Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Leuthen Day Anniversary

Wargaming the Battle of Leuthen - March 2010 at the SYWA Convention.
Attack of the Prussian Guard Regiment on Leuthen Church - by Karl Rochling.

Good grief! I almost missed the anniversary of the battle of Leuthen on December 5, 1757. You know the know the battle, the one where Frederick the Great became great by defeating an Austrian army that was at least twice as large as his Prussian army. Combined with his victory over the French and Reichs Armee at Rossbach on November 7, 1757, Frederick wrested the initiative back from his foes and secured his possession of Silesia for at least another campaign season in the year ahead.

Here are a couple links that provide a summaries of the battle and the campaign.



I have wargamed Leuthen maybe half a dozen times over large 24 feet long tables plus back tables to provide the necessary depth for the forces. It is a long hard slog for the Prussians and they usually get bogged down in the attack on the Austrian clump of troops huddling inside of the town of Leuthen. To game the battle properly, you really need a full 6 to 8 hours of wargaming to reach a conclusion, from my experience.

In fact, I've been so smitten by the battle of Leuthen that I actually had winter terrain built for the battle (by Herb Gundt) and commissioned The Terrain Guy to make special purpose-built winter terrain mats for the game. I have drawn the line though at basing the figures for Winter warfare, i.e. with snowy white bases. I suppose that if someone made 30mm figures of Prussians and Austrians in winter dress, with their lapels buttoned closed, then I would have to strongly consider building duplicate Winter and Summer Austrian and Prussian armies. Hmm, maybe I could talk Frank Hammond into adding winter gear SYW figures to his Minden Miniatures range. LOL!

2 comments:

  1. That is one of the charms of Napoleonics - everybody makes the French in Winteresque campaign gear, and many people make the other powers in bad weather gear.

    I suspect that most figure manufacturers - or wargamers - assume Lace War armies are more sensible and have retired to winter quarters before things get nippy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jim,
    The guys love it when we get to use your winter terrain. Winter is coming soon so let's get in a game with it. How about two? ROI you know!

    I remember one time you brought it to Brown Deer and I photoed night scenes I rather liked. Oh and on the Gen. Pettygree Blog I had Countess Alexandra in her dacha in the winter plus another of a wintry and dilapidated Pathan village too.

    Anyhow tis great terrain. No time like December to set it out at Chez Purky!

    Cheers,
    Bill

    ReplyDelete