Nachod 1866 part 1

[cameronian]

February of this year saw a refight of the frontier battle of Nachod with Ramming's VI Austrian Corps attempting to stop Steinmetz's V Prussian corps debouching through the Nachod defile and across the Metau river into Bohemia. Nachod was a Corps-sized battle, with a Prussian advance guard holding on in the face of determined attacks by the Austrians, more Prussians marched to the sound of the guns, and by the end of the day both sides had a Corps on the battlefield although the Austrians still outnumbered the Prussians by about 9,000 men (33,000 to the Prussian 24,000)

The game was held over two days at the Old Manor in Lundin Links, Charles Grant, Colin Jack and myself upheld the honour of Austria, John 'DZ' Drewienkiewicz and Angus Konstam (whose great gfather was a gunner at Koniggratz) the Prussian.
The game was fought over purpose built terrain modelled from contemporary maps, the figures 10mm PENDRAKEN, the rules FIELD OF BATTLE (1866 VARIANT), scale 1" represents 65yds, 1 figure represents 70 men/horses, 1 gun represents 1 battery.

FOB is card driven, a mechanism which lends itself to this period perfectly, a photo of some of the cards appears below.

The photo below (terrain) gives an idea of the table; top right is Nachod, the main road snakes southwards from Nachod and over the Mettau, through Wysokow and exits the board via Skalitz and on over the Aupa. Looping SE to NW is the railway embankment, centre left is the Rowensker Teich (a marshy lake), bottom right is Wenzlburg and to its left the linked villages of Prowodow and Schonow.

[cameronian]

The battle started with Hertweg's brigade, under covering fire from two batteries of 4pdrs, attempt to capture wenzlburg. Time and again throughout the two days of play, the brigade stormed forward, sometimes getting a fingerhold in the village, but eventually forced back by fire from the needle gun. It was with some dismay that on Sunday morning DZ saw Hertweg's brigade reform and launch another attack on Wenzelsberg. Worse, the battered Prussian 17th Brigade was forced to retire to the high ground behind the village and the Austrian 25th Jaegers duly occupied the village, however a feature of FOB 1866 is that although casualties are rallied back, losses are noted, and when they reach a certain point the regiment or brigade can break and run, this is what happened and Hertwegh's men finally broke and fled the field, leaving Wenzelsberg to the Prussians.

[petercooman]

Very nice!!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Lovely reports.

[cameronian]

As the battle for Wenzlburg hotted up, Austrian reinforcements arrived, Jonak's brigade from the east and Waldstatten's brigade from the south. Actually, they weren't a particularly serious threat, Jonak spent most of the weekend resolutely refusing to move, as Colin's run of bad dice just ran and ran,while Waldstatten's edged its way forward to the outskirts of Wyskow, then spent most of Sunday failing to advance any further. This was my fault, I should have allowed them to appeal their moves to Ramming whose better command die would almost certainly have got things going. Over on the Austrian left Charles sent Maj. Gen. Rosenweig's brigade into the curve of the railway embankment near Starkoc, where a hill dominated that section of the battlefield, to the north-west of Wyskow. That's the railway curve in the picture below.

[petercooman]

Splendid!

[cameronian]

