Hohenfriedburg 1745, and 800th blog post!

 Tim put on another Table Battles game recently, this time covering Hohenfriedburg, which took place in 1745 during the War of Austrian Succession in Silesia. Frederick faced off against Charles of Lorraine, someone with the dubious distinction of never having won a battle. 

There really is a lot going on in this battle, with loads of cards. They cover the various infantry and cavalry wings, as well as the commanders and the advance guards of both armies. 

The main period wrinkle is that units get a defensive benefit if they are 'in line' with appropriate units on each side, there are little markers on the cards showing who they can line up with. Generally this encourages an infantry centre with cavalry wings. There is also an option to conduct an Oblique Attack, but the circumstances didn't arise. 

A major wrinkle is that there is a river between the opposing armies! The action starts with just the cavalry Advanced Guards engaged, and both sides néed to deploy their main forces. Frederick also has to get his guys over the bridge, but fortunately the Austrians are very ponderous. 

Austrians on the right. Hmm, they seem to be winning the deployment battle. The Austrian cavalry (green) is down to 2SP though. These are all big units with five to six SP each, so this is a very bloody battle. 

The Prussians have got three units in line now. They also manage to rout one of the Austrian cavalry wings. Three Prussian morale points to one Austrian. 

The final Austrian units move into line. Mmm, some of the Prussians look a bit ragged. Lets hope they have enough combat power left, they just need to rout one more Austrian unit.

Hard pounding all along the line. We just aren't killing Austrians fast enough.

Disaster! The Austrians put in a series of powerful attacks, sending the Prussians reeling. Prussian morale collapses and the Austrians win!

Looks like Frederick will have to wait a while before being crowned 'The Great'. I'm not sure how we messed that up so badly, didn't pay enough attention to the rates of attrition on various units I think.

Another very clever scenario and the first from the eighteenth century expansion pack we've played. I still couldn't begin to design one of these scenarios, although I've played plenty. 

Ive just realised that this my 800th blog post! Regular readers will have noted something of a pattern emerging. I tend to blog games I've played with other people on Saturday, solo games or modellibg/gaming projects on Tuesday and pictures of toys on Thursday. I've got a huge backlog of modelling posts thanks to my WW2 desert project, and I hope they don't become tedious. I have been doing other things apart from painting sand coloured tanks!