The Battle of Lobositz has always interested me as a masterful plan by the best Austrian general Maxilmillian Browne to fix the attention of the Prussian army whilst he attempted to rescue the stranded Saxon army by a bold move with a flying column. My aim with the army briefings was to persuade the Prussians that they had a chance to crush an isolated Austrian body whilst the Austrian commander was tasked with occupying as many Prussians as possible for as long as possible.
This was also an opportunity to try out the Regimental level of the Cartouche Piquet rules.
The Austrians (red) set up with Croats amongst the vineyards on Lobosch Hill with infantry in support and two batteries of 12lber guns trained down the valley where the Prussians would advance from.
This was a semi-disguised scenario with asymmetric victory points (essentially the sides were after different objectives.) Both sides scored victory points for taking morale chips from the opposition but the Austrians gained bonuses for each additional command they drew into the combat and for extending the fight beyond 4 turns. The Prussians gained bonus points for defeating entire Austrian commands and for capturing the village of Lobositz itself.
The Prussian briefing emphasised the ease with which their infantry had dealt with Austrian counterparts in the past (without specifically mentioning that this was the previous war 10 years ago.) and characterised the enemy as being a detached force that was ripe to be crushed. This was to give them someof the historical over-confidence that they showed.
The Austrians were briefed that their task was largely as a diversion to allow General Browne to try to rescue the stranded Saxon army from its camp at Pirna Konigstein, losses were not a vital factor for them...
The Prussians lived up to this hope at the start of the game flinging their first command (six infantry regiments and an artillery battery) straight at the Austrian guns. The Prussians helpfully stayed in their company columns making them an excellent target for the German and Walloon gunners.
Perhaps sensing all was not right Frederick (Nick) immediately ordered his reserves into action, ordering his cavalry to make their way through the hills on his right and the rest of the infantry to make their way into action on his left. The reserve brigade of Cuirassiers were also hurried onto the table to support the troops already fighting.
Meanwhile the Austrian cavalry moved up to dispute the plain and attempted to disrupt the Prussian attack. One of the grenadier regiments blasted O'Donnels dragoons with musketry before they were tumbled back towards their baseline to escape the dragoons' sabres. The dragoons were however next shredded by accurate close-range fire from the battery of guns on the hill ( a 12 on a 12 sided dice!) and then finished off by the newly arrived cuirassiers.
Worse was to follow, as the supporting hussars were now caught in the flank by the Prussian cavalry that picked their way through the hills and now marched to the sound of the guns to enter the action at the crucial moment.
The massed Prussian horse swept into action and surrounded and destroyed the horse grenadiers to complete the pain for the Austrian cavalry.
In the centre things were not progressing so satisfactorily for the Prussians. The infantry in their columns had hurtled forwards to get at the guns before too many shots could be fired into their dense formations. They were successful in this except where they encountered the supporting Austrian infantry. One of the regiments was sent scurrying back whilst the others, now in posession of the guns, were stuck before the village without room to deploy.
Infantry Regiment Pallavinci now showed its mettle by retaking one of the batteries of guns after a long fight and then wheeling the rest of the regiment, marching calmly through their musketry fire to take the Prussian grenadiers in the flank and send them pell mell from the battlefield too.
The Croats unchallenged amongst the vinyards on the Lobosch Hill also started to press forwards on the flank of the Prussian force seeing off a probing attack by cuirassiers with the fire of their baby battalion guns (1lbers!)
The battle now hung in the balance. The Prussian attack in the centre had failed and was in danger of being rolled up by the Austro-Hungarian infantry regiments. The Prussian cavalry were unwilling to press their advantage being short of morale chips and without an obvious target.
Frederick decided at this point to cut his losses and withdraw his army from the field (perhaps suspicious of what Browne was up to elsewhere.) He was able to acheive this unmolested due to the lack of enemy cavalry or orders for them to pursue. The last Prussian command was recalled (6 regiments of infantry with artillery support) and the Austrians remained in control of the battlefield.
This result reversed history, where the Prussians pushed home their assault on the Lobosch Hill after early reverses and managed to break the Austrians if with much more difficulty than they were expecting. In victory points terms our game was also a narrow win for the Austrians. If the final Prussian command had attacked it would have added to their enemy's VPs but might also have won the battle. Piquet battles can turn on the last roll of the dice with many victories being grasped from the jaws of defeat and vice versa.
Regimental scale Piquet was a qualified success. Multiple Morale Chip totals for different commands does give a new overview to the game but also takes away the stress of seeing a single morale chip total whittled away as an army is destroyed.
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