The Battle of Mollwitz 1741 or "They're going to hang me in Berlin"

 Ken was over on Sunday and we refought the 1741 Battle of Mollwitz using the Volley & Bayonet rules and our mutual 10mm SYW collections.  As the title implies, it did not go very well for the men in the Blue Coats.

Prussians advancing through shot to close with the Austrian lines

Steady Austrian lines looking towards the Prussians

The Prussian first line.

They eagle-eyed among you will notice there is a conspicuous absence of snow and maybe even some green foliage.  Neither Ken nor I have a snow mat (yet) and decided to fight this battle out "chust zo" as the Pennsylvania Dutch like to say.  The Prussians must seize Mollwitz or defeat the Austrians by exhausting all of their "Divisions" on the table.  The Austrian line begins the battle stationary (remember that - it's a recurring theme).

The Prussian lines close with the Austrians while the cavalry clash on the Prussian right flank! THe second line were mostly Ken's, based in 3 ranks, too!

I charge 2 x Brigades into one of the Austrian Cuirassier Brigades, hoping to get lucky before my Cavalry flee in disgrace.  (both Cavalry win exhaustion levels are "2" which is awful).  THe combat turns out okay and a Cuirassier brigade is sent to the rear, disordered.  Don't worry, they'll be back!

Heavy and medium horse clash on the battlefield outside Gruningen

The Prussian Cuirassier fail their morale check before combat and will go into the battle disordered (yellow bead)

                              

Winning the first cavalry clash, and unlike Frederick at the real battle, I'm feeling pretty good.  "Schwerin!" I bark "Send the infantry forward at once!"  "At once my Lord".  And that was that.

The neat and tidy lines of a SYW battlefield cannot be beat on the wargame table!

I move the Prussian infantry forward on turn 3, covering the rest of the ground with ease, my Prussians move up to musket range with the stationary Austrian troops.  The Austrians, all with "Dedicated Guns" and Stationary, received 5 shooting dice to my 2 +1 for the units I have with Dedicated Guns.  All hits on "6".  The Austrians get to return fire when attacked.  It occurs to me this could have been a mistake...

The Austrians stand proudly outside Mollwitz as the Prussians move into musketry range and open fire.

The Austrians catching their breath from the Cavalry charge while the infantry battle rages.

The Austrian fire is absolutely devastating and tears a huge, gaping hole in my first line.  They almost reach exhaustion and only 3 regiments remain in the first line.  It's worth mentioning here that they were all "2 hit" Regiments meaning they die after 2 hits.  The Austrians take maybe 1 casualty for the entire exchange.  They sit there, awaiting the second line.  I'm going to have to do some things differently.

In Volley and Bayonet, you can force the enemy to take morale checks.  My Prussians are all morale "6" which means rolling 6 or lower is guaranteed unless factors reduce the morale level to 5,4, 3, etc.  The Austrian morale is not as good at 4 or 5.  If I can force a morale check against the Austrians, Ken is much more likely to lose at least one of them and go disordered.  Misuse of my artillery means that it's far back.  Being under close range of unlimbered guns from the front forces a morale check with a "-1" so Ken's morale 5 unit would check at "4" or less under close range of field guns.  Too bad their plodding their way up to the front!  Disaster!  The wreckage of the first line limp back to the rear while the second line smartly makes their way up to challenge these upstart Austrians.

You can see where my Prussian first line regiments used to be!

A regiment of cowards making their way to the rear!

Ken sets his sights on my malingering and retreating units in the rear area now!  Austrian Dragoons!

I try the more "subtle" approach and the second line simply charges the Austrians.  Mind you, I "should" have overlapped them to get more dice in the combats but didn't.  Ken's stationary infantry are going to melee me with 5 dice.  Ugly!

Austrian infantry making their way into the rear area.  Note the Dragoons top center about to charge into the Prussian guns...THe guns only defend when attacked from the front.  It's all over for them!

Was this his actual name?

THe infantry left over from the first line are STILL not yet exhausted and I'm planning on using them to help move the second line's attack forward.  Oops!  THey're out of command.  This is getting worse!

White beads are "out of command" Regiments.  Cant go stationary, cant move towards the enemy, and if they move they go disordered.

The last gamble of the Prussians here is to charge with their infantry.  THey are successful in sending a single Austrian Regiment tumbling back, but otherwise, they lose more than half of their units going in.  To add insult to injury, the final combat is cavalry against cavalry on the Prussian left flank, and they too, lose the fight!  Every one of the Prussian Divisions are exhausted!  This fight is done!

Well that was a fun, but brutal game.  It's been about 7 years since I've played Volley and Bayonet and I had basically forgotten everything I'd learned way back then.  The Prussians mismanaged their forces, especially the infantry attack and the supporting artillery, which should have moved up to keep pace with the infantry.  Every advantage I had should have been pressed home including the Prussian's superior morale, and the only battalion of guns on the table, which were barely used.  Additionally, the second line was much further back than they needed to be.  Another "issue" was the 2 hit regiments.  Most of the time, I've played linear games where the Regiments were 3 hit points, and I think this would have given the infantry a bit more striking power, especially going up against those stationary Austrians.  Expensive lessons learned indeed!

Even though this game was a HUGE loss, it was still lots of fun and you have to admit the spectacle was gorgeous!  All of the work to prep the figures was well worth it watching the serried ranks of bayonets glisten and march forward!  Now if I could only get the dice to behave :)

Ken and I discussed fighting more SYW battles, and I hope to put Lobositz on next.  We're also keen to play a Napoleonic battle with Volley and Bayonet and perhaps a refight of Teugen-Hausen is in the cards?