Chevalier Plays AGEOD Let's Play/AAR

[sunrise089]

I know the title of the last entry is "the end" of the army, but if you turn south now will the army reform and return to strength at least with respect to the intact formations?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I know the title of the last entry is "the end" of the army, but if you turn south now will the army reform and return to strength at least with respect to the intact formations?

In theory, they could reconstitute the army. But it needs to get into supply first, and then it needs to sit in a city to absorb replacements for a while. Even Austria has a limited pool of replacements available, furthermore (I'll show the Prussian replacement screen on the next update) and what is on paper an army of about 60,000 men is down to just about 10,000. It would take a year to rebuild that army. Furthermore, though, and fatally, every turn out of supply you take hits just as if you were in a battle (I pushed one scouting cavalry regiment too far, for example, and they took 30 hits riding back into a town to resupply!). That army - which is in contact with mine and will actually hamper my efforts to get back over the Elbe and in position for the Vienna campaign - will be shedding men left and right. So, as an effective force, the Bohemische army is finished. A few of the officers might escape, perhaps even a cavalry element or two (except those have fewer hits and have suffered most of all from the lack of supply), but the guns, supply wagons, and men are all going to desert or fall into Prussian hands.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

April 1757: New fronts

The situation after the spring Bohemian offensive:


Charles and Kollowrat's columns are all that remain, and they're shells, not viable military formations. The Austrian army of Bohemia (rather optimistically renamed the Army of Silesia) is mostly a mass of fugitives, surrounded by swarms of deserters and stragglers, harried by Prussian cavalry. Units are dissolving left and right as disciple collapses and men take off for the hills on their own, and only a tiny core of disciplined units remains. The next month will see the final dissolution.

Orders for the Bohemian Front:


You can see that Moritz is down to 180 power (from over 1000 at the start of the campaign in February), mostly due to his wretched cohesion. So he will camp in the field at Jitschen and give his men a rest. Ferdinand will march to Prague and give the men a few day's rest in the city, while Keith and Frederick, in better shape, will head due south for Kolin to camp there as the jumping-off point for the Vienna operation. Katte's cavalry will continue to harry and harass Charles' fleeing columns until the fugitives are entirely destroyed, then cross the Elbe and maintain communications between Ferdinand and Frederick.

With the coming of spring, though, France has entered the war (mostly pissed off that we allied with Britain - Paris was on our side during the wars last decade against Maria Theresa!). That means Germany is now a theater of conflict:


Hanover and Hesse-Kessel, as noted, join our cause. They field about 3 total corps between them, with a few other brigades here and there. In terms of quality - training, discipline, equipment, morale, cohesion - they're not Prussians, but they should be a fair match for Frenchmen or Imperial troops in even numbers. There's no leadership and a thin replacement pool behind them. Finally, the three corps have no commander in chief and are scattered among 3 separate cities - Minden, Hanover, and Kassel.

Here's pretty much all the new available field forces from the German states joining the war:

Perhaps 40,000 men, all told? Thin stuff to hold back over 100,000 Frenchmen, but we do have a few advantages - heavy fortifications, long supply lines for the French, thick forests and many river crossings, and, above all, interior lines. These Germans joined iwth Frederick's Prussians can beat the French, and since we've so thoroughly drubbed Austria in the first 6 months of hte conflict we can contemplate marching here with Frederick's 80,000 man army to make a fight of it in Hanover.

The real need here is more leadership:

Take, for instance, the Left Wing here. We've talked about leader stats, so you can see that Imhoff, most senior brigadier (there is no corps commander), is the wretch of all wretches at 1-0-0, about the worst stat line imaginable (and the other brigadiers are scarcely better 3-0-0 peacetime soldiers). So, functionally, why have these useless arse filling the saddle at all - why not send him home and let some lowly colonel or whoever command the brigade? Basically, because Imhoff, worthless as he is on the battlefield, is a brigadier general and provides precious experience in getting his men organized, fed, and moving in more or less the right direction.

Every unit in Rise of Prussia requires command. For example, a brigade of 4 battalions requires 4 command points to function. Command points are generated by generals - 1 star, 2 star, and 3 stars. 1 star generals can command brigades - hence brigadiers. 2 stars, functionally a major general, can command a corps, and 3 stars can lead an army (der Konig has 4 stars so he always outranks anyone, regardless of seniority). Hanover and H-K only have 2 2-stars available. Each general generates more and more command points dependent upon his rank, up to Frederick's big army having nearly 40 points in each corps! There are diminishing returns, so you can't just pack all your brigades into one single doomstack - as it gets bigger, it becomes more difficult to command, and each point over the command limit it begins to take a command penalty. The maximum penalty is 35%, visible in these Hanover stacks. Functionally, they'll be outfought by a force only 2/3 their size, as long as that enemy force is adequately commanded itself.

Here in Hanover, the left wing needs 20 command points, but only generates 8 (part of that is it takes a big penalty for not being part of an army command). So, most of my German formations and my Pomeranian formations (we'll see Pomerania in a second) are fighting at only 65% strength due to all the Prussian senior leadership being located on the Bohemian front. I'll need to begin stripping that army of its experienced corps commanders like Ferdinand, Moritz, and Keith to serve as army commanders in other theaters, promoting new men to fill their shoes under Frederick.

Anyway, here is the plan to settle the northern front:

The free cities of Hamburg, Lubeck, Kiel, and Rostok declared war when the Emperor called them in January of this year. Furthermore, Sweden has two fortresses at Wismar and Stralsund on the Baltic coast, which it will use to base an army estimated at 30,000 men to threaten Prussia from the north. I have spent the autumn and winter gathering reserves near Berlin. Now, I plan to unleash all those reserves and combine them with the Germans to fall like a sledgehammer on this front.

The only major army is the Swedes, and they have no real replacements behind them and NO strategic depth - just htose two fortresses. I will storm forward, seize Rostok to split them, and place those fortresses under siege using every spare trooper I can lay my hands on. The Hanoverians - howling in protest - will fling both their corps north as well and whirl through the northern imperial cities, before joining the Prussians at Wismar and Stralsund to drive Sweden into the sea and out of the war by autumn, if all goes well.

This will expose Hanover to French invasion, but they have many tall fortresses and the French have further to go. I will also use Hesse's army to harass the French, launching a spoiling offensive at Frankfurt-on-Main in the south before fighting a delaying campaign in the Hessian forests. If all goes as I plan it, the north will be driven out of the war by autumn and the Germans, along with Prussia's reserves (not a very impressive army, will show it in a bit) will return to take up the front against France. We can even hope that the Austrian campaign will have been victorious by then and we can concentrate all available mobile forces against France, before Russia really gets going. We will avoid a two front war by getting a quick knockout blow against France before turning against Russia, what could possibly go wrong?

The last bit of bookkeeping before we begin operations is our replacement pool. Here are the available replacements to make our losses good:


I've been working diligently all winter to rebuild Prussia's pool, after depleting it in the autumn campaign. Each one of these elements - ie, the 7 Prussian line elements - can replace 2 damaged elements in the field. So, I can replace about 14 companies of soldiers - perhaps 2000 men, at the most. Losses to the cavalry and artillery come out of those pools, Hannover and Great Britain have their own pools, etc. You can see how badly depleted Prussia's line infantry are compared to Hannover's (and also that Hannover's artillery is very brittle!). However, this is after I worked all winter - the line infantry was completely depleted after Second Prague, I have since made all my losses good and even built up a little reserve.

