This scenario was developed by Andrew Nicoll.
Introduction
The battle starts at 14.00 with the Austrians moving first. Last turn is 19.00 since it's getting dark. Prussians have to defeat the Austrian army and/or take Mollwitz town. If the Austrian packs Mollwitz town with his 2nd line and everything else gets beaten, we decided the day should be awarded to the Prussians. The Austrians only have to avoid a Prussian victory.
Order of Battle
Austrian Army, Neipperg (AC)
Left Wing Cavalry, Romer DC, Exhaustion = 5
- Hohenembs/Birkenfeld Cuirassiers M5 [ ][ ][ ]
- Seherr/Lanthieri Cuirassiers M6 [ ][ ][ ]
- Althann/Ligne Dragoons M5 [ ][ ][ ]
First Line Infantry, Browne DC, Exhaustion = 6
- Lothringen Regiment M5 [ ][ ]
- Heister/Botta d'Adorno Regiments M4 [ ][ ]
- Browne/Kollowrat Regiments M4 [ ][ ]
- Baden-Baden Regiment M4 [ ][ ]
- O'Glivy Regiment M4 [ ][ ]
- Karl von Lothringen Regiment M4 [ ][ ]
Second Line Infantry, Kollowrat DC, Exhaustion = 3
- Daun Regiment M4 [ ][ ]
- Thungen Regiment M4 [ ][ ]
- Grunne/Harrach Regiments M4 [ ][ ]
Right Wing Cavalry, Berlichingen DC, Exhaustion = 3
- Hohenzollern/Cordua Cuirassiers M5 [ ][ ][ ]
- Liechtenstein/Batthyany Dragoons M5 [ ][ ]
- Wurttemberg Dragoons M5 [ ][ ]
Notes:
- All infantry has battalion guns (the Austrians possessed only 19 guns in total).
- All infantry has grenadiers present.
Austrian cavalry regiments fielded up to 8 or 9 squadrons in this period, hence why many of the cavalry bdes are big. The cavalry morale ratings are fairly arbitrary, and meant only to ensure that they beat the Prussian right wing cavalry fairly handily, but don't crush the infantry.
Theoretically there are some Austrian Hussars floating about between the infantry lines, but they don't seem to have done anything. Since this was an introductory game for some of the players we left them out. Including them (probably as 2 x 1-5 militia skirmishers since the Hungarians were pretty indisciplined this early) would give some silly command problems.
The infantry has one battalion too many in the first line and one too few in the second. The line comes out the right length though, which is why we didn't give some 3 point regiments. Both lines were in fact split into left and right divisions: these are too small for V&B, so we combined them and nominated one of the Generals as the commander for each line.
Prussian Army, No army commander
Right Wing Cavalry, Schulenburg DC, Exhaustion = 2
- Gens d'Armes/Leib-Carabinier Cuirassiers M5 [ ] [ ]
- Schulenberg Dragoons M4 [ ] [ ]
- 5/21 & 3/22 Grenadiers M6 [ ] [ ] st
Infantry Corps Commander: von Schwerin
First Line Infantry, von Marwitz DC, Exhaustion = 9
- 1/25 Grenadiers/Garde IR M6 [ ] [ ] st
- Kleist IR M6 [ ] [ ]
- Brandenburg IR M6 [ ] [ ]
- Klackstein IR M6 [ ] [ ]
- Waldburg IR M6 [ ] [ ]
- Prinz Leopold IR M6 [ ] [ ]
- von Schwerin IR M6 [ ] [ ]
- 13/29 & 20/22 Grenadiers M6 [ ] [ ] st
- Field Arty Bn M5 [ ] [ ] pt
Second Line Infantry, unknown DC, Exhaustion = 5
- Anhalt-Dessau IR M6 [ ] [ ]
- Glasenapp/von Borcke IRs M6 [ ] [ ]
- Saxe-Eisenach Fusilier Regiment M5 [ ] [ ]
- Brandenburg-Schwedt IR M6 [ ] [ ]
- von Bredow IR M6 [ ] [ ]
- von Sydow IR M6 [ ] [ ]
Left Wing Cavalry, Posadowsky DC, Exhaustion = 2
- von Platen/Bayreuth Dragoons M5 [ ] [ ]
- Brandenburg-Schwedt Cuirassiers/Leib Hussars M5 [ ] [ ]
Notes:
- Left Wing mixed cav bde is half Cuirassiers, half Hussars. Moves as Cuirassiers, but fights as Dragoons.
