Action at Kuhstall - Part II

Today's fox is the small action at Kuhstall between Hadik's Austrian raiding party and Zieten's pursuing column. I was able to complete four game turns last evening in what proved to be an opening minuet of maneuvers, but very little in the way of musketry.

Hadik's strategy was to delay the Prussian advance with two lines of Croats, who were ordered to give one volley and then retire up the hill to safety behind the Austrian regular troops.

Zieten placed all three of his Prussian infantry battalions in the center and they were ordered to advance straight ahead and crest the hill to victory. Zieten covered his left flank with a battalion of rifle armed jagers, while the two squadrons of Black Hussars were to cover the right flank of the Prussian infantry in the center.

Please read the captions of the pictures to follow the story and be sure to click or double click each picture in order to enlarge the view.

This evening I completed Turn 7 and I will post an updated report of tonight's action on the blog tomorrow as Part III.

The Prussian infantry (IR1 von Winterfeld musketeers) form a battle line and prepare to advance towards the Austrian position. Note the Prussian 3-pound cannon being manhandled forward.

The first line of Croats (Red) await the Prussian attack.

They are supported by a second line of Croats (Blue) further up the hill.

Howevcr, the Black Hussars see an opportunity to outflank the first line so they advance forward while the Prussian infantry covers the Croat front. The Red Croats have no choice but to retire on to the second line without firing a shot.

On the second turn, the Black Hussars decided that they might have an opportunity to catch the Croats out in the open and ride them down. So the hussars boldly advanced towards the Austrian first line and attempted to outflank the Croats. Fortunately for the Austrians, they won the initiative on Turn 3 and elected to move first/fire second, allowing the Red Croats to skedaddle up the hill to safety.

The Prussian jagers advanced into the wooded area on the Prussian left flank (see picture below), where they ran into more Croats (what a surprise huh?). Some shots were fired, the first of the game, but the range was too long even for the jagers' rifles and so their bullets whistled through the air harming no one.


I might have to make a special rules adjustment, just for this game scenario, to increase the range of the Croat musketry or adjust the firing tables so that the Croats and Jagers can actually hit something. As it now stands, both types of units can only hit on a roll of "1" on a D10 die, which makes it nearly impossible for them to hit anything.

Prussian Jagers and Austrian Grenz- Croats face off in the woods while the jagers cover the flank of the Winterfeld musketeer regiment.

More Croats skulking among the rocks and trees. It looks a little bit like Devil's Den at Gettysburg  with the large rocks added to the terrain. I like to add rocks and strew them all over the ground to break up the monotony of green grass.

The Prussian Jagers could fire away at the enemy with their rifles, but the Croats could not reach them with their musket fire - out of range.

An aeriel view of the situation at the end of Turn 4. Click or double click the picture to enlarge  the view. Picture taken from the Montgolphier Brothers hot air balloon.

 The above picture shows the postioning of the Austiran and Prussian forces, when I called it a night. To me, the interesting part of the game was the fact that the Prussians were able to pry the Croats out of the first line without a shot being fired



Last evening I played Turns 5 through 7 of the action at Kuhstall and I shall post a new report this evening.