Friday 12 August 2022

Battle of Lobositz 1756 : Seven Years War (and some other stuff)

Not sure why I am so busy at the moment, partly another week on holiday, more of this later, and the final days of my working life, more on that next week. Also the weather has been great so I have been doing plenty of cycling and walking……..oh and a trip to Claymore Show last weekend as well 🙂

Anyway hot on the heals of our Teplitz battle at Pendraken. Another SYW battle Lobositz, not sure this needs any introduction as I know the majority of you loyal followers are keen a knowledgable SYW gamers. Just in case though, Lobositz was the first significant battle of the SYW between the Prussians and Austrians, having invaded Saxony Frederick had the city of Pirna under siege. The Austrians looking to relieve their allies despatched a force and in a somewhat arrogant response Frederick moved with part of his army to attack the Austrians.

The battlefield for Lobositz was famously quite restricted by the high ground of the Lobusch Berg the Elbe River and boggy ground around Sulowitz. Despite the thick fog Frederick rashly threw his forces on the attack only to find he was facing a much larger force of Austrians than the thought. The Prussians gave it a good go but were ultimately beaten back.

For this battle matching my collection to the forces required I used the scenario in the Honours of War rule book, this is simplified but gives a fun representation of the challenges of the battle.

There are plenty of maps of the Battle, one of the key factors was fog on the day which prevented the Prussians from seeing the majority of the Austrian forces
This then is translated onto a 6 x 4 battlefield (really nice to have enough figures now to cover this size of engagement)
In the foreground the Prussian right wing under Bevern is pushed towards the heights of the Lobusch Berg. 
Austrian light troops await the assault dug into vineyards and the difficult ground covering the higher ground
The rest of the right wing of the Austrians under Lacy are lined up to the right of Lobositz itself
The Austrian left wing hidden behind the boggy ground around Sulowitz
The Austrian cavalry massed in the centre, historically this was what Frederick saw and thinking it the retreating Austrians pushed forward into a full assault
General Bevern’s infantry assault up hill to clear the Lobusch Berg
Musket fire opens up all along the battle lines
Prussian cavalry is pushing forward, whilst the Austrian artillery opens up
The Prussian artillery opens up in response
Forward !
A significant cavalry battle in front of Lobositz.
The Prussian reserve division has failed to get moving due to a failed activation
Here they are slowly marching past Wchintz
Having clashed with the Austrians the rest of the Prussian cavalry gets counter charged in front of Sulowitz
The Prussian reserves finally get moving but they may be too late
The Austrian right wing has been pushed back beyond Lobositz, but they aren’t enough Prussians to capitalise on the situation
After a fierce cavalry fight the Austrians get the better of it and push the Prussians back out of the battle
The Austrians are then able to bring their extra numbers into the battle and turn towards Lobositz
The final push by the remaining Prussian infantry but they can’t make any headway
and the battle comes to a close with the Austrians remaining in control of the battle and Lobositz itself

An excellent run out for the SYW collection, rules continue to work well an Austrian victory but I suspect that is often the case when re fighting Lobositz.

What else have I been upto you might ask.

Some excellent cycling in Derbyshire on a family holiday
A walking adventure 4 days walking across the Lake District visiting Roman forts (I will blog some more details of this walk sometime soon)
Plenty of lovely views in the Lakes
We also went upto Claymore wargame show in Edinburgh here were the pick of the games, this one has featured in WI
A splendid large scale battle
A lovely Arab assault
I did slightly more shopping than I should have picking up quite a few bargains from the Bring and Buy, a complete mixed bag but mainly dark age figures.

Some other stuff to blog up as well  but that will have to wait.🙂

Thanks for popping by 👍

26 comments:

  1. A cracking looking game there Matt, great to see all your work amassed on the table. Quite a productive visit north of the border I see.

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    1. Thanks Phil, really enjoying the SYW and nice to get the collection to a point where I can host full battles. I bought far too much at Claymore a function on not having been to a show for ages !

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  2. Matt! You have been plenty busy on many fronts. I look forward to seeing details of your four-day hike. With retirement looming, do you expect more time for hobby related activities? since retiring during the pandemic, I wonder how I managed time to hold a fulltime job!

