An Alternative Seven Years War Remote Wargame
The Battle of Stoliboz, 1 October 1756
A Guest Blog
Part 7 – Battle Phase 6, Crisis and Resolution – Victory is Gained.
As the two forces increasingly engage in the centre, it is the fierce French commander Surjit who is putting incredible pressure on Austrian Ray in the north at the town of Stoliboz. Whilst, in the south the massed teutonic cavalry of both Ian and Ray try to impose their will on the French flank.
If you have just joined this then you may want to catch up on all the action from the start by looking at the previous posts on this battle.
Introduction and details - (link)
Phase 1 – deployment in the fog - (link)
Phase 2 - First Clashes and Jockeying for Position - (link)
Phase 3 – Probing the Flanks - Position - (link)
Phase 4 - Southern Flank warms up - (link)
Phase 5 – Bold Cavalry Moves - (link)
The commanders on both sides clearly recognised the significance of their orders for this phase of the battle, if their meticulous calculation and the obscene length of questions asked of the umpire is anything to go by.
The following was the situation at around one o’clock in the afternoon.
French Lee’s 1st brigade artillery in the centre spit out vicious fire and compel the Austrian 8th Regiment to withdraw in haste. However, Ian had prepared a nearby unit to move in to the now yawning gap in the line.
Meanwhile, north of Stoliboz, the long running (and increasingly irrelevant) skirmishing in the woods finally concludes…
…with the Austrian Liccaner Grenzers succumbing to the superior numbers of French chasseurs. However, the Austrians gave a sterling show by destroying the Montagne regiment and effectively exhausting the remaining chasseur unit.
Surjit’s French 3rd brigade create nervous tension in Ray’s troops by putting increasing pressure on Stoliboz and quickly advancing his 2nd Grenadiers and Chartres regiments.
The Austrian 12th Hussars (by the way, Ray is completely out of any control of them as no orders can get through) are tardy in their charge, which gives the Bandeville regiment the chance to form square and give a pause to the Germanic marauders.
At the other end of the battlefield, on the southern flank, Ian’s dragoons and Ray’s cuirassiers pounce on French John’s La Reine dragoons. Other cavalry continue to sweep around the flank.
Being outnumbered and outflanked has meant that La Reine dragoons have been utterly swept from the field. Now vulnerable infantry flanks seem very attractive.
Choosing to exploit their success, Ray’s cuirassiers in an uncontrolled breakthrough fall on the flank of the Auxerre regiment while Ian’s dragoons attack the artillery.
The inevitable happens. The French infantry take near catastrophic losses and break towards the town of Chinwitz. They now view another flank in close proximity. Ian’s dragoons slaughter the French gunners but decline a frontal assault on the Languedoc regiment.
With their blood well and truly boiling the 4th cuirassiers tear into the open flank of the French Saintoge regiment.
The rampant heavy cavalry wipe out the unfortunate soldiers who had already been weakened by Ian’s earlier artillery bombardment.
The situation at approximately 1:15pm.
The morale of the French Guards breaks under the relentless canister fire of the Austrian gunners.
Volley fire ripples up the lines in and around Stoliboz. The lines of the French 1st Grenadiers are thinning significantly, and their morale is creaking and extremely brittle. However, the Austrian 1st regiment has also taken a pounding from Surjit’s 2nd Grenadiers and Chartres regiments – though their morale is holding firm.
Along the lines the French infantry are forming squares against Austrian cavalry. However, the morale of the units is fragile and the Ian’s line infantry is rushing forward to unleash deadly fire into the dense French formations.
The situation at half past one o’clock.
Conclusion: At this point both the French and Austrians were subjected to army morale checks. With the French now suffering significant army casualties, loss of effectiveness and with an enemy that is on their southern flank and with infantry to overlap that flank. Thus posing a real danger to their line of communication, the gallic forces of King Louis XV has asked to leave the field of battle unmolested and with honours. Ray and Ian have given their consent.
Victory goes to the Austrians. Though honours also to the French.
The view along the lines from the southwest. It is possible to see that the French risk being trapped around Stoliboz.
Analysis:
This has been a hard fought battle, particularly around the town of Stoliboz.
This became a battle of two flanks. French Surjit and Lee seemed to be massing overwhelming force in the north in order destroy Ray and his hold on Stoliboz. Then there was the south where the Austrians could quickly muster superiority of cavalry against John. As the umpire, it seemed that the side that acted decisively and took the risk first and with conviction might find things in their favour. In this regard, the Austrians moved just before Surjit did. Though they were prompted to act because they could see what the French were planning to do… so they say!
The forces
There was some asymmetry to the forces.
The French had 19 infantry, 7 cavalry units and 5 artillery batteries. This amounted to 306 figures.
The Austrians had 13 infantry, 7 cavalry units and 4 artillery batteries. This amounted to 276 figures.
The French had more and slightly better infantry, with a guard regiment, and more artillery. However, the Austrian cavalry included those with better morale. In this way I tried to strike a balance.
The Cost
With 11 out of 26 French regiments either destroyed or reduced to half strength or less, it is no surprise that morale crumbled. Or to put it another way 5 out of 8 brigades were reduced to half or less or destroyed.