The enemy coalition has independent pools, too - so all those Austrians we've killed, captured, and incapacitated this winter won't be replaced by Russians. It's possible, thus, to cripple the enemy coalition country by country, and I think if we knock out the remaining Austrian field forces this year we won't have to worry about them until 1760, at the earliest.

The turn runs and it doesn't quite go as planned. Charles attacks Moritz:

Suicidal? No, just a product of military control. Charles arrived in Jitschen at the end of last turn, but due to Moritz occupying the province Prussia has 100% military control. Military control represents your ability to use the province for military purposes - march without harassment, pass supplies through, patrol and control the populace, etc. It's a percentage between you and the enemy. A province under 50% control is split in half, with each army controlling its portion. It adds a line of analog to the otherwise digital province system. Control is established by being in offensive posture and by cavalry, as you aggressively try to spread out and take control of the area. Defensive armies spread it, too, but more slowly. The trick is, if you have less than 5% military control, your general automatically switches to offensive stance when he is in that province. So Charles was FORCED to swap to offense at the start of the turn, due to my 100% control, in an effort to win some control for himself so his army could exist in the province or even pass through. That in turn FORCED him to attack Moritz, who accordingly gets all the benefit of terrain and etc. I kenw all this when I ordered Moritz to stay put.

The battle sees desperate Austrians force their way through Moritz's lines. We lose a handful of men killed and wounded and only kill a handful of Austrians as they rapidly collapse, but even the measley 600 casualties destroys a further 10 elements. By April 9th, Frederick's pursuing force catches up to Charles, massacring 3,000 of his 10,000 survivors (our estimate last month was spot on!) and destroying a further 27 formations:


By April 15, the situation stands thus:

Charles is fleeing towards the Elbe with his 7000 or so survivors (probably fewer, after pursuit hits). A fresh Austrian force has come up from Vienna, possibly that corps that Zeiten's hussars spotted last month, but we don't know more than that. The pursuit disordered Frederick, Keith, and Katte, who did not reach the positions I ordered, but Ferdinand is in Prague and fresh.

I order the following:

• Keith and Frederick to march south to Kolin (again) for jumpoff. They will engage and destroy the remnants of the Silesian Army on the way.
  
• Moritz to march to Koniggratz for full R&R, to join the push south in late May.
  
• Ferdinand to confront the Austrian corps if possible, pushing them south. He may be able to link up with Frederick and Keith. Having defeated them, he should go ahead and push south for Iglau, which will be a vital supply stepping stone on the way to Vienna.
  

Schwerin begins the siege of Olmutz over in Moravia and I am running cavalry around to scout and open supply lines. I have starred the 3 objective cities - capture these 3 and the war (and the game) is over in a decisive Prussian victory. If we're too slow, as France and Russia get going I think more objectives get added to our list. So we MAY win the game this year, or it might drag on for years yet.

In Pomerania, my reserves and an oncoming Brunswickian army are opening the campaign by marching on Rostok:


They are mostly a match for the Swedes, I expect, but will want the Hanoverians to really push them into the sea. Elsewhere, the Hanoverians march and French armies are seen sniffing along the Rhine, but haven't begun to march into Germany yet.

The month predictably continues with a series of running battles as the final disintegration of Charles of Lorraine proceeds:

8 more elements destroyed in a small skirmish. This is retreat-from-Moscow level dissolution.


17 horsemen lost in exchange for 300 Austrians, including a brigadier! (don't know which one). 11 more elements dissolve.

South of the Elbe, the Austrian corps (revealed to be led by Piccolomini, who somehow slipped out of the unfolding disaster north of the river) evades Ferdinand but its supply train is captured:


On April 24, 5 months after the Second Battle of Prague, Kollowrat surrenders with the 1,800 survivors of his corps:


Finally, wrapping up the furious skirmishes of the last two weeks, Ferdinand reaches Iglau and drives an Austrian brigade into the defenses, which he places under siege:


All told, during the April pursuit of Charles, we lost 1,300 men in various skirmishes and rearguard actions, while we killed or wounded 5,800 Austrians and took thousands prisoner. When the smoke clears, there is no sign at all of any remaining organized opposition - the Silesian army was already an empty shell at the start of hte month and Kollowrat has been destroyed now, too.

The resulting situation on the Austrian front:


Frederick is at Kolin, while Keith was delayed by the vast amounts of prisoners, supplies, and guns that he took. Ferdinand has reached Iglau and has the small garrison under siege, while Olmutz is surrounded by Schwerin (and a small gaggle of militia have surrounded Tabor in the southwest). Piccolomini commands the only visible Austrian force at liberty - about 4 brigades, 12,000 men. Unit identification - Morocz, Gemigen, Ayasassa's brigades - confirms that this is the same corps that was outside Vienna last month. They successfully slipped south of Ferdinand, marched past Prague, and are on the far side of the Vltava river. They may demand the commitment of a corps in pursuit - note my Saxon division at Lobositz, which could slow them down a bit but wouldn't win a battle.

Northern front:

Hamburg, Kiel, and Lubeck are under siege, as is Rostok. The offensive, Fall Blau codename, is well under way. The Duke of Cumberland has arrived from Britain and although he's a bit of a duffer (and we'd better keep him far away from Marshal Keith, the man is not popular in Scotland), he IS a high-ranking duffer and so he now commands the Army of Observation. He was given strict orders by George II's government not to undertake offensive action but to act strictly upon the defensive, which we have cheerfully interpreted to mean no offensive action against the French. Helpless Imperials and Swedes, on the other hand...

There is a substantial Swedish garrison at Rostok and another at Stralsund, two small corps - possibly 30,000 men in total. I have numerous Freikorps of militia forming up in the area but they're mostly garrisons, no good for field work.

Overall situation on the big board - our field armies and known or suspected enemy field armies:

Only bits not mentioned - suspect the French are near Wesel on the Rhine but they're not visible at present. The Austrian cavalry brigade is raiding Silesia, and von Daun has been camped at Pirna for a month now and has actually cut the road, so will need to be dealt with (Katte is a good candidate for that). The Hessian army has reached Frankfurt and has besieged that place near the Rhine, but will need to act cautiously - they're no match for a French army.

News:

Nothing major. Combat losses stand at 17,000 Prussians to 45,000 Austrians - a good 3:1 ratio that we need if we're going to win this war. That does NOT count the 21,000 prisoners we've taken, accounting for all told 66,000 Austrians, and that in turn doesn't account for desertions due to supply lack that the Army of Bohemia/Silesia went through over the winter, so Austrian losses are likely a good deal higher. By and large we have achieved our initial objective of crippling the army of the Habsburgs, I think.

So, action items in May:

• Piccolomini's corps - who is to pursue it and how far?
  
• Should Frederick take most of the army after Piccolomini, the last real Austrian army, or leave a covering force and move south in force for Vienna?
  
• Recommendations/plans for Germany?
  
  I haven't covered the Russian front yet since the steamroller has yet to arrive, but be informed that most of my recruitment efforts have been directed towards that particular problem area.
  

