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Thursday, October 4, 2012

KOLIN! A MAURICE REFIGHT AT MOAB '12

As I mentioned in my previous post I played two demo games at MOAB this year. On day two I played a game of MAURICE against Zels. We decide to play the KOLIN scenario straight out of the MAURICE rules. Zels would command the Austrians and I the Prussians.

As you can see the position the Austrians held was rather formidable.

I decided I would use my NATIONAL ADVANTAGES to their ermm, full advantage.

My plan was simply to fall with all my force on the enemies left flank, (my right as I looked at it).

In essence the same plan Frederick The Great had but on the OPPOSITE FLANK than in the actual historical battle.

I divided my army into 4 forces, one of all my cavalry, one of infantry (including all my 'ELITE' infantry) one of all my artillery and one of all my remaining infantry.

I started with an oblique move by my leading infantry Division with the intention of securing the heights on the Austrian left. I hoped that I would be able to turn the Austrian left back onto the centre and then unleash my Cavalry into the Austrian rear. I would refuse my left.

My greatest fear was the Austrians' would attack my left as I fell on their left.

As it played out my mix of STEADY LADS and LETHAL VOLLEYS proved decisive, and despite some excellent rally's by Zels Hungarian infantry I was eventually able to cave in his left flank.

My two 'ELITE' units of Prussian Grenadiers performed way above expectations driving in the enemy and beating of counter attacks.

Once I was on the heights and had turned Zels left flank he conceded defeat.

Another great game of MAURICE!
Here are some photos from the game
 ABOVE:The Austrian Army deployed on the high ground and garrisoning the towns.
 ABOVE and BELOW: My initial deployment.

 ABOVE and BELOW: My 1st move. My infantry begin their advance on the heights. The garrison in the town inflict some early pain.

 ABOVE: My artillery attempt to drive the garrison out.


 ABOVE: My brave Grenadiers drive the Austrians and Hungarians back.
 BELOW: The Prussian Cavalry move up in support of the Grenadiers and Musketiers.
 BELOW: The situation at the close of play,
All the miniatures were provided by Zel and they were for the most part the very nice OLD GLORY 15mm miniatures. They were based on 1 inch squares.
Comments welcomed.
Cheers

6 comments:

Phil said...

Very nice phots and beautiful infantry lines!

fireymonkeyboy said...


So, did the grenadiers take the town?

cae5ar said...

You did much better than Frederick the Great in this one, a textbook assault and roll up of the enemy's flank. The Austrian garrison appears to have held and was a tough nut to crack, though I'm not sure they would have lasted long surrounded by Prussian grenadiers. Did your artillery have any national advantages? 1" squares seem a very practical basing convention for smaller scales, looking nice without huge numbers of infantry to paint and allowing any tape measure to become an instant measuring stick. Our group will be going this way as we start to build armies for Maurice. Nice photos and great report, thank you.

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Lovely looking game.

Christopher

Trailape said...

I agree that 4 figures on a 1 inch square is very practical. Like you say, any tape meaure will do as a measuring device. also, 16 figures looks ok, and saves a hell of a lot in miniatures required and painting time.
At a later date you can always expand to a 2 inch frontage with 32figures per unit if you wish.
The game was called before I assaulted the town, but I'm confident we would have taken it as the garrison was 'wavering' with 3 DISRUPTION markers.

zel said...

As the Daun of the piece...there was nothing those grenadiers couldnt take... I threw Infantry, I threw Cavalry, I even outflanked and threw cavalry vs them to no avail... a true Stonewall Brigade. While not completed the writing was on the wall for the Austrians in this replay and I chose to concede as other priorities beckoned.

Great game and a good contrast for Scott's rather ordinary luck at Sacile

On the basing question ...1 inch square 4 bases a unit looks OK allows you play some of the larger SYW battles.... we have replayed Prague using BP with some success