Wargaming Rabbit Holes

Your friend and mine, The Jolly Broom Man recently wrote about wargaming rabbit holes after he disappeared down the warren that is the Hundred Years War. I was listening to Cavalier Cast (a podcast about the Wars of the Three Kingdoms) and came across an episode about Powick Bridge. The guest, John Spiller, had done research on the battle which overturned the standard narrative promoted by Clarendon.

John, a native of Worcester, said his research into this particular encounter started as an offshoot of a lockdown project to create a wargame of Powick Bridge. At the end of the podcast, the pod presenter, Mark Turnbull asked John what happened to the original war-game project. In true wargamer style, that didn't get off the ground due to said rabbit hole.

Summer in SW London

As mentioned in the last post, things have been pretty quiet on the wargaming front at the Schloß in recent months. Partly this was due to trips and fluctuations in the population of the Schloß. Most of the time the household consisted of just 3 of us since #4 was at uni.

In May the eldest decided his sojourn in Liverpool was over and he agreed with his boss that he could work remotely from London pending a possible transfer to another office. The most obvious option for his temporary accommodation was ruled out for reasons I'll pass over, so the second most obvious option was chosen. Yours truly dutifully drove to Liverpool to bring #1 and his stuff back down south. As #4 was still away at uni he was able to use her room for a few weeks. So population increased to 4. A period extended by #3 and #4 joining us in Spain once uni was over. Once we returned the population was up to 5 for a few weeks.

Then when #1 had secured a room in a shared house, we were down to 4. Until the BF of #4 turned up from darkest Yarkshire. Population briefly back up to 5. Then when they tootled back up north to move their gear into their respective new digs (digses?) we were back to 3 for a few days. Now back to 4 since she returned.

Phew!

Now I've been doing a bit of pootling about during this time, with the odd park walk, lunchtime strolls whilst on office days and a trip to the local museum. Not forgetting wasting time in the garden. And last but not least, a sporting excursion that I've not got around to doing in my previous plenty-two years.

Entrance to an old canal by Chelsea Waterworks. I believe the canal once went up to where Victoria station is. But in my mind's eye this looks like Early Modern artillery fortification.

Slightly further upstream it distinctly looks like a bastion has sprouted on Chelsea Embankment.

Nearer to home I went to the Kingston Museum for the first time. 31 years after moving to the area. I wasn't expecting much beyond a collection of buttons or some such things, and hoped for some old photographs so I could get an idea of what the specific area I live in looked like before being built up in the early 20th century. It was much better than I expected. And free to enter.

'Wasting time' in the garden one evening after eating outdoors I started looking closely at some plants which were covered in a wide variety of insects. These ones were tiny as the flowers in question are on mint. It's been a great year for pollinators. The Margravina has made a conscious effort to attract them, showing her concern for the betterment of agriculture and the lot of the peasantry. 

Lots of time spent photographing the lavender. And failing to get good close-up video footage of the bees.

Stained glass windows at the museum

Thames Watermen uniforms

Model of Kingston town c 1820 I think

Another model, similar period, with town centre pubs shown. More than there are today with a much bigger population!

A section on the aero-engineering industry that was formerly in the town. Sopwith and then Hawker being the main names. 

Not sure how much this had to do with the military preparations of both sides in the run-up to civil war, but it looks like it could be part of developments which led to Parliament trying to exert control over the Trained Bands.

There was a section on Eadweard Muybridge, local chap who developed some of the first moving pictures technology. I'm sure he took these pictures of a nudey lady purely in the interests of science.

Upstairs had an exhibition on the Interwar period when much of the suburban development occurred 

Slightly later: Noel Coward waxing lyrical about the Kingston Bypass1

The 'motoring culture' referred to included a piece about John Cooper (another local lad, motor racer and car designer) of Mini Cooper fame.

And my little sporting trip was to watch cricket for the first time (not counting village games).  The T20 match at the Oval for the game between Surrey and Glamorgan.

The famous gasometer is off to the left. I didn't get a good shot of it.

As the floodlights came on it was possible to see that they were designed to look like the Prince of Wales feathers. (The ground was built on land owned by the PoW).

An exciting game that started off very badly for Surrey. Glamorgan batted first and ran up a decent score, and then when Surrey came in they quickly lost 3 wickets with, more importantly, a very low run rate. But they managed to stabilise things and with needing 5 runs off the last over, they got a 6 with the first ball.

I must say, I didn't enjoy the very random selection of music clips played by the 'DJ' whenever there was a boundary or wicket or halt in play. But we had a good time. I might look into going to a 'proper' county game sometime.