The Austrians, in comparison, have 4 out of 20 regiments destroyed or reduced to half strength or less. That is 3 out of 10 brigades.
In total, French casualties had risen to 40.2% of their army. Meanwhile, the Austrians’ casualties were at 25.4%. These reflect well, the higher end results of 18th century battles.
The Austrian artillery had given good service and created significant problems – e.g. breaking the French Guard and undermining the 1st Grenadiers effectiveness. However, by the end 3 out of their 4 batteries had been destroyed and the remaining was at half effectiveness.
The French fared better. They had 2 out of 5 destroyed, 2 were down to limited effectiveness. Unfortunately, they were unable to bring their last battery into the front line at Stoliboz. This tally could be put down to the French making an early decision to use their guns to achieve artillery superiority and then hammer the Austrian infantry from range afterwards. Ray and Ian were late to this tactic, having concentrated their fire on infantry.
There have been 12 melees during the battle. The French won 1 of them, the Austrians won 10. Nine of them were cavalry on cavalry encounters, in which the French found their only victory.
Army list and remaining combat effectiveness are as follows:
The main clash throughout the conflict was in the north around Stoliboz. The casualty toll of the Austrian 1st Brigade and French 3rd and 6th Brigades give testimony to that. The table might also suggest Lee never committed. However, being last on with his troops, he found himself always playing catch up to deploy. Plus, any delays in the French columns (and there were) adversely affected him. This may have been a reason why Surjit and the French were not more aggressive around Stoliboz.
Once the opposing lines were established and the French seemed to be developing artillery superiority, it would be fair to surmise that the Austrians were in increasing danger around Stoliboz, where the French were massing. This seemed to act as the prompt for the assault in the south. This appeared to be aided by the French cavalry not really having anything to anchor their flank on. I also suspect French command and control was not always as coordinated as that of the Austrian pair. I am sure that the players will wish to express a view on these points.
In the end, the Austrians being able to move on the flank of units was devastating. With the French cavalry all but annihilated and the infantry exposed, the Austrian cavalry and more importantly their infantry would roll up the gallic forces. The only option was to withdraw to secure the line of communication, and the result of the army morale check confirmed this.
All generals played an entertaining and thoughtful game. They had to take decisions and produce orders with the fog of war denying them a knowledge of geography (initially), the exact number of losses to units (friend and foe), the state of morale of the units nor the usual physical cues given by an opponent facing you on the other side of a table.
Each phase was a series of game turns. Completely different to the act and react of a normal tabletop encounter. In this sense it placed Lee, John, Surjit, Ray and Ian far more in the position of real generals who have to rely on the equivalent of couriers and adjutants relaying information after periods of time and events. Hats off to them.
Those are my thoughts. I’m sure the players probably have their own opinions and versions of the how the battle went.
Thank you, Ray, for allowing me to guest blog.
Now I will get on with thinking about the next one… and some painting!
Adieu
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Being as Richard put so much hard work into the campaign, I thought it only best that the players had their say, we'll start with the French.
Lee
I should have followed my gut instinct and stayed on the hill! And paid more attention to the instructions - never my strongpoint!"
The Austrians
Ian
That definitely came across as a hard-fought slog. Hopefully you will all now be gaming face-to-face again, but there's probably nothing like a remote correspondence game to really emphasise the fog of war.
ReplyDeleteThe Fog of war really played a big part for all of us in the game. It certainly added a great touch of reality to the game.
DeleteGreat AARs throughout and good you got it fought to a conclusion.
ReplyDeleteCheers, it was a crackin game.
DeleteRay, this has been an enjoyable series to read and a HUGE undertaking for Richard. Great job to all of you and THANK YOU!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathan, it was great fun to play.
DeleteImpressive battle, Ray. Loads of action going on all over the place - from skirmishers trading shots in the woods to cavalry clashes in the open.
ReplyDeleteCheers Dean, it was action all the way through.
DeleteThanks Ray. It was good to hear the thoughts of all the players. It was incredibly enjoyable. It placed me into periods of deep reflection as I considered how best to interpret and execute everyone's orders so as to have all players' best interest at heart. Just lovely to move my little metal men around. Thanks also to the kind and encouraging words of those who have followed proceedings and left their comments. Richard.
ReplyDeleteYou did an excellent job on this resulting in a thoroughly enjoyable game...despite the outcome for us poor French!
DeleteCouldn't agree more!
DeleteAnother great win for the Austrians. Well done Ray and Ian!
ReplyDeleteThanks, glad you enjoyed the game.
DeleteGreat looking battle sir!
ReplyDeleteThanks Michal.
DeleteAwesomeness so thanks heaps for sharing!
ReplyDeleteCheers Sander, glad you liked the bash.
DeleteGreat, epic game, with devastating Austrian cavalry!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
The last cavalry assault worked perfectly for us. And effectively ended the game.
DeleteWow, what a wonderful game. Hats off to Richard for bringing this all together for you. What a treat.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly was Curt, it kept us all gripped for the duration of the game.
Delete