Lithuania Battle Report

LITHUANIA - Spring 1740

As part of a general westward push, a Russian army under General Peter Saltykov invaded Lithuania. Despite being a Polish territory, the King of Poland (the Duke of Saxony) took no action. The King of Prussia however anticipated the invasion and sent an army under General Count Kurt Christoph von Schwerin to support the small Lithuanian army. The two armies met and deployed for battle.

THE ARMIES

Russian

General Saltykov (+1)
3 x battalions of musketeers
1 x regiment of dragoons
1 x regiment of hussars
1 x battery of heavy artillery
1 x battery of medium artillery

Prussian
General von Schwerin (+1)
1 x battalion of grenadiers
2 x battalions of musketeers
2 x regiments of dragoons
1 x regiment of cuirassiers
1 x battery of medium artillery

Lithuanian

1 x battalion of musketeers

THE BATTLEFIELD

Map number 3.

Russians on the right, Prussians & Lithuanian allies on the left.

Both supply roads the bottom most roads.

The centre of the battlefield was dominated by a gentle hill running from east to west, covering approximately half the area of the battlefield.

To the north of the hill a road ran from east to west. Almost at the east end of the road was a village.

To the south of the hill, also running from east to west was another road, along which both armies traced their lines of supply. At the east end of the road was a village. At the west end was the large house of a Polish noble.

The Russians approached from the East.

DEPLOYMENT

As the armies caught sight of each other the Russian dragoons were riding in column along the northern-most road, east of the village. To the south of the hill the infantry and artillery had drawn themselves up just in front of the village. The hussars, led by Saltykov in person, had drawn themselves up on the infantry brigade’s left flank, facing southwest.

The Prussian dragoons had drawn themselves in one brigade opposite the Russian Dragoons, with the Lithuanian musketeers behind them.

The Prussian grenadiers were drawn up in line on the southern-most road. To their left were the rest of the Prussian infantry & the artillery. To their right were the Prussian cuirassiers, personally led by General von Schwerin.

THE BATTLE

Both armies advanced, the Russian dragoons in the north taking the village ahead of them and forming up in line at on the other side. The Prussian dragoons formed up side by side and then charged, unfortunately colliding with each other and grinding to a confused halt before reaching their objective. The Russian dragoons had by this time however already turned tail and fled to the east side of the village.

Meanwhile to the south, the Russian heavy artillery had started pounding the Prussian grenadiers, who stood firm.

As the pounding in the south continued, the Prussian dragoons managed to untangle themselves (amid multiple recriminations and arrangements of duels) and advance to through the village in line, one regiment behind the other. They then charged the disorganised Russian Dragoons, whom this time held their ground long enough for the Prussians to carve into them. After a brief fight the Russian dragoons fled the field with one regiment of Prussian dragoons hot on their heels.

To the south the Prussian infantry withdrew out of range of the Russian guns, which were promptly turned onto the cuirassiers. A relatively few number of Prussian cavalrymen fell. Those that did however included General von Schwerin himself, truncated by a 12lb ball of solid iron. His horse, obviously startled, fled the field, carrying the headless body and the general’s alarmed staff with it. Seeing this, Saltykov, at the head of his hussars, gave the order to charge. The Prussian cuirassiers, left out on a limb without the support of their general and faced with the charging Russians, fell into confusion as officers and sergeants struggled to keep the men from fleeing. The Prussian cuirassiers faced the Russian hussars standing. They fared poorly in the ensuing melee and left the field in a broken state.

The Russian hussars then faced the musketry of the Prussian grenadiers before being able to advance to safety and moving to threaten the Prussian lines of supply. Meanwhile to the north, the remaining regiment of Prussian Dragoons was racing south to cut the Russian’s own supply road. Time was however against them both and darkness fell.

AFTERMATH

The battle was a draw.

The Prussians (having mounted a defensive invasion) withdrew to East Prussia having lost a general & 1 SP. A new +1 general will appear in Prussia next turn.

As the Lithuanians survived unscathed, Lithuania & Russia co-occupy Lithuania. Russia has gained no victory points and has lost 1 SP.

6mm 18th Century (part 2)

Colin managed to get some more of his photos (and text) off to me during the week...

