Friday 14 September 2007

The Battle of GugenStadt 1740 - (3rd Belgravian Wars)

Further extracts from the History of Wittenberg by Brother James of Alt-Wittendorf ...

1) Early in the morning

The Duke of Escherstadt rowsed his troops early in the morning and placed them ready for action in the town defences recently completed by the corp of engineers. There was much mumbling in the ranks, not again, we got up early yesterday ...they complained.


The Wittenberg forces:
Commander - Duke of EscherStadt
Cavalry: Dragoon Regiment - Schwarze Dragoner, Uhlan Pulk - Zaprotsky
Infantry:The Wittenland Fusiliers, Grenadier Battalion - Von Purchenk, 2 Companies of Jagers
Artillery:2 Heavy Field Guns, 1 Medium Field Gun

2) The Monrovians Arrive

The Monrovians had broken camp at dawn and mmarched into sight of Gugenstadt, emerging out of the morning mist they saw their target. Their commander was bemused, its looks as if there are more troops there than I was told. Just then he heard the sound of artillery and one of the leading infantry columns took some minor casualties. This could be a tricky one thought the General and ordered his troops to deploy for the attack.

Commander - General von Stricknein
Cavalry: Regiment of Horse - von Streiber
Infantry:von Pilbner Fusiliers, 2 Battalions of Line Infantry, Grenadier Battalion - Von Stomnach, Guard Grenadier Battalion
Artillery:2 Medium Field Guns


3) The Battle commences ...

The Monrovians deploy, using their cavalry to screen the movement of the artillery.

The Wittenberg cavalry and jagers manouvre into position


The Monrovian cavalry having taken casualties from sustained artillery fire are attacked by the Wittenberg Uhlans

The Uhlans smash through the cavalry and career into the infantry columns

After a short melee the disorganised Uhlans retire. The Monrovians start to disengage.


4) Afterwards

General von Stricknein, having lost his cavalry in the melee and the Grenadier Battalion Von Stomnach routed by sustained artillery fire, decides to retire and cross the river back into Monrovia. The town of Gugenstadt is well defended and he dosen't want to risk any Wittenberg re-inforcements getting between him and the way back home.

The Duke of Escherstadt satisfied with how things went sends some Dragoons out to shadow the Monrovian withdrawal.

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Afterthoughts:

I think I made this scenario a bit too tough for the attackers by providing 2 heavy guns to the Wittenberg defenders. So the attackers got well pounded on the way to the defences, they needed some heavy artillery too. I thought that there may have been a better way to attack the town so I tried it out solo; I deployed in line rather than column for the attack.


The above looks great, textbook denied flank and attack with grenadiers leading. When they got to the defences it all went horribly wrong -- artillery fire and sharp volleys from the defending infantry forces forced the two lead battlations to rout on morale checks due to high casualties. This is about what you might expect of an attack on defences, you really need heavy artillery for the attackers and some cover for approaching troops.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re. the solo play, aren't the two lead battalions the cover for the two rear ones?
;^)

Good photos and play-by-play commentary, tidders.
Andygamer

abdul666 said...

A very enjoyable & didactic report, and, I'm sure, an enjoyable battle despite the Monrovian perhaps too easy set-back?
Jean-Louis

Auston Jeff Butler said...

Brother James is my favorite historian.

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Great battle and post-action report. The photos of your collection really make it interesting. Which manufacturer produces those fine looking uhlans?

Best Regards,

Stokes

Bluebear Jeff said...

Once again allow me to salute you for the lovely "diorama views" of the battle. I wish more of us would take the time to place "backgrounds" for photos as you do.

Your terrain, although leaving lots of open ground for troops to maneuver in looks very good. Bravo!


-- Jeff

old-tidders said...

Some Notes On Comments:
1. Solo game - infantry lead battalions do provide cover for the rest of the assault; but some bad dice rolls messed up the attack - I might have another run through.
2. The Monrovians retired as we ran out of time for the gaming session - we assumed it was the end of the 'day' and agreed that the commander would probably retire to fight another day.
3. Uhlan figs: these are Front Rank prussian bosniaks on Hinchcliffe horses. I used the lance down bosniak figs and bent the arms to get the ~45degsrees angle of the lance.

-- Allan