Battle of Zorndorf: August 25, 1758

 

Karl Rochling painting of the Prussian king Frederick II grabbing the standard of one
of his regiments to encourage them to make another attack against the stubborn Russian army.

I nearly missed today's anniversary of the Battle of Zorndorf. This was Frederick's first encounter with the Russians and his very low opinion of them likely changed at the conclusion of the battle. It was pretty much a draw with both armies ending the day in the starting position of the opponent.

The sole monument commemorating the Battle of Zorndorf, now located in Poland.
There were no trees in front of the tower when it was built, but over the years it
became enshrouded by trees and brush.

Map from Wikipedia depicts the initial deployment of both armies with the Russians
in Red and the Prussians in Blue

Here are several pictures of the Zorndorf game that I played on my home pitch back in November 2017. Click on all of the pictures to enlarge the view.

The Battle of Zorndorf

My tabletop version of the Battle of Zorndorf that I fought in November 2027.

Battle of Zorndorf on my game table.

Russian General Fermor

A very large battery of Russian artillery complete with limbers and caissons.
Minden Miniatures all

Frederick the Great and his "A-Team" of generals
Minden Miniatures

I played Zorndorf as a solo game the first time that I ran it and I believe that the Prussians prevailed, albeit at a high price in terms of casualties. A second solo game produced a Russian victory as the Prussian attacks were cut to pieces by the mass of Russian artillery. I also ran the game at the Seven Years War Association convention and again at the Little Wars convention (I won ribbon that said "First Place" on it although I'm not sure what that means).

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My Regiment Bearn Uniform Still Fits!

 

Post-Historicon I picked up some kind of a virus. It was not the Death Lettuce virus that has been going around right now. My high level of exhaustion suggested that I was totally knackered from all of the hard work at the Historicon convention.

I say "hard work" because I do not have a partner to help me out. I do everything from hauling terrain from my car, to setting up the game table and running two 4-hour events each day. Usually by the end of the convention I am tired, my feet hurt from standing up too much while running my games, and I have to face a long two day drive home.

So I figured that the desire to sleep for a good part of the day was due to exhaustion.

My symptoms were extreme tiredness, no appetite, I couldn't taste food, fever and a one-time nausea event. I did not have any respiratory issues. It sounded like Covid to me and so I went to a local Acute Care walk-in facility to get tested for Covid and the test came back negative.

My regular doctor was out of town for a couple of weeks and her back up opined that it was probably some kind of virus, given that my Covid test seemed to rule that out. He gave me something for the nausea and my fever went away after two days of feeding it Advil. After that, my energy came back but my appetite wasn't there probably because I couldn't taste anything. After about ten days from start to finish I finally started to feel normal again. I took a second Covid test and it also came back negative.

The one good thing is that I lost eight pounds. I wanted to lose some weight anyway, but I would not recommend this form of a weight loss process.

With that in mind, I decided to try on my old reenactment uniform for the French regiment Bearne from the French and Indian War. Click on the link to You Tube (below) to see a short video of how this went.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oXpXezILPw

Game Room Remodeling

 

The newly redecorated War Game Room

The midwest US has been battered by a steady stream of rainstorms and fortunately I live in an area that  has been relatively untouched by flooding and power outages. About five years ago I invested in a whole house generator that is powered by the natural gas line that runs into the house. When the power goes out, the generator kicks in and all of the lights go back on.

However, there was one little glitch in that I don't have plastic window well covers over the basement windows. It hasn't been a problem until about a week ago when rainwater filled up the window well with water and then the water decided to enter my basement and deposit a one-inch deep layer of water that covered about half of my game room.

The window well was in one of the extra storage rooms that we have in the basement and pretty much everything in that room was wet and waterlogged. The stench from the wet cardboard was powerful and so I had to remove everything from the storage closet and haul it out to the street curb so that the city garbage truck could haul it away. I lost some war game books that I hadn't looked at in years so I really didn't consider it much of a loss. If you haven't used in the item in more than a year you should probably toss it out anyway.

A pile of wet stuff (carpet, lots of cardboard boxes, spare ceiling tiles and other stuff)
that I pulled from the basement and hauled to the curb for the garbage man to remove.