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I have prepared a brief Order of Battle for our armed forces. This is excluding most of our garrison units and I haven't finished taking roll of all the militia springing to arms yet, which will be formed into a reserve corps at Berlin, but it does give a pretty complete picture of all our mobile field forces at the moment:



To sum up: Prussia has about 200k soldiers available for field operations (possibly as many as 50k more in garrison and reserve militia units). About 50,000 are German allies deployed on the Western Front, where we expect them to face about 120,000 French soldiers. I have about 30,000 deployed in and around Koenigsberg, but those are mostly militia with fixed cannon to face an estimated 100,000 Russians later this summer. 20,000 of our troops are in Pomerania facing about 30,000 Swedes. These will be joined by about 35,000 Hanoverians to hopefully drive the Swedes into the Baltic before the end of summer. FInally, the bulk of our army - fully half the available field forces - are in the Bohemian theater, geared to drive on Vienna.

Note that most enemy numbers are estimates only, and in many cases I can't begin to venture how many horses and cannon they have. This also doesn't include enemy militia and garrisons, and with the Austrians I haven't even ventured a guess how many fresh formations they'll be raising in the wake of the loss of the Army of Bohemia Silesia. I also haven't noted the Imperial army, about 100,000 more troops. So, we could be outnumbered by as many as 350k-400k against our 200k soldiers. The odds only grow longer, though, so this summer is our best chance to win the war outright.


May 1757: Habsburg Revival?

Orders in Bohemia:

The Army of the Elbe (perhaps time to rename them...) will rest around their eponymous river and recover from the exertions of the spring campaign, though I will order Ferdinand to assault Iglau if he can. I will send the cavalry corps on scouting runs through the area and attempt to clean up my lines of communication down to Iglau, and maintain the blockades at Tabor and Olmutz. Tabor will probably need to be a depot along with Iglau to supply the run to Vienna. Olmutz has one breach but needs fully three to be stormed by Schwerin.

The storming of Iglau goes well, but Piccolomini's corps marches on to Prague and places that city under siege. We also sight another fresh Habsburg corps, under Kollowrat who apparently escaped his corps' destruction north of the Elbe last month.




Piccolomini masses 1750 power or so around Prague, Kollowrat commands an unknown number to the southeast near Iglau.

In the north, the Hanoverian army, reorganized into a main corps and a reserve under the Hanoverian-English Duke of Cumberland, will launch its lightning assaults on the cities of Kiel, Hamburg, and Lubeck, while Prussian reserve formations are marching to Rostok to seize that place and split Sweden's holdings in half:


The first week of May sees a series of assaults rapidly reduce the undefended Free Cities:




The resulting situation in the north:


Lubeck hastily announces that it is now a proud ally of Prussia, and hussars get close enough to begin spying out the powerful garrison in Stralsund. Combined with the men besieged in Rostok and Sweden has perhaps 30,000 men in the field here, but they're out of position. I need to rapidly march the Hanoverians here to reinforce the Prussians before Stralsund can make a nuisance of itself. Those orders are easy enough:



A force out of Brunswick will rendezvous with the OstPrussen reserve outside Rostok (these armies are badly led - I need at least a 2 star here. Perhaps Keith, who is most senior?), while the Army of Observation will move on Wismar as soon as possible.

In Bohemia, Piccolomini threatens Prague, which must be relieved, so Frederick and Moritz will march west rapidly on the south bank of the Elbe. Keith will march on the north bank to join them outside the city, and Katte's corps will close the roads south of Prague. I even have Saxon levies lingering west of Prague, surrounding the Austrians. Ferdinand will dig in at Iglau and block Kollowrat's fresh corps from coming north:

Irritatingly, note that Olmutz's garrison managed to fill the breach.

On May 22, 1757, in yet another driving rainstorm, Katte gets into a tangle with Piccolomini near Ritschan as the Austrian lifts the siege of Prague and attempts to escape back to the south. Katte's men are helped by the pouring rain, wetting the Austrians' powder and hampering their musket fire as he launches repeated charges to get the men to form square and slow down. Still, the day is going against the Prussians without infantry support, when late in the afternoon der Grose manages another miracle and appears on the battlefield with his three reserve brigades of infantry on the Austrian's right rear flank. Coming on fresh through the thick weather, they fall upon each Austrian brigade in turn and rout them. Soon the whitecoats are fleeing north in confusion and Katte's cavalry go to town, slashing down more than a third of the Austrians before they escape to the north:


The Battle of Ritschan is yet another crushing Prussian victory. The reason we won here is our sky-high national morale compared to the Austrian's, which let Katte hold on long enough for Frederick to join the battle with his column (which I had of course marched here just for that purpose). The weather also helped - the fire phase of battle was dampened due to the rain, which hurt Piccolomini's infantry-heavy deployment far more than Katte's cavalry corps. That made the assault phase more important and cavalry excels there - note the high number of hits Austria suffered in the assault phase. They suffer a further 50 hits in the pursuit, so we can expect this corps to be largely wrecked by the battle.

Bohemian situation, June 1:

Piccolomini is surrounded by Frederick's army, about 60,000 men against less than 10,000. It also restores a supply situation that had grown a little precarious when Piccolomini cut the roads near Prague:



It's a long way from Prague to Iglau, but Tabor surrendered on the interturn, so we can use our captured supply wagons to establish a depot there and keep supplies flowing south for the push on Vienna. Moritz will probably suffice to deal with Piccolomini, especially with Katte in support, so we can dispatch Frederick and Keith to link up with Ferdinand and go after Kollowrat.

In the north, the Stralsund army comes south, roughing up our hussars in a small skirmish:


The Army of Observation ahs reached Lubeck and will start the siege of Wismar around June 15.

Finally, the French Army of the Rhine is across the river and preparing its invasion of Hanover:


We have to beat the Swedes before these guys reach Hanover - it's one of our victory cities!

Finally, news in May:

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

June 1757 - Rising Pressure

June orders:



Piccolomini is now trapped at Prague, thanks to the flanking maneuver by my cavalry in the early part of May. That cut his retreat south, and following the battle he's now more or less a non-factor - another 10,000 Austrians are trapped out of supply. Keith will cross the river and enter Prague for defense and cohesion recovery, Moritz will see off Piccolomini, and the rest of the army will try to rejoin Ferdinand for the push south. Ferdinand has spotted an undefended Austrian depot just beyond Iglau and will seize it for Prussia.

On June 1, the pursuit of Piccolomini continues, and he loses another 40% of his force being chased over hte river:


He's now down to half the strength he started May with. The Austrians shouldn't have sent this corps out unsupported, and they should have paid better attention to their lines of communication.

Olmutz only narrowly repulses Schwerin's first attempt at storming the fortress. Only a single company musters for roll-call after a vicious, all-night battle at the breaches:


Mid-June situation:

Kollowrat's corps is going ot attempt to cut Ferdinand's supply lines, slipping past him to the east on the far side of the river. Piccolomini staggers north of the Elbe into the same wilderness that the Army of Bohemia died in and can be safely discounted.

Keith is still low on cohesion, so I'll leave him to cover Prague and recover. Moritz and Frederick will block any attempt by Kollowrat to head west, while I grow nervous at his strength - nearly 1800 power rating - so I recall Ferdinand and Katte to cut his retreat to the south. We'll attempt to isolate and destroy him the same way we did Browne, Lucchese, Charles, and Piccolomini before him.


Schwerin is ordered to continue storming Olmutz. We should be ready to place Brunn under siege by July 1.

