Chevalier Plays AGEOD Let's Play/AAR

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Introduction: What is This?

Rise of Prussia is a strategy game by AGEOD recreating the Seven Year's War. AGEOD is a French company and has published many wargames using their proprietary engine, covering various historical periods. Off the top of my head:

• Wars in America, covering, er, wars in the Americas from the late 17th century through the early 19th. Flagship campaigns include the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812.
  
• Rise of Prussia, our current material, which includes all of Frederick the Great's campaigns from the two Silesian wars through the Seven Year's War.
  
• Revolution Under Siege - the Russian Revolution and civil wars that followed.
  
• Pride of Nations - a Victoria-style economic and imperialism simulation, awkwardly shoehorned into their engine. Not actually a bad game.
  
• Civil War II - er, a successor to their first Civil War game, probably my favorite Civil War strategy game on the market.
  
• Wars of Napoleon - Napoleon's campaigns
  
• To End All Wars - the First World War
  

So you can see it's quite a list, and I left out some. The main draw is the WEGO system the games use, similar to Diplomacy if you're familiar with it. All players enter orders for their various military formations (you can maneuver individual brigades or companies all the way up to entire army groups) and make their political and economic decisions, then all moves are executed simulataneously on the map. Armies move around provinces, bump into each other, and fight battles resolved according to their leadership, the terrain, supplies, morale, and their rules of engagement. We'll get more into the system as I play the game, but it's a fairly elegant design once you get used to it that I think recreates operational-level warfare quite well.

For this game, we're going to be taking command of Prussia, 1756. Turns are executed in two-week intervals, beginning with Frederick's invasion of Saxony in September of that year - so, two turns in September, two in October, etc. I will play each month in turn, and at the end of the month post a report on our operations here, with the opportunity for the war council of DSL to chime in with strategic or operational advice. Feel free to criticize me from the peanut gallery, ask questions, or just let me know if this is the kind of content you enjoy on RB! Might be a nice break, eh? 

With that, let's dive in!

Background




The game gives you a brief background on the political and strategic situation. Essentially, over the last 15 years, King Frederick of Prussia has seriously upset the balance of power in Central Europe. In 1741 and 1744, he conquered and annexed the German state of Silesia against the opposition of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, winning two successive wars against the German state and setting Prussia up to challenge Austria for control of Germany.


Europe, 1738 - before the Silesian Wars.

The major players are England, France, Sweden, Austria, Russia, and, of course, Prussia, with numerous minor states lining up on either side. Brandenburg/Prussia, under Frederick, doubled its size by seizing Silesia - and now Frederick is hungry for more.

In 1756, he attempts a coup de main, similar to the successful invasions of Silesia in the previous decade, and strikes due south at Saxony. If Frederick can overrun Saxony quickly, he estimates he can present the other powers with a fait accompli and they will allow the move to pass uncontested. Unfortunately for Prussia, he miscalculates - Austria declares war and rapidly moves to relieve the beleaguered Saxons, while Habsburg diplomats are able to sway Sweden, Russia, and France to the side of Austria (England, partially to due to ongoing colonial disputes with France in North America and partially to maintain the balance of power, provides money and limited troops to support Prussia). Accordingly, we will shortly find ourselves surrounded by a ring of foes - Sweden to the north, Russia to the east, France to the west, and above all, Austria to the south. We will have to march fast and fight hard in order to keep our little state from being overwhelmed by the storm to come.

At our disposal, though, we have the finest army in Europe - the famed Prussian army, of course. Small, but professional and exceptionally well-drilled, it can almost literally run rings around the slower, more amateur, lumbering armies of the coalition. It's 1756, so we fight with short-ranged muskets, smoothbore cannon, and cavalry armed with sabers for shock action.


Prussian troops routing Austrians at Hohenfriedberg, 1745.

In general, battles will be fought by battalions grouped into brigades, with artillery and infantry fire softening up formations and warding away cavalry until the battle can be decided by a decisive application of the bayonet. Cavalry is used to scout and to prey on disordered or fleeing units, while generally avoiding formed bodies of troops. Artillery is most useful in sieges, but is mobile enough to make a difference on the battlefield - but mere infantry, poor buggers, will bear the brunt of the work and the casualties.

September, 1757

Here is the situation that confronts us as Frederick orders his proud legions forward at the close of August:



There's a lot going on in the main game interface, but for now ignore most of the various numbers and interface elements, I'll explain all later. Just focus on the various portraits and cities visible on the (quite lovely) map. The main Prussian army is encamped at Dresden, under Frederick. It is organized into columns - essentially a strong division or a weak corps. To the east I have highlighted a detached column of the army, under General Links.

In AGEOD games, armies are represented on the map by counters, typically a portrait of the commanding general. Contained within the army or 'stack' is a bunch of units - which are visible at bottom when you select the stack. For example, Link's column consists of 4 brigades of infantry, two loose battalions of infantry not part of a larger brigade, two independent batteries of artillery, and (vital) a pair of supply companies. Various indicators tell me that all units are up to strength, fully supplied, adequately led, and well-formed (we'll get to those later). All told, the game estimates his column to have about 1385 "power," an abstract measurement of military strength taking all those factors into account - a more useful estimate than raw number of men (eg, 1000 Prussians aren't the same as 1000 Russians!).

Let's look at Frederick's main army, up at Dresden:


Wait, only 285 power? What gives!? This is the main royal army?

Well, no. If you look above the unit listing at the bottom, you will see 6 tabs, including the Elbe Armee. These are other formations present in the same province as Frederick. So this stack - consisting of a measely mortar battery, some engineer and pioneer companies, and various supply companies - is actually just the headquarters stack under Frederick's direct command. One of the other tabs is the Dresden garrison force (we won't touch that), and the remaining four are Frederick's subordinate columns. Each column numbers ~20,000 men and represents a corps. Paging through them, we find a respectable army:


13 brigades of infantry, 5 loose battalions, 4 of cavalry, and 4 independent artillery batteries. All told, the Army of the Elbe is nearly 5,000 power strong. More than enough to overwhelm the weak Saxon army encamped in Pirna to the southeast. The scenario tells us that if we can cut the three main roads leading out of Pirna - one to the northwest, leading to Dresden, one to the east, towards Bautzen, and one to the south, towards Prague - the demoralized Saxons will probably surrender. We can expect the Austrians to be speeding to their relief, so we'll need to move quickly.

I lay the following orders for early September:



Link's column will close from the east and hold the bridges over the Elbe from Pirna to Bautzen. One column will march on Pirna itself to throw a ring around the Saxons, but the camp itself blocks movement to the south. So, Frederick will lead the bulk of the army through the hills to the south and throw himself across their lines of communications. At the same time, I order a division of cavalry to sweep through the hills further west and scout for incoming Austrians on Freddie's flanks. Finally, to the east, to place pressure on the Austrians, an independent column will cross into Bohemia and besiege Koniggratz.

A closer look at the northeast front:

Schonn's corps will be the one to cross the mountains for Koniggratz. He'll be mostly on his own and could be in trouble if the main Austrian army comes after him, so we'll be a bit cautious (more on rules of engagement in a later post). Also visible is the Bautzen corps moving west to block Pirna, and coming in from the north I have a cavalry corps riding to cover the gap between my main army and Schonn.

Late September

The campaign opens with no firing just yet. I'll get to the results in a moment. First, an overview of the front. AGEOD's engine has various map modes - supply, weather, simplified terrain, regions (some political decisions are via region), etc. Here's the control map mode, perhaps the most useful:


Prussia is shown in blue, Austria in white. Note that Austrian allies like France are also shown in white, while neutral Poland-Lithuania is visible in pink.

