A Rash of Raids

Prussia and Austria both reach for their special operations troops in early June. The difference in their SOF abilities is shown by the results.

A small Prussian raiding force is chased off by Konigsegg's dragoon outposts.

A large Austrian raiding force, however, drives in the piquets of Frederick's camp around Tabor and burns tents, wagons, destroys ammunition dumps, bread ovens, horse lines, and slays many Prussians as they stumble from their tents.

As Spring takes hold, the marching season begins

In Ireland, it is said, the Marching Season takes place in July. In Bohemia, apparently, it is May. Armies, many armies, marching all about.

First, a new face on the scene: a large field army from Austria proper, arriving at Bruenn, moves to Brod and then to Czaslau, making a rendezvous there with Browne, who has brought the remains of his army south from Pardubitz.

Not far away, Frederick has solidified his hold on Pilsen and then marched east to Orlitz and then to establish a siege of the fortress of Tabor.

In central Bohemia, another Austrian fragment, the ruins of Arenberg's army, moves to Prague to rejoin Prince Charles. Just to their north, Kongisegg takes the offensive, striking north through Zitytau to invest the fortress of Goerlitz. (The Austrian depot at Jungbunzlau is expended supplying this march.)

As if endowed with extrasensory perception, Prince Maurice draws back into Saxony, marching as if possessed through Pirna and Dresden, and reaching Bischofswerda with a slightly smaller army than he started with.

Moving at a more sedentary pace, Prince Henry and FM Schwerin rejoin their forces at Gitschina.

Prince Charles, the only general officer not to move this turn, glances slowly around him, blinking once or twice. Surely all this rushing about is proof that the world has gone mad.

Fortress rules and a supply rule change/clarification

I have been reviewing these rules while processing the May II movement orders. I'm sending around a reminder of how fortresses work and, as a result of my rereading, a change/clarification of how supply sources work.

Reminders:

An army must stop on entering an enemy fortress area, unless a friendly force is already present assaulting or besieging the fortress.

To successfully assault a fortress, an enemy army must have more infantry and artillery units than the value of the fortress (in this scenario all fortresses are 3s, so attackers must have at least 4 infantry and/or artillery). If there are enemy infantry/artillery inside the fortress in addition to the garrison, this will increase the value of the fortress. The turn *after* a siege is established, the attacker may attempt to assault the fortress; even if he fails, the chance to successfully assault next turn goes up, as long as there are more attackers than the modified value of the fortress. A failed assault seems not to cause any appreciable loss to the attacker, though I need to check the discussion group logs and errata to be sure (this seems too generous).

To simply *besiege* a fortress (not assault it), an army must have at least 4 infantry units and 1 cavalry unit. At the end of each turn of siege, there is a (noncumulative) chance the fortress will fall.

If a fortress falls, its garrison become prisoners and if it was a supply point for the defenders, it now becomes a supply point for the attackers.

Change/Clarification:

I had not noticed this last part of the siege consequences before, so I had assumed that supply points (unlike depots) always remained either friendly and functional or friendly and nonfunctional if controlled by the enemy, but did not become enemy supply points. Since friendly fortress supply points can become enemy supply points if captured, I can only assume that unfortified supply points change sides when they are captured too.

This would mean that when Pilsen was captured by Frederick, it became a Prussian supply point.

Maybe everyone else had already twigged to this and I'm the slowpoke. :-)

to-ings and fro-ings

All sorts of light horse are seen dashing about northern Bohemia, but it isn't entirely clear what they are doing, where they are going, or what they have seen. Generals and field marshals sit late into the night in their tents, tapping their fingers and pacing about their maps. But no great fireworks take place, and staff officers wear out a good many horses to no (apparent) good end.

a short account of the battle at Koniggraz

A full description, along with hand-coloured mezzotints, will be proffered to the public shortly to describe the mighty conflict late occurring in central Bohemia. For the moment, what we can tell our readers is that the Army of the Archduchess Maria Theresa, under GFM Maximillian Ulysses Browne, after maneuvering for several days, was brought to battle by the forces under the Prussian FM Graf von Schwerin. A short but bitter battle ensued, with the Austrians taking heavy losses. After inflicting some heavy blows to the Prussian center (which had been weakened by various delays in the movement of its supporting forces), the remaining Austrian forces retired from the field. Though they had fought gallantly, the Austrian cavalry were totally decimated, while several of their infantry formations were routed. Prussian forces hold Koniggraz and its supply depot, while the Austrians stream backwards (not pursued) to the south.

Two turns were played, giving a total of 6 impulses, after which the Austrian Army left the table in good order, without breaking. No pursuit was possible due to the absence of light or irregular cavalry in the Prussian forces.

Prussian losses (approximate): 2 SPs of cavalry, 7 SPs of infantry. Two infantry brigades destroyed or eliminated through redeployment. Final strengths after Recovery, Cadre Collection, and Convergence were: 22 SPs of cuirassiers, 20 SP of musketeers, 22 SPs of fusiliers, 23 SPs of grenadiers, and two heavy artillery units. No general officers were wounded or killed.

Austrian losses (approximate): 19 SPs of cavalry, 17 SPs of infantry. Three cavalry and two infantry brigades destroyed or eliminated through redeployment. Final strengths after Recovery, Cadre Collection, and Convergence were: 13 SPs of musketeers, 5 SPs of Reich infantry, and two heavy artillery units. No general officers were wounded or killed.

Here is a map after the retirements from battle.