Honours of War

The battle of Gross Jaegersdorf. My first time playing Honours of War, and first foray into 7 Years War in decades...
One of our members has returned to the area and brought his armies with him.

 























Despite the advice offered to me by the experienced player, I chose to accept the random die roll and played the Russians, first mistake...

The main Prussian infantry march forward

Prussian right flank

As per the scenario, the Russians were in tight spot as far as deployment went. The Prussians were on the offensive and their battle lines were well deployed.

Naturally our flanks were covered by cavalry, unit wise the Russians had the advantage, but quality over quantity went to the Prussians.

On my left a river separated my cavalry from my main body

of troops. On my right I had troops in a built up area, with Cossack and light cavalry on the far flank.

 There were woods in the centre of the board which impacted on both of us.

Russian centre/left flank

The cavalry melee

Prussian cavalry charge, Russians counter charge

Support reg't of cavalry

We pretty much exchange cavalry units, slight upset for the Russians, driving off better cavalry, but it left the Russians with only one cavalry regiment to defend the left flank.

After the cavalry melee, looking down the battle lines

Prussian right flank

The Russians still had cavalry in the are, but there was a river separating them from the Prussians, and infantry hampering them from advancing forward.

Russian left flank, cavalry with a clear view of enemy

The Russians were able to displace enough to allow their cavalry to advance to threaten the Prussian flank. If all they did was threaten things might have gone better for the Russians, but, well, cavalry is cavalry and they will do what they perhaps should not. More on that later... 

On the Russian right the Prussians advanced into contact . The Prussian commander masterfully brought his elite grenadiers to the front. In a dramatic turn of events, the Russians held and drove off the elite troops!

Clash of steel

Slow moving grenadiers

The Russians did have elite troops that they tried to deploy, but location, and the failure of a command role (and the play of their general) slowed their ability to join the battle. Therefore the brunt of the Prussian assault fell upon the regulars. Early success could not be maintained, and the Prussians were able to maul the Russian defenders.

 

There goes the right flank!

On the far right the Prussians charged their cavalry into the Russians, but wait you say where is the Russian cavalry, well they dissolved upon contact.  Thankfully the Russians were able to refuse their flank in anticipation of their cavalry taking flight. However that still left a weak force of infantry going against cuirassiers!

Form square, uh maybe form right angle?

To shore up the threat the Russian grenadiers deployed from march column into line, one regiment to support the front and two to the right flank, wit artillery in support of each.









Now back to the only Russian cavalry still on the board. What can sometimes happen when cavalry sees infantry, even when that infantry has artillery support...

            

...they charge! In defense of the indefensible, it was getting late, and testing how bad an idea this might be seemed to be a good idea, at the time.

Well it was as bad an idea as it seemed when announced, the cavalry was routed, but it was glorious!

With the cavalry routed on the left, and Prussian cavalry sweeping around the right flank and midnight fast approaching it seemed like a good time to call the game.

One reg't retires on the flank, & the Prussian infantry press on

The game was great. The figures were beautiful, the rules quick to pick up, and for a late starting game the rules did not overly tax my feeble mind.

I cannot remember the last time I pushed around this much lead, and it was great to do it again!

My thanks to the host for setting this up great time!