To zoom in more closely, we can see the situation in Saxony-Bohemia, mid-September 1756:



Frederick's columns are still struggling through the hilly terrain west of Pirna and won't reach their blocking positions for another week or two. Our cavalry, though, has reached the far side and spotted a few Austrians hanging around near Lobositz. More concerningly, the cavalry corps meant to maintain contact with Schonn has found a large Austrian force at Turnau, southeast of Bautzen. You can see by the number of green dots on the base of the stack how large it is - stacks can receive from 1 to 4 dots dependent upon their size. The dots provide only a rough estimate of size and power, of course, but it's good for a quick evaluation. To get details on exact composition - leaders and units present, total numbers of men and supplies, etc. - you need to get close with cavalry scouts.

Zooming in on the critical front, you can see that we have about 2300 power worth of Saxons, locked up in Pirna besieged:


It's possible they could have contested my stack moving into the same province as them, but they opted to remain in their fortified camp instead:


Had they fought, it would have precipitated a battle, and I would have had to explain that system in this lengthy post, too! Thankfully, they are now trapped and will have a difficult time breaking out on their own.

Most of my men are still marching to the positions I assigned in September, so I only need to issue a few new orders - sending the cavalry sweeping around Prague from both directions, with orders to evade combat. I want to find out where the main weight of the Austrian army is located, and most importantly bag the Saxon army before the Austrians can interfere, not precipitate a battle without all my army up:


Frederick's army moves to a blocking position south of Pirna, while the cavalry sweep. I leave my cavalry corps in the hills near the Austrian corps - it's good terrain and the cavalry can make a decent defensive stand there, retreating if things look hairy.

September rolls to October and:


Pirna surrenders (two weeks ahead of the historic timeline), as the Austrians make no move to stop us! 18,000 enemy soldiers march into Prussian internment - many of them will join our ranks soon. At the same time, snow descends over the front:


Situation, October, 1757. Two Austrian corps are visible - Kollowrat is pressed our cavalry back near Bautzen, another very formidable force under Piccolomini is encamped at Koln, midway between Prague and Konigratz.

So, Saxony falls without a shot being fired, but we have an early snow upon us. That snow is going to melt into mud in the next few weeks, I expect, bogging down our marches and limiting our supplies. We have one corps near Koniggratz, threatened by two powerful Austrian corps. Our cavalry sweep didn't reveal much around Prague, but probably there are more Austrians encamped there. Our main army is over the passes into Bohemia, so we have some options.

Gentlemen of the Prussian General Staff, here is my evaluation of the situation. We have perhaps 6 weeks before winter seriously sets in and forces our troops into quarters (more on weather later). That is enough time to seriously rough up Austria or even capture Prague, setting us up for a drive on Vienna in the spring. We want to move quickly above all else, because France, Sweden, and Russia are still mobilizing against us and can be expected to join the war in 1757. So, the next six weeks are our main chance to throw everything we have against Maria Theresa before her lapdogs can join the fight.

Here are two potential courses:


In Operation Black, we take advantage of the snow closing the passes south and Kollowrat's isolated position in the north to attempt to cut his retreat south and fall on him with the entire Elbe army, defeating the isolated corps in detail. We could inflict severe casualties and cripple a significant chunk of the Austrian army, but we are generally marching AWAY from Vienna in this plan, and it's possible Kollowrat will retreat, letting our blow fall on thin air.

Operation Red drives on Prague, attempting to seize the city before winter. Prague is an excellent base to push south on Vienna, and Kollowrat is badly positioned to defend the city - we can get between him and Prague, leaving us to fight the remaining Austrians no doubt encamped around it without his support. It also places us closer to Schonn, who is attempting to besiege Koniggratz but is dangerously exposed, with Piccolomini a week's march away and doubtless more Austrian columns behind him at Prague.

So, questions and action items:

1)What is do be done with Frederick's army? Operation Black, Operation Red, or a third plan I haven't considered?
2)Schonn's force - should he maintain the blockade at Koniggratz, fall back into the mountains for a defensive position, or, boldly, attempt something like marching to join us near Prague?
3)Should further reinforcements be sent to the Austrian front, or to reinforce our vulnerable areas to the rear before the coalition attacks in the spring?

Other questions/clarifications I can make?

Thanks for reading along! I think this will be fun!

[Sullla]

This thread is fantastic! My specialty in history was 18th century Britain so this period is right in my wheelhouse. I don't know nearly enough about this game to try to make a suggestion about battlefield tactics, but I'm surprised that the designers seem to be using brigades as the base unit size rather than regiments. Perhaps that's more accurate to how the Prussian military worked, I honestly don't know. In the British context, everything was geared around regiments so this setup is throwing me off a bit.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

This thread is fantastic! My specialty in history was 18th century Britain so this period is right in my wheelhouse. I don't know nearly enough about this game to try to make a suggestion about battlefield tactics, but I'm surprised that the designers seem to be using brigades as the base unit size rather than regiments. Perhaps that's more accurate to how the Prussian military worked, I honestly don't know. In the British context, everything was geared around regiments so this setup is throwing me off a bit.

AGEOD tinkers with the base unit in each game,* but in Rise of Prussia it's actually the battalion - those are individual unit cards you can move around between stacks or even on the map if you so choose. Battalions can be grouped up with a brigadier general to form, well, a brigade. Up to 4, in Rise of Prussia. The main reason to do this is to streamline your organization, ease command penalties, and there's a few consequences in combat. Individual companies are tracked within each battalion for combat calculations, casualties, and supply stuff, but the player can't interact with companies much. 

*In Civil War, the brigade is the base unit, with individual regiments tracked and able to be combined into divisions. Ditto in Wars of Napoleon. In Wars in America it's the company, grouped into a regiment. 

More detail on the command system later, it's really neat.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

October 1756 - Opening Shots

A reminder of the situation at the end of September:


The main army, approximately 65,000 men under Frederick, has neatly removed Saxony and its 18,000 men from the war, while adding the factories of Dresden and Leipzig to our cause. We now stand astride the Erzgebirge, with a seeming open road to Prague before us. A second column, about 20,000 men under General Schwerin, has already invaded Bohemia and is encircling Koniggratz. We know of one Austrian corps encamped at Koln, between Koniggratz and Prag, and a second is approaching Bautzen, a communications hub between our holdings in Saxony and Silesia.

The decision of the general staff is that the Austrian thrust north can be contained - they're thrusting into a wilderness, while their line of communications runs through Prague and Koniggratz and is desperately vulnerable to our army. Our own communications run back into Silesia and into Saxony in either direction, so we should be safe. Prague is a tough city to take if stoutly defended, and we need a victory against Austria soon before Russia and France can appear. Accordingly, here our are plans for a swift descent on Prague:



King Frederick will lead the army to the far side of the Vltava River, pausing along the way to build a depot at Lobositz and secure our line of communications with Saxony. The cavalry corps in Bautzen will avoid battle with the main Austrian column under Kollowrat and will instead cover the army's flank. Schwerin will maintain the blockade of Koniggratz, as we do not know how Piccolomini's corps will react - either against the threat to Prague or to Koniggratz.

Now, a quick aside on the home front:

AGEOD games don't have too much economic and political management - nothing on the level of, say, Hearts of Iron. Generally, you only command the armed forces of your country, using sergeants to round up more conscripts, or dragoons to pillage territories of valuable resources, etc. You also oversee the training of new units and of replacements for your own losses. There's a bit of diplomacy possible with foreign powers (much fleshed out in the Napoleon and WWI games, obviously - Rise of Prussia is just a straight war game, however, no 'what ifs' like what if Russia joined Prussia instead).

So, most of my efforts behind the lines are in requisitioning more cash and war supplies, and, crucially, more conscripts:

Here in Frankfurt-on-Oder you can see that I have ordered some sergeants - career rankers, men of no substance who'd actually be valuable in the main army - to lead "recruiting" parties up and down the streets, grabbing men and pressing them into the army. The net result is 10 new conscript companies for me, at the cost of some loyalty and military control (more on those later).

