Set-up for playtest

18th June. An aristocratic general, leading the army of a major empire, faces off against the age's pre-eminent soldier. He cunningly uses the reverse slope of ridges to defeat the advancing blue-clad enemy. No not Waterloo. This is June 1757 and the Battle of Kolin.

Right so I've dug out the SYW models and prepared the table ready for a playtest tomorrow. I'll need to get organised with note-taking and pictures.  I'm basing it on Old Fritz' first defeat. I played it once before with my son as the Prussians, with an old set of home made rules and he thrashed me. I blame it on the rules - not enough luck and too much based on the quality of the troops!

There's an excellent account and painstakingly thorough maps here at Obscurebattles.com. The author also has some photos of the ground itself. For a potted version read on below.

Kolin is a town in the Bohemia region of the Czech Republic about 35 miles (55km) east of Prague. After the battle of Prague, the Prussians besieged the Austrians, most of whose defeated army, under Prince Charles of Lorraine, was in the city. Meanwhile Fritz' nemesis, the Field Marshal Graf von Daun (whose father had also been an Austrian field marshal in the WSS) was gathering together elements of the defeated army with troops marching from eastern Bohemia. It was only a matter of time before Prague fell through hunger (the Prussians were rubbish at siegecraft so were unlikely to take it any other way).  Daun was edging closer, but he wasn't ready to leave the safety of the hills. Frederick had left the larger part of his army to invest Prague and took a small corps to join with Bevern, whose smaller force was keeping a watching brief on Daun. Frederick could probably have stayed put watching Daun whilst the Austrians in Prague starved themselves to surrender.

The town was connected to the capital in those days by a road called the Kaiserstrasse (roughly the modern route 12).  Fritz had beetled down the Kaiserstrasse hoping to outflank Daun. Over-confident in his own skills and in his troops, Frederick was outnumbered 52,000 to 34,000. Still if he could pull-off that flank move he'd be able to roll the Austrians up from the right. He'd almost failed with the same trick at Prague a few weeks before, but was to succeed spectactularly with it at Leuthen 6 months later. But Daun was not Charles. He was a wily, thoroughly professional soldier. Between the wars he'd been largely responsible for reforming the Austrian army putting it on a sounder footing. The area around Kolin was also the area where the Austrians had held their pre-war manoevres, so they knew the landscape well. Daun's army was able to perform a complicated switch of axis and when the Prussians were ready to turn south, they were beginning to occupy the ridges in front of the Prussians. And significantly they made use of the reverse slopes.

Looking east, Prussians on the left. The wide strip on the left is my rough and ready 'Kaiserstrasse'.

Eastern end of the field looking towards Krzeczor with the Oak Wood behind

Prussian right flank. Schönaich's heavy cavalry and Bevern's infantry

Opposing them are Puebla's infantry

Austrian right flank. Hussars under Nadasty. This flank should have been a swirling light cavalry affair, with Ziethen, leading the Prussian hussars opposite. On the day, both sides were lethargic.

Austrian masses, mostly on the reverse slope of Krzeczor Hill

View from reverse of Przekovsky Hill, i.e. west of the previous shot

'Croats', i.e. Grenzers hovering around the Oak Wood.

Prussian right flank in front of Novi Mesto, ready for the big push.