Battle of Reichenberg 1757 : SYW

It has been a while since we played with our SYW collections, we have fought the majority of the larger Prussian vs Austrian battles so we are now exploring some of the smaller battles. The battle of Reinchenberg on the 21st April 1757 was part of the Third Silesian War. The battle involved a corps or so on each side, the Prussians commanded by Marshal Von Bevern and the Austrians were under Count Konigsegg.

The two armies were marching somewhat in parallel when the Austrian took up a defensive position close to the town of Reinchenberg, but when they came under serious pressure they chose to pull back giving the victory to Bevern who captured a significant amount of Austrian supplies.

A couple of useful map from the web

Martin had set up the battle, the Austrians holding the two emplacements on the higher ground. The objectives for the Prussians are to take the high ground and if possible cut the road and thus trapping the Austrian army.

The Prussian left wing prepares to assault the high ground

Both forces have their centre dominated by cavalry, the Prussians seek to block any Austrians crossing the river

On the Prussian left wing they are assaulting the earthworks on the high ground, the Prussians have split their cavalry who have then been able to turn the earthworks and support the assault

On their left the Prussians have a tougher job, fighting up hill into defensible earthworks !

The rest of the Prussian cavalry has been thrown back from the river, but luckily reserves have arrived to strengthen their centre

After a hard fight the Prussians have forced the earthworks on the left, but they don’t have enough strength to push down the hill to the villages on the road

The Prussian cavalry has regrouped in the centre and their reserve infantry brigade prepares to cross the river and drive the Austrian cavalry away

On the Prussian right, the earthworks have been taken but at significant cost and when the Austrian reserves arrive they can’t hold onto the objective

Prussian reserves crossing the river

They drive the Austrian cavalry gradually back towards the road

The position at the end of the battle the Prussians have snatched a victory having taken and held one earthwork and cut the road. The Austrians have retaken the second earthworks, with the Prussian right wing pulling back to a defensive position.

A great battle and it reminded us how much we enjoy these SYW battles and we are now searching out some more for the future 👍

Also managed a bit of painting this week completing some KGL Hussars for my British peninsular army

This gives me two units of Hussars for the British which is enough, I certainly don’t enjoy painting Hussars way too much lace and bits. These will have to do and are ok if you don’t look too closely.

That’s it for now thanks for checking in this week

Matt ❤️

Battle of Brandywine AWI : August 1777

The end of last week saw a change of period and a return to the AWI. This was a separate game to our ongoing campaign so as a face to face battle I could get a few more figures on the table, in fact nearly everything I have for the Battle of Brandywine.

Just a reminder of the Battlefield today the view here looking downhill from the American artillery 

Our scenario was based on a scenario published some time ago in Wargames Illustrated and using Rebels and Patriots I have just enough figures to stretch to the full scenario

Our table as setup, I made one slight adjustment giving the British a couple of units on this side of the Brandywine river, these would arrive from turn 3 and randomise which Ford they could use. I felt this would force the Americans to keep some forces by the river to hold their flank rather than simply allow them to rush to hold back the main British assault

The cream of the British army, Grenadiers and British guards 

As expected the Americans quickly try to redeploy when they realise the British have outflanked them

The firing starts against the British advance

The British guards advance towards the base of Birmingham hill

To their left the British third brigade arrives and advances under the watchful eye of Cornwallis (the red markers indicate ‘first fire’)

The British start to return fire but should they be driving the attack forward ?

Some Hessians arrive over the river, but the Americans have left a unit to guard the crossing

Some of the Americans are forced back but the rest seek to form a strong defensive line

The British choose to avoid a direct assault on Birmingham hill, during use their artillery which has a fairly bad effect on the defenders

The British have attempted to outflank the Americans by river advancing through the cornfield

A strong defence line is eventually in place and the British are starting to struggle to keep up any momentum

The 3rd Virginia are still holding the Meeting House

…..but then they are thrown back only for the British to be pushed back as well

The British elite troops have won out against the American left and are gradually driving them back but it is probably too little too late

The Americans are holding a strong centre where the British are making no progress, and although the defenders of Birmingham Hill have been severely thinned out the British have no chance of driving the American from their position. At this point we gave the win to the Americans as it was clear the British don’t have the force to break through and the Americans could start to withdraw in order. A fun battle and nice for me to play with the Americans for a change 🙂 next time I might give the American a few more challenges to deal with.