    Your Lobositz battle is inspiring work, as expected from you. The Prussians seemed to have trouble getting out of the blocks and the Austrian cavalry looked very effective. Great stuff!

    Lobositz is not a battle I have gamed. Someday, I will correct this oversight.

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    1. Busy busy at the moment, im planning a separate post on the walk. As for more time I don’t know yet I have lots of adventures in my head (some planned some not) mainly related to history, cycling or the mountains. Keeping progress on the painting front may be the biggest challenge ! Lobositz is certainly worth a try as a well known battle it is hard to keep historical accuracy and creat some balance, interested to see how you might achieve this ?

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  3. Great looking game and where is your beard sir :)?

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    1. Thanks Michal sadly the beard went half way through lockdown I was under strict instructions from my wife !

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  4. retirement seems to be agreeing with you. Lobositz looked great. the 2 Ians now have small French and Russian forces so we are playing and imaginary game next weekend. Prussians vs Austrians, Russians and French

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    1. Officially I don’t finish till next week so just handing over and tidying things up. Lots of adventures planned. Lobositz worked well, good to hear the Russians and French are coming along. Will be in touch to fix a battle soonish 👍

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  5. Superb looking game and great to see the collection on the table. Also a nice haul of figures you picked up

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    1. Thanks Neil the SYW is fun to play and looks good too. Yes I bought toooooo much stuff 😢

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  6. Super looking SYW game Matt! You bought more than you should? Surely not, an alien concept to any wargamer?

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    1. Thanks David the SYW is providing everything I wanted when I started the project. I am such a sucker for a bargain and the bring and buy had some nice stuff 😢

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  7. A lovely-looking game Matt. Those Austrian lights almost look like dismounted cossacks at first glance. Some nice photos from Claymore as well, and I'm sure I have seen the layout for that first game somewhere other than WI as it looks like a project someone was doing for the battle of the Imjin River in Korea.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence they may indeed be Grenzers which is the closest I have Austrian light infantry. Yes the 2 mm game is doing the shows around the uk, nice to see the work that has gone in though

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  8. Wow, busy all around it seems. Good luck with all that stuff going on.
    But the 10mm battle looks great with nice figures and terrain as usual. Show looks fun. Hiking looks tiring but that’s bc I’m lazy. 😀

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    1. Thanks Stew yep busy and can never be bored with wargaming as a hobby soooo much to do ! Lots more walking to come when I retire too 👍

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  9. Lovely to get the encounter onto a 6x4 and nice to see the rather wonderful Battlescale buildings make their appearance.

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    1. Thanks Norm, Lobositz of course a fairly small battle and in 10 mm it works quite well at 6x4 I pretty much used the set up out of the rule book which was nice 👍

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  10. Splendid looking game, I walked Hadrians wall a while back but didn't really take any photos, be interested to see yours, nice haul at Claymore and come on you had to buy them because they were bargains, really you were saving money!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain I did do a little montage of our Hadrians wall trip 28 September 2021 it will take you to my u tube video 🙂 and I am way too keen on a bargain 👍

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  11. Unlike most of your esteemed visitors Matt, I know next to nothing about the SYW and had never heard of the battle. Given the real circumstances, it seems improbable the Prussians would have much hope of snatching an unexpected victory, unless you did a bit of tweaking. Der Alte Fritz seems a bit of a controversial figure, if you know much about him, you either love him or hate him - which camp are you in?

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    1. Keith clearly a gap of knowledge to be rectified. Frederick was very / overly confident at Lobositz attacking an unknown enemy disposition he received a bloody nose. As to his actual ability as a general I am in the not convinced camp. Having played and studied a few of his larger battles my sense is he had a strategy to put flank the enemy. This worked spectacularly on occasions but his problem was he tried the same strategy again and again and it also failed spectacularly. He certainly wasn’t a Wellington, Hannibal or Alexander who I think displayed a much greater ability to flex their strategy. Others of course may have different views.

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  12. Like your photos. Claymore was good - its good to get to Scottish Show! There were some nice games.

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    1. Thanks very much enjoyed Claymore this year 👍

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  13. I love your ability to represent the battle. The table is looking excellent and your description of the events is very good too.

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    1. Thanks for popping by and thanks for the kind feedback 👍

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