- There is no army commander (Frederick left the field early in the day)
- von Schwerin can command any infantry unit, including the Grenadiers in the right wing cavalry.
- All infantry has battalion guns.
- No infantry has Grenadiers present.
The infantry has been mucked about a bit to fit a V&B orbat. There were actually 7 Grenadier battalions and 1 battalion of IR15 present, so perhaps we've docked the Prussians a bit in not having 4 shock units. The remainder were combined into ordinary infantry units to make up the numbers, since they were deployed singly. E.g. the first line reads from right to left, and is missing 12/4 Grenadiers at the left (who really belong to Posadowsky's cavalry), but counts two points for IR25 who were only fielding one battalion. Similarly in the second line 8/36 Grenadiers are missing from between IR12 and IR7. We factored them out on the grounds that Grenadier battalions were smaller than Musketeer battalions. Alternatively give one of the second line regiments 3 strength points, but I dislike this approach.
IR40 is a Fusilier regiment. I've followed the standard predjudice and rated its morale lower than the Musketeers.
Yes the Prussian right wing cavalry is awful. It fled disgracefully on the day.
The Austrians come out a little short of their stated total (in Duffy) of 10,000 infantry. 6/7 Dragoons possibly also deserve another strength point, although the Austrian cavalry total tallies with Duffy. The Prussian total point count comes out to quite a lot less than their total (Duffy) of 21,500. The shortfall seems to be about 5 points, mostly in the infantry. My guess is that this comes from the Prussian battalions averaging something like 600 men each vice the 500 assumed for a V&B strength point. I have a fairly intense dislike for 3 point regiments (they are too durable), so we wrote this difference off partly to balancing the above mentioned Austrian shortfall, and partly to justify the 2-step morale advantage of the Prussians. As given they already have an awful lot of awfully good infantry! The Bayreuth Dragoons (D5) were one of the 10 sqn monsters, which we haven't accounted for, so Posadowsky's Dragoon Bde could be made into a 3-pointer. If Duffy's map is to scale, this gives the Prussians too much cavalry on the left. In this case I think I'd still say 50% of 5 is 2, so it doesn't matter much.
Map
The big squares are 1' along a side.
Both streams are marshy-banked. Mollwitz and Pampitz are towns, Gruninghen and Hermsdorf villages. Trails between the settlements are shown, but have no military value, not least because the ground is covered in moderately deep snow.
Historical deployments are shown by the thin red lines.
A-B is the Austrian first line, with both cavalry wings and the first line infantry. It is probably necessary to deploy the right wing cavalry brigades two up and one back in order to make them fit, since the 3 bdes should only consume 7" of frontage. C-D is the second line infantry only.
E is the Prussian left wing cavalry.
F-G is the Prussian first line infantry and right wing cavalry. the infantry stops at K. Since the Prussians had screwed up their deployment bits of the first line ended up in the space K-J. One V&B regiment is about right here, facing out at right angles to the main lines. The left-most grenadier unit should have only stream to its front.
The best way to represent the right wing Prussian cavalry is (from left to right) Cuirassier Bde, Grenadier Rgt, Dragoon Bde. The Austrian left wing cavalry shouldn't extend past the Dragoons by more than half a base or so.
H-J is the Prussian second line. Theoretically this was 200 yards behind the first, but given the intervening unit, making it 3" seems right.
The Prussian artillery is in front of the infantry line at K. It can start unlimbered, and should probably count as supported by the infantry unit behind it.
Sources
- Duffy
- Seven Years War Association Journal, Vol VI no 1 (Sept 1992)