3 Civil Wars

It's been pretty quiet on the wargaming front recently, apart from participating in one of Jonathan Freitag's Mortimers Cross games. You've probably already seen the AAR on Jon's blog, but if not I recommend having a read.

Screenshot of one of the early turns. Lancastrians in the foreground.

End of the road for the Yorkists

Anyway, back to Spain. My son reawakened a dormant interest of mine a few week back when he gave me the book below for Father's Day. I started reading it about a week ago (it's a big book). I'm currently 18 chapters in out of 52. I don't know how it stacks up in historiographical terms, but I'm enjoying reading it. It certainly doesn't pull any punches.

Early on fellow Grimbarian Tom Wintringham popped up (we're a Bolshie lot). Interesting bloke, being an early advocate for setting up the Home Guard (as in 1938 earl). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Wintringham

Wintringham is in the middle, looking a bit like Mr Lah-di-dah Gunner Graham with his 'Huniversity Heducation'. "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" reference.

Oh, and the third civil war is the one we had over here in the 17th century. Ralphus of the Wars of Louis XIV blog has flagged up another worthy listen. Cavalier Cast. Here's the Podbean website for an episode they did on wargaming the Civil War. https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-nbkgv-1802ea54 And while I'm on the Pike and Shot theme, here's an excellent episode of Citizen to Soldier podcast https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-citizens-to-soldiers-podca-5889375/episodes/episode-8-patrick-wyman-on-rai-230406209 They mostly cover contemporary military matters but now and again they delve into history.

Soldier of Spain

Inspired by a post a few weeks back on the Wars of Louis Quatorze blog, I sourced the first 3 books in the Captain Alatriste series by Arturo Pérez-Reverte as holiday reading. I only took 2 of the 3 and wish I’d taken them all.

I’d seen the film with Viggo Mortensen and the books certainly didn’t let the side down.

The stories are in the mould of the Musketeer stories of Dumas (though I haven’t read any of the latter), but certainly compared to the films are darker and more ‘adult’. They mix fictional and historical characters and episodes like McDonald Fraser’s Flashman (but without the comedy and footnotes). The cover art on the two volumes I read remind me adventure novels published in the last century and are not good representations of the contents IMO.

Sort of contemporary to the novels. 16th C built coastal watchtower near the town of Piles in Valencia province.

Information board for the tower in Valencian, Spanish, and English & French below.

Not high literature but not trashy either.

Right, I’m off to think about using my ECW armies for the battle of Rocroi. 😁

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Alatriste

Only mad dogs…and inspirations

Jonathan Freitag’s recent post got me thinking about sources of inspiration for me as a wargamer. One of my top sources is printed matter. I actually commented to Jon’s post that I didn’t really count magazines these days amongst my sources. Gone are the days of MW and WI in what for me was their heyday in the 80s and early 90s. But then I looked at this photo I took of a history magazine in a supermarket in an obscure Spanish town.

The article is about a book on Spanish soldiers in the British Army in WWII. The author gave a talk at the National Army Museum a few months ago (which I attended with David-in-Suffolk). The picture of the volunteers on the truck is similar to ones that got me interested in the SCW 45 years ago. But that is not a wargaming itch that I have scratched yet.

The same magazine also had an article on the Battle of the River Ter (or Torroella) in 1694. I passed on buying the magazine but I’m thinking that was a mistake, even though my Spanish is fledgling to say the least. 

As with the previous article, it’s the imagery that captures my imagination. At least at first. What about you? Is it words, pictures (still or moving) or sounds that spark your urge to wargame a conflict?

As for the mad dogs reference: the Margravina (who is most definitely not an Englishman) persuaded me to take a walk in to said town when most sensible locals were indoors behind closed shutters. The supermarket provided a welcome respite from the heat).

!Adiós!

Another podcast. And it's a goodie!

Thanks to Ralph's over at Wars of Louis Quatorze blog I've been enjoying a newish podcast these past few days. Prime and Load also here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZnTpOagexNqE0wyla1BZwak37perxC0O

It concentrates on 18th century warfare in Europe and North America and is presented by familiar names: Doctors Alex Burns and Andrew Bamford, with Lee Gagino. Since launching in March 1/2 a dozen episodes have 'dropped' (as the young cool cats say). The ones I've listened to have been very good. Including the excellent episode released for the 250th anniversary of Lexington and Concord. It really deepened my sketchy knowledge of that encounter.

The reg'lars are comin.

"Hey Nathaniel. Ain't it strange how wherever we go these rocks and bushes seem to go too."
"Jus' quit your yacking Zeke and fill them lobsterbacks full o' lead".