So, let's talk about the resources. At the top of the page you can see our national resources:

These are mostly the same across all AGEOD games and are pretty straightforward.

• The lightning bolts are our victory points: 37. These are generated every turn from cities and from winning battles and are spent on decisions like drafting and requisitions. At the end of the game, whoever has the most victory points is the winner.
  
• The laurels represent our national morale: 118. National Morale defaults to 100 and is pushed up by victories or down by defeats, as well as a slow reversion towards the mean every turn. High morale makes your armies more effective on the battlefield (low national morale can be likened to the German Army in the fall of 1918, or, uh, Russia right now in Ukraine).
  
• The medals represent our engagement points: 11. This is the national political power and can be spent on things like raising fresh recruits or hassling the British to give us more money. These are generated naturally every turn from important cities like Berlin.
  
• The cash represents our, uh, cash: 325. Generated each turn from cities via taxation, but the majority of it comes from things like requisitions or pillaging on the map. Spent on some decisions like fortifications or on raising fresh units.
  
• The soldier represents our conscript companies: 90. Conscript companies represent 100 men, so we have about 9,000 men in reserve. Conscripts are spent either on replacements or consumed in fresh units. Prussia is usually flush with cash but perpetually short on manpower.
  
• The cannon represent war supplies: 147. These are things like heavy guns, military saddles, caissons - all the specialized equipment an army needs. Obviously it is spent on fresh units, fortifications, warships in games that have a navy, etc. Russia is often manpower-heavy but has limited war supplies.
  

So, that's what's going on in the background of the on-map maneuvering - juggling these resources to get as much fighting power into the field as possible.

Anyway, we process our orders, the men march, and by mid-October the situation is thus:


The main Austrian army has been spotted! General Browne leads them to Bautzen, where our cavalry sidle out of the way. Kollowrat remains at Zitau, and Piccolomini we know is at Koln. All told we estimate we face about 75,000 Austrians against roughly 90,000 Prussians. But, crucially, Austria is scattered: about 15,000 men garrison Prague, Koniggratz, and other cities, 20,000 are at Bautzen, 20,000 cover their communications back into Bohemia, and finally 20,000 are encamped midway between Prague and Koniggratz. We have fully 80,000 concentrated either opposite Prague or encircling Koniggratz.

Accordingly, we are going ot act swiftly. I order the entire army to cross the Vltava in force and place Prague under blockade. The Austrians will need to concentrate and attempt to drive me off, or lose the city. Fall Rot is ordered to proceed as planned:

Three columns will converge on Prague out of the mountains. The cavalry corps will remain in a blocking position in the north, meant to keep tabs on Browne and Kollowrat, and slow down any efforts to come south. Our own cavalry scouts, meanwhile, are exhausted and out of supplies, and so are ordered to return to Saxony for replenishment (and probably will winter there). Frederick remains at Lobositz to oversee the vital construction of the depot (a slight blunder, as it turns out).

Broader overview of the southern front:


Our men begin crossing on October 15, establishing a bridgehead. As more columns come up, the bridgehead expands - but on the fifth day, October 20th, Austrians appear in force. The first battle of the war, Prague, breaks out:



As far as I can tell, the Austrian Advanced Guard came up and fell on our lead formation, Recht's Kolumn. Keith, our most able general, rapidly marched to his assistance - only to find Piccolomini's full corps up and in battle array. Fighting became general between about 34,000 Prussians and 28,000 Austrians. For hours, it was a long slugging match in under hte October sun as fusiliers and cannon blazed away at each other:


Prussians in action outside Prague, 20 October 1756.

Soon, a third Prussian column, under Prinz Wilhem, Frederick's useless younger brother, who had been lingering in the Erzebirge on the 15th, came up. William had driven his men hard across the Bohemian plains, eager to catch up to the main army crossing the river. That morning, the sound of gunfire woke the men from the bivouacs, and in a rare moment of competence the Prinz got his corps into line and marching to the sounds of battle. The intervention of his corps changed a closely-matched battle into a clear Prussian advantage.

In the end, the battle finished with decisive shock action by the cavalry. Prussian horsemen stormed forward and tumbled the Austrians out of their positions. Austrian units broke and ran for the rear, as Prussian hussars rode and slashed among them:

Prussian cuirassiers at Prague, 20 October 1756.

The result is a pretty severe battle for the time, as the Army of the Elbe loses 10% of its engaged men, while 20% of the Austrian force is killed or captured:



Let's break down how to read the results screen. Total numbers engaged and casualties are straightforward enough. Next comes a box for the total elements present on the field - every single infantry company, cavalry squadron, artillery battery, etc. Next it displays casualties at range (battles proceed in stages of decreasing ranges of fire) and then the culminating shock or assault phase (this is when the cavalry shines). Hearts in the box represent hits suffered, while unit symbols that appear represent an entire lost element. Thus, we know that the Austrians suffered two squadrons of light cavalry entirely destroyed, along with two companies of light infantry and a company of regular infantry, while Prussia, despite casualties, lost no elements in their entirety. This is important because lost elements have to be replaced at a depot, while casualties within a company can be filled by individual replacements being forwarded to the army.

Then there's the boxes at the bottom:

We see that both armies were fully supplied and fairly entrenched. We took 38 companies of prisoners - about 3,800 men, and about 4 tons of discarded equipment. 10 Prussian units and 28 Austrian units were routed in the fighting.

If you wish, you can also open a more detailed report that tells you how each unit performed in the fighting:

For example, you can see in line 2 that Seydlitz's brigade was hotly engaged, suffering 43 hits and inflicting 34 in return. The squares represent cohesion damage suffered and inflicted - a unit's organization, discipline, etc. Typically cohesion will bottom out before actual health, in which case a unit will fleet. This page is worth diving into if you suffer an unexpected loss or victory, but by and large I stick to the summary screen.

Anyway, Piccolomini's corps is forced to retreat, and the garrison of Prague is rapidly invested by the victorious Prussians. The situation as October closes is thus:



Browne's army is besieging Bautzen, shadowed by our own cavalry corps. Piccolomini is licking his wounds just east of Prague, while our own forces have invested the two major Austrian cities in the vicinity. In Saxony, an Austrian brigade has come nosing in, which is somewhat embarrassing since I have almost no reserves in the area and will need to transfer troops from Berlin to secure our base area.

So, gentlemen, we have great opportunities before us - but also great dangers. The opportunity is thus: Browne's army is out on a limb, with two corps at Bautzen besieging the city, but his line of communications runs back to either Prague or to Koniggratz - both cities besieged by ourselves. If Prague falls, Browne's army will either starve in the German winter or have to make a run past our own blockade, giving us an excellent chance of destroying his army entirely. Only Piccolomini's corps would then be in the field between us and Vienna, where Maria Theresa is frantically raising fresh forces. We would have a good chance to drive on the Austrian capital in the spring and knock it out entirely.

The danger is our own supply situation is equally precarious. Here's the supply window:


Supply in AGEOD games is crucial. Armies will wither and die without it. The way the system works is thus:

• Every town and city produces a given amount of supplies every turn.
  
• Every unit requires a given amount of supplies every turn.
  
• A unit will use its own stocks, then request a resupply back to full from nearby sources.
  
• A supply source - a depot, a city, a wagon - will push out the requested supply, then attempt to refill its own stocks from nearby sources.
  
• Typically, supply can travel 2-3 provinces in a single pulse.
  
• Supply is checked 3 times in a turn (ie, a unit resupplies itself from a nearby city in the first pulse, the city resupplies itself from one further back the chain in the second, and the second city resupplies itself from nearby sites in the third.
  

So, there's a general trickle of supplies from major cities and towns in the rear through your network of towns to your armies at the front, as they use supplies and request them from places further back. A visualization of our supply network as opposed to the Austrians':


The little wooden crates and cannonballs represent the amount of general supply and ammunition stockpiled in each location.