Then the Austrians deployed their "death star", the VI Corps reserve artillery, augmented by brigade artillery and a spare horse battery, unlimbered to the west of Wyskow, where it had a good field of fire over the centre of the battlefield. The Austrian "grand battery" of 4 & 8pdrs then eviscerated the Prussian infantry one battalion or gun battery at a time, until the defenders were either pulverised or had pulled back to shelter behind any convenient wood or village they could find. This would have been decisive if the Austrians had been able to launch a co-ordinated infantry assault on the Prussian centre, around Wysokow. Unfortunately for them when the moment came they simply couldn't get their troops to move forward. DZ continued to harry them as best he could, sending a dragoon regiment in a death ride charge to pin Jonak's command, and forming a new gun position on the hill behind Wyskow which did its best to return the fire of the Austrian guns.
Over to the left Charles worked the cuirassiers and lancers of the Austrian Reserve Cavalry (Solms and Schindlocker's brigades) around the northern flank of the Prussian line. The plan was to cross the Mettau River and capture Nachod, but the river turned out to be unfordable. A Prussian infantry regiment (the 52nd) had moved north from Nachod to block their path, and it deployed between the river and the hill. The stand-off there continued for a few hours of gaming time, until the Prussians' Corps cavalry arrived to threaten the Austrian horse. In the picture below you can see the Austrian cavalry in their outflanking move. Eventually a combination of Prussian cavalry attacks and infantry firepower did for the Austrians, with the exception of one stalwart regiment of cuirassiers, who effectively demolished the Prussian cavalry through repeatedly charging it, despite the seemingly hopeless odds. This though, didn't really influence the main fight, apart from keeping a useful Prussian infantry regiment away from the main battlefield.

[cameronian]

As Hertweg's brigade collapsed on the right flank on Sunday morning as a result of cumulative losses, so with Rosenweig's command on the left. It had taken heavy casualties from the two Prussian regiments (the 46th and 47th) advancing south through woods towards the railway. At one point Angus planned to pull the Prussians back to form a new defensive line behind a wood, but the stern unspoken disapproval from DZ (a retired Major-General) "encouraged" him to opt for a more aggressive stance. He was quite right. There was a rule that artillery can't fire on targets within 6" of their own troops. This meant that by advancing closer to Rosenweig's men, the Prussians could avoid getting pulverised by the Austrian grand battery. They were also able to make the most of their superior needlegun firepower, and soon Rosenweig's prized unit, the elite 4th Hoch & Deutschmeister Rgt. broke and fled, they were soon followed by the rest of the brigade, leaving a somewhat surprised Prussian commander to chase them from the field.

This was the turning point. The Austrian left was shattered, as was their right. With the Prussians closing in on the centre from both flanks the rest of Ramming's Corps was left with little option but to pull back to the south leaving the Prussians in control of the field. The battle was deemed a Prussian tactical victory, the game a success and a thoroughly enjoyable weekend was had by all.

[Shecky]

You know, since you've already played the game and won't be needing the terrain any more, I'd be glad to take it off your hands.

Seriously, that is a nice table.

[mollinary]

Great report, Cam!   A photo of this beautiful terrain seems to have found its way into the book - wonder how that happened?  Could it be because Dz emerged victorious?  What an uncharitable thought!   Sorry I missed it though,  it is a great looking game.

Mollinary

[Steve J]

Great report Cam and I must say and absolutely wonderful table to look at . I'd love to creat such a table for future games but I know that currently I do not have the storage space . Out of interest how big was the table?

[cameronian]

Great report, Cam!   A photo of this beautiful terrain seems to have found its way into the book - wonder how that happened?  Could it be because Dz emerged victorious?  What an uncharitable thought!   Sorry I missed it though,  it is a great looking game.

Mollinary

LOL, you might very well think that Bernard but I couldn't possibly comment 

[cameronian]

Great report Cam and I must say and absolutely wonderful table to look at . I'd love to creat such a table for future games but I know that currently I do not have the storage space . Out of interest how big was the table?

'Bout 8' x 10', comes in 6 sections, a bugger to set up but gratifying none the less, we're putting it on at Carronade this year so if you want to see it head for Falkirk in May.

[Steve J]

A bit far from Bristol but I look forward to seeing plenty of pics. That's a big table BTW and I'm not sure my back would appreciate leaning over such a bog table . However I think I could endure the pain for a one off game just for the pleasure of playing on such a great looking table .

Having seen your pics I'm not very interested in exploting the FPW in more detail, especially as I have loads of 2mm stuff that would be perfect for this. Also "To the Last Gaiter Button" rules look very interesting so something to consider for the future .

[Shedman]

It looks fantastic

I see that the Continental Wars Society is putting on Nachod at Salute in 10mm - is this the game?

Alan