This is a series 120 game, from the 120 counters in it, and perhaps the 120 minutes it should take to play it. It is from 1978 and was designed by the renowned Frank Alan Chadwick [click], of Space 1889, Command Decision, Traveller, Striker, and lots of other game-fame. Time has relentlessly marched on, so the operative question is, "How does this game stand up 40 years later??" Well, the answer is forthcoming, friends!
This little project got started when "Sound Officer's Call" Steve hosted a Lobositz inspired game of "Eagles Cheaper than Brain Cells", using One-Hour Wargames Scenario #21 "Twin Objectives" which is in fact based upon the Battle of Lobositz. After playing the scenario [click] Steve mentioned that he had a mint copy of the game, loaned it to me and invited me to try it out. I promptly forgot about it, until I was sorting out my office and decided I had to give it a go and see what I thought of it - after all, any thing by Frank Chadwick should be worth investigating, even in the next century!
First, I photo-copied the rules, so I could mark them up with brilliant thoughts and observations [or deluded ramblings and half-baked ideas as the case may be....]
Than I staged a suitable area of playtesting, respectful of the era: oil paintings, ancestral photos [wife's side], antique office chair, glass of red wine [sanguinary and without the bacteria that infests European water], chandelier [reminiscent of a bygone age]:
Map a bent mess...
...solved by protective plexiglass that also smooths it out.
To handle the fog with solo play, I paired all the Austrian Units up with a similar unit, stacked them, turned them upside down, mixed them up, and deployed them. This takes into account that a march column would probably have a few units of similar type near one another, not be a battalion / battery / regimental mish-mash. Best I could think of.
unfortunate downside of elegant chandelier is strong reflection on the plastic!
I decided to take the roll of the aggressor and victor, the Prussians, and deployed them as best as I could think, with the Austrians unstacked by pair down the length of their march column. The general plan is to lead an attack with the best Prussian infantry, backed by cavalry, and last by the artillery which is hampered due to the fog. King Frederick lead the attack with cavalry, which was repulsed, and I don't want to make the same error - they're slower, but infantry should be more flexible and have more staying power.
Below, the Blue are Prussian, the red are Croats, and the blank white counters are the Austrian main body and advance guard. I hope to seize the village of Lobositz while grinding down the Croats and blocking the eventual advance of the Austrians south of the river.
Turn 1, Prussian Infantry advance. Three infantry and two cavalry regiments are able to get into melee positions first turn - the adjacent Austrian Units are revealed as two artillery at top, and one infantry [French...?] and a cavalry Unit at bottom. They can't fire when they move, but infantry can assault. This introduces a little issue I have...one can charge without any preparation, which I doubt they did much of in real life - at least they'd have put a few volleys into a steady opponent first. One can argue that this is part of the "melee" I suppose.
Turn 1, Defensive Fire results are 1 Hit on the top unit, and a devastating 3 Hits on the bottom one, by Artillery. [low rolling is good in this game] Vorwarts! The assault must be pressed home!
At bottom, the French knock off one Hit [should be a '2'] The cavalry don't shoot, of course.
Turn 1, Melee Phase. The Prussians roll morale to charge. One Infantry [top] blows it with a '6' needing a '5' or less, and at bottom, the same happens to one cavalry - frustrating, but hey, it is foggy outside... The other Prussian Units cannot fail with a '6' morale. Defense morale is not taken for the Artillery - they automatically pass. At bottom, the French rout [restraining myself from French jokes here...] and the cavalry pass. The unit that the French infantry routs thru also routs...
French Rout, continued; ...and there's a great mess of four routed Austrian Units trailing to their board edge. Meanwhile, the one cavalry unit stands, as the Prussian cavalry advance into the space vacated by the retreating French [with allies like this...]. Being adjacent to an Austrian Unit, it is flipped over to reveal another '4' morale infantry.
Meanwhile, back at the guns, the Prussians press home their attack; in the melee, both sides roll a '1' to which is added morale and strength. The Prussians win - Artillery is eliminated when losing a melee [unfortunately, I did calculation wrong...the Hits a Unit has taken are subtracted from morale! First time play oh well].
Over at Lobosch Hill, the Prussian infantry charge the Croats and all pass morale. This went pretty well, with one Croat failing morale and fleeing. With a '3' morale, they've only a 50% chance to pass...
Prussians win melee easily, and other Croat routs away to the East.
End of Prussian Turn 1. Not bad, a general advance has been made and six Austrian Units are in rout. Better than Frederick did, but hey, I have hindsight!
Austrian Turn 1. Situation OK if not great. Obvious plan is to consolidate on the village and hope to hold out until turn 6 when the main body south of the stream can counter-attack.
In movement, there's a general counter-attack by Austrian infantry in the North, and consolidation by Hungarians [light blue] in the center. Rally phase doesn't go all that well, with several failures resulting in continued routing and some units on the edge of the board [boy, it's like I have a TALENT to fail these rolls in this game!!]. One Croat fails, one passes.
Austrian cavalry counter-attack the advancing Prussians, hoping that some Infantry will rally and get back into the fight, at least to hold the sunken road [dark brown line framed by black dots] and a link to the many Units on the other side of the river.
Prussian defensive fire inflicts 1 and 2 Hits respectively, against the North infantry Units.