That episode left me with the feeling that modern NATO soldiers on COIN operations must have a good insight into how the Redcoats felt on that fateful day. And of course, it set the mind racing on how it could be gamed. (I think Matt Crump and Jonathan Freitag did this a few years ago).

There are many podcasts claiming my attention these days (too many to keep up with), but Prime and Load has pushed its way tot he front of the queue.

No kings, no tyrants!

"You cannot be excused duty soldier. I don't care if your pop owns an inn on Long Island. What on God's green Earth are bones spurs anyway?!"

The Battle of Königgrätz, 1757

As mentioned in a previous post, Henry arrived outside Königgrätz where he discovered Serbelloni had arrived ahead of him. Circling the city around the north, having crossed the upper Elbe, he found that the Austrians were camped on the plateau immediately to his south.*

* This was all rather convenient because I found a map of the 1866 battle. In game terms it mattered not, but at least it was a map of the general area. And it gave the smaller Prussian force an opportunity to keep out of sight of the Austrian heavy artillery which had caused them problems in the battle at Jaromiersch.

Rather than decline battle, and risk some losses as he retreated back the way he came, Henry decided to stand his ground. He positioned his force behind the westernmost of the small hills. His infantry (1 brigade of fusiliers and 1 small brigade of musketeers) were behind the crest. A brigade hussars were on the infantry's right to threaten any Austrian attack that tried to come through the gap between the wood and the stream. A brigade of dragoons was on the low ground to the infantry's left to threaten any Austrians that tried to approach along that waterway that flows into the Elbe (bottom right). Two battalions of Freikorps infantry were available to move to either flank of the infantry should it be necessary.

Plan of the approximate positions and the advance of the Austrian army.

The Austrian army having got word of Henry's force, waited north of their camp. After cavalry vedettes reported no further site of the Prussians since they went behind the hills, Serbelloni ordered his army forward to deploy along the northern edge of the plateau.

The respective orders of battle were as follows.

Prussians (Prince Henry)

• Infantry: 2 brigades (1 weakened by the recent action)
• Cavalry: 2 brigades (1 dragoons, 1 hussars)
• Freikorps: 2 battalions

Austrians (Count Serbelloni)

• Cavalry: 4 brigades (2 cuirassiers, 1 dragoon, 1 hussar)
• Infantry: 7 brigades (1 grenadier, 6 musketeer)
• Artillery: 2 brigades of heavy guns

You can see why Henry chose to dispose his force in a Wellingtonian manner!

Serbelloni ordered his left wing of cavalry (1 cuirassier, 1 hussar) around the west of the wood. The infantry (2 lines of musketeers and a reserve of grenadiers) and the guns advanced in the centre whilst the right wing of cavalry (1 cuirassier, 1 dragoon) peeled off to the right.

As the infantry came down the slope they split into two wings - one heading towards the hill behind which were the Prussians, the other forming column diverged wide to the right, behind the cavalry. This all took some time for everything to get in position. When they did the Prussian dragoons caught the right wing cuirassiers before they could charge! The Austrians were pushed back and had to rally behind their own dragoons. The Prussian success was short-lived as the fresh Austrian dragoons got the better of the disordered Prussians. Following that, the cuirassiers were able to return to the fray whereupon they routed the Prussians!

On the left things did not go better for the Prussians. The Austrian heavies soon chased the Prussian hussars off. The Austrians now were threatening both flanks of Henry's infantry, and had their own infantry approaching the hill from the south. Returning to ease the pressure on their comrades, the Prussian hussars tried their luck again. They failed miserably.

In the course of seeing off the Prussian hussars, the Austrian left wing cavalry got too close to the Prussian Freikorps and took some casualties. But the end was approaching. The Austrian infantry on the hill was getting close, as was one brigade of guns. The infantry wing that had swept round the left flank of the Prussians were forming up on line. Both Austrian cavalry wings threatened the Prussian flanks. Henry tried a fighting withdrawal but it was to no avail. The Freikorps were routed by the Austrian left wing cavalry, and the Austrian right wing crushed the Prussian line from the other flank. Henry went down with his fusiliers. His small force ceased to exist.

The moth, drawn to the candle, got lucky once. But not twice. Once the Prussian cavalry wings were defeated the writing was on the wall. Serbelloni had his victory!

In a way, Henry was the victim of his own success. Down to 50% of his force, an Army morale test was taken, and passed. Twice. This meant the remaining units were cut down where they stood. Apologies, but I had no pictures from this game as I got caught up in the action.

The loss of so many men and the loss of his brother would come as a blow to the King after his victory outside Prague. Henry had fulfilled the brief set out for him tying up Serbelloni for so long, but would the cost be too great?