Olmutz falls by June 22:



Gessler's cavalry, scouting the road from Olmutz to Brunn, finds an Austrian supply column isolated. This skirmish will undoubtedly go down as the greatest day in the small village's history:


The resulting situation on July 1:

Kollowrat is isolated south of Koniggratz now and will be attacked in the next week, I think. Keith faces down Piccolomini north of Prague, but I'm bringing in the Saxon Brigade to garrison the city, and once they arrive I will dispatch Keith south to vanguard the attack on Vienna. Meanwhile Schwerin has captured Olmutz at last and will head for Brunn. Vienna and Brunn are our last two victory cities - if they fall Maria Theresa will HAVE to make peace.

On the northern front, Fall Blau continues apace:

Wesler surrenders after a two-week siege and the army of observation is ready to proceed against Rostok. I had to recall my siege forces there, as they ran out of supply, and I fall back to a depot to the south - taking a few hits along the way as men desert! Meanwhile the Swedes have marched on Stettin. I hope to cut their supplies back to Stralsund and outlast them, but might need to use my militia reserve to slow them down here.

In the west, the French army shows up:

• Chevert's Column: 1560 power, 6 brigades, est. 15,000 men.
  
• Contade's Column, 1610 power, 5 brigades, est. 13,000 men.
  
• Army Francais, 2930 power, 8 brigades, est. 25,000 men.
  
• Armentieres Column, 2818 power, 8 brigades, est. 25,000 men.
  
• Army of the Palatinate, 530 power, 2 brigades, est. 5,000 men.
  
• ReichsArmee, 1000 power, 4 brigades, est. 12,000 men.
  

All told, about 100,000 men in 6 columns, totaling nearly 10,000 power, are invading along the Rhine. That matches the army of Frederick in size and outnumbers our 50,000 Germans 2:1. They have already placed Weser and Munster under siege. I will attempt to hold the siege at Frankfurt one more turn since the walls are breached, then will retreat to the forests to try to delay them with the army of Hesse.

To complete the good news, the Russians are drawing close:


11 columns of cavalry and infantry, estimated at 100,000 men, are bearing down on Konigsburg's little 30,000 man garrison.

But hey, the British are conquering India so that...helps us...I guess?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

July 1757 - Yet Another Battle at Prague

Reminder of the situation in Bohemia at the start of July:


The Austrians have adopted a strategy of avoiding open battle and are raiding our supply lines, focusing particularly on Koniggratz and Prague, the two main bases in Bohemia supplying the push south. Piccolomini has been roughed up and has about 7,000 men in poor supply north of the Elbe near Prague, Kollowrat just came north from the area of Brunn towards Koniggratz but Frederick is hot on his heels and has cut the roads leading back south.

I decide that Ferdinand, Moritz, and Frederick with Katte in support are enough to deal with Kollowrat's 1700 power army, and order Keith south:

Olmutz has fallen and Schwerin decides not to secure his line of communications at Troppau but to head straight for Brunn. With pressure building on other fronts we want a rapid victory if possible - otherwise we get no victory in sight for possible years. It's a risk but a slight one - as long as we have Koniggratz, Prague, and Tabor/Iglau we should be able to keep the lines flowing south.

Keith will march south and encamp just across the river from Vienna, preparing to cross and place Maria Theresa's capital under siege before the end of August. It's a six-week siege minimum, so if we're not in place by then we won't be in place htis year.

Everyone else goes for Kollowrat to rough him up and drive him away from our LOC.

The results are a blaze of battles as Kollowrat finds his men caught between Frederick's converging columns. First, though, a small company of light infantry storm Fulda as a useful outpost in Bavaria, while the French storm the fortress of Wesel on the Rhine in two bloody battles:





20,000 Frenchmen bag 6,000 Prussians, losing only 10% of their number in doing so - those losses will be rapidly made good but my powerful garrison si gone forever. Wesel falling in only two months is a pretty severe disappointment, I expected it to hold out through August at least.

In Moravia, Schwerin encounters Charles of Lorraine, back in charge and forming a new division outside Brunn. The fighting is unexpectedly severe, as Charles has dug into a trench network on the far side of the Svitava river. The Austrians blaze away with musketry and cannon as Schwerin's disciplined columns come on - but their inexperience shows. The musket balls rattle in the leaves and branches above Schwerin's men as they come through the undergrowth along the banks. Raw recruits often aim high, and it becomes apparent that these are raw men, as their fire little harms the Prussians. Schwerin doesn't push the assault close immediately, though - instead his powerful siege artillery sets up over the river and begins to pound the men in the trenches. All afternoon, the siege mortars and the field guns blaze away at Charles' army, whose light field pieces can offer only little reply. It's only as the sun begins to sink towards the horizon that the grenadiers storm forward, bayonets fixed - and the raw troops of Charles find they can stand it no longer. They break, and stream towards the fortress of Brunn. It's a smashingly one-sided victory:


25 out of 49 elements shattered for Charles, 60% of his men casualties. Brunn is placed under siege.

Finally, let us return to Kollowrat. He marched north, attempting to raid Koniggratz, but found that Frederick's hard marching had beaten him to hte post. Early skirmishes from his scout cavalry revealed Prussian bluecoats in garrison - the city was impregnable to him. He swung south, back to Pardubitz - only to find Moritz's columns raising dust as they barrelled right for him. His retreat was cut off:




The battle of Pardubitz, fought on July 14, 1757, was fiercely contested, as Kollowrat sought to break back south towards Brunn. Moritz calmly, as he had now done a dozen times before, fed his reserves into the battle, each new crisis being met with fresh troops. Soon the entire battlefield was obscured with the smoke from the rippling volleys - and it was now that Frederick fell on Kollowrat's rear with Ferdinand's corps. The outnumbered Austrians, hit in the right rear and in the front from Moritz, broke and began streaming from the battlefield, leaving a quarter of their number behind as casualties.

They fled north, and early the next morning Frederick's pursuit fell on them again:



Swirling fights and chaotic individual brawls in the forests east of Koniggratz, no stand-up battle, this. The pursuit lasts two full days. But the Prussian cavalry wet their sabres with blood and another 4000 Austrians fell. All told the running fight over the week cost Kollowrat over 9,500 casualties from an initial strength of 21,000 men, leaving his corps a battered wreck.

However, even as Frederick was celebrating the victory, a runner on a blown horse came galloping up to him. He managed to gasp out the news - a few days before, the Imperial Army had marched down the Vltava out of Bohemia. Prague was under siege again!



von Daun, the best Austrian commander, had escaped with his cavalry brigade from the winter trap at Ternau. He rode all the way around through Pirna in Saxony and then south to Bavaria, where he linked up with a forming Reichsarmee near Karlsbad. Daun's inspired leadership soon got the ragged imperial troops in order, and although most of the army had deployed along the Rhine near Frankfurt on Mainz, he was able to lead this column of more than 30,000 troops north to link up with Piccolomini and cut Frederick's supplies at Prague. Had Piccolomini and Kollowrat been better coordinated (ie, had Charles organized the army instead of taking himself to supervise the training of fresh recruits at Brunn!), they would have thrown 70,000 men or more at Frederick's communications. Instead, the Prussians - though kept busy marching to and fro - have parried each blow. I have perhaps 55,000 men situated between the 3 armies, while 45,000 under Schwerin and Keith push south to Vienna.

Prague is vital - if it falls, the war is practically lost, as our supplies south of there will shrivel and we will have to flee north or perish. Even if we save the army in that case, we will lose all chance of taking Vienna. If we want to dictate peace, I have to hold that city.

