French Regiments Aquitaine and Limousin

Wargaming activities of late seem to be ensconced in the SYW.  

This week witnessed three gaming sessions refighting the Battle of Mollwitz with two different opponents, a little painting, and a book order arrival.

On the painting front, two more French regiments of infantry muster out to join their brethren in the growing French army.  Out from the painting desk are Regiments Limousin and Aquitaine.  Figures are 15mm Old Glory with Eureka mounted officers and flags from Not By Appointment.  These latest additions bring the French army up to a strength of 18 infantry regiments.  I really need to turn attention to fielding some guns and horse.  Both are seeing progression through the painting queue.

Regiment Aquitaine

Regiment Limousin

On the gaming front, two Battles of Mollwitz are in the Battle Logbook. The anniversary game on Sunday has been chronicled (see Mollwitz, A Battle Report). Game #2 finished up on Friday afternoon. Once I gather all of the artifacts, expect a battle report on this action as well.

Finally, the library sees three new arrivals all on the SYW. Helion recently offered up a 3-for-2 sale and I nibbled. The books in this order are:

They all look to be handy reference books.  Let us hope they are!

Not on the SYW theme, this week also saw a remote game recreating the Hundred Years War Battle of Cravant.

Battle of Cravant

I would like to draft a Battle Report from this interesting action but with games coming fast and furious, I often fall behind.  Sometimes, way behind.

Mollwitz, A Battle Report

On the anniversary of the battle, the two armies once again take to the field.  This time, the outcome would be settled in a remote game against Chris (Horse and Musket Gaming).  Today's contest would be Chris' first game of Honours of War (HoW) but not his first remote game.  Chris chose to command the Austrians.  I would lead the Prussia army.

As a refresher, the two armies facing each other were deployed as shown below:

Initial dispositions

View from behind the Prussian lines.

The primary objective for the two armies is to either break their opponent or occupy Mollwitz.  Would Chris, at the head of the Austrian army, reverse history and see a victory for the Whitecoats or would the Prussian infantry, once again, carry the day?

Calm in the Austrian lines before the Prussian attack.

We will see.

Austrian cavalry advance.

Seizing the initiative, Neipperg orders both cavalry wings to advance upon the enemy.  The goal is to defeat the Prussian cavalry wings before the Prussian infantry can reach the Austrian infantry lines deployed in front of Mollwitz. 

Austrian cavalry advance continues.

On the Austrian left, Romer squares up his large cavalry wing in preparation to overpower Schulenburg's weaker cavalry.  The Prussian infantry plods forward through the snow.  On the Austrian right, Berlichingen's cavalry crosses the frozen stream and challenges the Prussian hussars defending the crossing.  The hussars put up little resistance despite the timely arrival of support.

Clash at the crossing.

Prussian cavalry driven back in great disorder.

While the Prussian infantry in the center march forward, some of Romer's cavalry out on the left wing take fire from both guns and grenadiers.  Romer draws up his massive formation in preparation for an attack against the Prussian right.

Cavalry clash on the Prussian right.

Romer prepares to attack.

The Austrian cavalry formations taking fire retire out of harm's way as Romer launches a cavalry charge into Schulenburg's cavalry.  Outnumbered and outclassed, Schulenburg's cavalry recoil. 

Romer attacks!

Schulenburg's cavalry wing is crushed in the attack and scattered.   Only grenadiers remain in Schulenburg's command.  Frederick has seen enough.  He leaves the battlefield concerned for his own safety.  Schwerin takes over command of the Prussian army.

Schulenburg isolated on the battlefield.

Having destroyed the Prussian right cavalry wing, Romer turns his attention to mopping up the grenadiers and artillery that remain.  The Prussian right has been turned.  Ignoring the growing threat, Prussian infantry continue their advance upon Mollwitz.  They have yet to reach the enemy lines.

Grenadiers and artillery with nowhere to hide.

Unable to respond, the Prussian right is attacked viciously.  The artillery and grenadiers, isolated by the destruction of their brethren, are attacked. To add insult to injury, the Prussian second line is attacked.

Prussian right crumbles.

Prussian infantry march toward Mollwitz

while the Austrians await.

All three attacks meet with success and the Prussians are scattered at the hands of Romer's jubilant cavalry.  Seeing the destruction of the Prussian right and the slow progress of the Prussian infantry, Neipperg shifts his second infantry line to the right as the front line comes under musketry fire.  Can the Austrians shift to their right without becoming entangled? 

Austrian second line shifts as
Romer mops up stragglers.

