Die Schlachthausbrucke - An Honours of War AAR

Having finished the core forces of my MDF figures, I decided to give them a run out, to 'blood' them as it were. I couldn't settle on a scenario, so in the end I simply went with a standard encounter type that one would often see played at a club, or when time is short at home etc. I had no plans on how the table should look, so simply started getting my terrain out, making it up as I went along.

OOB Guide

As with the above, I went with almost identical forces for either side, which consisted of:

- 3 x Brigades of Infantry (one Guards), each with 3 x Line, 1 x Medium Artillery.

- 2 x Brigades of Cavalry, each with 2 x Dragoons, 1 x Cuirassiers.

- 1 x Heavy Artillery, 1 x Howitzer.

The Prussians were pre-1760, so should have better Commanders, dependent upon the die rolls of course, plus they had 1 x Hussars.

The Austrians were standard, with their normal Artillery counting as Superior for firing only, plus they had 2 x Light Infantry with rifles.

The Table Layout

The result of how the table looked at the deployment of the troops can be seen below:

The Prussians on the left, the Austrian on the right.

The Schlackthausbrucke, with Neider Schlachthaus on the right.

Ober Schlachthaus.

The Austrian left with the Cavalry and Infantry having Dashing Commanders.

The Guards Brigade at Neider Schlachthaus.

The Austrian right wing with Dithering Commanders.

The Prussian right wing with Dashing Commanders.

The Prussian Guards in the centre.

The Prussian left wing.

My 'enemy' for the game!

Just a gratuitous shot of the figures and BUA.

The Game

As is the norm, the captioned photos should give an idea of how the game unfolded.

The end of Turn 1. The Prussians advanced and in places the Austrians moved up in response. However superb Austrian artillery fire saw the Prussians lose a regiment of Guards as they approached the bridge. Not a great start.

The Prussian Cavalry advance but come under fire for the Austrian Jagers in the wood.

The Prussians Guards come under deadly fire, losing a Regiment in the process.

The Prussian Cavalry advance, but are somewhat hampered by the stream and the hill.

The Austrians gain the high ground from where their guns have a dominating view of the bridge.

At the start of Turn 2, the Prussian Cavalry charge forward and the Austrians counter-charge.

The end of Turn 2. The Prussians continue to advance, with both sides coming under sustained fire.

The Prussian Cavalry withdraw back to await the Infantry to make a breakthrough.

The Prussian right wing starts to take hits that affect its ability to move forward, as it is in danger of losing a Regiment already.

The Prussian left wing sees a Regiment already having to fall back to reform by the church.

The Cavalry clash is a draw, with both sides having Squadrons withdraw to reform.

The Austrians too have had a Regiment of Guards wihtdraw to reform and were lucky not to be routed.

The end of Turn 3. With no action from the Cavalry as both sides are reforming or holding back, the Prussian Infantry pushed forward, but at considerable cost.

A Prussian Regiment on their right wing is routed.

In the Prussian centre, another Regiment of Infantry is about to rout.

The overall situation at the end of Turn 3, after routs and rallies have taken place.

The Prussian right wing has lost all offensive potential, with the Cavalry only able to look on at present.

The Prussian Guards in the centre are not a cohesive force at present.

Only the Prussian left wing has some semblance of a force capable of offensive action.

The end of Turn 4. On the wings the cavalry advance or charge at each other, whilst in the centre the Prussians once again take losses they can ill afford.

The Prussian Cavalry advance forward to try and cover their right wing. The Austrian Cavalry moves forward to observe.

The Prussian Guards lose another Regiment whilst one is reforming. They are a spent force now.

The Prussian left wing is now under severe pressure and needs to withdraw to try and preserve itself.

The Cavalry charge on the Prussian left wing sees both sides lose their Cuirassiers.

End of the Game

At the end of turn 4 it was obvious that the Prussians had been well and truly beaten.

An overview of the table at the end of the game.

What remains of the Prussian right wing.

The Prussian Guards in the centre are hors de combat.

The Prussian left wing is still a cohesive force, but is close to losing units if they stay in the fight, but they would be fighting a losing battle.

The Cavalry have been unable to gain an advantage over the other side.

A view from the Austrian left wing.

The Austrian right wing.

The Austrian centre.

The Butcher's Bill

As you can see below, it was a very one-sided contest at the end.

Post Game Thoughts

Not having played a game for ages, it was nice to get the toys on the table and to roll some dice, even if it was a pretty simple scenario. As always Honours of War gave a great game and I only had to refer to the rulebook a few times, but by and large the QRS was all I needed. So some post-game thoughts in no particular order:

• Using the 15mm QRS which fits the unit frontage of my figures provided a quicker game, as from the off both sides were in Artillery range and by the end of Turn 1, in musket range too.
• For future games I feel I need to increase the table depth to allow for a bit more room to advance forward, ditto on the length, as it all felt a bit cramped on a 2' x 4' board if I'm honest. Not a problem for this quick and dirty game, but certainly for future games more space will be required.
• There were a lot of units for me to command, given it was a solo game, as I did struggle to be able to concentrate on all that was going on across the table. Certainly the 12-15 units per side for solo games as the 'perfect number' did occur to me during the game. Even when playing mullti-player ones, I find a Brigade or two is more than enough for each player, as more than that slows the game down and the concentration required goes up exponentially.
• The Austrian Artillery counting as 'Superior' made a difference at the start, but as the game went on was not too overpowering, which some people have commented upon in the past. It was not helped by the fact that at times the Prussian shooting was dire!
• Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but giving the Austrians two units of Jagers was too much and proved to be too powerful. In contrast the Prussian Hussars has nothing to do nor room to manouevre and make a nusiance of themselves.
• It was nice to finally have the chance to use Guards, Heavy Artillery and Howitzers in my games after all these years. They will certainly give me much more flexibility in my games going forward.
• The game took about 2 1/2 hours to play, with a small break for lunch. i imagined it would take longer, but the effective Austrian fire from the off, combined with poor Prussian fire at times, meant it all ended quite quickly. I certainly find these day that around 3 hours is the perfect length of time for a game. If I have a proper break for lunch, I find the momentum is often lost and it certianly becomes a game of two halves!

What Next?

Playing Lobositz is high on the agenda, but I need to find some time to do this scenario justice and not rush things, so I'm not sure when this might hit the table. I'm still awaiting the HoW scenario book, so that might spur some ideas, plus I have the next OHW scenario roughly mapped out for play. A mini-campaign would be nice, but at this time of year I find it hard to get the time and the motivation to play, if and when some more Summer weather arrives!

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

TTFN.