Frederick rushes back with all available men:


They march hard. This peripatetic existence over the last nine months has seen the men march up and down the Elbe practically without rest since December. In December, they marched from Prague to Kolin, then back to Prague. In February, they marched out to Kolin, then through March and April into the plains north of the river to destroy Charles. May saw them return south to Prague to drive off Piccolomini, then June and July they have marched east to see off Kollowrat, and now back at the end of July to save Prague once more. My habit of keeping my entire army concentrated is a hard one to break - I hate going into battle and losing narrowly when another corps might have made the difference - but the enemy strategy of hitting me from multiple directions is going to dictate splitting my force. Recalling Ferdinand was a mistake - I should ahve kept Keith on hand and relied on him alone, instead of being too worried about Kollowrat. It delayed the siege on Vienna by at least a month, perhaps two. I don't repeat the mistake and Keith remains in the south. Frederick will make do with what he has.

The Fourth(?) Battle of Prague is a bloody affair, as von Daun is an excellent defender:


Even though he leads a motley army from a dozen different German states, he inspires his men to fight hard, and to give ground stubbornly. Men are butchered by the dozens in the belch of cannon, in a ripping volley of musketry, or beneath the charge of cuirassiers. Frederick attempts one of his usual flank marches, attempting to slip north of von Daun with Moritz's corps while Ferdinand fixes him in front. The PRussians deploy along the Kaiserstrasse as rapidly as they march down it - but Frederick mistakes the Austrian center for its flank, and leads Moritz's men forward too quickly.


4th Prague, fought along the highway just east of the town.

The bludgeoning Prussian assault fell on Daun's center, and his reserves were ready. The first bluecoats to attack were hurled back from tightly-held villages, and soon Moritz's entire corps was sucked into the affair. In the chaos, the Prussian foot guards famously became isolated and surrounded by HRE cavalry. Calmly, the men in the rear ranks turned about and the entire brigade fought back to back:


Stand of the Prussian Foot Guards at Prague, July 27, 1757.

In the end, it was Ferdinand who retrieved the situation. Seeing the King's attack falter, he led his men forward onto Daun's flank, driving the men out of a thick oaken wood that had served as a bastion all morning. Clearing the trees with the bayonet, Ferdinand's corps burst into Daun's flank and rear, and the Imperial troops had had enough. Katte led his cavalry corps forward, lapping even further south around Daun, and all order in the Austrian camp was lost. von Daun did his best to organize a rear guard, and his army streamed away over the Vltava once more.


Katte's charge beyond the Oak Wood, ending the Fourth Battle of Prague

It was a bloody victory, but a victory nonetheless:


Situation in western, eastern, and southern Bohemia respectively after July's battles:


The Bohemische Imperial Army outside Prague


Kollowrat's remnants outside Koniggratz


The gates of Vienna in the south.

Supply situation is good. We can begin the siege next month:


Northern Front, July 1757


THe plan here is simple. The Army of Observation will march on Stralsund and join the Prussian reserve forces, forming a powerful army of nearly 65,000 men once all are united. The heavy artillery under the Duke of Cumberland will besiege Stralsund, while the balance of the infantry will join our militia, Brunswickers, and other odds-and-sods cutting the Swedish retreat north from Stettin to Stralsund. This should deny the Swedes supplies and relieve the fortress on the Oder. The forests give good defensive positions and we have a good chance to cut off and destroy this force. Our own LoC is secure back through Rostok (which fell without a fight), Wismar, and the Elbe.

There is no fighting on this front this month, as we maneuver around the Swedes.


The only other news is the French attack our army near Frankfurt and drive it into the woods:


Kessel is one of our victory cities so we must delay, delay, delay here.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

August 1757 - Closing the Ring

After the Fourth Battle of Prague, Frederick decides that he can no longer keep the Army of the Elbe concentrated along the river. The Austrians' dispersed method of attacking with individual corps has allowed him to mass his army against each corps in turn, but the marching and fighting is wearing his instrument down. I think at this point we've seen everything the Austrians have:

• [li]Kollowrat's corps, down from 20,000 to about 10,000 men near Koniggratz
  [li]Piccolomini's corps, down from 15,000 to about 7,000 near Lobositz.
  [li]Daun's new Army of Bohemia, about 30,000, near Prague.
  [li]Charles's corps, down from about 7,000 to 3,000 in Brunn.
  [li]Vienna defensive corps, about 15,000 troops of all types.
  

All told, the Austrians raised about 90,000 fresh troops over the winter while we destroyed the original 80,000 man army of Bohemia, so our aggressive attacking has been rewarded - we were able to isolate and destroy that first army and have denied the second army a chance to regroup and train. The Austrians in turn have done a good job delaying us over the spring nd summer with constant raids on our supply lines. So, in order to try to conserve momentum, in northern Bohemia Frederick decides to split the army:


Frederick and Ferdinand's tired corps will maintain the defense of Prague, about 35,000 men against the slightly smaller (and much inferior in quality) army of Bohemia. Moritz will take his 15,000 men to deal with Kollowrat's 10,000 at Koniggratz and drive him out of Bohemia. Kollowrat has no supplies and will be withering, same with Piccolomini, who we will deal with later. Most significantly, down at Vienna, Keith's corps has encamped along the north bank of the Danube. I order him to cross the river and take the capital under siege at last.

The most surprising reaction, as the Army of the Elbe scatters (one corps in Prague, one marching to Koniggratz, one at Brunn, one at Vienna), is that Daun is not willing to give up. He takes the offensive:

30,000 German allies fall on Frederick's reserve forces. Frederick must defend until Ferdinand can arrive. 

Now, I'm not worried. Daun is attacking over a river and I have supporting corps nearby to march to the sound of the guns, in the first two places. In the third place, our national morale is soaring over the Austrians after so many drubbings - they think Prussians and Frederick in particular are unbeatable supermen, their morale half-defeated before the firing even starts. We will hold on much longer than they can in a prolonged engagement, as a river crossing will be. Furthermore, the Imperial army is strong in numbers but weak in leadership and, crucially, in replacements. Remember you need to raise separate replacements for each state! And the army (as you can tell by all the different colors in the report previous to this one) is a multinational hodgepodge. Most of those units cannot replace losses. That leads to very brittle elements who break quickly in an actual battle. And sure enough:



2,500 Prussians fall, but the Austrian army breaks and flees when it comes to bayonets, and 7,500 of them perish. 21 companies are destroyed entire - the Bavarian, Wuttermburg, and Palatinate contingents, it looks like, are withering away. Daun retreats to the far side of the Vltava once more to lick his wounds. Every detail in this game - terrain, national morale, even each nation's conscription, supply, and replenishment system - matters. 

Now, the main event. On August 13, 1757, Keith leads his 25,000 man corps over the river against Vienna's 18,000 defenders, led by none other than Maria Theresa herself:


The Empress is an excellent diplomat but she is a poor tactician. Personally supervising the battle, she rejects her advisors' opinion that she should await Prussia's attack. No, these bluecoats are ravishing sacred Austrian soil itself - beneath the very walls of her capital! Instead, Maria orders her army to mount a full-blown attack on Keith's men as they form up just down the river from Prague. Not caring about the numbers, the Austrian host forms in line and marches down on Keith. 

