Battle of Zorndorf, 1758

Well the last of the 2012 Battles in Matt's Basement has been concluded. The players that showed up went out with a fire and bayonet. Matt usually throws down two major battles a year at his house. So with Andrew and Eric playing the Russians and Bob and I playing the Prussians we had a great battle using the Age of Honor rules. Matt ran the game as the Game Master which kept us on track with the playing sequence and the rules differences from the regular Fire and Fury rules of which we are all accustom.

Matt describing the Battle

We all showed up around 1000 this last Saturday morning. We lost Pat due to illness but we had plenty of players to conduct battle. Matt very thoroughly described the battle, rules differences between F&F and went over the terrain. This was the first time I think any of us played a Seven Years War period battle.

The Russian Left/Prussian Right - Cavalry squaring off

The Russians outnumbered the Prussians and at first look thought the Prussian right flank facing those big Russian Cavalry units was going to be trouble. The left flank had a stream along the near edge which squeezed both sides cavalry over rough going which slowed down that side of the field's attacks. One interesting note was that the Infantry during this SYW period did not use the square regularly.

Prussian Cavalry Charge the Hill!

On both flanks we had large Cavalry charges but without any major breakthroughs. The die rolls were just not that great. The modifiers were different, for example, they differentiate cavalry as Trotters, Gallopers, armored heavy, heavy, etc. Very interesting and to me resembled Regimental Fire and Fury modifiers.

Andrew checking out the Quick Reference Sheet

The Quick reference sheets are just as easy to use as the regular F&F. Some other modifiers of note were that Prussian Line had 3 fire points on first fire and then became a 2. The Russian line are at a 1.5 but their Artillery in this period were superior.

The Prussian Left Flank Cavalry Charge!

In the picture above along the stream you can see where my Prussian Grenadiers got hammered by an Artillery crossfire and never made it into combat. I kept feeding in troops to keep up the pressure and angled our reserve to the center where Andrew was fighting with "Corps of Observation" troops which fight more like Militia. They ended up falling back due to failing morale checks towards the end of the battle. Historically those troops fought like Grenadiers and Frederick was surprised at their tenacity.

Andrew (Russian) and Bob (Prussian) Cavalry slugged it out the whole battle.

A the battle wore on we could see that there was not going to be a clear victory here. The Russian flanks were still secure but the center did have a bulge where Andrew was busy dressing his Russian lines waiting for a large Prussian Dragoon attack. I think that would have been more like the Charge of the Light Brigade because charging into a horseshoe shaped open ground was not too inviting. So we called the battle at that point.