Rossbach with Twilight of the Soldier King

 

On Monday 24th February, Chris and George brought over their 15mm armies to refight the Battle of Rossbach on my game table.  The rules used were Twilight of the Soldier King by Nicholas Dorrell.  The Scenario book that covers this battle gives three options for fighting it on the table top, the historical set up at the point where Seydlitz was about to launch his charge against the Franco-Imperial columns, a larger manoeuvre battle or a set piece confrontation around the positions of the two army's camps.  Chris and George had agreed to use the historical set up and I prepared the terrain accordingly.

The table was 5' by 5'.  The Franco-Imperial force has to set up first in column of march.  The Prussian cavalry must be 5 base widths away from the head of the enemy cavalry column, meaning that they cannot charge in on the first turn.  Giving the French cavalry a turn to react still leaves them in a difficult position but perhaps not as difficult as on the day of the real battle where their columns had become disorganised even before the Prussian attack began

After setting out the troops.  Seydlitz has five units of cavalry, several of them being small.  His one regiment of Hussars is in line to the left of the other four which are in a deep group of supporting lines facing down the length of the double column of French cavalry, which is followed by a triple column of infantry.  I was given command of the Prussian infantry and had used the latitude given by the Prussian deployment area to put them somewhat unhistorically up as close to Rossbach as I could, threatening the flank of the French infantry.

Looking from the rear of the French column.  The seam of the mat marks the edge of the playing area, so the last three infantry and the gun still need a move before they are in play.

Prussian infantry and artillery together with Frederick behind Rossbach.  Artillery get a bonus for moving on roads and the Prussian infantry in column will also be able to move fast.  Some can get around the sides of Rossbach but others will have to move through the town, which will slow them down.   

Looking from behind the Prussian infantry to the enemy columns moving across their front

Seydlitz' cavalry make their first move

The French try to move their horse out of the way of Seydlitz' steamroller.  They do get one unit out to the side where, if it can turn, it will threaten the Prussian flank as it moves forward but tempting targets remain, caught like rabbits in the gleam of Seydlitz's sabres

The first clash is very lopsided in the Prussian's favour

But the French do surprisingly well by not routing despite the minuses piled up against them, falling back behind their supports with just the loss of a morale point.

George elected not to exercise the discipline that Seydlitz kept over his men and did not try to stop pursuit by his leading regiment into the next target.

The Prussian cavalry promptly paid for their presumption, losing a morale point and falling back behind their supports.  The French cavalry to their flank has now managed to turn around, meaning that any further advance by the Prussian cavalry will not be without significant risk.

Meanwhile, the Prussian infantry are moving around and through Rossbach as best they can - not too well as several fail action tests and Frederick can only help with one re-roll per turn.  The artillery has got into a good position but the infantry are still all in column as the French infantry turn into two lines to face them.

An overview a turn later.  A Prussian Grenadier regiment is now in line.  The French lines are moving towards Rossbach while the infantry still in column on the right are moving up towards their cavalry which is all over the place trying to get into fighting formation while the Prussian Hussars are gallantly advancing by themselves to discomfort their enemies and disrupt their movements

Another turn and chaos reigns in the cavalry fight with the Prussians having suffered a number of morale losses but with the French not in position to exploit this and beginning to get mixed up with their own infantry.  Before Rossbach the French are edging forward but are reluctant to close against the Prussian musketry and artillery.  Ominously, the French have started to get a couple of cavalry regiments into a position where they can threaten the flank of the Prussian infantry if it tries to advance.  One Prussian regiment is marching through the woods to guard the flank.  Will it be enough?

Frederick finally manages to shake his men into a decent firing line.  His artillery is bombarding the centre of the French line, hoping to disrupt any advance but the French are not interested in trying to come closer.

Frederick decides to bite the bullet and advances his line, giving the French the chance to fire first and inflict morale tests.  Their musket balls are like water off a ducks back to the plucky Prussian Grenadiers.  No morale loss to these elite troops.

Prussian return fire is more effective.  The French troops have to test for their quality on a first morale test and both front line units are found to be raw!  They take an immediate -1 on all morale tests, which the one in the foreground promptly failed.  My inexperience showed itself with the Swiss regiment next to them, asking for a re-roll of one D6 - as allowed to account for Prussian superior fire - without realizing that the original roll was sufficient for the Swiss to have taken a morale loss.  The re-roll saved them!

In the cavalry fight, the French had taken some more set backs but now had a line of infantry to fall back behind.  Seydlitz' attack was beginning to run out of steam 

Seydlitz took a gamble, throwing his Hussars against the front of the French infantry.  Despite being found to be raw they rolled well enough to pass the test.  Although the Hussars were elite, they would be in difficulty when it was their time to test as the French had flank support.

Happily for the Prussians, the French cavalry trying to manoeuvre to attack the flank of Frederick's infantry did not roll so well when they came under direct fire from the Prussian artillery, losing an already damaged unit to a blast of canister.

And on the next turn the Prussian artillery struck again as a roll of 3 routed the remaining French cavalry threat - the French commander not being close enough to effect a re-roll.

The infantry fight was also swinging the Prussian way as a French unit lost its last morale point and the more determined Swiss were beginning to lose points without taking any off their opponents - although Frederick had taken a risk to get a re-roll to save one potential loss.

The battle had turned decisively against the French as the loss of the two cavalry on the ill fated flanking attempt required the three regiments remaining to the cavalry wing to take a wing morale test, which they failed.  Although they now had a good line of infantry to face Seydlitz' shaken cavalry they could not harm the horsemen, whose superior mobility would allow them to get around the line sooner or later.  Meanwhile, the mass of poor infantry facing Frederick's grenadiers had little chance to avoid being ground down. With evening coming in and supper waiting, we closed the game.

So, a closer run thing for the Prussians than on the day in 1757 when they broke the allied army in 90 minutes.  I found that the rules, while familiar in a way from Twilight of Divine Right were significantly different, giving a good feel for the evolution of tactics and troop performance compared with the previous century.  It was good to be able to get units moving around more readily and being able to use more sophisticated manoeuvres - particularly for the Prussian infantry.  Indeed, that was just as well since my initial deployment had cramped the Prussian infantry too much and three of their regiments never got into the fight!

Using Chris and George's 15mm armies was a pleasure.  They use different basing arrangements but the robust Twilight system has no trouble with this as three of George's bases are equal to the standard Twilight unit frontage and four of Chris's do the same.  They look good in line or column and make me think I should give more thought to how my 30 Year's War units can be better represented when in column.

Congratulations to Chris for playing a much better hand than Soubise in 1757

and to George for recovering from the wild pursuit that had threatened to lead to disaster for Seydlitz' cavalry.