Okay, so our supply flows from Prussia proper through the Saxon cities - but it's piling up in Dresden and not getting over the Erzebirge. Why not? Well, supply can only travel about 3-4 provinces per turn. Only so far wagons can move! It flows further over oceans, and you can do a bit with river supply (I have two supply boats on the Elbe, for example). What do you do to cover gaps in the supply line, like at the Saxon mountains? Well, that's where depots come in. A unit can burn two supply wagons to establish a depot, which will then begin to stockpile supply from the rest of your network just like a city. Thus, Frederick, who had most of my supply wagons, is establishing a depot at Lobositz, which sits midway between Dresden and Prague, and secure our line of communications.

Now, units can only grab supply from their immediately adjacent provinces. They also only carry about two weeks' worth of supplies themselves (what the men have in their packs, essentially). But wagons both will stockpile a fair amount of supplies AND can request refill from a few provinces away - like a mobile depot. So if you are marching anywhere outside your network, you better have a ton of wagons! And you'll want to build a network of depots as you advance. This is the main reason why Russia, for example, won't be able to just steamroll us - they will need to cross Poland, which is largely a supply desert, and the vast amount of wagons that will require will seriously slow their march. of course, Cossacks could just pillage their way across Poland towards us...

Anyway, therein is the danger. Winter is setting in, and in winter weather, units outside a city must expend extra supply or else absorb hits - casualties. At the moment, the army of the Elbe has about five week's worth of supplies, but with snow that amount might rapidly go down. We need to be in Prague or another city, soon. If we wait too long hoping to break into Prague, we might not have the supply to retreat to Saxony - our entire army is at risk if we push the siege. But if we succeed, we will have taken a massive step to knock Austria out of the war.

So that's the gamble. The depot will help, but Saxony is totally defenseless and Austrians are nosing in. Prague is open and vulnerable, but we need to breach the walls before we can take the city (more on sieges and city assaults next time). Safest is to fall back, either to Lobositz or all the way to Dresden. Riskiest is to push the siege and hope for a major victory in 1756.

Historically, Frederick retreated into Saxony for the winter and did not take Prague.

What shall the council decide?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

November 1756: Fall Rot in the balance

King Frederick finds the arguments of the Prussian staff convincing, and opts to roll the iron dice: the Prussian army will remain in place around Prague, press the siege, and attempt to capture the place before its own supplies run out! If successful, we can winter in Bohemia and have an open road to Vienna in the spring, while Browne and the Austrian army will be cut off in northern Bohemia to starve. If we fail, our entire army may disintegrate from lack of supplies (which would be bad).

Reminder of the situation as of November 1, 1756:


Having just defeated Piccolomini and the Austrian advance corps at Prague, the Prussian army is encamped around the city. King Frederick has overseen the construction of a vital supply depot at the village of Lobositz, downstream on the Elbe, which will serve as the army's lifeline through the winter. Marshal Schwerin's corps is meanwhile besieging Koniggratz to the east. Part of the Austrian army is encamped after its defeat 10 days ago between Prague and Kolin, under Piccolomini, the other half is to the north besieging Bautzen in Silesia under Marshal Browne. I have located 3 of 4 Austrian corps - Browne, Kollowrat, and Piccolomini, but thus far intelligence is uncertain as to the location of a hypothetical corps under Lucchese.

Mousing around, though, I spot Lucchese. His column has actually arrived and joined Piccolomini in the fortified camp he constructed outside Prague!


That's all 4 corps accounted for - 2 in the north (Browne, leading Kollowrat) and 2 at Prague (Piccolomini, leading Lucchese). The Austrian army here now masses 2000 power, possibly as many as 40,000 men. I now think that most of the survivors of the battle of Prague retreated with Piccolomini, and only a small garrison of 2,000-5,000 men holds the city.

So, if we're going to do this siege, we're going to do it right. I need to explain how sieges work in AGEOD.



Sieges progress turn by turn and are largely determined by the fortress level of whatever fort you are besieging. Some cities are unwalled, some are level 1 forts, some (like Koniggratz) are level 2, and some like Prague here are level 3 monsters. You cannot assault a fortress until you have breached the walls a number of times at LEAST equal to the fortress level. So, to storm Prague we'll need three breaches in the wall.

Every turn, a dice is rolled and compared to the defenders' dice. The roll is modified by number of cannon, by the skill of the commanders, by the presence of siege engineers or pioneers, and a few other random factors. If the attacker is successful, a breach is opened in the wall. If the defender is successful, the siege does not progress that turn - sometimes defenders can even repair breaches already opened!

Now, the fortress garrison will consume supplies every turn. Each turn, as the level of supply drops, there is a chance the garrison will surrender if surrounded by a superior force. Fortresses can fall unexpectedly quickly this way! (see the fall of Ticonderoga in the Revolution, for example, or Detroit in the War of 1812).

Waiting for the siege to tick through is very risky. Instead, there's a few measures we can take. Frederick orders the construction of siege works around the city:


Siege Works is one of a handful of regional decisions we can play over the course of the entire game. We only have three to spend, and I think we generate no more, but I can't think of a more vital siege to speed up than this siege of Prague. If successful, we can open not one but two breaches in the interturn. We're going to do everything we can to speed the siege along and get inside the walls before winter, and before Browne's army marches back!

There's a few other tasks to see to. First, Frederick should resume command of the army. He will march back to Prague, and his useless brother, Wilhelm, will lead a brigade to cover the vital depot at Lobositz:

Brigades are the fundamental unit of your armies. You can, in theory, command individual battalions - but it's far more efficient to combine them, as I have done here, into a brigade of 4 battalions. Wilhem is mostly suited for this, as he has pretty bad command stats, and I need someone to watch over the depot and make sure it's safe from Austrian raiders. It's a quiet task I can shuffle Wilhelm to and stop worrying about him.

Accordingly, our orders for early November are simple:

1)Wilhelm's brigade to march to Lobositz and relieve Frederick's headquarters column securing the supply lines.
2)Keith, Moritz, and Ferdinand to maintain the siege of Prague, constructing siege works.
3)Schwerin to maintain the siege of Koniggratz.
4)Cavalry corps to move into the pass at Zittau and attempt to cut off Browne.

The turn processes and:


By November 15, our siege works have successfully opened two breaches at Prague (and one at Koniggratz in the east). The time has now come to assault the city - we don't want to wait for the siege roll to come up surrender. An assault will be bloody - losses our smaller but more elite army can ill-afford - but waiting is even more dangerous. So, I order my men to prepare for assault:



So, how do you get armies to do what you want? Turns last 15 days, 15 days in which you can't interfere with your commands at all. How do armies determine who attacks, who defends, when to retreat, when to flee, etc? The answer to that in AGEOD's system is stances and rules of engagement.

There are four stances in AGEOD:

• Assault - shown in bright red. Your army will attempt to storm any structure in the same province.
  
• Offensive - Shown in orange. Your army will attack enemies in the same province but not structures.
  
• Defensive - Shown in blue. Your army will await attack and attempt to maintain its position once engaged.
  
• Passive - Shown in green. Your army will attempt to avoid combat entirely.
  

You use each one in different situations. For example, a defensive army can take advantage of rivers, woods, hills, and other defensive terrain. But an army has to be in offensive mode in order to seize enemy territory (your armies automatically convert to offensive if you order them into an enemy-controlled province). Passive armies can be irregulars or cavalry scouting, or depot units attempting to take on replacements. And assault...well, assault is only used like I am above, to storm an enemy fortress.

Similarly, there are four rules of engagement:

• At All Costs - The army will attack to the last man, or attempt to hold its ground to the end. This is a very dangerous order and should be used only in dire circumstances! Entire armies can be destroyed if you use it at the wrong time. Think of the British on the Somme, or the Nazis at Stalingrad.
  
• Sustained attack/defense - the default. Generals will press the attack or defense stoutly, but retreat if things go against them.
  