Still not managed to complete too much new stuff, I did pick up these French from EBay at a very low cost considering the unit includes the warlord metal command figures. The bases have been recoloured to match mine, and the figures all highlighted to try and bring them to life. They have come out pretty well.

Finally another landscape picture looking over the northern fells for those that enjoy them 👍

Thanks as always for checking in, yesterday we played a SYW battle so will post that soonish

Matt ❤️

Barbarossa Army group North : Crossing at Jekabpils June 1941

I have been super busy over the last couple of weeks, hence the lack of posting. However last week we saw a long overdue return to our ongoing Barbarossa ‘campaign’ not really a campaign rather a series of battles tracking the progress of Army Group North. I certainly had to trawl through the blog to remember where we were upto. Anyway enough of the preamble.

Our previous battles saw the Germans attempting to capture a bridge head over the Dvina River at Daugavpils, here a small brandenburg contingent successfully captured the bridges. The Germans tried the same at Jekabpils historically but failed and became engaged in a tough fight, as the Russian pulled back the bridges were blown. Engineers were able to bridge the river and push back the 12th Mechanised who were holding the area. Our fight is one very much ‘inspired by’ the battle rather than anything historical and really it was an excuse to get all the Russian forces on the table as they have been underused for some time.

Both sides have some air support, the Germans engineers have already been at work

We did have the Brandenburg units lead the way, represented by some Fallschirmjager in Russian trucks

Basically both sides were allowed 24 units each so a chance for the Germans to bring out their artillery

German infantry in armoured carriers start to cross one branch of the river Dvina, the smoke on the ridge makes the location where the Russian defenders were wiped out by a very lucky bombing strike by German Stukas

A rush for the northern bridge

Which at the start is unopposed 

The central bridge is also assaulted

1941 and the Germans are yet to bear up their armour but they have plenty of tanks

The Germans have two antitank guns but initially set them up too cautiously near the rear

The Russians have been churning out LOTS of tanks

Infantry deploy in the town together with a KV !

Oooops in hindsight I should have limited the Russian armour but it did look impressive 

Way too much Russian armour

The Germans start to come under heavy fire from the defenders but are out gunned

The Germans do their best to force crossings, some of their infantry carry additional boats to get across and the tanks use cover to force a way over

A single German PzIII gets across the main bridge but it is pinned down by a T34

One of the German planes take a hit and is blown from the sky

Lots of German infantry advance but they are lacking effective armoured support

Germans have captured the island but can’t get off the other side in the face of the Russian armour

They do manage to force the northern bridge but again find it hard to make any further progress

The Russian big cats stalking the open ground. It is often easy to forget how the Russians outgunned to German armour in 1941, we did reduce their leadership to try and balance things but this did have a big enough effect

The German boats have been successfully used to cross the river

But it is too little too late

The northern bridge is still the scene of hard fighting but the Germans have lost to impetus

As always a splendid battle, it reminded us that the Russian tanks are deadly in 1941 and you need to make allowances for this, but as a chance to get everything on the table the battle worked pretty well. 

I also had a trip down to George’s to try out CoC2 he set up a lovely German vs French 1940 battle, the Germans were attacking, always a tough prospect unless you have very superior numbers.

 An overview of the battlefield

The french defenders are able to deploy in a strong position

The Germans do their best but ultimately they get bogged down unable to advance. We now have a 1940 campaign planned to start in the next couple of weeks.

Somewhere in the last weeks we had a few days down in the Cotswolds on a family reunion holiday, including a trip to Cirencester where there is a fairly informative Museum including some nice Roman artefacts and mosaics

In have also seen an improvement in my health leading to a return to active cycling and plenty of time out in the mountains, one recent trip with some friends saw a beautiful trip up Scafell the highest point in England.

The view North from Scafell

That’s it for now, we played a big AWI battle on Friday so I will try and post that up. I have also been spending a lot of time planning my next holiday at the end of August.

I’m heading across to Europe in the van heading to Vienna picking up as much military history as I can. No doubt I will post some of this at a later date.

Thanks as always for your patience Matt ❤️