But against such a force as veteran, disciplined, and motivated as Keith's, you have to be on your best game, especially when outnumbered 4:3, as Maria is - and the Empress, as stated, is no general. A few brigades of Austrian infantry charge first - and are raked down by a storm of fire from Keith's grenadiers and heavy siege guns. Canister shreds whitecoated lines, punching massive gaps, before the bluecoated fusiliers step up and begin that distinctive rippling volley, each platoon of a company firing in turn before stepping back to reload. The result is constant lead flying out of Prussian lines towards the oncoming white tide, each platoon's reloading masked by the volley of its neighbor on one side or the other. 

As the infantry stumble back in shambles, Maria orders her cavalry to charge. Cuirassiers, Saxon hussars, Hungarian and Croat skirmishers, even her personal guard itself - a massive force of 5,000 horsemen is committed against Keith's center in the wake of the failed infantry attack. 

Austrian dragoons charge at Vienna, August 13, 1757

Again, though, the Prussians know what they're doing. Bugles blow, sergeants roar men into position, and the blue lines rapidly contract into tight squares. And the ripping volleys continue. The cavalry veer and swerve among the squares - no horse will willingly charge a nest of bayonets - circling the Prussian infantry like water around a rock, but the men and officers are snug and safe. Lead pours out of the squares, unhorsing men by the dozens, and within an hour, the cavalry charge, too, is a shambles. Riderless horses, horseless men - the flotsam and jetsam of a failed attack stagger back across the field, past the Empress. Fully 60% of her famous cavalry are casualties. 

Keith, seeing the way the wind is blowing, orders an advance in the wake of the repulsed cavalry charge. All across the line, the men of his corps shake out back into their lines and their columns, and the bluecoated infantry flings itself across the valley. The young conscripts and raw recruits of Maria Theresa's last army nervously clutch their muskets, eyeing their sergeants as the bayonetted Prussians draw ever-nearer. A volley, two, three rip out - men in the Prussian lines fall but their comrades calmly step over their bodies and keep coming on. And as they draw close, the steady drumbeat suddenly picks up, begins to roll the charge, and those bayonets lower - and the young Maria Theresas decide that today is not the day to die for their empress, and they bolt. By late afternoon, the entire Austrian army is in full retreat into the walls of Vienna. They leave 8,000 of their own on the field:


By August 15, along the Elbe:

Kollowrat evaded Moritz and placed Koniggratz back under siege, while Daun is licking his wounds across the river from Prague. Piccolomini is mounting an attack on our communications at Lobositz, as the Austrians still try to cut us off.

I order attacks to drive off the raiders:

Frederick covers Prague, Ferdinand takes his fresh corps to secure Lobositz, Moritz and Katte drive Kollowrat away from Koniggratz. 

By mid-August, in Moravia, Schwerin has opened enough breaches in Brunn that he can order his men to dig Charles out of his rathole:


The first assault is successful, a short but bloody affair that sees 700 Prussian casualties going over the walls, but wiping out Charles' little garrison (note that artillery batteries and supply wagons are almost never destroyed in battle, only captured - everything else in Charles' army is destroyed). By August 17 Brunn belongs to Prussia, and only Vienna remains of our victory cities to capture.

Moritz hits Kollowrat at Koniggratz. Note that even though numbers are fairly even, Moritz has a higher proportion of infantry - hence the higher casualties in the ranged phase of battle, where infantry and cannon outshine artillery:


Why did Kollowrat's cavalry not exact revenge in the assault phase of battle? Because his national morale is too low, and his army broke and ran before the assault phase could last long. 

Ferdinand fights a surprisingly evenly-matched battle between his corps and Piccolomini's at Lobositz:


Period illustration of the Battle of Lobositz, August 23, 1757



Piccolomini got resupply from somewhere and his 11,000 men are more than I estimated. 

Overall Austrian situation at the end of August - the first anniversary of the war.

Frederick holds the center at Prague, while von Daun has maneuvered to his south, crossed the river, and cut the road to Vienna. Ferdinand is facing Bavaria, shielding the depot at Lobositz, and Moritz holds Koniggratz against Piccolomini, who is withdrawing over the mountains into Silesia. So our 3 vital supply links - Koniggratz, Prague, and Lobositz - are all protected from the three Austrian corps raiding them. 

In the south, Schwerin's army has captured Olmutz and Brunn over the spring and summer campaigns. His 25,000 men are ready to join Keith's 25,000 at Vienna. These 50,000 are all the offensive strength I can muster while still covering my lines of communication. The Austrians have about 10,000 men in the city and I estimate can draw on 10,000 more rapid reinforcements from Hungary and Croatia. Schwerin has all our engineers and siege artillery, though, so if I can get him onto Vienna then the siege should go quickly.

Other fronts:

The North, August 1757
Still quiet. No battles were fought on this front:


The Army of Observation now consists of 4 corps, about 70,000 men strong. They have opened a breach at Stralsund and will assault in September, while Sweden is holding its siege at Stettin unsuccessfully and one corps of Prussian reservists and militia blocks the road north. A small Swedish division of about 5,000 men is swinging west, through the forests of Pomerania, so I am ordering the militia corps in pursuit while the Right Wing of the AoO swings around to cover our lines of communication through Rostok and the depot at Waren. 

The Rhine, August 1757
A fierce little petty war was fought here through August:


Constant cavalry raids on Wesel caused the French to lift their siege of Munster and march back to Wesel to drive off my hussars - which they did, and the hussars were badly bruised. I need to recall them to Munster or Paderbon to replenish. 

Further south, the Hessian army was roughed up outside Frankfurt, failing to retreat rapidly enough before the main weight of France's forces. The Palatinate also has a contingent down there, about 80,000 troops against the 20,000 Hessians. I will attempt to hold the forest road as long as I can. 

On August 19, the French drive me from the road in a bloody little skirmish, losing slightly more men but taking the vital link to Kassel:


Wutginau withdraws into the forest to the east, while the French have an open road to Kassel. I have to take Vienna before it falls, or no victory this year (or probably ever).

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

The spring and summer campaign in Bohemia in retrospect

We've hit the one year mark on the campaign, so it's a good time to reflect on the changes since winter. I'll cover Hanover, the Rhine, and East Prussia in a separate update.

To recap, our spring campaign opened unexpectedly early with Charles' sudden attack from winter quarters near Ternau on Koniggratz, intercepted by Marshal Schwerin. In February, we rapidly marched to block this move, then March and April were consumed with the offensive north of the Elbe to finish off Charles and free our rear for an advance on Vienna. In the Battle of Jitschen, a running fight through most of March and April, the Prussians lost 4,000 men but inflicted 14,000 casualties in return, not counting prisoners, men lost in pursuit, or desertions from lack of supply, effectively destroying the army of Bohemia.

However, in May and June the campaign stalled. Schwerin began a successful invasion of Moravia, but after Ferdinand marched south and established a base at Iglau near Vienna (first sighting of the city was by Zeiten's hussars in April), counterattacks by Austrian columns under Piccolomini and Kollowrat kept Frederick marching and countermarching with the main army. This culminated in July with the Reichsarmee under Daun launching an attack on Prague itself, while Frederick at last released Keith to move on Vienna directly and used his remaining forces to cover the supply lines.

By the end of August, Keith is over hte Danube and had driven in the last garrison into Vienna, Schwerin had taken Olmutz and Brunn and was moving to join him, each marshal leading about 25,000 men in his corps. Frederick, with the remaining 50,000 split between his own reserve corps, Moritz's small corps, Ferdinand's large corps, and Katte's cavalry, dispersed, fighting more successful battles iwth Daun's 35,000, Kollowrat's 20,000, and Piccolomini's 10,000.

