Epic Battle of Prague 1757: Neil Thomas Napoleonics w/ Mods!

Happy quarantining fellow gamers!  Hold onto your seats because it's time for a "Sound Officers Call" EPIC historical refight, this time with an 18th Century Seven Years War battle on the tabletop.  Ken is always saying I only want to fight Lobositz.  He might be right, but I did feel like a change was in order so get ready for the Battle of Prague!  If you're wondering what all the fuss is about, head back in time and read my post about "converting" the Neil Thomas Napoleonic rules for use in the Seven Years War.

The Austrian left wing deployed.  The right wing will show up from reserve.  Facing the Prussians to the front (the west) and left (north).

The scenario comes from the Volley & Bayonet SYW scenario book.  While I had to take some major artistic license with the OOBs, the game still captured the flavor, scope, and drama of a SYW engagement.

The parameters of the scenario see the Prussians on the attack, having to seize both hills, or destroy over half of the Austrian force.  The Austrians must destroy up to 60% of the Prussian force.

Prussian approach from the north.  The sleepy village of Hlaupeten visible.  Note the marshy waterways and swamps, a crucial factor in this battle.

Prussian Division crossing the creek.  Units had to stop when reaching, pay half move when in, and when exiting the creek.

The Prussian right-wing under the command of Prinz Heinrich enters the field.  The crop of the Grenadiers and elite infantry units accompany them, along with their own artillery.  Their job is to pin the Austrian left wing and draw off reserves.  They'd accomplish that by contesting the town of  Hrdlorez which would change hands numerous times after a bitter contest between rival Grenadier units.

Prussian assault Hrdlorez with Prinz Heinrich accompanying.

Meanwhile the Austrians in the center reach the left hill, the "Tabor Berg" which they must defend

Turn 2 a lucky roll of "6" sees the arrival of the Austrian wing under LTG Kheul.

The Austrian defense curves around towards the town.

Prussians encounter the joy of the marshy banked stream!

Prussian division makes straight for Sterbohol and the Homole Berg behind it!

Prussians (Bottom) generally follow the creek and are oriented towards the top.  The massive Austrian right wing clearly visible in the top of the picture oriented towards the bottom.  All of the fighting is confined in this picture in the upper right hand corner around Hordlorez.

General Schonaich commanding the Cavalry Wing!

Crossing the creek and swamps.

Prussian infantry on the right struggling through the swamp

Prussians carry Hordlorez!  Note the Austrian reserves deploying to back them up.  This is the extreme left of the Austrian position. The Homole-Berg hill is behind them, with the Tabor Berg at a greater distance.

More of the Prussian center crossing the creek readying to assault the Homole Berg.

Counter attacking into Hordlorez again!

Prussians forced out again!

The Prussians try a different approach and blast the hell out of the town with shot and shell while firing at the grenadiers inside with infantry prior to storming.

Looking towards the north on or about turn 5.  Prussian center has crossed the creek and is beginning its assault into the center.  The Prussian extreme left infantry division has already reached Sterbohol in the bottom-center with more infantry and artillery catching up.  They'll prepare themselves to seize the Tabor Berg.

Prussian center going in.  There isn't much left from the initial Austrian force to oppose them.

March columns in the vicinity of Sterbohol.  Note the solid line of Austrians coming towards them.

Meanwhile, Prussian Cuirassier (I know they're dragoons...) rush to the left to meet the Austrian oncoming Cuirassiers!

Meanwhile around Hordlorez, Prussians make short work of the reinforcing Austrians.

 Probably a good time to discuss some of the mods I used in this battle - first the Prussians were allowed to move AND shoot.  This proved a bit powerful but I think it was an excellent way to show Prussian training and efficiency.  The Austrians were your standard, 18th Century Army and were quite "plodding" as they should be and as such had no special rules.

I also made towns a "sector" meaning when you occupied them, you could be shot at and could shoot out immediately.  This rendered your position inside the town irrelevant.

Officers allowed you to reroll a failed morale check - super important if you don't want to take an additional step loss.  Unit with a superior officer attached had to test for their leader if they lost melee, or were eliminated.  If he lived, the officer could immediately relocated with another unit.

Austrian defense of the Homole-Berg

Visitors.  The battlefield is looking splendid now.  The Austrian line looks formidable!

Austrian battle line.  Note the Prussians approaching

 I stopped for the night around turn 10.  Worth mentioning that the 8cm movement is agonizingly slow.  For bigger battles it might be wise to increase the movement accordingly.  It took about 10 turns to even get into position to begin assaulting.

Prussians going into Hordlorez again!

Storming the Homole-Berg!

Prussian Center reaching the Tabor Berg and the center of the field.  The Austrians are getting into position!