I had to remove about half of the carpet from the floor and throw it away. I considered replacing it with laminate flooring, but the estimates that I got from Lowe's and Home Depot were too expensive and so I decided that I could live with some bare cement floor for another year.

Having thrown a few things out, I explored the area beneath my game table and found a lot of boxes full of various types of war game junk. They were goners. If I don't need it or haven't used it in over a year then I am not keeping it around anymore.

Long story short: I cleaned out a lot of clutter from the war game room and felt pretty good about it.

I purchased a couple of area rugs on the cheap from Target and Wayfair stores and spread them out over what I now call "The Sitting Area". A nice leather club chair had been on order about a month ago and it arrived two days ago. Now I have a pair of club chairs that I can place on either side of a faux fireplace mantel and I have to say that the scene evokes a private gentlemen's club in some toney part of London {in my imagination at least}.

The leather club chair on the right is my latest acquisition for the War Game Room

Another view of the seating area in the room.

The drafting table was found at Target Stores. It is a good place to display various maps that I have.

I decided to to take down the second war game table in the room and play on one 6ft by 12ft table that I can expand to 15ft in length if needed. I can always set up the second table of 5ft by 12ft , but I like the openness of the room that is created by having only the one table set up all of the time.

I have set up an AWI game on the 6ft by 12ft table.

The inaugural war game in the new room will be an AWI battle taking place in the 1777 Philadelphia Campaign. The scenario involves Maxwell's Light Brigade in the American army conducting a rear guard action to delay the march and advance of General Howe's entire British and Hessian army. The American riflemen stand no chance of stopping the British, but their victory condition is to delay the British army for a to-be-determined number of game turns

The British Light Brigade forms the advance guard of the army and they quickly
draw fire from American skirmishers in the grove of trees on the right.

Brandywine Creek with the town of Kennet Square in the distance.

A colonial farmhouse

The town of Kennet Square. This is the objective of the British army.

American skirmishers in the grove attempt to spring an ambush on the British light troops.
but they are having none of that.

The bucolic stone bridge over Chadd's Ford at Brandywine Creek.
N.C Wyeth can be seen crossing the bridge.

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Trenton Game Report

 

Washington crossing the Delaware River to attack the Hessian garrison at Trenton

Yesterday Earl K and Bill P. of our Fab Four wargame group convened at Schloss Fritz to play my Battle of Trenton. The fourth member of the Fab Four, Keith L., was a combat casualty and couldn't attend.

The Fab Four (minus one) playing the Battle of Trenton

Earl and Bill played the American side, as division commanders Sullivan and Greene, respectively, while I handled the command of the Hessians (boo, hiss!). The Trenton scenario accommodated 8 players at Historicon with each player commanding a brigade of three American regiments or a regiment of Hessians. For this game, I scaled the game down so that each player commanded a division of three brigades. My wargame "regiments" of 30 figures represented a "brigade" in this game rather than a regiment. Because the American forces were scaled down I reduced the three Hessian regiments down from 50 figures to 40 figures.

We used my Fife and Drum rules for the game and the players understood the rules by the end of the second turn. I have been using my Fife and Drum rules since about 1994 so they are battle tested and have stood the test of time. These rules are FREE to download at the Fife and Drum Minitures web store. Click on the link below to access and download the rules. There is also a file that includes "designer notes" that provide some additional background for how to play the rules.

Free AWI Rules

Here are some of the game pictures. I will let the captions tell the story. Click on all of the pictures to enlarge them for better viewing.

The quiet town of Trenton in the dawn hours of December 26, 1776
Things are about to heat up as the Americans form up for the attack.

Fermoy's American brigade forms up to attack the Hessian flank.

The Hessian Rall Grenadiers conducted a fighting retreat towards the safety
of the Bordontown Bridge. Alas, they didn't make it.

Glover's Continental brigade of Massachusetts troops fight their way into 
the town and attempt to cut off the Hessians' only avenue of retreat at 
the Bordontown Bridge.

