Edit: Zorndorf 1758 battle report part 2 - Victory

[olicana]

how can those vastly outnumbered chaps in the Ville possibly win?

Historically the battle was inconclusive. The Prussians were outnumbered 27,000 to 43,000 - the Russians having vastly more infantry and the Prussians more cavalry - but that didn't stop Frederick attacking. They caused 43% casualties on the Russians. In turn the Russians caused 34% casualties on the Prussians. The battle started at 9am and went on for 12 hours. Amazingly, at nightfall, neither had been beaten.

Piquet Field of Battle 2 has three things going for it that allow this kind of battle to work. The rules use sequence decks (basic deck of 27 cards) to govern when and how often armies do stuff. Each side has its own bespoke deck. The Prussian deck is better than the Russian deck, giving better command and control, and it allows them to steal the initiative far more frequently - effectively giving the Prussians a much better chance of getting through their deck faster than the Russians and to do more stuff every turn. Secondly, commanders have a quality rating (similar to that in Black Powder) that brings out individual command abilities at a lower level than C-in-C, and thirdly, not uncommon in rules, the troops can be better on one side than the other. Combined, these Prussian advantages, should cancel the Russian numerical advantage to a large degree.



Frankly, I'm just hoping for a ding dong bloodbath.

[Axebreaker]

Beautiful looking game as usual. Field of Battle are an outstanding set of rules that we use often although we have moved on to the 3rd edition these days. I've always wondered why they are not played more perhaps lack of promotions and cost of shipping the rules to Europe may play a part if you want a hard copy. Anyhow highly recommended!

Christopher

[vodkafan]

Thanks Olicana that bespoke deck idea sounds great and much better than trying to fudge a universal set of rules with modifiers for "national characteristics"

[olicana]

Field of Battle are an outstanding set of rules that we use often although we have moved on to the 3rd edition these days.

I have written and co-written a couple of supplements for Piquet Inc. and have access to new stuff as it comes out (if I ask for it). In consequence, I have 3rd edition on file as a PDF but I've never printed them off (it's a lot of pages). I really should - maybe the next time I can afford to make a sacrifice IN MY OWN BLOOD to get a new pack of printer ink.

[vtsaogames]

I have written and co-written a couple of supplements for Piquet Inc. and have access to new stuff as it comes out (if I ask for it). In consequence, I have 3rd edition on file as a PDF but I've never printed them off (it's a lot of pages). I really should - maybe the next time I can afford to make a sacrifice IN MY OWN BLOOD to get a new pack of printer ink.

 

[Cat]

Oooh, aaah!  And room to pull out a table that size too, super jealous.

[Bloggard]

cor, that's the ticket. 

[olicana]

Battle report, with plenty of pics, here:

http://olicanalad.blogspot.com/2024/09/zorndorf-battle-report.html

It's all going very well.

[Hunlion]

I can't see the OOB that you used. Please could you post. Thanks.

HunLion

[olicana]

Hunlion

If you go to the blog link at the start of the thread (Zorndorf set up) you’ll find the OOB written in the post’s blurb. It gives a unit breakdown for each command group (E.g. Manteuffel’s infantry is one unit of line infantry and three units of grenadiers).

But, basically, I’ve scaled this battle the same as I scale most SYW battles. One infantry unit represents a two battalion regiment or two battalions of combined grenadiers (I don’t do small units, big battles are granular enough as it is). One unit of cavalry represents five squadrons (equivalent to a standard full strength regiment - Prussian 10 squadron regiments are represented by two units).

Where bits of units exist (especially under strength cavalry) I add the squadrons in a command together and divide by five and then field types that best fit the occasion: e.g. from memory, Gaugreben’s cavalry was 14 squadrons; five hussar and three each of cuirassier, horse grenadiers and dragoons. So he got a unit of hussars (obviously) a unit of cuirassier and a unit of horse grenadiers and I omitted the dragoons - I chose that mix because his command did very well on the day, so he got the best two unit types present in the formation.

As it happens, the Russians fielded exactly 50 squadrons of regular cavalry on the day, so they got 10 units overall. I have fielded the Cossacks at rather less than full strength - I think they should have six, not four, units. I actually have these on the shelf (I have eight units) but I’m pretty sure that many weren’t used and this was a balance decision - players will generally use everything they are given.

The Prussians fielded (from memory) 37 battalions but they only got 18 units. I rounded down rather than up because (again from memory) I rounded up on the grenadier battalions in at least one of the ‘divisions’.

Most scaling requires a bit of fudge and I like to use a big spoon!

Lastly, and I mentioned this in the set up blurb, my units are figure scaled on correct frontages rather than manpower. A five squadron regiment arrayed in line had pretty much the same frontage as a two battalion infantry regiment arrayed in line, so that is how my armies are based. My infantry units are 24 men strong but my cavalry are only 8 men strong because more cavalry figures would have more frontage than they should. The rules don’t count heads and don’t use a casualty removal method so this works nicely. Incidentally, it also saved me a lot of time and money - there are over 60 units of cavalry in my SYW collection, and if I wasn’t using the frontage method of scaling I would have done them all 12 figures strong - that’s over 240 cavalry figures I didn’t need to buy or need to paint.

Note: A full OOB is available at the Kronoskaf, Seven Years War Project website. Again, I quoted my sources with links in the first blog post - Kronoskaf website, Duffy and Osprey books.

[olicana]

VICTORY!

the battle is over. Part 2 of the battle report here:

http://olicanalad.blogspot.com/2024/09/zorndorf-battle-report-2.html

[Basementboy]

Looks like a cracking time. Thanks for posting!