The one year anniversary of the war sees all of Bohemia and Moravia conquered and Vienna under siege, but quite a few Austrians still in the field.

Historian's Corner: The 1757 Bohemian campaign in reality

The main point of departure from the reality in our Rise of Prussia game is Frederick's starting position. Having been checked at Lobositz in 1756, and not willing to risk a winter siege of Prague in the face of Browne's entire army, Frederick wintered in Saxony and Silesia while the Austrians camped around Prague and focused on raising further forces. France, Russia, and Sweden all joined the allied coalition in this time, for various motivations of greed for territory and wanting to punish Frederick's aggressions in Silesia and Saxony. Frederick tried but failed to detach the various powers from their enmity, but was forced to conclude that only a rapid campaign to knock Austria out of the war offered any chance of victory.


The Battle of Prague, 6 May 1757, period illustration

In April, the Prussians launched a full-scale invasion of Bohemia, uniting 4 corps totaling nearly 80,000 men near Prague by early May. The Battle of Prague played out much like it did in our timeline, except the Prussians, not the Austrians, were the aggressors. Frederick launched a powerful flanking attack from the east while attempting to pin down Charles of Lorraine's army from the north, but the attack - carried out by Marshal Schwerin - got bogged down in the thick mill ponds on that flank and Browne, nearly dead of tuberculosis and a subordinate of Charles, rapidly threw in reinforcements that drove the Prussians back. Schwerin and Browne both fell in the fighting. In the end, the Austrians advanced too far and opened a gap in their lines, which the Prussians exploited, and the Austrian army fled the field. The Battle of Prague cost 13,000 Austrians and 14,000 Prussians out of total engaged forces of about 60,000 for each army.

Frederick detached multiple units to cover his siege, so that by mid-June the army in Prague actually outnumbered the Prussian besiegers. Some 15,000 fugitives from the battle joined with Marshal von Daun's fresh army assembling near Brunn, and when Daun came north Frederick drew off everything he can and pitched into Daun near Kolin.


The Battle of Kolin, 18 June 1757

Outnumbered 5:3 by Daun's army, Frederick attempted an oblique attack on the Austrian flank, but the maneuver miscarried and the battle devolved into a frontal slugging match where Austrian steadiness and greater numbers eventually triumphed. Frederick was forced to abandon the field, losing 14,000 casualties to only 8,000 Austrians - his first-ever defeat in the field. The Prussian army retreated from Prague into northern Bohemia, and then into Saxony and Silesia as Daun joined with Charles' army and the Austrians launched a counter-invasion of Silesia while defending Bohemia.

Frederick delayed and played for time through July and August, but in September word reached him of further defeats in Hanover and in East Prussia, and of the French and Holy Roman Empire sending a massive combined force to reinforce Daun and Charles in Silesia. He realized that he had to block this junction at all costs, and so marched what forces he could for Saxony in order to interpose himself between the two armies (both of which outnumbered him). In the ensuing autumn and winter campaign he fought his two most brilliant battles, Rossbach and Leuthen - but we'll get there in a few months.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

The spring and summer campaign of 1757, secondary theater retrospective

There were only a handful of battles along the Rhine, northern, and East Prussian fronts between March and August - certainly nothing like the intense operational tempo seen in Bohemia. The plodding Russians reached as far as their forward base in Poland, near Tilsit, in late June, but, perhaps intimidated by Frederick's reputation, stood pat there through July and August beyond a few cavalry raids on Memel. The battle for Konigsberg that I anticipated never materialized, so I never got to do the deeper dive on the battle system that I was planning there.

In a nutshell, Konigsberg is defended by about 40,000 men against 100,000 Russians. Over the winter, all my spare conscripts, cash, and war materials went towards drafting new militia regiments and fixed gun emplacements in the city. Fixed guns shoot just as well as mobile ones, but obviously can scarcely move out of the region they're located in - so they're cheaper. That suited my purposes in East Prussia perfectly, where I planned to make the city a killing field for the Russians. Large numbers of heavy batteries (208, to be precise - more than even Schwerin's siege column) will do the killing, protected by as many militia as I could recruit to take the hits. The key is attempting to exploit the battle system as I best I know how.

I've glossed over AGEOD's battle mechanism, which is kind of amusing in a year-long campaign in which battles are so central! But for the most part, you don't need to know how they're resolved, other than that good leaders will tend to beat bad ones, terrain, troop quality, morale, and supply matter, and of course numbers are always useful. Given those factors you can expect a logical outcome. But how does AGEOD arrive at that outcome? If you want, let's look under the hood and see what we can learn:

In-depth: the battle system
Combat is between stacks. When two stacks encounter each other, and neither succeeds in evading (like cavalry or guerrillas), a battle will break out. Nearby corps under the same chain of command, and the army HQ stack if available, will react to the sound of the guns and begin marching to battle, joining in later hours depending on the strategic rating of the stack commander (and, I think, the stack stance). Then, the corps start to choose dance partners. First, offensive and assault stacks choose enemies, prioritizing those who are ALSO on offense/assault, and moving to defensive ones if none are available. Army HQ stacks always are last to be picked. If all enemy stacks have a dance partner already, then your unengaged stack will repeat the process, picking one at random to gang up on.

Step two: The stacks fight, first by choosing who fights. Every battle has a default amount of frontage, dependent upon terrain. Marsh and forests ahve less frontage than clear terrain, a breached structure or mountains have very little frontage, etc. Then, each unit has a given weight, which dictates how much frontage it takes up - a cuirassier squadron occupies more space than light infantry! Units are classified either as line (infantry, cavalry) or support (most artillery) and each category has its own frontage, so your artillery isn't competing with your militia for space on the line. The AI fills in the frontage by choosing units from your stack at random until it's entirely filled. The chance to be chosen is boosted by things like being already engaged from a previous round (obviously you'll most likely keep fighting), having a high HP (fresh units), and reduced by things like routing.

Step three: once frontage is filled, the chosen units have it out. Fighting opens at range, which is an arbitrary value. In Pride of Nations or To End All Wars, some early 20th century units can have ranges of 9 or more. In our Seven Year's War timeline, most artillery fights at range 4 and infantry at range 2. So the battle opens at range 4, then proceeds to range 3, then 2, then 1, then an assault phase. During each phase, the units with the given range (and suitable rate of fire, again, more important when things like machine guns come into play in later era games) roll dice to hit their enemies. The chance to hit is modified positively by the commanding general's offensive or defensive ability, the unit's innate firepower stat, negatively by thick terrain, by the target's defensive  stat, entrenchment level, etc. If a hit is rolled, then the target loses some HP (and a given amount of men/horses for flavor) and a bit more cohesion. So artillery fires first and most often, then infantry join in, and finally cavalry and infantry fight the assault phase.

Assault happens after the ranged phase. Each unit needs to pass a morale check to join the assault - trained units and veterans pass this more often than militia! If a unit fails the check, it sits out that phase (but I believe can still take hits and will fight back if attacked). Then the units do one more round of attack checks, this time dictated by their assault stat instead of their fire stat. SO, cuirassiers hit a lot in this round, light infantry a lot less.

Finally, hits are totted up, losses calculated, units take morale checks with modifiers based on their quality, leadership, losses thus far, etc, and begin to rout or retreat. Then the hour of combat is finished and a new hour begins, once again at range 4- with new corps joining the fray and targets being recalculated, etc. Battles can last only a single hour, if a small force gets wiped out or a passive army retreats quickly, or they can be brutal, multi-day slugfests like an assault on a defended fortress.