Lord Sterling's Virginia troops attack down Queen Street which is defended
by two companies of the Rall Grenadiers . Meanwhile, two oblivious civilians
are shoveling snow (lower left).

South of the town, the von Knyphausen fussier regiment fends off the
attacking Continentals. Eventually they are surrounded and have no
choice but to surrender and lay down their weapons.

The Rall Grenadiers make a last stand in front of the Bordentown Road bridge.
They eventually routed and ran across the bridge and into the welcoming arms
of part of Glover's brigade where they surrender.

The Americans attacked at dawn, but contrary to history, Colonel Rall had called his troops to arms and so the Hessians were formed up in the town and ready to fight. The Americans outnumbered the Hessians nearly 3 to 1 and the outcome was never in doubt. The Hessians were required to fight it out for at least four game turns before they could make any attempt to retreat across the Bordentown Road Bridge to safety. The Hessians held off the Americans for eight turns before they capitulated.

The Hessian fusilier regiment von Lossberg defended the eastern side of the town but they were cut to pieces by the Americans. The Rall Grenadiers split up into two wings: the left wing defended the River Road and King Street while the right wing defended Queen Street. The von Knyphausen fusiliers deployed on the open fields to the south of the town and kept two brigades of Americans at bay until the last turn (turn 8) of the game. They were cut off and likely would have surrendered. The Rall Grenadiers performed a splendid fighting withdrawal from the center of the town to the Bordentown Roae Bridge. However, American troops had a big advantage in numbers over the Rall Grenadiers, who eventually routed.

All in all, it was a cracking good fight with the Hessians selling their lives dearly as they fought inside the town. You never know how fighting in built up areas is going to turn out in a wargame, but this one played out easily which made it all the more fun.

A big thank you goes out to the Fab Four inaugurating my new and improved game room. This time I swear that I will keep the game room neat and tidy.

Miss Bella (aka "Trouble on Four Legs") welcomes you to the newly updated game room.

The seating area of my game room.

With the 250th anniversary of American independence, I plan on hosting many more AWI games in the Man Cave. I might even revive the South Carolina Campaign to generate new battles in the South.

Historicon Report Part One

 

His Nibs at Historicon with his Battle of Trenton game
Best of Show Award winner at this year's Historicon

I returned home yesterday from the Historicon convention and I'd like to report that it was successful show for me on a number of levels.

My Battle of Trenton game won the Best of Show Award for the convention and I am very honored to have been considered amongst many other worthy war games. I also won a PELA award for my game. PELA = Pour Encourager Les Autres (for the encouragement of others).

The Best of Show Award presented to me for my Battle of Trenton game.

The convention theme was the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution and birth of the United States so of course I had to select and AWI game to host at the convention. I was looking to do something different this year and get away from the large multi-table games with 54mm soldiers. I wanted to do a game on one table this year so that I wouldn't have to pack everything into the back end of a truck to haul it from Chicago to Pennsylvania.

So I selected the Battle of Trenton on Christmas Day Eve in 1776 because it was possibly the turning point in the American Revolution. Combined with the Battle of Princeton several days later, historians call this time The Ten Crucial Days of the Revolution. I hosted four Trenton games and one Princeton game over the period Thursday through Saturday and all of them were booked full with 8 players for each Trenton game and 7 players for the Princeton game.

Here are some pictures of my Trenton game.

For me, the main thing for a convention game is to have all of the player slots full or close to full. For example, I could have easily run the Trenton game with 6 players (or even 4!) rather than the 8 listed on the program.

Two of my four Trenton games were a "what if" alternative history called "Now Let's Go Surprise Mr. Washington". The premise was that Colonel Rall of the Hessian garrison at Trenton took the rumors of an American attack seriously and so reinforcements from nearby Bordentown, NJ (Hessians) and Princeton (British flank company troops) had arrived at Trenton prior to the start of the battle. Washington wasn't expecting the Trenton garrison to be reinforced so the Americans had a more difficult time securing a win. My recollection is a bit foggy but I believe that the British/Hessian army won at least one of the alternative history battles.