• Conservative attack/defense - Generals will only fight for a few hours before retreating, unless the enemy is already collapsing, then they'll press the advantage.
  
• Feint attack/defend and retreat - Generals only fight one round before retreating. Used in probing attacks if you don't know what you'll meet, or for an evading/tripwire force on defense. My cavalry scouts use this a lot.
  
  

So, we'll order our armies at Prague and at Koniggratz into assault posture, to storm the fortresses if the vital third/second breaches respectively appear. But not all my generals obey orders! Ferdinand, the useless git, does not order his men into action alongside the rest! Why? Well, for that, we need to look at activation. Take a look at Ferdinand's army stack, specifically the envelop at right:



Some generals are excellent defenders. Others are great attackers. Some are brave, some are cowardly. One thing that AGEOD captures is that there are many generals who are perfectly competent - McClellan, Buell, Rosecrans - who just won't move. They refuse to take the initiative until everything is perfectly in place. A general who is convinced that armies of ghosts are marching on him, or that his supplies won't let him advance, or is just plain lazy and sulking in his tent like Achilles is inactive. Inactive generals are indicated by the brown envelope, active ones by white. An inactive general can only defend, never attack. So, Ferdinand won't be joining any assaults on Prague, as he fusses with his grenadiers, or is alarmed by reports of incoming enemy reinforcements, or whatever. Who knows? Activity is determined by a general's strategy stat (more on stats later).

So, we order assaults. I also take more measures behind the lines to ensure that we can proceed. I have dragooned many tonnes of supplies into wagons near Dresden, and will move them up the Elbe to Prague to sustain the siege:


Our little fleet at Magdeburg will sail to Dresden, retrieve the supply wagons, and drop them off near Prague for our army. That should buy us a few more weeks, or enable a retreat if that becomes necessary.

IN the meantime, it seems word of the battle of Prague and subsequent investment of the city has reached Browne. He lifted his siege of Bautzen and is coming south:


At the same time, Piccolomini marched out of his camp but is lingering nearby.

Known Austrian dispositions:
Browne, 1560 power (about 25,000 men), northern Bohemia
Kollowrat, 1033 power (about 15,000 - 20,000 men), northern Bohemia
(45,000 all told in the army of Austria)

Lucchese corps, 1170 power (about 20,000) men, near Kolin.
Piccolomini corps, 1185 power (about 20,000 men), near Kolin.

There's about 80,000 Austrians, plus another 5,000 or so in garrison at the two major cities, against about 80,000 Prussians. The next two weeks will determine the outcome of the Bohemian campaign!

Our orders:

It's risky, but the army will attempt to storm Prague. The assault posture means that if Browne comes on, we will attack him as he crosses the river, denying us the advantage of defense for the most part. But it's a long march for him - I don't think he can make it in the next two weeks. Also, the enemy might come south, and then swing east towards Koniggratz or to cross the Elbe at Kolin and unite his forces. And we must have Prague, ideally before Browne can unite with Piccolomini and attempt to relieve the siege. So I am aggressive. The cavalry corps will continue to shadow Browne. Wilhelm holds the depot at Lobositz.

The results:

On November 16, Koniggratz is breached and Schwerin storms the fortress. The battle is bloody but brief and decisive in Prussia's favor:



Schwerin's 20,000 men lose 850 of their number reducing the 2,000 defenders. THe fortress and its stores are taken intact.

Meanwhile, at Prague, Browne comes south, and the decisive battle of the campaign breaks out...(tomorrow)

:D

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

AGEOD may not have the soap opera politics of Crusader Kings, but its generals still have personalities.  Appreciated the "sulking in his tent like Achilles" line.  I sometimes wonder how the Iliad was published considering how unflattering it is to the Greeks' own gods and legendary heroes.  Are there also MacArthur type generals who advance regardless of the readiness of their troops or their commanders' orders?

[sunrise089]

Good thread.

And, one of the threads with the biggest disparity between readability on mobile vs desktop given the size and details of the screenshots.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

AGEOD may not have the soap opera politics of Crusader Kings, but its generals still have personalities.  Appreciated the "sulking in his tent like Achilles" line.  I sometimes wonder how the Iliad was published considering how unflattering it is to the Greeks' own gods and legendary heroes.  Are there also MacArthur type generals who advance regardless of the readiness of their troops or their commanders' orders?

During battle, yes, you have some generals who will fling their guys into the heart of the fire and get their commands shot to pieces in the process, or refuse to retreat even though the battle is clearly over and they're just shedding their mens' blood for no good reason. On the map, though, no, not usually - it's an operational level game, and an independent command suddenly marching for weeks at a time over dozens of kilometers doesn't usually happen. It's much easier to sit in place, contrary to orders, pleading the weather, the men's poor morale and tiredness, the unexpected strength of the enemy, etc, than to take your entire force off on an unauthorized jaunt towards the enemy (J.E.B. Stuart notwithstanding).

Good thread.

And, one of the threads with the biggest disparity between readability on mobile vs desktop given the size and details of the screenshots.

Thanks for the kind words - I, uh, don't really know how to solve the screenshot issue, though. :/ For what it's worth, browsing on my phone and zooming seemed to all be legible, but I'm familiar with the AGEOD interface so probably find things unusually easy to read.

Anyway - Spoilered for length.
November 26, 1756 - The Second Battle of Prague

Just after dawn on November 26, 1756, the Prince of Anhalt-Dessau was jolted awake in his tent by a sudden fusilade. Moritz sat up from his camp bed as his valet bustled in and began rapidly dressing him in the style that a Marshal of the Kingdom of Prussia merited. Soon after, one of Moritz's brigadiers, von Bulow, hurried in and snapped a salute.


Prince Moritz, 5th son of the prince of Anhalt.

"What's happening out there?" Moritz snapped.

"Pickets driven in, sir. Austrians to the north, and a hell of a lot of them, it seems." Bulow's mighty mustaches quivered. "...do you think it's Browne, sir?"

"Browne's a week away, don't be an idiot," Moritz said - still snapping (he always was crabby in the mornings). His overcoat on and his hat on his head, he ducked out of his tent ahead of Bulow into his sector of the siege camp.


Prague, 1756, and the site of the battle.

Before them, smoking and wounded but still lovely, was the pearl of the Vltava river, Prague. Plumes of smoke drifted around its many spires and rooftops, and in the foreground, the old city wall lay in tumbled in ruins in many places, courtesy of King Frederick's siege mortars. All about the city in a great half-moon sat the siege camp of the Army of the Elbe, the premier military formation in all of Europe. Trenches and palisades shielded lines of tents, long batteries of cannon, innumerable wagons and piles of supplies - an entire city at war.

But right now, Moritz's attention was to the north, across the low ridges of the Ziskaberg to the plains of the Elbe valley. Already, smoke was roiling across the plain and the boom and crash of cannon was clearly visible. And - spreading out like a carpet and forming into a line pointed directly at him - was a great mass of white-coated figures. The Austrian Army of Bohemia, come to play at last. Moritz paled.

"Get your brigade in line," he told Bulow. "I'll have my entire corps moving to your support within fifteen minutes. It seems it is Browne, after all.


Second Prague opens with Browne and Kollowrat committing against Moritz's corps.
----------

"Gentlemen," the Marshal said, "Just one final briefing as things get under way." The Marshal was a tall, handsome man, with the aquiline nose and large forehead prized among Austrian nobility, topped by an impeccable wig. His German was, incongruously, tinted with an Irish brogue of all things. Around the small camp table, kept meticulously clear of all but the large map of Prague and its neighborhood spread upon it, stood two major generals and a gaggle of over a dozen brigadiers, not to mention the innumberable lieutenants, captains, and even majors that inevitably attach themselves to an army headquarters. The marshal leaned forward and tapped the table.

