OHW Scenario 20: Fighting Retreat - A HoW AAR

Having done a spurt of painting on my Early War German AFV's these past few weeks, I needed a change of scenery as it were. My first port of call in these moments is often the OHW scenarios and either Honours of War or BPII*. In the end I plumped for the former, as they are one of my favourite rulesets and I also hadn't played them in a long time. Normally I would set up a 3 1/2 x 2 1/2' table, to give me some room for manoeuvre, but this time I wanted to see how things would play out on a 3' x 2' one.

*I noticed that I'd already played this scenario last year, with BPII, the AAR of which can be found here .

Scenario Details

The Austrians have been raiding in and around Berlin, circa 1760, and are on their way back to their lines with their ill gotten gains, hotly pursued by some rather miffed Prussians. The game last for 8 Turns, with the Prussians only arriving on Turn 2. Both sides have Dependable Commanders, as they've sent their best chaps to battle! The Austrians have 2 Brigades, the Prussians 3. 

The Table Set Up

Below are some photos to help give an idea of the layout and forces involved.

An overview of the table. The Austrians are on the right and need to cross the river and reach the safety of the BUA on the left hand table edge.

The Austrian entrenchments.

An Austrian Brigade, with 2 x Line, 2 x Artillery and 1 x Dragoons.

The other Austrian Brigade, with 1 x Light Infantry, 1 x Line, 1 x Artillery and 1 x Hussars.

The Prussians, with two Brigades, each: 2 x Line, 1 x Artillery and 1 x Dragoons/Hussars. The other Brigade has 1 x Light Infantry, 1 x Horse Artillery, 2 x Dragoons.

Some of the plunder...

...and the remainder on the hoof.

The Game

As always, the captioned photos will attempt to tell how the game unfolded.

The end of Turn 1. The Austrians got over the bridges with ease, leaving a rearguard at both.

The end of Turn 2. The Austrians manage to get their rearguards over the bridge in the nick of time as the Prussians arrive and begin to form up.

The Austrian right flank rear guard takes Artillery fire as it exits over the bridge.

The Austrian right flank begins to occupy their entrenchments.

The Austrian left flank is safely over the river and safe from the Prussians at present.

The end of Turn 3. The Austrians continue to move towards safety, as the Prussians need time to change formation to try and cross the bridges.

The Prussian left flank decide to send the Dragoons over first.

The Austrian left flank reaches their entrenchments too.

The Prussian right flank decide to lead with their Line Infantry, due to the Austrian Jaegers across the river.

At the start of Turn 4, the Prussian Dragoons catch the Austrian Line Infantry in the rear, causing them to (rather unsurprisingly) rout...

...then pursue into the Austrian Dragoons, who destroy the Prussians in the process...

...then the Austrian Dragoons pursue into the Prussian Line Infantry on the bridge...

...only to be forced back to Reform. Phew!

The end of Turn 4. Aside from the made clashes by the stone bridge, the rest of the Turn consisted of both sides forming up for defence or to cross the bridges.

The Prussian left flank.

The Prussian right flank.

The Austrian right flank in a strong position, but doesn't have many troops having lost one Line Infantry unit already.

The Austrian left looks stronger.

The plunder is safe for the moment.

The end of Turn 5. The Prussians begin to cross both bridges as their third Brigade begins to arrive on their left flank.

The Prussians form into line as they cross the bridge.

Both sides Hussars clash with each other, with the Prussians being routed!

The end of Turn 6. As the Prussians continue to move forward, they come under fire, making progress hard.

A target rich environment for the Austrian Artillery.

The Austrian Jaegers destroy one Prussian Line Infantry unit.

An overview of the Austrian left flank, with Prussian losses meaning they have lost any real offensive capability here.

The end of Turn 7. Whilst the Prussian right flank falls back to the wooden bridge, the Prussian left surges forward to threaten the Austrian right flank.

The Prussians pour forward, but one Line Infantry unit is force back to reform due to close range cannister from the Austrian gun.

Austrian Hussars await their moment to charge into the Prussian flanks if they become weakened.

At the start of Turn 8, the Prussian Dragoons charge and the Austrian Dragoons, despite being outnumbered, manage to hold on, with both sides forced to retire to reform.

The end of Turn 8. Despite finally having crossed the river in force, the Prussians are unable to evict the austrians from their positions and to re-take their plunder.

The Prussian high water mark.

The Austrians hold firm within their entrenchments.

The Prussian Line Infantry have taken too many hits already and would most likely break if under fire again.

A final overview of the positions at the end of play.

End of the Game

In the end it proved too difficult a task for the Prussians, with early losses really hampering their ability to prosecute their attacks.

The 'Butcher's Bill', Austrians on the left, Prussians the right.

Post Game Thoughts

Well for a relatively quickly thought out and set up game, that played well for me and was a nice change from all of my recent WWII stuff. So as always some thoughts on the game etc:

• I was pleasantly surprised at HoW well the 3' x 2' game space worked. I did think it might be too small, but with the HoW movement distances, it was not a problem, allowing the action to happen almost from the off. If I was using BPII, then I would definitely go for a bigger table.
• The benefits of sticking to a few core rulesets was immediately obvious, as I rarely had to refer to the rulebook, with the QRS being more than adequate. It meant that I could focus on the game itself, rather than purusing to rulebook just to 'check' on something I wasn't sure about.
• Solo play once again showed its value, as I set the game up the night before and had finished before lunchtime the next day. Being able to fit in games as and when time allows is such a luxury, which I do not take for granted!
• Having all the Commanders rated as 'Dependable' gave the game the speed I was hoping for. The thought behind this was, having read Horace St Paul's second volume (published by Helion), that both sides would tend to send their best Commanders for these sort of operations.
• Again the entrenchments idea came from Horace St Paul's book, with them often being thrown up, with abattis to the fore too, to protect their encampments etc. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but these may have been a step too far for the Prussians to give them a fighting chance in the game. You live and learn!
• River crossings are tricky and often not the most exciting games if I'm honest, but at least this game was quite a nice challenge due to the victory conditions.
• The Commission Figurines were good to get on the table again and are so versatile. I could paint more, possible as a different 'Nation', but I have plenty enough troops for most of the games I play. Let's wait and see...

What Next?

I'm not sure if I'm honest! Probably some more painting, but for what period remains to be seen. It is after all a hobby, so I'm in no rush and let's see what the grabs me first.

As always, thanks for reading and any comments are greatly appreciated:)!

TTFN.