A clash of sabers!  2 heavy cuirassier brigades clash!

a savage fight develops on the Austrian right and sees the destruction of the only Prussian regiment of the battle.

larger shot of the fighting west of Sterbohol where the Austrians are actually holding their own!  

Meanwhile meet the new, Prussian, tenants of Hordlorez!

Prussian toe hold on the Homole-Berg!

reorganizing the Austrian left with reserves marching in

Around turn 11 - the other Austrian units have been blasted or shot off the Homole-Berg and the Prussians will capture by storm

The Prussian center re-arranges itself to take the Tabor-Berg and meet the Austrian onslaught.  The Austrians have a crucial choice and a real strategy would have helped here.  Defend both of the hills (their initial plan) or try to inflict maximum casualties among the numerically inferior Prussians.  In hindsight I should have chose the latter but instead the Austrians attempt to defend both hills and the massive infantry wing is split.

Decent success around Sterbohol facing numerous Austrian batteries and infantry regiments.

Turn 12 sees the removal of a ton of Austrian units as the initial wing is practically gone now, leaving the burden of defense on the troops of the second wing.

Austrian reserves, including more Grenadiers, thrown in on the Austrian left, desperate to stop the Prussian steamroller!

This is another good opportunity to discuss the use of reserves, and also the usefulness of a rallying rule, which I did not use but thought it would be excellent for these rules (like NT's ACW rules from Wargaming: An Introduction)

Prussians cutting the road in front of the Homole-Berg!

Austrians making one more gamble for control of the hill.  2 fresh infantry Regiments to throw into the fray!

In the center around Sterbohol, the Austrians are buckling.  The Prussians almost have complete control of the center.

Forward you scum!  Do you want to live forever!?!?!

Frederick clearly pleased with the progress of the Army.

The entire field - the Homole-Berg in the fore and the Tabor-Berg in the back.  The Austrians would go on to throw the Prussians off of the Tabor in a glorious defense, but after their second failed push against the Homole-Berg they'd throw in the towel on Turn 15.

The line from the south.  

Another victory for the men in the blue coats!

 Wow if you've made it this far then I applaud your tenacity!  This was a very fun and EPIC game with almost 20 units per side.  What did we learn?  How did the Neil Thomas Napoleonics rules hold out against a historical Seven Years War matchup?  Are these rules good for large, multi player games?  Yes of course!  But with some caveats...

What is the Endgame?
First of all, if you're going to play a historical battle, you need historical parameters and victory conditions.  Fighting until a side is reduced to 25% just will not do for a game with 40+ units on the table.  The rules in the NT Napoleonics book about a unit leaving the table are sound, however there needs to be some kind of "breakpoint" or endgame.  In this case, I played 20 turns and the Austrians had some very difficult victory conditions.  The breakpoints from the Volley and Bayonet scenario book weren't bad but were almost impossible by games-end for me to track because of the next thing I'm going to mention...

Orders of Battle and Unit Labels
I lost track of the organic divisions and their orders of battle.  Things became inter mixed quickly, so if I was to host a big game with these rules, the Divisions will be labeled so their commanders can easily glean where they're all at.  In order to keep things manageable for multiple players, there ought to be a command radius as well so the masses of troops remain somewhat together.

Other Rules?
in the 18th century, I believe there should be rules for flank supports/security, whether rear or flank, and that those rules should convey some kind of bonus to the fighting men (maybe they dont roll to lose another stand after stand loss?).  I do like the idea of rules for Command Radius.  I also think the commanders should convey some other special rule like an additional combat die for melee combat.

The reader may have also noted I did not use any "light" units however i easily could have and the keen-eyed among you will notice many bases with only 2 troops.  They were extra troops I had which were set aside for skirmishing and screening operations.

All in all this game was a blast!  A ton of fun which I very much enjoyed setting up and playing.  I hope I've demonstrated the versatility of the Neil Thomas Napoleonic rules for use in other periods, and that with a little bit of extra homework, you can put on truly EPIC games with these rules with not too much trouble.  The system definitely did not break with a bunch of extra units.

With the success of this game, I feel I would like to tackle some other historical scenarios with these rules, perhaps a trip back to 10mm to try out the Mike Hopper scenario books using the Neil Thomas Napoleonic rules?  Or try some of the Volley and Bayonet scenarios using the "Eagles Cheaper than Brain Cell" rules which are at the same scale as Blucher and Volley and Bayonet.

I'm also keen to get back onto my AWI kick of late by finishing up the rest of my British units, playing a game of Hold the Line, and conducting more rules research into the rules I'd like to use for my Germantown MEGAGAME in the fall.  Stay safe and healthy!