"The enemy is encamped here, on the slopes of the Ziskaberg. He has been shelling the city of Prague for close on four weeks now. Here in the north he expects us and his lines are strong. But the east..." He shifted his hand and tapped a welter of small streams and ponds - dry now, in chill late November - "here his flank is open. Moritz is counting on the terrain here to protect his flank, trusting us to come on in a frontal assault. But he is far away, and isolated from his two colleagues. We place Ferdinand here" - he gestured to the southeastern sector of Prague, near the upper Vltava - "and Ferdinand - reportedly ill - hasn't exercized effective command in weeks. He will be slow to respond, take him a while to get organized."

"What of Keith?" The highest ranking general at the table, Kajetan Kollowrat, asked. Kollowrat was an older gentleman, not so physically impressive as Marshal Browne, and a Czech besides, but like the Irish exile he was a doughty old supporter of Empress Maria Habsburg.


Browne and Kollowrat, general and chief lieutenant of the Bohimische Armee.

Browne dismissed it with a wave of the hand. "Keith is on the far side of the Moldau. The only good crossings nearby we control - the fords on our right flank and the bridges in the city itself. Keith won't be able to interfere." He gestured at the map. "General Kolowrat, take your corps forward and pin down Moritz on Mount Ziska. I want him fixed in place." A finger jabbed towards the right edge of the map, to the east. "Generals Piccolomini and Lucchese, in the Army of Moravia, are marching to our assistance even now. I have sent instructions that both corps are to fall on the enemy right flank as soon as they appear. I will remain in reserve. Together, we will mass four corps against the enemy 1 - or, at worst, 2 if Ferdinand bestirs himself, which I doubt. We will drive Moritz into the river and then turn on Ferdinand, who will be isolated on the wrong side of the Moldau. Keith will watch helplessly as we disperse these dogs. Understood?"

The meeting broke up, brigadiers flying off towards their units. For his part, Browne looked with a satisfied eye to the east - where the rising sun was obscured with the haze created by thousands of men, marching towards the battlefield.

----------


Contemporary print of the Battle of Prague, 1756

Only nine in the morning, and Prince Moritz was already having a terrible day.

The Austrian army had come on like a tidal wave crashing down on his lines along the Ziskaberg, the Czech general Kollowrat urging his men on like demons to relieve his ancestral capital. The white-coated infantry, in ranks 4 deep, had stormed up the slopes, only to be hurled back time and again by the disciplined fire of Prussian grenadiers. Cannon flashed and boomed on both sides, the shells exploding up and down the lines furiously. Moritz saw an entire rank of one battalion carried away - calmly their comrades shuffled up and closed the gap. Even in circumstances like this - especially in circumstances like this - Prussian discipline held. It was the only thing keeping them alive.

The Prussians had the advantage of the high ground, and of discipline, but more than one man remarked, "These aren't the same Austrians!" Moritz could only grimly agree - this was not the same army that the King had whipped so soundly the decade before. These Austrians were tough and knew what they were doing. Each time his men's fire broke up an attack, leaving dozens of whitecoats writhing in agony on the ground (or still and silent, for the fortunate dead), they would reform and come on again, their cannon and muskets lashing his ranks. Moritz could see fresh reserves pouring into the fight from the rear, as Marshal Browne coolly replaced each shattered battalion with a brigade from his own command. Moritz could only reply with a few companies at this point - the corps reserve had almost entirely been committed. And so, slowly but surely, the pressure built - and now, barely two hours past the late November sunrise, his men were close to breaking.

"Sir!" An aide galloped up and tossed a salute. "Beg to report!"

Moritz hastily returned it, his words spilling out one after the other in haste- "What? What-what?"

The aide gulped a breath. "General Bulow on the right is badly pressed, sir. Yes sir. Several hundred of his men are down, and the rest are wounded. Worse, sir, uh, he reports fresh enemy formations are visible on his right flank. He estimates the new force to be at least several brigades strong. He begs for any support you can send, as well as fresh ammunition, sir. Otherwise, sir, I don't think we can stop 'em."

Moritz cursed. The entire damned Austrian army seemed to have paid him a visit this morning. "Inform General Bulow that he is to hold, at all costs. If he goes, Browne's going to roll up our entire line, and we could lose the corps, here. I will send him what ammunition and support that I can." And what exactly could that support be, he had no idea. The prince turned to look at his remaining reserves, waiting calmly in ranks just behind his command post, unruffled by the cannon volleying and thundering all around them. One single battalion of grenadiers. He cantered back.

"Colonel Heinrich, could I trouble you to move to the right and place yourself at the disposal of General Bulow?"

He snapped a salute. "Sah! Right away, sah!"

"Colonel?" The man paused. Moritz looked him steadily in the eye. "The right has to be held, Colonel. At all costs. Is that understood?"

Colonel Heinrich nodded steadily. "It is, sir. Thank you sir." He turned his mount back to his battalion. "Grenadiers, by the right - march!" Drums pounding and flutes piping, the Prussian grenadiers marched off to immortality."

-----

"At them! At them, cowards!" Joseph Lucchesi's Italian-accented German rang out shrill and high across the furor of the battlefield. His white-coated men swarmed around him, whole battalions weaving their way among the millstreams and fishponds that broke up the Prussian right flank. His corps, nearly 20,000 strong, had marched hard through the night to reach the battlefield and pull off Browne's brilliant coup - the concentration of virtually the entire field force of the Austrian empire against a single isolated Prussian corps. And he, Joseph Lucchesi, scion of Italian nobility, had the opportunity to cement his and his family's honor forever. He simply had to press through this broken terrain, sweep aside the handful of Prussians in front of him - and glory would be his.

True, things hadn't gone entirely to plan. Lucchesi and his superior officer, Piccolomini (more properly Ottavio II Enea Giuseppe Fürst Piccolomini d'Aragona, Duke of Amalfi, Reichsfürst von Arragona, Herr von Nachod, Riesenburg, Prochonitz, Sticciano, Borone, Erbprior des Stefansordens zu Pisa), unfamiliar with the Bohemian terrain, had had a hard go of it in the night march. The Duke of Amalfi was to have marched on Lucchesi's right flank on the north, striking the Prussians in the flank, while Lucchesi took the dogs in the rear. Instead, Lucchese had found his corps emerging on the Prussian flank, too far north - and Piccolomini was nowhere to be seen.

So instead of an easy descent on Moritz's rear, he had found his men struggling through broken terrain - fishponds, muddy in the late autumn weather - mill streams - dams - and as a result his formations had grown tangled and confused, their neat lines dissolving. But so few Prussians stood against him that, despite the frantic efforts of the enemy to form a new line against his onslaught, his men carried all before them. Overcome with excitement, Lucchesi rode among his men, urging them on (sometimes with the flat of his sword) to greater courage and more glory for his house.

Ahead, a line of Prussians blazed with smoke at the Austrian struggling out of the fishponds towards them. Balls whizzed and cracked through the air - and at least one ramrod went whirling through the smoke as an overexcited private faltered in his loading drill - and whitecoated men dropped. But the Austrians could not be denied - a volley rippled out in reply, and with a cheer, the men stormed forward up the slope - and the Prussians were gone, scampering to the rear. Waving their hats, capering, cheering, Lucchessi's men lined the ridgetop. The general cantered up, beaming from ear to ear. "Courageously done, men! Courageously done! We shall all win medals, this day!" He squinted ahead.

Through a gap in the billowing smoke, he could see a new line of blue-coated figures marching towards them, coming on steadily in line. He waved his sword. "Fresh fodder for your mill, soldiers! At them!"

"Herr General, we are out of ammunition!" the battalion's colonel protested. And indeed, many of the Austrians were now patting their pockets, many with a somewhat worried look on their face. A man carried 30 rounds into battle, and, well-controlled by his colonel in platoon firing, with wagons coming along behind for resupply, could be expected to fight for hours with fresh reissues. But the broken terrain had forced his men into light-infantry style, individual fighting. His ancestral enemies, the Croats (fellow servants of the Habsburgs) excelled at such things, but not Austrian regulars. The damned fools had fired off all their shots coming through the damned mill ponds, and now the damned wagons couldn't get through to resupply. Well, no matter - they had broken everything before them this day. This paltry battalion coming on would crumble, too - ammunition or no.

