| Kolin - 18th June 1757
This scenario was prepared by Martin Soilleux-Cardwell
Order of Battle Prussians, Frederick the Great AC, Monarch 38,500 men, 36 field & heavy guns, approx 70 battalion guns Main attack force, annotated from left to right: Zieten CC, Ex = 3
Hulsen DC, Ex = 5
Tresckow DC, Ex = 3
Prinz Moritz CC, Ex = 6
Manstein DC, Ex = 5
Bevern CC, Ex = 5
Schonaich DC, Ex = 3
Reserves or second line, annotated from left to right: Krosigk DC, Ex = 3
"Cavalry Corps" Troops behind & supporting the left wing, Ex = nil
Normann DC, Ex = 2
Penavaire CC, Ex = 3
Army Troops near Zlate Slunce, Ex = nil
Prussian Notes: This was a particularly messy battle with little apparent co-ordination from senior officers and a deployment from flank march to line that gave only lip service to the army organisation. Men of high rank appear to have commanded only a few battalions or squadrons and got stuck in with little attempt to co-ordinate or view the bigger picture. It is therefore particularly difficult to draw up a command structure. I have taken a stab at the following: 1. Prinz Moritz was effectively 2inC at the battle. I have rated him a CC with authority over Hulsen, Tresckow and Manstein, that is he can command and rally their units. 2. Bevern apparently did nothing except command 7 battalions. He was a senior officer however and I have rated him a CC with authority over Manstein and Schonaich. 3. Note therefore that Manstein is subordinated to both Moritz and Bevern. 4. Penavaire was the cavalry commander but again made little or no attempt to influence the battle beyond leading his 4 regiments. I have however made him a CC with authority over Ziethen, Krosigk and Normann. 5. The Prussians have lots of DC level officers to represent the use of small groups of units which was a feature of this battle. However I have deliberately put their CC's in charge of their own bodies of troops. Thus if they need to go and rally someone, their own troops will be out of command. I intend this to produce the sort of chaos and sluggishness that was a feature of the Prussian side in the battle. 6. Frederick can command any Army Troops. Any infantry CC can command the infantry Army Troops. I have made the two unattached hussar regts "cavalry corps" troops. These can be commanded by Frederick, Penavaire or any of his DCs. 7. Frederick starts the battle at Zlate Slunce. 8. Zieten. Duffy shows three hussar regts directly under Zieten, one (HR3) near Hulsen and two (HR2 and HR7) behind Hulsen. Zieten may have detached HR2 & HR7 as flank guards as he advanced. 9. Hulsen. I suspect H3 were army troops or possibly part of Ziethen. Duffy shows them covering the left flank of D11 which was a part of Hulsen's attack, so I have given them to this command. It also makes the command more unwieldy which is no bad thing. Both cavalry regts have been made 1SP units which may charge as per the recent ruling by Frank Chadwick: skirmish cavalry may now charge all targets, but the opponent does not get the -1 facing cavalry unless they are cavalry which is lighter weight than the 1SP unit. All 1SP cav units are now 3" frontage, 1.5" depth - or as deep as may convieniently accomodate the castings. Irregular cavalry such as Croats and Cossacks now count as Militia. These too may charge all opponents. Skirmish cavalry still need to be a base width from all friends to qualify for saves in melee. 10. Tresckow: I have given command of St.GB 11 to this general despite Duffy showing it as part of Hulsen. This gives Tresckow 4 battalions which better fits V&B. Tresckow's attack seems to have been inserted in between Hulsen and Moritz. Certainly the Austrian line was ruptured at this point so putting several stands of M6 grenadiers in here seems about right. 11. Prinz Moritz & Manstein. A battalion of IR3 formed the right of Moritz's line, giving a total of 9 battalions. I have given this battalion to Manstein to even out the number of V&B stands. Since Moritz only made his advance slowly, perhaps it is reasonable to weaken his force slightly. 12. Duffy does not mark any Prussian artillery on his two maps nor mention it in his (unfortunately short) account. I have simply placed some where appropriate based on Andy Nicoll's notes. Taking the speed of the flank march into account I do not think the heavy pieces would have been with Hulsen. I have resisted making the artillery Army Troops. I would want them to fail with their respective divisions in the event of defeat because Frederick lost 45 guns here. 13. Duffy gives the Prussians 35,000 men. I list 38,500. The CoA OOB gives about 38,000.
