle. To keep the table small, the battle was started with the Prussians marching to their attack positions and the Austrians already making their shift to the right.

The armies were organized into brigade sized units. Each stand of infantry was about 500 men, cavalry 350 men and artillery stands were twelve guns each. As the artillery did not operate separately, the scenario rule required the artillery to stay together into units of three bases. The Grenzers were operated as regimental groups and consolidated into units. This gave brigade units of between three and six stands each.

Most of the troops were rated as regular (two base losses to go spent). The Prussian infantry was rated veteran, to give it a little more staying power, to compensate for being outnumbered. All cavalry, but the Austrian Hussars, were rated as aggressive. This was true of the Guard and Grenadier infantry also. All infantry and Artillery was rated as passive, to slow down maneuvering and recovery, to give a period feel. The Have cavalry were all given the shock trait. The historical wing commanders were represented. We made a scenario rule that infantry wing commanders could command any infantry and cavalry wing commanders could only command cavalry units.

The game started with the Prussians point to the attack, with a focus on their left and an attempt to pin and cover their right flank from the larger Austrian force. The attack got off to a slow start, due to some poor command rolls the first two turns, but things ground forward eventually! The fighting started with the Prussian infantry moving forward to clear the screening Grenzers and the left flank cavalry attacking their opposite Austrian cavalry. The cavalry fight ground forward, with the Prussians getting the upper hand for a while. However, the attack did not move fast enough and the Austrians were able to commit reinforcements to the cavalry fight.

The Grenzer fights went poorly for the Prussians (we may have made them a little too strong…). All early attempts to shoot off or assault the Grenzers failed. Between their accurate fire and their supporting long range artillery, they caused disproportionate losses on the Prussians. By committing enough troops, most of the Grenzers were finally eliminated, but at a rightful cost is time and losses.

The cavalry fight finally ground down with the Austrians having a slight advantage and pushing the remaining Prussian cavalry back. With things in disarray, Frederick ordered the withdrawal. Seeing their chance, the Austrian ordered a general advance to crush the Prussians. The Prussians positioned their rear guards and artillery to protect the withdrawal, as the Austrians advanced. A timely flank charge by Austrian cavalry unraveled that quickly, taking out a majority of the Prussian artillery. This sent the Prussians really back in disarray. However, this may have saved them, as the bulk of the army was able to withdraw off the field!

Overall, we thought the game went well with the ratings assigned. The cavalry fight flat right, with the Prussians getting the early advantage with their quality, but finally being pushed back because of the numbers. We probably over did it with the Grenzers and the artillery frontages, so something to fix the next time! So with that behind us, we will try another battle using our lessons learned!

• Manteuffel