He sneered, "What! Haven't you got bayonets? Skewer the dogs dead!"

The Austrians charged - and far ahead, the Prussian grenadiers fired.

Balls whizzed through the ranks, but the Austrians kept on coming - and then the next platoon fired, the fire and smoke seeming to travel to the right down the blue line. More men staggered and fell, and others were wavering now, out of the eye of their sergeants and their officers to keep them marching into that charnel house - and now the third platoons fired, the line of fire and smoke traveling even further, and more men fell. The Austrians gathered their courage for one last push - the first enemy platoon, reloaded, unleashed another volley - and now the men were running -

With a roar, the Prussian Grenadiers lowered their bayonets and surged towards the Austrians. The whitecoated infantry - tired after a long night's march and no dinner or breakfast - a morning spent struggling through mud and broken ground - a battle fought and seemingly won - and now lashed at with shot and shell and musket ball - decided that it wanted no part of these blue coated supermen. The men decided Maria Theresa could look after her own interests and turned for the hills.


Charge of the Prussian grenadiers at Prague, November 26, 1756.

-----

Eleven, and Moritz grimly hang on. Lucchese's attack on the right had been broken up by the intervention of the grenadiers, but only momentarily. Reports were the Austrians were reforming and preparing to come on again, and to his front, Browne and Kollowrat were pressing him severely. Moreover, Heinrich's grenadiers had been shattered in the counterattack - pursuing the routed Austrians they had run headlong into fresh Austrian brigades coming up. The battalion was hors de combat, fully four entire companies perishing in the fight. He had flatly no reserves left - over a third of his men were killed or wounded. When Lucchese came on again, there was nothing left to stop him. The battle was lost, absent a miracle.

"Sir!" The prince turned at the sound. One of his aides was pointing to the rear, towards Prague. He raised his glass - galloping up from the city was a small contingent of riders. But the banners fluttering - and that fellow in front... "The King!"

"Thank God," Moritz said, tears of relief momentarily wetting his cheeks. "Thank God, thank God, thank God."

King Frederick der Grosse would sort it all out.

Along the line, men in dark Prussian blue rose up, cheering, waving their hats. "The king! The king is here!" He raised his hand in salute, riding hard along the line.

"Stand! Stand, my brave soldiers! Let every man do his duty and we will - again - conquer together!"

Frederick - a ruddy, handsome man in the prime of his life - galloped up, beaming. "My God, Moritz. Isn't it marvelous!? I thought they'd never come."

"It's the devil to pay, sir. Browne has got us in a trap this time. These aren't the same Austrians."

Frederick's grin never wavered. "Might be, might be, Moritz. But perhaps we can trap him. Can you hold?"

"To the front? I expect so. But there's an entire new corps coming in on the right - we think it's Lucchesi - and no one knows what's become of Piccolomini."

"Leave the right to me, Moritz. Look to your front and keep those people busy. I'll handle the rest!"

"Sire." Moritz snapped a salute as Frederick whirled on his horse and galloped back down the southern slopes - towards columns of blue-coated figures marching hard for the east. Above them fluttered a distinctive banner. Moritz squinted, then smiled.

Keith had arrived, after all.


Keith's corps intervenes.
----

For all the attention historians have paid to the first half of the Battle of Prague, with its dramatics like the charge of the grenadiers on the right, Moritz's desperate stand, and the miraculous intervention of Keith's corps, comparatively little notice has been given to the afternoon's struggle - but it was just as hard-fought and desperate as the morning.  Lucchese, only barely repulsed in the morning, reformed at about noon and launched a second attack on Moritz's right flank, towards the villages of Stehrbohl and Maleschitz. But instead of hitting Moritz's tired and depleted troops, the Italian general had run headlong into Keith's corps - fully formed and fresh.

The Austrians had come on courageously nonetheless, while Browne renewed his attacks on the northern ridge to pin Moritz down - the Irish exile was likely unaware of Keith's arrival on the field. For hours, men had flailed at each other with musket and canister up and down the line, carpeting the ground in blue and white dead in the north and in the east.

The battle of Prague

Keith's corps surged east against Lucchese's tired soldiers. The well-formed Prussians rolled forward against stout Austrian resistance, taking and giving casualties. The leadership of Prussia's officer corps made the difference that afternoon, commanders inspiring their men with feats of gallantry and leading by example. For instance, when the Istenplitz Regiment came to the deep and swiftly-flowing Roketnitz-Bach, a stream cutting across the battlefield, their commander Prince Heinrich von Pruessen plunged - nearly vanishing beneath the water. Heartened, his men swarmed after him and up the far bank to continue pursuing the fast-crumbling Lucchese corps.


Heinreich Pruessen in the river, Prague, November 1756

Piccolomini never appeared.

By about 2 pm, as the late autumn sun was beginning to lower, Lucchese could hold no longer. Many of his brigades had been entirely shattered by Keith's counterattack, and soon the Prussians were gaining ground on the far side of the fishponds - at which point they would be able to sweep him from the field. In order to preserve his corps, Lucchese was forced to pull back entirely - soon abandoning the field at Prague.


Lucchese retreats, leaving Browne and Kollowrat to face the remaining Prussians alone.

-----

A shell exploded near Marshal Browne, who evinced no reaction other than another hacking cough - a symptom of the tuberculosis that would kill him within the year. The man was stone-faced, grimly watching Kollowrat's men struggle up the ridge before him again. All of Browne and Kollowrat's men were committed now.

An aide galloped up.

"Marshal, sir, beg to report." Browne nodded. "General Kollowrat reports that his men are low on ammunition and that his reserves are spent, sir. The men are exhausted and those people are not going to give up their hill." The aide hesitated, before Browne gestured for him to continue. "The general requests permission to withdraw, sir."

Browne remained still for a moment. To withdraw was to lose the battle - to lose Prague, the heart of Bohemia. But the battle wasn't lost yet. Lucchese and Piccolomini should be pressing the Prussians in the rear, although Frederick had seemed to get up reinforcements from somewhere (a chill ran through his heart at the thought that Keith might have found a way to intervene after all). Even if the bungling Italians had gotten hung up, a determined push could still crack Moritz's front and take the eastern flank defenders in the rear - the Prussian army would be routed and thrown back on the Vltava river, to its ultimate destruction.

But the men needed heart.

"No, sir," he replied. "There is to be no withdrawal. This army, sir, goes forward!" He seized the standard marking the location of his headquarters. "Come, men, with me! We conquer on this field or perish!"

Through the field of death Browne and his startled entourage galloped. They wove around craters and the dead and the wounded strung across the plain from the long fight. Up the hill Browne rode, his sword flashing in the late afternoon sun. "TO me, men! With me, men of Austria! The day is ours!"

Cheering, all across the field white-coated men rose up from their scattered knots, the battalions and brigades reforming. With the minor officers leading the way, and following the example of their beloved marshal, the remaining units of Kollowrat's and Browne's intermingled corps hurled themselves up the Ziskaberg one last time. The smoke whirled and billowed across the field, destroying visibility, while determined Prussian cannon, some even with the corpses of their gunners still draped across them, belched fire and death at the oncoming white tide.

Browne rode forward - saw a line of bluecoated infantry flash with their rolling volleys - and then the Austrians were on them with the bayonet, a brief, frenzied moment of clubbing and stabbing - and the Prussians broke and fled, down the hill. Exultant, Browne whirled. "The day is ours, men! Turn the cannon on 'em! Turn the cannons! Turn the cannons!" Roaring, the Austrians swarmed over the ridgeline, all order lost.