Austrians charge home and out-roll the Prussians. The bottom unit is eliminated and the other routs. Austrians advance and take ground - for the Empress!
Southwest of Lobositz, the streak continues with the Austrian Cavalry routing both their opponents - this eliminates the small strength '1' Cavalry, while the other routs.
End of Austrian Turn 1. Counter-attacks got them some space and time.
Prussian Turn 2. Infantry continue their advance, with gaps between Austrian Units getting filled by advancing Prussians. Prussian assaults take ground and rout Austrian infantry near Lobositz. However, in the South the Austrian cavalry roll high on both melees. The top one routs their Prussian cavalry opponents, and the bottom one ties...
and on the re-roll of the tie the Austrians lose, and rout away to the east.
End of Prussian Turn 2. Prussian attacks have forced the Austrians against the Elbe River in the North, while Austrian counter-attacks in the South have largely been pushed back. Due to my many failed morale checks, a lot of Austrian Units have routed off the table, about 6-8, while the Prussians have 2 dead and three routing. This is pretty serious.
Austrian Turn 2. The Croats organize themselves, get their backs off the river, and attack the Prussians. Unfortunately, they shoot poorly, inflicting just one Hit. Rest of the forces consolidate on Lobositz and the sunken road. It seems like enough to hold out for a while.
As you can see, there's a lot of Austrian Units waiting for the fog to lift...
Turn 3. In the North, the Prussians have ground down some of the Croats. In the Center, they've Advanced on Lobositz while teh Austrians work hard to hang on to both Lobosch Hill and Lobositz. A few units did rally at the board edge for both sides, but the Austrians are much nearer theirs, and hopefully they'll make a difference next turn!
Prussian Turn 4. A series of well-coordinated attacks rout most of the Croats off Lobosch Hill. They are being forced back against the Elbe, again. Attacks on Lobositz rout most of the defenders away, and most of the village has fallen. Routed Prussian cavalry dash back to the front lines. The East board edge is full of routed Austrians, again.
Austrian Turn 4. In the North, Croats fail to rally and rout "east" along the river. The battery and one Croat are holding off a bunch of Prussians, but the battery devastates the Prussian cavalry next to it. Austrians advance in the South, forming a new line from the Sunken Road to the East end of Lobositz [hopefully, it has the best Inns and genuine German Lager!].
Turns 5-6. The Prussians have cleared out all the North and consolidated their hold on Lobositz, including setting up a devastating array of artillery batteries against the Austrians south of the streams and swamps. The slow crossing of it by Austrian Units will certainly be a dreadful slaughter and the remnants attacked by Prussian cavalry. With no Austrians on the North, the Prussians have a unified defense to the South, and altho the village doesn't offer defenders any benefit, the stream is a significant barrier.
Furthermore, the tally of dead at this point is 9 Austrians, 8 Croats and 1 Frenchie v. about six Prussians. I don't see any way for the Austrians to pull this off, and I'd like to try again with my better knowledge of the rules. So...GAME OVER!
This is a great little pocket game. Sure, the graphics are dated, but they're effective enough and the retro look is nostalgic to me, anyway. I do have some complaints about the rules and the scenario, but it is probably worth the time to fix them and play it again. This definitely makes me a bit more interested in trying to do more "full battle" games and even try and adapt these rules into miniatures. The system is almost miniature like anyway.
So, that being said, some thoughts on the rules:
Assaulting is a bit "too good" as players have the ability to set up and choose their assaults during their movement, and if they fail their morale to charge nothing happens. If the defender fails they rout, which is as good as winning the assault [they take a 1SP loss and rout]. So assaulting with elite morale '6' troops is pretty much a no-brainer against morale 4-5 troops.
- I would just give them a penalty during the melee instead.
- Alternatively, one could give the defender a +1 to morale, representing Clauswitz's theory of the strength of the defense [which I sort of buy into].
The Croats get trapped against the river and rout off the hill if they "rout east", so it is hard for them to hold the hill as they flee parallel to the Prussians and off it!
- Croats should retreat North, not East.
- There has GOT to be an advantage to defending a town from assault! At least a +1 bonus.
The sense of linear warfare isn't there since all units fight equally well in every direction.
- Give Units a front and rear facing. They can only fight and have a ZoC to the front.
- They should be penalized if assaulted on the rear.
There's an artificial ability to concentrate firepower by ignoring some Units you are adjacent to and shoot at others with multiple Units.
- Try a rule that says as many adjacent enemy Units as possible must be fired upon, if not assaulted.
Seems like everyone ends up routing. Sure I rolled badly, but it does seem like Units rout very easily.
- The side that loses melee rolls morale; if they fail, they rout, if they pass, they retreat one hex.
- Also, could give Units a +1 for morale if they are supported by two Units to flank / rear.
All this being said, it probably isn't much to change, but would require more playtesting. I think this would make a great little set of rules for Portable Wargaming on a grid - the linear nature of the fighting would be even cleaner with grids rather than a hexagonal board.
Overall, I recommend getting a copy of this game, or at least the rules, and trying it out. It is available for $10-20 in the second-hand market, or you can swap and borrow from friends with huge game collections!
I know I'd like to try it again - the drama of the battle is well captured, and the taking of morale checks gives good feel, and the firepower table is pretty good, altho the artillery seems like it may be a bit too powerful. So, "Two Thumbs Up!"
