Latest in Ian's series of eighteenth century strategic area movement games was the War of the Austrian Succession.
It used the same general map as the Seven Years War game as the rivers and mountains haven't moved, but obviously in this case Silesia was still part of Austria (the yellow bits bordering Poland in the east).
The WAS is another one of those eighteenth century wars with a bewildering number of participants. In this one I think we had Prussia, Austria, France, Russia, Britain, Bavaria and Saxony. Maybe some others? Not helped as a number of them changed sides halfway through!
I was cast as Bavaria, initially allied with Saxony and Prussia against France and Austria, although Saxony and I mainly seemed to be competing over who could take Prague and be crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
It is the eighteenth century, so an excuse for silly hats! We managed to put on a fine display of tricornes, mine is a charity shop ladies felt hat with a big brim, I just pinned up the corners.
While we were chatting waiting for people to turn up, John showed us some of his latest toys. In this case a pair of 1/300th scale F-104 Starfighters. The 'Flying Dart' or 'Widowmaker' depending.
Anyway, to war! Initially it was just Austria, France, Prussia, Saxony and Bavaria. Each year has three seasons (spring, summer, autumn) with reinforcements being generated once per year over the winter. We started in 1740 which was a short (single season) year. The Austrians were rather strung out in the northwest of Austria, while Frederick massed the Prussians.
As 1741 opened the Saxons and Prussians were massing in eastern Saxony, while the Austrians began to concentrate northeast of Prague. The Bavarian contingent rather nervously crossed the border heading for Prague.
Sadly my initial attack on Prague was repulsed and the entire Bavarian Army routed! The Saxons were busy lurking in Saxony observing proceedings. Meanwhile Frederick and the Austrians had been knocking seven bells out of each other and Frederick was forced to retreat back into Prussia.
Prussian fortunes revived in 1742 and a resurgent Frederick defeated the Austrians while the Saxons took Prague. Eagle eyed readers may note that the western part of the map is now covered in French units, who have busied themselves completely overunning Hanover! The Austrians have also raised a fresh army, just visible in the southeast...
By 1744 the Austrians have kicked the Saxons out of Prague, the Prussians are still lurking in Saxony and the Russians a have put in an appearance in northeast Poland. The Bavarian army has finally reorganised itself, just in time to change sides and join Austria! Maria Theresa's diplomacy has proved most effective.
In northwest Germany there is much excitement as the Duke of Cumberland leads a British expeditionary force to Bremen to confront the French in Hanover. An interesting wrinkle is that if the British over commit, the Jacobite Rebellion may take place and possibly retake England from the Hanoverians...
Time marches on. Cumberland smashes the French armies and marches down the Palatinate. Austria retakes Prague, inflicting heavy losses on Saxony. I just hunker down in Bavaria waiting for the British to come to the rescue. There is no sign of Bonnie Prince Charlie in Britain as yet, but over in Poland, Frederick and the Russians are squaring up for a big fight.
We called it a night there with everything to play for.
1745 rolled around to much excitement. The French are looking overwhelmingly powerful but are seemingly obsessed with attacking Hanover. The Prussians have occupied most of Silesia now but the revived Austrian army is concentrating in the southwest.
Bavaria finally gets some reinforcements, but as I am notionally at war with France, I need to defend Bavaria against that large concentration of French in the lower Palatinate.
Fortunately the French head north and the British make a hasty retreat back towards Hamburg.
Fredericks army is reinforced and the Prussians march on Prague, leading to a huge battle northeast of the city.
The Austrians come out on top and suddenly Frederick is looking very vulnerable as the Russians attack Silesia. Fortune certainly favours the British as they intercept Bonnie Prince Charlie at sea and send him packing, and then their counteroffensive largely destroys the French presence in Hanover.
In turn that sends the threatening French army northwards to stem the rout and the Bavarians can (finally) march to support their Austrian allies.
As 1746 comes around, Frederick concedes that he isn't going to win so sues for peace. Silesia is demilitarised and evacuated and the various armies in the east head back to base. France and Britain are still going at it hammer and tongs though
There is heavy fighting in Hanover through 1747, but the British repel all the French attacks.
And finally in 1748 the French concede and peace breaks out across Europe. Huzzah!
That was a great game, very enjoyable and it worked excellently as a multi player remote game. Although there were lot of map areas and a lot of pieces in play, it rattled along very well and activating one country at a time kept the whole situation very fluid.
We had a washup session afterwards and focussed on a few minor items, one being maximum army sizes as the reinforcements were randomised and potentially you could end up with ahistorically Napoleonic sized armies although the in-game casualty rates were such that this didn't really happen except with France. The other was about tightening up the victory conditions a bit as I wasn't very clear what 'forcing a peace' involved, although for eg Prussia, they did eventually concede that victory was unlikely.
Great stuff, and we are all looking forward to the next one. These games are endlessly replayable.
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