Down below, a fresh brigade marched up the south face of the Ziskaberg. At its rear, General James Francis Keith, his German tinged with Scottish to rival Browne's Irish-accented German, calmly reined in next to its brigadier. "General Forcade, take this hill for me, if you please." The man only snapped a salute - and the brigade stormed forward.

The thunder of their volley ripped through the Austrians - Browne felt a jolt at his side - and his hand came up red when he put it to his coat. "Damn," he muttered. "The bastards got me." As he began to waver on his horse, he could only think, 'They got me'? How dreadfully cliche..." Darkness came swirling down, as the cheering Prussians came on.

----

The mortal wounding of Marshal Browne largely ended the vicious Second Battle of Prague. General Keith's fresh corps, arriving late on the battlefield, calmly repulsed the tired attacks from the three Austrian corps present. As the last attacks petered out, King Frederick ordered a general advance all across the line. At first slowly, then gathering momentum, the Prussian army stormed forward, over the carpet of dead and injured men from the furious day's fighting. By sunset, the Austrians were in full flight, Kollowrat attempting to rally the survivors on the far side of the Elbe, a few miles away.


Final Prussian advance at Prague, November 26, 1756.

Piccolomini's corps was there, the Italian general having taken a wrong turning. Bitter recriminations ensued among the Austrian high command. Browne, wounded and fading, and Kollowrat charged that had the Italians followed the plan, they would have  easily won the battle and thus the war. Piccolomini's incompetence in getting lost and wandering across the Elbe had kept a full quarter of the army out of the battle. Meanwhile, Lucchese, had he struck where he was supposed to instead of coming in too far north, would have evaded the broken millponds that broke up his initial advance and taken Moritz in the rear, not the flank. For their part, Lucchese and Piccolomini argued that they had been given inadequate maps and guides by men who ought ot have known the terrain, and that Browne had errored in discounting the possibility of Keith intervening from the far side of the Moldau. Regardless of who was to blame, the battle of Prague was lost, and decisively so:



Nearly 6,000 Prussians dead, in return for 14,000 Austrians.

----

Moritz walked in a sort of daze over the field. The northern slope of the Ziskaberg was littered with bodies. Some dead, some still moving. Parties of stretcher bearers roved among the fallen, finding those who were alive - and had a decent chance of remaining so - and lifting them up to the ambulance carts waiting at the top of the ridge. Others piled the corpses for burial. Here and there, a riderless horse cantered by, his master's fate unknown.

"The only thing worse than a battle lost is a battle won, eh, Moritz?" He turned. The king himself stood nearby, Frederick's usually cheerful demeanor saddened as he looked at the remnants of his beloved soldiers. His usual gaggle of hangers-on kept a respectful distance as he gravely looked out over the shattered human wreckage, sacrificed for his glory.

"We have seen too many of both, sire."

"And more to come, I'm afraid," Frederick soberly replied. "The war didn't end here, Moritz. We received word that Browne was injured, but Piccolomini's taking over and reforming them, over the river. We...may not have a quiet winter."

"I regret that, sire." Moritz paused. "Sire, one question...The men follow you because they believe you're unbeatable. That you can work miracles. After today, I'm not so sure I doubt them. How?"

Frederick cocked his head. "How what?"

"Lord Keith, sire. This morning he was encamped on the wrong side of the river, with all the bridges in enemy hands. Now I find him riding to our rescue at the last moment. It's as if he sped on the wings of angels."

Frederick laughed. "Hardly that! Angels? No. But the bridges of Prague? Yes."

Moritz's eyes widened. "Prague?"

The king laughed again, delighted to spring this on his poor marshal. "Didn't I tell you? The city surrendered to us seven hours ago. Prague is ours."

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Situation, December 1, 1756

So, on the whole, we got fairly lucky in the last turn.

Here's where things stand in early December:


We got extremely luck and Prague surrendered without a fight once the third breach opened up. Thus, our assault didn't go in and our units were fresh in organization for the big battle later in the turn. Koniggratz held out but was stormed fairly easily.

The battle of Prague came late, as Browne surged further south than I thought he could march, crossed the river, and fought Frederick's army. Digging into the reports, von Moritz' corps was hit first, with Keith coming up in support. Ferdinand was never engaged at all and is comparatively fresh. We won the battle, losing about 10% of our army including 4 elite grenadier companies but mauling nearly a quarter of the Austrians in return, and, more significantly, drove them back over the river, beyond their supplies. In the image above you can already see that their dots are yellow on supply, meaning they're beginning to run out - and winter is here. On the downside, Keith had an epidemic break out in his camp this turn and is very low on cohesion, so he'll likely need to rest.

Enemy strength and dispositions:

Browne - 6 brigades, 870 power
Kollowrat - 11 'units' totaling 365 power.
Lucchese - 3 brigades, 700 power
Piccolomini - 3 brigades, loose units, 1150 power.

Now, power is an estimate, not exact, and is heavily influenced by supply and cohesion, not men. So the Austrian power arrayed against us, compared with late November:

Known Austrian dispositions:
Browne, 1560 power (about 25,000 men), northern Bohemia
Kollowrat, 1033 power (about 15,000 - 20,000 men), northern Bohemia
(45,000 all told in the army of Austria)

Lucchese corps, 1170 power (about 20,000) men, near Kolin.
Piccolomini corps, 1185 power (about 20,000 men), near Kolin.

About 5000 power slashed to 3000, in keeping with losing a quarter of their men and roughing up the rest. Piccolomini is virtually intact, Lucchese and Browne down slighty less than half strength, and Kollowrat down 2/3 of his.

Browne and Kollowrat's mutilated army, about equal to Piccolomini and low on supply, are north of the Eble. Piccolomini is in the neighboring province with his intact corps. Lucchese retreated to the fortified camp just outside Prague, between that city and the camp at Kolin.

So, here's the question. What to do about the Austrian army? Here's the supply network:

Our own supplies are now flowing through the depot to Prague, yay! Koniggratz is cut off from Silesia by winter, but is close enough to Prague to draw that direction, and generates enough supply on its own to sustain Schwerin through the winter.

As for the Austrians, I don't know if the supplies flow north to those camps or not - it depends on if they're simply camps or if they're depots. It's possible that if they're depots, supply will flow to them and that Browne and Piccolomini can replenish themselves using supply wagons across the river. More likely, though, the Austrian supply network has been trimmed back to southern Bohemia and the men north of the river are out on a limb.

Now, they could and probably will attempt to withdraw over the river, which I rate most likely. Other possibilities:

• A lunge east to Koniggratz (would require crossing the river, beating Schwerin, and then besieging the fortress, poor prospects)
  
• A lunge west towards Lobositz (Wilhem fortified his camp there, so it would take a siege again - but fairly good prospects if they can manage the march
  
• Marching due south for another go at Prague (would need to beat our army and then besiege the city)
  

So, on the whole, we're in good shape. Right now, my inclination is to march east, leaving Keith's corps to recover at Prague, with Ferdinand's fresh corps and von Moritz in support. If a battle breaks out, Keith should march to the sound of the guns and support us in the next adjacent province. We could rough up Lucchese and drive him south, and cut part of Browne's retreat. To really seal him off, we need to reach Kolin. If Keith was fully ready I would support pushing that far, but without him I worry about that march. Von Schwerin is now close enough to support us as well - he could leave a garrison at Koniggratz and march to meet us at Kolin himself. The risk essentially si that we need to unite our two wings south of Browne to cut him off properly - but that exposes each wing to defeat in detail. In addition, marching in winter weather is tough on the men.They are safe where they are, but that risks allowing Browne to escape south, take the hits of a winter march, and then start to rebuild.

Overall picture:

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

This Let's Play is far superior to anything I could write.  Especially the narrative of the battle of Prague that gives some perspective to a period I don't study much.  Is Rise of Prussia better than what the mediocre Internet reviews suggest?