1757 Campaign - the Battle of White Mountain - the Action

Having laid out his plan, the King set his forces in motion on the plain in front of the Austrian positions. It took some hours for the various Prussians columns to get in position. Their approach was hidden by the early morning mist and the large screening forces. Ever since 2 o'clock the Austrians could hear that the Prussians were on the move on both sides of the Moldau. What wasn't clear is what their intentions were. With Schwerin crossing from east to west, and some movement in Frederick's army also in a westward direction, one possibility was that the Prussians were heading to western Bohemia, possibly to secure Karlsbad and Pilsen. It wasn't until the Prussians were close to the Scharka stream that the visibility was good enough for Charles and von Browne to see what the Prussians were up to and they were finally able to comprehend that they did intend to attack.

Charles soon saw the danger of his position, with attacks coming all along his line and around his left flank by superior forces. The best course of action, he deduced, was to retreat into the city, making a fighting withdrawal to preserve as many of the Empress' soldiers as possible.

The Prussians (below and left of the blue line) are across the Scharka all along its length. On White Mountain (the near end of the ridge) two Austrian cavalry brigades have retreated after attacking a massive column of Prussian infantry.

Winterfeld attacks the northern ridge

View from behind the Austrian right flank. Schwerin's force advances across the Scharka and up the ridge.

Schwerin's massed batteries have taken out the Austrian artillery to the left of the hamlet.

Whilst the right wing holds off Schwerin, columns of Austrian infantry from the centre and left march to the safety of the city

Masses of Prussian infantry march up the White Mountain which has been vacated by the Austrian cavalry (bottom of picture)

An Austrian battery on the left of the northern ridge has been caught by the Freikorps whilst it was trying to get away. A regiment of Grenzers to the right of the Freikorps will attack out of the village to get some revenge.

Austrian positions (below the blue line) are getting more compact as they are squeezed by the advancing Prussian. Many Austrian infantry units are already lining the covered way of the city.

View from the eastern side of the city across the Moldau.

Bird's eye view at the end of the battle. The Austrians have lost several units, the Prussians only one. But at least the majority are saved to fight another day.

View towards Prague from behind the victorious Prussians

The Toll

Prussian losses were light:

• Only 1 unit completely lost - the Freikorps. 
• 1 grenadier unit took 2 hits (1 hit left)
• 2 musketeers units took 2 hits (1 left each), 
• 1 infantry took 1 hit (2 left),
• 1 cuir took 1 hit (1 left)
• 1 dragoon took 1 hit (1 left)

The Austrian losses were heavier. The following units were lost completely

• 3 units of infantry
• 1 unit of Croats
• 2 units of hussars
• 2 units artillery

Plus the following hits:

• 2 infantry units took 1 hit each
• 2 cavalry units took 1 hit each

However, the pontoon bridge across the Moldau has been destroyed by Königsegg after his victory*, so the Prussians will have to cross at the next crossing point downstream.

* I diced for this after the Prosek action.

The wider picture.

Moritz' little corps, as we have seen, was crushed at Prosek east of Prague.  Only 1 unit of musketeers escaped and Moritz lost his head. Literally. Königsegg's force came out unscathed having secured the eastern flank of the city, for now.

Further afield, Keith was three marches away from Prague at Jung-Bunzlau. Prince Wilhelm was still stuck in Dresden with his 2nd and 3rd rate troops. News was expected of Prince Henry's force in the Königgrätz area.The Prussians knew that Serbelloni with the second largest Austrian army was also at Königgrätz, Charles was holed up in Prague and Königsegg's small force was outside to the east of the Moldau.

What next in the game?

First I had to dice for recovery of troops following battle. As the losers in each action were effectively pursued, they could not dice to recover any lost units. The main Prussian army could however, dice and they did so successfully bringing back two bases, i.e. the Freikorps unit routed by the Grenzers. All other losses are considered permanent as far as this campaign is concerned.

All forces that were involved in battle this turn have to wait out the next turn whilst they recover. This affects Serbelloni, Königsegg and Charles on the Austrian side, and Frederick/Schwerin and what's left of Moritz's force on the Prussian side. 

Having enjoyed a greater movement rate in the first 3 turns, the Prussians now drop down to the same rate as the Austrians: 2 marches a turn. With the requirement to halt for a turn and the bulk of their forces to the west of Prague, the Prussians' freedom of manoeuvre will be limited. With the next crossing of the Moldau some way to the north, this further slows down the Prussians. The Austrian losses in Grenzers and hussars will be a problem for them scouting in the future. The Prussians will have a distinct advantage in the war of outposts. When they get moving again.