The other two Trenton battles followed the historical orders of battle and both games were American victories. In the final Trenton game, the outcome depended on one Hessian regiment escaping the town over the Assunpink Creek Bridge. Whoever moved first on the next turn would be the winner, so rather than run another game turn, I had both sides roll a D10 die and whoever won that got the initiative first. Had the Hessians won the die roll, they would have been able to march the regiment over the bridge to safety and a game win. If the Americans won the initiative die roll, they would have moved first and charged into the rear of the Hessian regiment that was trying to march over the bridge. This would have destroyed the Hessian unit, resulting in an American victory.

The Americans won the initiative die roll and so I ended the game there declaring an American victory. That was a fun game with the outcome coming down to a single roll of one D10 die.

The Battle of Princeton game was a decisive American victory. The Americans had a substantial advantage in numbers ( 4 brigades of infantry) over the British (3 regiments plus an assortment of light companies and grenadier companies and dismounted dragoons). The Americans used their numbers to break through the center and right flank of the British army. The British held sway on their left flank and so that contingent probably would have retreated back to Princeton.

The Battle of Princeton game that I hosted

As you can see from the game pictures, the games featured the Winter terrain that I have been featuring on this blog over the past several months. One doesn't often see a game with complete Winterized terrain so this sort of made the terrain stand out from other games.

Much of my terrain was inspired by Pat Smith's book, "Setting the Scene -Winter Terrain". Pat has a blog called Wargaming With Silver Whistle and he wrote two books, one covering Mediterranean terrain and the other covering the Ardennes terrain for the Battle of the Bulge. He provides step by step instructions for making roads, trees, ice streams and snow covered buildings. This book was very handy and it gave me the confidence to give it a try.

I met some interesting people at the show:

Der Alte Fritz meets Goober the Traveling Bear

Fritz and Kevin of The Chuckleheads group discussing strategery.

Fritz and one of his Fife and Drum customers

I big thank you goes out to my many blog readers who took the time to stop by and say hello. It is always nice to match up a face with a name and your many kind comments give me the encouragement to keep on blogging about the hobby.

I also want to thank the 40 people who played in my five games during the convention. They were all gentlemen and really got into playing their roles as American generals or Hessian officers. This is what makes the games fun for me.

I will post several more Historicon reports over the course of this week so that I can spread out the pictures over several days.

Thank you for reading and following my blog. I am honored by your support.

Fife and Drum Miniatures Challenge Coin

 

Since it is the 250th Anniversary today of the Declaration of Independence I want to introduce the Challenge Coin that I will be handing out to players in my games at Historicon. These are 1.75-inches in diameter and are colored in enamel. The front side features the Fife and Drum logo and the reverse mentions the anniversary of the United States.

Post-Historicon I plan to give away free coins to Fife and Drum and Minden customers for all orders of $50.00 or more. If these are well received then I will make another challenge coin with the Minden logo.

Happy July 4th Holiday to all of my blog readers.

Jim

SYW Village in Silesia Under Attack

 

I posted these pictures on Facebook on my own page and several other 18th Century wargaming pages and thought that they are worthy of showing on my blog. The pictures were snapped in May 2022.

The Austrian and Prussian figures are based for my War of the Austrian Succession armies. Yes, I have separate armies for the WAS and the SYW.

The stands have a frontage of 60mm and a depth of 80mm. This provides enough depth on the stand to protect the figures (specifically their muskets) 8h a firing line configuration. It also allows me to put a third rank of file closers behind the two ranks of rank and file soldiers. Here I place the drummers in the corners of the battalion line, as they should be, as well as an assortment of NCOs and officers. Click on the pictures for a larger and closer view to see the basing format that I am using for these armies.

Here are some more SYW pictures that I am posting for Stokes. :)

I like to place various buildings and towns in the corners of my game table so as not to disrupt the playability of the battle. The village in these pictures includes some Ian Weekley thatched houses and a church that was made by Herb Gundt.

His Royall Nibs, King Frederick II of Prussia.
Minden Miniatures

The village blacksmith

The back table of the picture shown below. Ian Weekley models in the corner
surrounded by the Russian army (boo, hiss).

Two villages in the corners on the front and back table.
It is fun to set these up as dioramas.

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