Austrians, Feldmarshall Daun AC 52,500 men, 60 battery guns, approx 60 battalion guns FmL Marschall (CC for Andlau and Stahremberg) FmL Colloredo (CC for Sincere and Puebla) GdK Nadasty (CC for Hadik, Beck, Morocz) Main line, annotated from left to right: Beck DC, Ex = 3
FmL Puebla DC, Ex = 5
GdK Stampach DC, Ex = 4
FmL Andlau DC, Ex = 7
FmL Sincere DC, Ex = 6
Chozenitz Garrison
FmL Starhemberg (second line in rear of Sincere) DC, Ex = 5
FmL Wied DC, Ex = 6
Krzeczhorz Garrison
GdK Serbelloni (3rd line of cav behind Starhemberg & Wied) DC, Ex = 9
Detached Cavalry under Morocz DC, Ex = 6
Hadik DC, Ex = 3
Austrian Notes: 1. The Austrian deployment evidences as much confusion as the Prussian, if not more. None of the three wing CC's have their subordinate commands together. Nadasty's, which I suspect is the army avant garde, is split to the two flanks. The two main lines are split to left and right. This means that while the Austrians have more generals than the Prussians and at least some sort of working command structure, the speed with which they turned to face the enemy flank march disrupted this sufficiently to cause the Austrians plenty of C&C headaches. 2. Beck: 40% exhaustion. 3. Sincere & Wied. I have put the Croats in front of the main position as part of these two commands since making them army troops seems too professional and well organised an arrangement. They will most likely start the game out of command which seems reasonable. 4. Morocz & Hadik. I spent a lot of thought on rating the Austrian hussars. They were not battle trained and yet they contained Zieten's wing all afternoon. Making them 1SP may have resulted in too slight an obstacle for Zieten. In the end I opted for M4 brigades. This gives Zieten a reasonable chance to beat them in melee but is not too overpowering. I also made Zieten a CC which allows him the chance to rally and call upon the two hussar regts listed as 'Cav Corps Troops'. 5. Serbelloni. The Saxon Guard is a 1SP regt cav stand, per Frank Chadwick’s new cavalry rules. 6. A number of infantry units are 4SP. This represents the deeper Austrian lines and the fact that as 2x2SP stands they will not fit the deployed frontage. 7. The CoA list names some regts both cav and inf which are simply not present on Duffy's maps. I can't offer any explanation for this except that perhaps they were left as flank/rear guards at the Austrian's original position. Generally the Austrian army fits the map less well than the Prussian with more mystery units turning up, others missing and the total strength being too low.
General Scenario Notes 1. All formed infantry have battalion guns. 2. The battle begins at 1:00pm and ends at the end of the 8:00pm turn. The Prussians move first. 3. Weather is hot and sunny. Good visibility but dusty. 4. The Oak Wood is open. 5. The following villages are represented by a village block:
The following villages are represented by a single town block:
6. I would make the Austrian position a single long one contour ridge with the highest area (Krzeczhorz Hill) two contours. A secondary ridge could run from Krezczhorz towards the Kaiser-Strasse at a shallow angle forming a re-entrant behind it into which Hulsen advanced and around which Zieten went. The village of Kurtlirz is in this hollow. 7. There is a minor watercourse near Radowesnitz and another running from Chozenitz to Koller. Both can be ignored in V&B terms. 8. The only road is the Kaiser-Strasse. This was said to be the best road in this part of Europe. You could add an extra half move for units in road column but I suspect the implication is that the rest of roads hereabouts were dreadful. 9. The battle will fit onto an 8 foot by 4 foot table in full scale. This battle was very confused and there seems to be no good clear description of it. While it is an important event (being Frederick's first defeat) it may be difficult to refight and of all the battles I have converted to V&B, this one was the most challenging. |