After dispatching the Prussian left cavalry wing, Berlichingen crosses back over the stream to threaten the main body.  Both Prussian infantry lines come under pressure as they attempt to turn to meet this unexpected threat. 

Prussian left is attacked!

Action on the Prussian left

as Berlichingen crashes into the Prussian infantry.

Even with pressure mounting on the flanks, the Prussians could win the day if the Austrian infantry to their front can be destroyed and Mollwitz taken.

That is not to be.

Uncharacteristically for the poorly trained Austrian, they let loose many volleys with devastating results.  All along the line, Prussian infantry are stopped and then repulsed. 

Prussian center repulsed!

Prussian fight a desperate rear-guard action.
Romer's cavalry are repulsed in great disorder.

The Prussians suffer mightily within reach of Mollwitz.

The Prussian army has broken.  The battle is over.

Chris and the Austrian army hold on to gain an impressive victory on the field at Mollwitz.  Well played.  Masterfully executed.  Chris demonstrated how the Austrians can win at Mollwitz.  While I have witnessed a few close calls by the Austrians, this is the first bona fide victory in my books.  Congratulations to the victor!

Great fun.  Hopefully, I will meet Chris on the field of battle again.

On The Table Today is...

Carl Rochling's Prussian Infantry at Mollwitz 1741

the Battle of Mollwitz.  Actually, Sunday's game with mark an anniversary battle commemorating the 281st anniversary of the 10 April 1741 battle.

Initial deployments

The battle will be fought in 18mm, remotely, using Honours of War (HoW) as the Rules on Engagement.  I face off against an opponent new to HoW.  This may be his first remote game too.  That detail will be confirmed before play begins.

The armies face-off

Prussian battle lines

Austrian battle lines

Until then, the battlefield lays silent awaiting the action to begin.

While Mollwitz was reportedly fought in the snow, my battlefield shows a springlike groundcover.  In earlier refights of Mollwitz, a white groundcover played havoc with photography.

A second Mollwitz replay is slated for Monday so I will be getting the pleasure of a Mollwitz double shot this week.

Lucky me!

Media Sources of Inspiration

The last time we dove into the Great Wargaming Survey results (see: What Inspires You?), the analysis focused on dissecting primary wargaming inspiration to see what sparks motivation.  Today's analysis examines a related survey question.  That question asks about media sources of inspiration. 

The earlier, primary inspiration question allowed for a respondent to select the top three primary inspiration sources.  Today's media source question is no different.  This question also allowed for up to three choices for media sources of wargaming inspiration.  Those results were aggregated, and the final counts are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

The aggregated results show the top four choices overall are:

1. Printed book or magazine
2. Online video
3. Social media
4. Film or TV

Given the seeming current shift to emphasizing digital media, seeing the appearance of physical books or magazines coming out on top may be somewhat of a surprise.  Or is it?  The top choice is no surprise to me but then I came into the hobby when print books and magazines were almost the only media source for information and inspiration.

Media Source by Age Group

One theme consistent throughout many of these deeper dives into the survey results is that respondent age matters.  Looking at the choices of media, it may not be much of a leap of faith to imagine that age may play a role in choice here as well.

When examining the results as a percentage of Age Group by Media Source, we see that digital media is favored by the 40-and-under groups.  For audio book listeners, almost 40% (37.4%) of all responses to this preferred media source fall into the 31-40 age group.  Similarly, wargamers in the 31-40 age group are the largest consumers of all digital media.  See Figure 2 for details.    

Figure 2

Are there age dependent tendencies in preferred media consumption?  Tough to discern from a quick glance at Figure 2.  Transposing the results in Figure 2 to show Media Source by Age Group reveals distinctive patterns of media consumption.  See Figure 3.

Figure 3

What pattern pops out of the graphic above?  Two tendencies become easily identifiable at a glance.  One, online video consumption declines monotonically as age increases and, two, printed media (books and magazine) usage increases directly as age increases.  While we may think these results intuitive and obvious, it is striking to see the survey confirm these intuitions, graphically.

Do I fit into the media source tendencies of my age group as shown in the results?  Not quite.  My top 3 media sources for wargaming inspiration are,

• Printed book or magazine
• A Blog
• Digital book or magazine. 

I tend to derive much more inspiration from blogs than the aggregated survey statistics suggest.  Perhaps my perspective is biased since I am communicating these results via a blog post?

How about you?

Do your media sources for wargaming inspiration correspond with the survey results as detailed for your age group?  If not, how does your choices differ?

What are your Top 3 media sources for wargaming inspiration?

