Prinz Eugen Playtest - the Combat of Zinna - Plan

"Yes. Some proper wargaming at last!" I hear my reader cry. It being a Bank Holiday on Monday, I have a bit more spare time to get some lead on the table. I've been meaning to give M.Foy's Prinz Eugen rules a playtest and I've been casting about for a suitable scenario.

I was looking for something quite small and initially I thought of Mollwitz. it's not WSS but it's still pretty much a simple linear battle. But even that is a little large (29 Prussian battalions) without some jiggery-pokery on the numbers. I'm not overly familiar with the non-Marlborough side of the WSS. I'm sure there must be some small battles, but I'm looking to get something organised quickly so I won't do the reading just yet.

I flicked through my notes on the AWS and SYW and eventually plumped for Zinna, 1759. It's what might be described as a divisional sized battle (in Napoleonic terms), numbering c12,000 Austro-Imperialists and c 5,000 Prussians. My main source for this is Kronskaf although I think it's also in By Force of Arms so I'll probably have a quick look in my copy tomorrow.

The real battle involved a force of Austro-Imperialists* arriving near the Prussian-occupied city of Torgau in Saxony. Indeed the battle is sometimes called the First Battle of Torgau (the Second, and far bigger, occurring the following year). The Second Battle of Torgau was covered in my last FaceTime game with my son a couple of months ago. Rather than meekly waiting inside the fortress walls the Prussians under Wunsch sallied forth and confronted the Kaiserlicks west of the city near the village of Zinna.

* The force consisted of a few squadrons of Austrian cavalry and other cavalry and infantry from the Reichsarmee ('the Imperialists'), i.e. other German states. Strictly speaking the Prussians (or at least the Brandenburg and Westphalian elements) should have been participating in the Reichsarmee, since every state in the Reich was obliged to send set numbers of troops whenever a Reichsexecution was announced, but clearly as Old Fritz was the subject of said execution, that wasn't going to happen. Also absent from the Reichsarmee were the Hanoverians, Hessens of Hesse-Kassel, Brunswickers and other related states who had sided with Britain and her Prussian ally. Also, most of the infantry involved at Zinna were blue-coated, so perhaps I should be using my Prussian models for both side.

Here is an order of battle drawn from Kronskaf. I might cut out the Imperialist grenadiers and Grenzers of the Vanguard, starting the scenario after they had been pushed away from the Ratsweinberg (not one of the  best named beverages).

	Austro-Imperialists								Prussians
	FZM St. André								General Wunsch
	Vanguard	Detached	RW 1st line	RW 2nd line	Centre 1st line	Centre 2nd line	LW 1st line	LW 2nd line	RW 1st line	LW 1st line
Cuirassiers			2	1			1	0
Dragoons										1
Hussars		1							1
									Wunsch	Wolfersdorf
Grenadiers/Garde	2								1	1
Musketeers					6	5
Fusileers									2	2
Skirmishers	2	2							2	1
Battalion guns**					6	3
Field guns									10

** i.e. battalions with guns

The sharp-eyed amongst you will have noticed the presence of both light cavalry, in the shape of hussars, and light infantry in the shape of Grenzers, Freikorps and Jägers. M.Foy's rules do not, yet, cater for such exotic types so I intend to use the hussars as poor quality line cavalry and the light infantry will be able to engage in ranged combat normally but will fight melees at a severe disadvantage. Another alternative would just be to convert the light infantry to line. I'll decide on the morrow.

In terms of the table size, the area on the Kronskaf map is about 2000 x 750 metres. If my maths is correct, this boils down to 13 by 5 hexes, so there's plenty of space. My (horse and foot) units will be two bases strong as this fits into my hexes: 2 x 60mm bases in hexes 130mm across the flats. The rules recommend 3 bases but I don't think it matters as units are only ever removed in their entirety once they reach a set number of 'hits'.

I'll post a report either tomorrow evening or on Tuesday.

A bientôt!