The Campaign Commences

April 1757. Early spring in Central Europe. The usual reports came to Brown in Prague of the King of Prussia wasting his efforts in shuffling soldiers around Saxony and Silesia. Earlier he had launched a raid toward Franconia, but other than that no significant movement was noted or expected. It's far too early to find enough forage for a large army. The Empress's rich province of Bohemia was safe for now. Once the Hofkriegsrat in Vienna made its mind up, Browne would lead an army to liberate Saxony.

The quiet borderlands between Saxony and Bohemia

Hussars and Croats patrol the borders

The grass is still too brown to support many horses

Frederick has been ensconced in one of the Polish King's hunting lodges (the Polish King also being Elector of Saxony, exiled because of Frederick's invasion the previous year)

Carp ponds close to the hunting lodge.

Then the reports began to trickle in. Of Prussian incursions along a broad span of the frontier. From Saxony into north western Bohemia. And from Silesia in the north east. But this could not be an invasion surely, with such a dispersal of forces. If it was, the King deserved to be beaten.

In a matter of days Frederick's forces had penetrated the thin cordon of Austrian light troops. At Teplitz and Komatau, a few marches from Prague). And more worrying, at Podersham to the west of Prague. In the north east Schwerin crossed the Silesian border, marching through Trautenau on his way to Neu-Paka, driving a wedge between Königsegg guarding the Lusatian border, and Serbelloni at Königgrätz. Meanwhile, Prince Henry with a small force, fixed Serbelloni's attention in the Jaromirz direction.

Prussian positions after their first move. Austrian starting points are shown as the red shaded areas. The map is from the German General Staff history. Tweaked to add a few towns and blot out others. Movement is point-to-point as in the original Age of Reason Bohemian Blitzkrieg game, but to offer more variation in routes, I've gone for a slightly bigger map with more towns and roads.

Intelligence was not so easy to come by on the Prussian side either. The Austrians concentrations were where expected (Wintefeldt's spy-ring had been active over the winter). But powerful screens of cavalry had prevented close inspection of the Austrian forces. In possession of many hussars and croats, Serbelloni had kept a watchful eye on the border in the Nachod direction (less so towards Trautenau) and discovered the size and composition of Henry's weak force. He would outnumber him 2 or 3 to 1. His Milanese pride could not resist such a tempting target (he rolled a 5 when he needed a 5 or 6 on the Initiative Test). What will Henry’s reaction be?

More on the game: As mentioned before, this is based on the Age of Reason campaign game 'Bohemian Blitzkrieg' but with a few key differences. It is being played 'one-sided', i.e. a team of players are all on the Prussian side, with the Austrians controlled but the Gamesmaster (i.e. me). The map is different, as described above. Players are given free rein to allocate their forces and commanders so don't necessarily follow either historical deployments or those in Bohemian Blitzkrieg. The Prussian units available are based on the orders of battle given in Kronoskaf here. Austrian commands and units are based on the historic positions and organisation as far as I have been able to ascertain, with a little bit of tweaking to add to the 'fog'. I've developed scouting and screening rules further, to allow 'operational scouting' as well as the grand tactical scouting in Bohemian Blitzkrieg.

The players are: Jonathan Freitag from Palouse Wargaming Journal, David from the Ragged Soldier and Dave C from St Cyr on Wheels. Jon is taking on the role of Frederick (Old Freitz - sorry couldn't resist), Dave C is Schwerin and Henry, whilst Dave B fills the boots of Keith, Bevern and Winterfeldt.