Foz d'Arouce, A Second Time

Following up on the Combat at Foz d'Arouce played on Tuesday, Matt agreed to give the scenario a whirl on Sunday.  Being the fair-minded gamer that he is, he opted not to read the battle report from Tuesday's game in order to not bias his decision-making.  

As a brief refresher on troop deployments, the armies are positioned as they were in Game 1.  French deployed in and around Foz d'Arouce and the Anglo-Portuguese deployed along the bottom of the map (see game photo below).  Matt would command the Anglo-Portuguese and I would command the French.  After witnessing the French scrape out a victory in Game 1, I hoped to repeat this feat.

Initial deployments

In Game 1, Picton, leading the Anglo-Portuguese army, planned to swing around the French right in attempt to cut the bridge with a general advance across the battlefield elsewhere.  For the French, I wanted to counter this threat but stick with the French plan from Game 1 that produced a victory.

Would history (on the game table) repeat?

The French wait

while the British advance.

View from behind French lines.

The action begins as both combatants race forward to secure and control the center.  In a repeat of Game 1, Mernard's Brigade advances quickly to garrison the farm to his front and threaten the allied right.  MacKinnon advances on the Allied right more cautiously and the French seem to have gained a march on their adversary.    

No time is wasted to gain the center.

In the center, both armies step forward to contest the ground while Beckwith and his light brigade move quickly to envelope Poisao.  Colville quickly reaches Poisao with the 94th and is targeted by both artillery and musketry.  The British do not waver.

Maucine brings over the 69th Ligne.

Seeing the growing threat to the defenders in Poisao, Maucine orders the 69th Ligne to move over the Ceira River to the south bank and join the rest of his brigade.  With Beckwith's light troops working their away around Poisao, only one battalion of the 6h Legere blocks the way to the crucial bridge.  While stout, the 6th Legere will require support when facing such odds.

Firefights erupt all along the front.

The Allies reach Poisao.

69th Ligne marches over the Foz d'Arouce bridge.

Beckwith works to encircle Poisao.

With the firefight in the woods to the west of Poisao intensifying, the 1st Cacadores pick off French gunners manning the artillery in Poisao.  Sensing opportunity, the Cacadores charge into the depleted gunners.  The result was never in doubt.  The Portuguese overrun the guns and drive off the surviving gunners.  Poisao is in allied hands!

Cacadores attack the guns in Poisao.

Firefight in the Poisao Woods.

Away in the distance, MacKinnon and the British right have been augmented by a battery of horse artillery.  The French attack upon this flank has been stopped in its tracks.  MacKinnon has also succeeded in evicting French legere from the farm as the French are last seen fleeing the compound pell-mell.  They are finished for the day.  The 88th Foot draws up on the western approach to the farm to prevent 74th from becoming isolated.  Fighting in the center intensifies as casualties rise uniformly across all combatants.  Both sides are taking a pounding but stubbornly holding ground.  

MacKinnon evicts French from the farm (in background).

With the situation on the Allied right stabilized by first halting the French advance and then counterattacking, Powers' Portuguese infantry brigade is directed toward Foz d'Arouce, itself.  Four Portuguese infantry battalions come up in support of Colville.  Ney wonders how he can stem this tide before it washes over him and carries him away. 

Portuguese arrive!

French are pressed on all fronts.

With Colville and Powers' brigades forming up along the main road and a second battery racing up in support, Picton prepares to deliver what he expects to be the final attack.  A quick stab toward the bridge could seal off the French escape route and bag what remains of Ney's command. 

Taking a severe pounding from Beckwith's Brigade, Maucine is forced to retire.  Two battalions cover the withdrawal but two battalions make their retreat over the bridge and to safety.

Allies prepare to attack.

French infantry waver as pressure mounts.

Two of Maucine's badly beaten battalions
slip over to the north side of the Ceira.

Trying to slow the inevitable, Ney joins the rearguard to bolster their resolve.  Outnumbered, Ney's position looks futile.  With more than enough infantry to cut the escape over the bridge, Picton diverts two Portuguese infantry battalions to reinforce the center.  Will Ney make good his escape?  

Ney joins the rearguard.

Portuguese attack!

Portuguese reinforce the center.

Having played six turns and now seeing little chance of stemming the Allied tide, Ney concedes the battle.

Victory to Picton and the Anglo-Portuguese!

While this action saw hard fighting, the casualty count at the end of the day fell decidedly in favor of the Anglo-Portuguese.  How this happened?  I know not but the French lost two battalions to unexpected routs that did not help the situation.

In this contest, the Anglo-Portuguese (Matt) was able to outlast, outwit, and outplay the French (me!).

Congratulations on the victory, Matt!  Maybe I can get you next time?