Field of Battle3 - Refighting the "Battle of Kunersdorf 1759" - Frederick´s greatest defeat - The game itself

Figures:   FrontRank Miniatures, Crusader Miniatures, WargamesFoundry, Dreispitz Miniatures

Terrain:   TTM (Tabletop Modellbau) 

Scale:   28mm

Hi,

following the last post this will be the second part telling how the game itself has played.

If you have missed the first part - just have a look here     Refighting Kunersdorf - Part one

Just as a reminder here is a picture of the terrain of the battle.

Heavy terrain makes movement difficult.

A closer look at Kunersdorf and the fortified "Mühlenberg"

And this is the party of guys who joined me at my home. We needed an expert, who watched over the rules and gave as us advice and information how to act after the rules in certain situations. And of course - the gamers.

Franz as Voltaire in his function as referee.

Christopher as Frederick the Great.

Peter as Friedrich Heinrich von Seydlitz in an earlier uniform

Oliver as Gideon Ernst von Loudon.

Me as Piotr Saltykov

After having decided, which player is going to play which force the armies had been placed onto the terrain as the battlemap of the scenario told us.

The Austrian brigade under command of "Oliver Loudon".

The Russian main brigade defending the "Spitzberg" and the "Walkberge".

The first Russian brigade entranched on the "Mühlenberg". 

The first Prussian brigade or Avantgarde already storming the "Mühlenberg" - played by Peter.

The second Prussian brigade still in the woods in march columns lead by Christopher playing
Frederick the Great.

The third Prussian brigade under command of "Peter von Seydlitz".

As you can see there won´t be very much space for movement. The yellow section left to the cavalry
of Seydlitz is impassible for cavalry and artillery. Kunersdorf can only be passed in march columns.

Another view on the combined terrain of Kunersdorf and the "Kuhgrund".

A total view of the battlefield...

...and another one from the other side.

Just a short explanaion of the background of the setup as it has been in reality.

Frederick the Great´s force (some 49.000 men) was outnumbered by the Russian-Austrian force (some 76.000 men). The allies expected a Prussian attack from the north of the three hills and so they decided to place their brigades on the "Judenberg", "Spitzberg", "Walkberge" and "Mühlenberg". But in the night Frederick lead his army from west to east and managed to start his attack on the right flank of the "Mühlenberg". The Prussians had been successful in taking the "Mühlenberg" rather quickly, but the hardships of night movement, the hot temperatures of August, lack of space for manouvre and heavy fighting exhausted his army soon. His generals told him to stop the attack after having taken the "Mühlenberg", but Frederick refused to do so. He wanted to destroy the allied force. This stubbornness also made him loose the battle.

In our scenario the Austrian brigade was not able to be react until one of the following situations occured.

1.    The Prussians had taken the "Mühlenberg" completely

2.    The Prussians had entered the "Kuhgrund"

3.    The Prussians passed the gap between "Mühlenberg" and "Walkberge"

Prussia got 28 ArmyMoralePoints, the Allies got 35 AMP´s

So - let the game begin.

The Russians won the initiative and their first card to play was "Artillery fire". Lucky ones.
First fire coming from the heavy artillery against the Prussan artillery...

...causing the first two UI-losses on the Prussian side.

Reloading and firing a second round wiped out the Prussian artillery.
What a dramatic start of the game.

The second Russian battery from the "Mühlberg" and another one from the "Walkberge" shot at the
advancing Prussian Grenadiers..

...and cause another loss of at least one UI for the Prussians. Things went good for the Allies.

The second Prussian brigade was not allowed to change from march column into line until it had not
left the woods. But also the small space made it a challenge to deploy the army. 

An overview onto the "Mühlberg" after first actions.

The Prussians came closer pretty soon.

Due to the terrain the brigade of Seydlitz also had difficulties to bring its units into good shape.

"VORWÄRTS"

"THE PRUSSIANS ARE COMING!"

"THEY COME FROM TWO SIDES!"

Heavy fighting on the right flank.

Seydlitz´ cavalry formed up into columns for better movement.

The Prussian infantry applied heavy pressure on the Russian units defending the "Mühlenberg".

Line after line of Prussian infantry came up the "Mühlenberg".

Finally the first Prussian units entered the top of the hill destroying one Russian battery and also 
one unit of Russain Grenadiers. Fortune of war had changed.

One half of the `Mühlenberg" is occupied by the Prussians.

The Russian units are outflanked and also outnumbered.

Saltykov is crying out; "What the hell is going on?"

With one of four units of Grenadiers and one battery left the Russians defended the "Mühlenberg"
and had not been an easy enemy for the Prussians.

They even managed to make two Prussian units run. But they also knew that the massive attack will
give them no chance.

After really heavy fighting the second Russian battery on the "Mühlenberg" got lost and there was only one single unit of Russian Grenadiers left defending the"Mühlenberg". A Prussian battery managed to get into the north of the "Mühlenberg". Because of the fact that the allied had not lost far less AMP´s thatn the Prussians, Saltykov decided to bring up some of his troops from the "Walkberge" to support the last remaining unit of Grenadiers on the "Mühlenberg".

The Austrians still were not allowed to move or react. So Saltykov also decided to give the order to this last unit of Grenadiers to leave the "Mühlenberg" by carrying out a strategic fall back. The hill now was totally under control of the Prussians and the Austrians at least were allowed to join the fight.

In the meantime the Prussians had lost many ArmyMoralePoints and soon would have run out of them So the allied troops tried to combine their forces for a massive counter attack.

The last remaining Russian unit of Grenadiers retreats from the "Mühlenberg"
and stops its movement right in front of the loaded Prussian battery.

"HURRA! We are finally allowed to move!"

Russian infantry from the "Walkberge" and "Spitzberg" forming up to 
attack the Prussian battery. Five more losses on the Prussian UI´s and the
battle would become a victory for the allies.

The Austrian cavalry is also lining up for a charge on the Prussians.

But fortune of war really changed from the allies to the Prussians.

The allies did not get the right order cards and also rolled their dice badly. Instead of causing any notable losses on the Prussian side they got shot down by the Prussian battery in their front and also from the Prussian infantry on the "Mühlenberg" in their flank.

Saltykov ordered the attacking units to go back into their original position on the "Walkberge" and "Spitzberg". The plan to deliver the death blow to the Prussians had failed and the Russians also had only five AMP´s left.

The Russians get back into their orginal position.

The artillery fire of the Russian battery got ineffective. Because of the entranchments the 
Prussians had good cover.

Meanwhile night had fallen and both sides did not drop any cards that could bring decisive actions to win the game for any side. Both sides had only five AMP´s left and so we decided to call the outcome of the game a "draw". So we really "changed" history for in reality this battle had been Frederick´s greatest defeat. Congratulations to Christopher and Peter for doing better than Frederick the Great!

We had a lot of fun playing this scenario and I enjoyed our get-together very much. I am sure that this won´t have been our last battle of wargaming.

We found out that using a scenario created by AI also does work. But we have to point out that you have to check for AI made mistakes and have to optimize some things here and there. In other words - AI can be very helpful to start creating your own scenarios, but subtleties have to be done by yourself.

But also remember that there are a lot of experts out there who already created scenarios for certein rule systems. So if you have the chance to play some scenarios from books this should be the first choice before creating your own ones by AI.

Cheers 

Mike