Kolín on 18 June 1757 - Blucher

 

The Battle of Kolín on 18 June 1757 saw 54,000 Austrians under Count von Daun defeat 34,000 Prussians under Frederick the Great during the Third Silesian War (Seven Years' War). Kolin was Frederick's first defeat in battle. It forced him to raise the siege of Prague, to abandon Bohemia and to retire to Saxony.

References:

• The very enjoyable Obscure battles  blog http://obscurebattles.blogspot.com/2014/11/kolin-1757.html
• The outstandingly good Kronoskaf reference site http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=1757-06-18_-_Battle_of_Kolin

Blucher rules.

The Blucher rules Blücher – Honour – Sam MustafaPublishing LLC are intended for Napoleonic campaigns and battles but with adjustment seem to be fine for the Seven Years War (SYW).  As a rule set they are very easy to learn and allow you to fight major battles such as Kolin with ~90,000 troops.  The rules use a random number of command points, rolled by your opponent, so a general is never sure how much of his force he can move and is therefore required to focus on the most important units first.  Units (Brigades) have a combat rating (Elan) which is worn down in combat.  In these rules your Elite brigade will start as more effective than a regular line brigade but after a combat or two they will have fallen well below the fighting effectiveness of a, average or even poor quality fresh brigade.

Rule changes

Cavalry in the SYW were not the force they were in the Napoleonic period.  This was due to a combination different cavalry tactics and better drilled infantry.   Infantry in the SYW & WAS did form square, just not very often and usually when guarding a flank. 

 I do not apply the rule that unprepared infantry when in combat against cavalry, must re-roll its successes for its combat score.    I keep the rule that attacking cavalry Re-Rolls Dice against prepared infantry must be re-rolled. 

Players

I played this game in July with my good friend John Dance and it was wonderful to have a face to face game after such a long break. John commanded the Austrians and I the Prussian underdogs.

Battlefield

I set up the battle on my 6’x4’ table and attempted to put in a few of the key terrain features,  mainly the village of Kreczor/Kutlire and the Swedish works as well as the central Przerovsky hill.

Battle

The Prussian plan was to refuse their right flank and push the left flank through the Austrian right.  The Austrian plan wasn’t to wait for the Prussians but to advance their centre and left flank and roll up the Prussian right.  

The Blucher rules meant at the Austrians were not sure what types of troops their were facing on the Prussian right.

 Unfortunately the Prussians found the ground  leading up to Kreczor/Kutlire slow going and the advance was very slow.  The Prussian left wing cavalry had a hard fight with their Austrian counterparts.  Although the Prussians won, they were a spent force.

The Austrian assault on the Prussian right wing was much more successful and began to drive the Austrian right wing into the Prussian centre.  

An historically correct result with the Austrians defeating the might of the Prussian army.   

Battle of Prague, South Flank - 05 Jun 1757 - Blucher

I've always liked the battle for Prague in the Seven Years War, the sides are reasonable even and the south flank of the battle had both a  great cavalry battle and a fight for a town. What better way to spend a Easter weekend in isolation  than fight a solo re-enactment in 6mm using modified Blucher rules?

As I was using Blucher I could have refought the whole battle on my 6' gaming table using the Blucher scale of one unit representing a brigade.  However I did this a few weeks ago and thought I preferred the idea of seeing 5 regiments of cuirassiers and 2 dragoons facing of against 4 cuirassiers and 4 dragoons with another 12 regiments in reserve.  The sight of 28 cavalry regiments (bases) was just going to be much more fun than 10 brigade (bases).

I don't a big enough table to fight the battle at 1 base per battalion scale but the south end of the battle field was the interesting end anyway.  I therefore went with about 40 units per side representing the south end of the battlefield.  Click here for the unit list.

As I was playing solo I decided to use some Blucher Solo rules which were recommended to me on the Blucher Facebook site. The called for me to play the defending side and to keep to my half of the battle field while the  AI ran the attackers, Prussians in this case.

A view of the battlefield looking north.  Lake Zinten is in the foreground and the string of marshland and fishponds run up the right flank.  The village of Sterbohol in the centre. The Austrians are on the left (west) and the Prussians on the right (east).

The AI divided the battlefield in to three sections (right, centre and left).   My choice would have been to start the attack with the Prussian left flank however the AI opted to lead the attack with the Prussian right flank. (Sorry about the shadow in the picture, it was a sunny day.)

Twelve battalions of Prussians marched forward, flags flying and drum beating...straight in to the teeth of the waiting Austrian volleys.  

The Austrian resistance was strong and the AI called for a general retreat and the Prussians came back worse for wear.  

The AI's next plan was a central assault which did ok but wasn't going to win the battle. The Austrian cuirassiers bounced off the Prussian Musketeers a few times but wore themselves out.

The centre attach wasn't getting very far until the Prussian reserves arrive on their left flank. Forty squadrons of Hussars and five squadrons of dragoons (9 units).

The Austrian right flank cavalry were just about to get worried when the Austrian reserves turned up on the same flank and a huge cavalry battle ensured.  About 26 cavalry regements, roughly 130 squadrons.

The Austrians just managed to win.  Mainly due to the Prussian cavalry reserve being mostly hussars (light cavalry).  If the Prussian's  had battle cavalry the outcome would have been different.  As it was the Austrians managed to drive off the Prussian hussars and shake their infantry out into a line.

Meanwhile the AI decided that things were not going well in the centre and rather than call a retreat it  had a new infantry battalion appear in the centre and a cuirassier regiment appear on the flank of the Austrian forces in the centre. (Must have been hidden in the smoke).

Alas too little, too late and the game had reached turn 30 and therefore the end of the day.  The Austrians won as the Prussians were not able to defeat them.  Yay for me!   But wait the battle was in June, there would have been more daylight...I decided to fight on 5 more turns.  Which was not good news for the flanked Austrian troops in the centre.

The battalion in the bottom of the picture below is an Austrian musketeer battalion hit in the front and flank by two Prussian cuirassier regiments!

The battle went down hill very quickly after that, from the Austrian point of view.  The entire centre was smashed and the battle field split into two.  It was at this point that I realised the Prussians has won in the last turn by taking the Austrian army to their break point.   

In the view of the south end of the battle field below you can see the Prussian left flank and Austrian right were still battling on although with heavy casualties but the centre is bare except for Prussian units.

I had been defeated by an AI!  How sad to be unable to win a solo game :)