The Battle of Torgau

The deciding match was held today by the River Elbe in Saxony (actually a dining room in a SW London suburb). As Jonathan correctly pointed out, this was a refight of the Battle of Torgau 1760.

The team from the capital triumphed in a hard fought, attritional battle. The Prussians lost 13 brigades and 3 generals to the Austrians' 12 brigades and 2 generals. A narrow, bloody victory on the casualty count but unlike the real Daun, I held the ridge at the end of the day. Due to the severe losses in cavalry (and the fact that my son/aka Frederick still had a strong cavalry force) the Austrians would had remained in position to lick their wounds, whilst the Prussians retreated into the night.

The game was run using a 'fast play' (well they are shorter) version of my SYW rules. There's a few gaps but they were very playable and my son picked them up quickly. After a few turns I hardly needed to consult the rules, so they're good for raging games. The game took about 4 hours in all, but this was a big one. In the real battle about 55,000 Austrians faced off against 50,000 Prussians. 2 hours were played solo after my son had to drop off the call. A pedant would claim that it wasn't really a victory since half of it was played solo. But I'm claiming it. It's not often the Old Dog is able to demonstrate his superiority these days. After my son dropped off the call I was able to get many more turns in the equivalent amount of time since it was easy for me to see everything, not having to view it through FaceTime.

A bit about the rules
The rules have 'brigade' units of two bases of infantry or cavalry. Line infantry and cavalry 'brigades' are two Prussian/Austrian regiments strong (4 battalions or 10 squadrons). Large regiments like hussars or Prussian DR5 and DR6 are single regiment 'brigades'  having 10 squadrons. Skirmishers 'brigades' are two bases each representing about a battalion. Artillery are single based brigades representing 10-12 guns - their frontage is 1/4 that of infantry/cavalry brigades. Brigades are removed on suffering 3 'Attrition Points' which represent a combination of casualties, tiredness, ammunition expenditure, morale, and disorder. As with most of my own rules, units continue doing what they are doing until orders are changed by a successful dice roll against a general's 'Initiative Rating'. The IR can be supplemented by 'ADCs' sent by the Commander in Chief - the number of these will vary from turn to turn, again subject to dice rolls.


The Game
I sent my son the rules, the orders of battle, the dispositions and links to 3 accounts of the battle. I think he only read the rules. He certainly didn't read the accounts. Must be all this years of studying. From the first turn he decided to launch Ziethen straight across the Röhrgraben stream whilst Frederick attacked from the north. Initially Ziethen was successful - his cavalry wing repulsed the first wave of Austrians, and his infantry advanced to take Zinna and eventually meet up with Holstein's cavalry column between Zinna and the Austrian's main position. Frederick was also lucky in that none of the Austrian guns had any effect on the first column of Prussian infantry (mostly grenadiers). Eventually though the grenadiers were forced back by a series of counter attacks. The Austrian grenadier corps and later Ried's light corps did sterling work on the left of the Austrian position. Over in the east, Lacy gradually established a solid wall of infantry which advanced on the hitherto successful Prussian cavalry and pushed them from the field. By the end they had circled Zinna to the south, cutting off Ziethen's infantry from their start positions. It was then clear that Frederick was not going to force Daun off the ridge or break the Austrian's communications with Torgau.

Reflections
I was quite pleased with the way the rules played, but I'm pondering a change to the combat mechanism. Very rarely did the fight go the way of the side with the disadvantage, because each side rolls three dice and picks the best one. This smooths out the luck somewhat so the side with the most pluses usually wins. Not sure about this.

Anyway a good game was had. Thanks to my son, who has shown patience and good humour. He's looking forward to a big game next time he comes down here, so we might have a convert on our hands. Or more accurately, a returned prodigal son as he did have an active interest in historical wargaming when he was about 12/13.

The Battle in Pictures
Here are a few shots of the action with explanatory notes.

Frederick's initial assault goes in (centre). Ziethen' corps crossing the stream top right. The outskirts of Torgau town can be seen in the far distance.

Ziethen is across the stream and establishes himself on the Austrian side.

Action at the main Austrian position. Prussians attacking from the top. Top right is Holstein's cavalry wing who, thanks to indifferent command dice, failed to make their quality and numbers really tell.

Prussians to the left and above the line, Austrians  to the right/below it. Reid's Corps and the Grenadier Corps have already had an impact. More was to come from them!

Group circled in black are Ziethen's infantry around Zinna. Troops circled in yellow are  the badly beaten up Austrian cavalry - Holstein would finish them off.

Battle rages north of the Röhrgraben near the Grosser Teich pond.

Austrian infantry counter attack along the ridge line, forcing the last of Markgraf Karl's column back.

Here we can see the remnants of Karl's column  - the troops now at the rear with the round 'Attrition  Markers', 3 of which means removal of the brigade.

Back to the fight between Ziethen's horse and Lacy's wing.

The last of the meaningful fights on the northern edge of the ridge.

Ziethen's cavalry is pushed back to the stream!

The Hussar General's infantry is doing better and have now linked up with Holstein.

The end in sight for Ziethen's cavalry - just one battered cuirassier brigade faces  4 brigades of infantry and a brigade of hussars coming up on their flank.

Ziethen's infantry is faced with a choice - return to support their cavalry comrades or try to smash the flank of the Austrians on the ridge. They choose the latter in the hope of snatching victory. Eventually this attack stalls.

Here you can see some Grenzers (Austrian light troops) at the top left. They have  sneaked through the forest and attacked the battered infantry from the first Prussian wave. Many of these units had been on 2 Attrition Points. With the right timing and support, the Grenzers were able to storm the stunned Prussians and chase them from the field.

Lines at the end. The troops circled in yellow are the heroic Grenzers.

Another view of the same. The two dark patches to the left of the stream in the bottom left are ponds. Late on in the real battle Ziethen's infantry discovered the causeway between them and launched attack on the Austrians who weren't expecting anything from this direction. It was dark by then.

I'll do a separate post showing orbats and sources as this post has gone on for long enough.