EAGLES CHEAPER THAN BRAIN CELLS: SYW EDITION!

 Yesterday afternoon I finally got my new 10mm Seven Years War troopers into the fight and played one of my favorite "grand tactical" rules "Eagles Cheaper Than Brain Cells" or more commonly called "Eagles" by folks who play it.  "Folks who play it" literally being Alex and I...  You can do a quick search on my blog for the rules as I have a tag (at the bottom) that should bring up the other games we've played.  All of them were nail biters and all of them were chock full of grand tactical decision making, resource management, and see saw combats.

Prussian Battle-line

Originally meant to be a Napoleonic game set at the level of Volley and Bayonet, Grande Armee, or Blucher, Eagles was an idea for a grand tactical "spin" on Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames.  Alex and I played a bunch of Napoleonic games of Eagles and you can check them out and play them by going here. or download them here.  They work perfectly well with the One Hour Wargames scenarios.

Austrian Battleline!

Given the largely abstract level of Eagles, it wasn't hard to come up with a Seven Years War version of the rules with very minor changes which I'll discuss in the batrep.

The scenario is simple.  The Prussians must seize the town in front of them and hold it.  The Austrians must negotiate their forces around a number of forest terrain features and capture the town from the Prussians.

Town to the front.  The blue dice are orders distributed after rolling 1D6 for orders for Prussians.  

 One of the neat things about Eagles is you distribute your orders BEFORE you roll initiative, and so you may not get to execute the orders the way you think you will.  There is also a cool mechanism where if you do NOT have the initiative but have an order, you may be able to use that order to react to a charge (defend or countercharge cavalry).

Prussians move out to seize the town.  Dragoon unit moves out to the right to engage the Austrian dragoons!

draw your sabers!

I experimented with an order where if a commander is touching as are multiple stands, they could all advance or move with a single order.  It worked ok.  More on that later.

Prussians approaching the town.

The Austrians are constricted by the woods to get to the town!  

 One of the SYW mods Alex came up with was "plodding" units can only turn after their move.  This severely restricted teh Austrians but it felt very realistic.  It makes deployment extremely important.

Austrian Cavalry going out to meet the Prussians

The battle unfolds!  The Prussians seize the town and the Austrian and Prussian cavalry clash on the right!

Prussian vrs Austrian dragoon.  Both units have 3 hits going into this combat.  The Austrians (yellow dice) score 2 hits, the Prussians 4.

Austrian dragoons evaporate!

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The artillery's only time to shine, they would go "out of ammo" on their first bombardment needing a resupply order, only to be overrun by Austrian infantry.  The shame!

The second Prussian dragoon unit assaults the Austrian dragoons behind them but the Austrians counter charge (a "defend" order but for cavalry)

Situation on turn 5.  The Austrian cuirassier are preparing to charge the blown Prussian dragoons

On the left, the Austrians mass against the town.  Since I'm not using oblique movement now the Austrians will have a tough time maneuvering to get at the town!

 Enforcing the "plodding" trait on the Austrians, they have a very hard time positioning themselves to assault.  The Prussians did not suffer from plodding, and could turn at the beginning of their move.  I also did not allow interpenetration which was another huge restriction on the infantry forces.  In the napoleonic game, interpenetration is completely allowed providing the moving unit has enough movement to clear the non moving unit.

damn those troops look good!

Prussians defending the town

2 Prussian regiments fire against an Austrian Regiment maneuvering to their front.  100% effect all hits

Austrian regiment melts away

Austrian cuirassier wipe out the remaining Prussian dragoon unit

Note the Austrian Regiment who clawed their way into the line.  Is it enough?  The remaining Austrian unit on the left is also wiped out from fire, bringing the game to a close.

This was a fun and quick game and only makes me want to paint up more of these single-based SYW unit.  In addition to Eagles, I'd very much like to try Black Powder and Honours of War with these units.  Stay tuned!  Perhaps I can convince Alex to work on a "Battalion level" version of Eagles where a unit is a battalion!  Imagine the possibilities!