So, the key to Konigsberg is going to be using artillery to take advantage of the frontage system. I assigned Heinrich von Pruessen to this front, promoting him from brigade commander to corps commander and giving him the militia and the artillery (the former CiC in this theater, a useless pencil pusher, I kicked upstairs to command the "Army of East Prussia," technically overseeing Heinrich's stack but effectively commanding nothing of his own besides a few lifeguards). Heinrich is a 'master of defense' to contrast Frederick's 'master of offense' trait - a trait that allows him to effectively use more frontage in battle. That means that, even though the Russians are coming in with 100,000 men, Heinrich will meet each stack in turn with a LARGER army of 30,000 militia and guns. The guns will open fire at long range on a smaller number of Russians, the militia will pour in some lead and tank the hits, and then the Russian stack will withdraw and a new customer will enter the fray. The cavalry stack is formed in a separate corps and positioned one province to the rear - it will commit to the battle only in hour 2, when the Russians are already softened up from the artillery and more likely to target Heinrich's militia than my precious horsemen, which should in turn translate into less damage in the ranged phase and more cavalry striking home in the assault phase.

In theory, I would be able to bleed the Russians on this line all summer, with them never being able to fully utilize their larger numbers. I will take losses, obviously, and it's an open question if I have enough militia to really hold out. But so far they haven't budged, and East Prussia is static.

In Hanover, we only have light cavalry defending, as the French have to advance through multiple fortresses - Wesel, Dortmund, Munster, Minden, Hanover itself - to fully supply their massive army and get anywhere useful. That will take time over the summer, and, despite the howls of protest from Hanover and King George at leaving the state effectively defenseless, the entire allied army has marched into Pomerania to attempt to knock out the Swedes in a lightning blow, before marching back to defend Hanover. My thinking is that I can't fight htem without the Prussian reserves anyway, and I can't release those while the Swedes are threatening Berlin...so really it IS defending Hanover. We'll assume Frederick is a more able diplomat in than in the real universe and was able to convince the Hanoverians of this logic.

Pomerania is proceeding slowly. The northern HRE cities fell without a fight early in the spring, as did Wismar and Rostok, but the Swedish army is besieging Stettin and Stralsund is holding out. I have cut their supplies home and hope to storm Stralsund before winter.

Historian's Corner: 1757 in reality

The French were never very committed to Austria's coalition. They were mroe concerned with their rivalry with Britain around the world than in the squabbling between the German siblings for mastery in Central Europe.  They subsidized Austria (which had tremendous financial difficulties throughout the war), but most of their efforts were concentrated in Hanover, knocking out that important auxiliary of the British ruling house. The French only once attempted to cooperate directly with Austria, marching a large army through Bavaria, linking up with the Holy Roman Reichsarmee (in the Rise of Prussia universe this army appeared at Frankfurt on Mainz), and culminating in the disastrous battle of Rossbach. Their main force, a 100,000-man strong Army of the Rhine, struggled with supply difficulties on the north German plain throughout the war.

1757 was their most successful year. They invaded Hanover slowly, due to the immense size of the army, but their opponent, George II's younger son the Duke of Cumberland, was no Frederick, and his command of the Army of Observation was a blundering disaster. He soon found himself penned up in Stade, while the French army (led by the duc de Richelieu) occupied Hanover by August 11. With Frederick pulling out of Bohemia at the same time due to the losses at Kolin, and the Russians on the advance in East Prussia, things were looking up for the coalition - then they began to unravel.

See, Richelieu was convinced that the Hanoverian-British army at Stade was impregnable. Impossible to storm the position, and impossible to starve out a force supplied by the Royal Navy, he thought he might lose his whole army in a north German winter. But the Duke of Cumberland ALSO thought his position was impossible, and was eager to sign an armistice with Richelieu. The ensuing Convention of Klosterhaven, signed on 21 August 1757, which allowed the whole British army to evacuate but gave up Hanover, was denounced by both sides as far too lenient. Both sides rejected it on various pretexts, the French took Richelieu's army away from him and began marching it back into Hanover, while the Army of Observation began to reconstitute itself.


Frederick sent Ferdinand, a corps commander in the Prussian army and the Duke of Brunswick, to take over the AoO, and the Duke launched a winter campaign against the French army occupying Hanover, which was deteriorating due to supply difficulties. By the end of the year, he had driven them entirely over the Rhine and Hanover was liberated. The French would spend the rest of hte war ineffectually sparring with the Duke up and down Hanover.

I'll cover the East Prussian campaign in reality tomorrow.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Historians Corner: The Russians in the Seven Year's War

The Russians never really achieved their full potential in the Seven Year's War. Due to a variety of factors - the habitual sclerosis and dysfunction of the Russian political regime, the poor infrastructure in Eastern Europe, poor army organization and staffwork, the vast distance between Russia's heartlands around St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kiev and the settled lands of Germany - the Russian army repeatedly failed to project power much beyond the Vistula. In fact, only twice in all of Russia's long history has it successfully sustained an army beyond that river long enough to win a war - once with massive British and American logistical support from 1944-1945, and, more impressively, once from 1813-1814, when Russian arms reached all the way to Paris. Otherwise - in the First World War, the Wars of the French Revolution, the revolutions of 1848, hell, even today in Ukraine - Russian armies tended to fall to pieces when they got much beyond their borders.

The Russian army was a lumbering beast, heavy on solid, reliable infantry, low on inspired or even really competent leadership. You will never find it pulling off dazzling flanking maneuvers or audacious attacks. Instead it excels at one thing: taking punishment. This pattern holds true in 1757. The Russians delayed invading until late June, getting their ducks in a row logistically and also conveniently waiting for Frederick to get drubbed in Bohemia first. Only after the battle of Kolin and his retreat into Silesia did Russia dare cross into Prussian territory.

The Russians seized Memel in July, but General Apraksin, their commander, had neglected to build depots in Polish-Lithuanian territory, intending to rely on local supply. But the conditions in East Prussia could not support so large an army, and the Russians began dropping by the hundreds to neglect and disease. My local pencil-pusher, General Lehwaldt, took his 25,000 men and tried to exploit the Russian confusion by attacking them near their camp at Gross-Jagersdorf late in August. 



The battle, as most are, was a chaotic mess, as initial Prussian surprise attacks on both flanks threw the Russians into confusion, and Lehwaldt's men inflicted heavy losses. But the Russians were solid, and did not break or run, and steadily regained their composure and began to inflict casualties in return. By early morning the Prussian advance had stalled and the Russians were getting organized, attempting to draw the numerically inferior Prussians in - to be encircled and destroyed. Lehwaldt opted to withdraw instead, having lost about 4,500 men and inflicted 5,500 losses in return.

Konigsburg now lay at Apraksin's mercy, but his ongoing supply difficulties, rampant disease, and the not-insignificant fact that he had shot off all his ammunition taking Memel and then fighting at Gross Jagersdorf, led him to conclude that discretion was the better part of valor, and the Russians withdrew from East Prussia in September. This pattern would repeat in 1758 - as Russia overran a now-undefended East Prussia, fought the inconclusive battle of Zorndorf against Frederick himself, and withdrew after the battle for lack of supplies. Though the Russians would get as far as Frankfurt-on-Oder, they would never cross that river in strength during the Seven Year's War, one of many miracles required to save Frederick from his excesses.