A 15mm SYW Battle Report

These pictures are from a 15mm SYW battle that I ran a few months ago. Between the Prussians and the Austrians we had about 50 Infantry Battalions and about 25 Cavalry Battalions. All of the Infantry Battalions are either 24 or 30 man units. The table is 6' by 18' and it took us about 8 hours to play using my own house rules that I have been writing. We deployed on maps prior to actually placing our troops.

The Prussian plan was to anchor our left flank on a small village and deploy both of our cavalry commands on the right flank. The Austrians had a very similar plan and ended up with both of their cavalry commands deployed facing ours. The Austrians ended up with the first move and got their Infantry Battalions in the center deployed first. This gave the Prussian center some difficulty as they came under fire prior to being fully deployed.

However the Prussian Right and Left Flanks were faring much better at this point. The Left flank fully deployed and was awaiting the Austrian Right. The Austrians had not anticipated the refused flank and had a long march to bring their far right units to the fight. On the Prussian right the cavalry charged headlong into the Austrian Cavalry and a massive, whirling fight ensued. The Austrians were hampered in bringing the full weight of their Cavalry to bear by a small wood that cut their baseline. Ultimately this would prove critical on that flank and would end up turning the battle.







The Initial Prussian cavalry charge eventually crushed the Austrian cavalry facing it. This was mostly due to very poor dice rolling by the Austrian Commander coupled with the Austrians inability to bring over half of their cavalry to bear due to the restrictive terrain (The woods in the above pic). However, much of the Prussian cavalry was left exhausted and the benefit of owning the flank could not immediately be exploited.





Just down the line the Hungarians were doing their best to pepper the deploying Prussians. Despite the heavy losses and much confusion the Prussians eventually got deployed and a fierce firefight ensued.



In center of the line Fredrick moved forward to press the attack. A long and deadly firefight ensued in which 2 Prussian battalions took over 50% casualties. Things were looking grim until the Prussian reserves joined the fight. At this point the Austrian center started to suffer from fatigue and it appeared that the Prussians were on the verge of a breakthrough.

The fighting on the left flank was fierce with neither side giving an inch. After the initial Austrian deployment difficulties they had put a number of battalions into the fight but were unable to make any headway against the steadfast Prussian defense. The Prussian general holding the left flank did his job well holding up almost a third of the Austrian infantry and keeping them out of the decisive section of the battle.

Meanwhile back on the right flank the Prussian infantry was finally starting to pressure the Hungarians just as the Prussian Cavalry was finally reorganized and recovered enough to exploit the flank.

This proved to be a deadly combination as the engaged Hungarian infantry was unable to respond to a timely charge by a unit of Prussian Dragoons. The Austrian flank quickly collapsed as General Daun was sent from the field amidst the hoards of fleeing Hungarian Infantry.



This development in conjunction with the wavering of the Austrian center made it obvious that the day belonged to the Prussians. In all it was a great day of gaming and we all had a good time pushing troops around the table.

Note: The order counters in the pictures are from Litko Aerosystems.