This is the final one of the Russians vs. Prussians game. It shows Russia's Moldavian "Yellow" Hussars before their charge. The photo shows some of the detail including the frogging on their pelisses. I'm sure however that I can take a photo that will better show the paint jobs on my figures.



"British Grenadiers" - Shows some obsessive detail on the mitres.

"British in North America" - Shows a closer shot of some of the figures I sent you before, but also includes some Colonial Militia in blue and some Regular Light Infantry. The Light Infantry are actually ACW dismounted cavalry with a dob of glue on their heads to round their kepis and make them look like the correct headwear.

"Canadiens and Allies" - The trees are all metal, of various makes, mostly Irregular Miniatures. I thought I'd mention that as they seem to feature as prominently as the soldiers.

The Habitants and Woodland Indians (probably Mingoes) are entering into combat with the Rangers The Indians are Heroics & Ros. They are led by a Prussian Jaeger painted as a French officer, mostly for identification purposes.

The Coureurs de Bois are a mixture of Heroics & Ros and Irregular Miniatures. The Heroics are mostly Woodland Indians and Jaegers, the latter being subject to more alteration, cutting away equipment. I have left some with tricorns, but others I have styled toques (long wooly hats) from trailing blobs of glue, which I found easier than moulding Milliput at that size.
 

"Rangers" - Shows some colonial rangers. They are made up of a variety of Heroics & Ros figures, including American Woodland Indians, ECW Lowland Scots, and a Prussian Jaeger (he's the one reloading). The musician is an ACW dismounted cavalryman. They have mostly been altered slightly, mostly cutting, but in the case of the Jaeger, by swapping his head with a lowland Scot.

We used to play quite a few 18th Century style games, mostly Sport of Kings, Warfare in the Age of Reason and Wolfe et Montcalme back in the day.

Colin also sent through some write-ups for a few of our old games. I'll try to get them up on the blog after this post too. These pictures and write-ups have brought it all flooding back. We used to play several times a month when we were a lot younger, but as work and other life commitments started to get in the way, along with many people moving away or leaving us entirely, our gaming group slowly reduced from a couple of dozen (inlcuding both the casual and hard-core gamers) to just the half-dozen or so that play PBeMs nowadays. Face-to-face gaming is almost non-existent although we constantly talk about it and always want to get to play. One day, probably when we are all retired, we'll get back to it!

6mm 18th Century

My gaming buddy Colin sent me through some snaps of a game he had with a few of our other friends a little while back. I have played with these armies previously for tabletop battles within the game 'Sport of Kings'. It has been a while since I have played this game, but these shots brought back some memories. Comments by Colin...

This first photo shows the advancing Prussian Infantry, with the banners being hand painted. The house is Hardcover (printed card). The roads are strips of corduroy, ridged side down - easy to cut accurately and grips to the field enough to stay in place.

These are Prussian Dragoons.

This photo shows a melee between Prussian Cuirassiers (in the foreground) with the Russian Yellow Hussars, directed by a Russian General (I recall we decided it was Peter Saltykov - don't try to look for a silly pun, it was the name of a Russian General).

Here is a picture of a Russian Infantry Brigade advancing. It shows a close up of two regiments of Russian infantry with an artillery battery and another infantry regiment in the background. The standard is made from the metal base of a Mr Kipling cake, a bit of wire and some Milliput to make the finial. The design was hand painted.

The final photo is of mostly Heroics & Ros Prussians painted as British. The Mounted officers are actually Austrian Dragoons (carbines removed). The drummers are converted from Prussian pioneers with their mitres shortened and a drum made out of Milliput.


The Horse Grenadiers are Austrian Cuirassiers with heads taken from early 18C British Foot Grenadiers.

All flags are hand painted

The Highland regiment and the General are Irregular miniatures.
 

All are painted in gloss enamel for durability and to give that traditional "toy soldier" look. I know I am in a minority, but I like them that way, hence also the lack of individualisation of the soldiers. I do usually however use variations in pose etc to indicate "irregular" units.


These minis make for an interesting diversion from my usual Dark Age/Fantasy figures. Colin and the rest of our gaming group, have played many games over the years, mostly home-grown or heavy modifications of commercial rules.