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Saturday 12 February 2022

A last Hurrah?

 Today we had another Prussian/Russian battle in the Seven Years war, and had a very...unusual game!

Sadly, the camera I have been using for my blog posts (for nearly 20 years!) died half way through the game, so Phil took some pics on his phone, so the pics look rather different later on in the post.

Phil with the Russians, had really bad die rolls for initiative, so ended up with a small deployment area.

I set up opposite his infantry on the Prussian left.
I had a cavalry brigade way out on the left, in case the Russian cavalry reserve came through the wood on the Russian right.
The mass of Russian grenadiers and Corps of Observation troops looked more likely to come against my cavalry though.
Lawrence, on my right had no luck moving Seydlitz's strong cavalry wing.
My cavalry were deciding what to do!
As expected the Russian Corps of Observation moved onto their right to face my horse.
On the Russian left, their strong cavalry wing advanced.
They looked like they were hoping for a miracle!
My cavalry wing now tried something I have never seen in any of our games, a move from one wing of the army to the other, I took the risk that the Russian's infantry would not reach me till I made it to Lawrence's wing!
Lawrence got his Hussars and Frei Korps moving to occupy the wood to their front.
Lawrence also got KR7 to charge the Serbski Hussars, who put up a hard fight...
...before routing through the following regiments of Russian horse!
KR7 pursued into some Russian Cuirassiers and Routed them too!
At this point my camera broke, and produced pictures like this!

So, on to Phil's phone camera!

Lawrence's Hussars  raced out of the wood to engage the Cossacks of the reserve Russian cavalry brigade, which had now arrived on their left.

The Russian reserves set up to contain KR7!
Lawrence had advanced an infantry regiment to support his cavalry, but the Russian left wing infantry brought the under fire.
KR7 crashed into the Russian reserve's Cuirassiers and met their end.
The hussar battle had been tough, the Cossacks finally retreated!
My migrating wing was moving rapidly in front and behind my front line infantry.
Lawrence tried to get his Hussars to chase the Cossacks, but they were blown.
The second of Lawrence's Kuirassier regiments moved on the Russians, while the supporting infantry began moving round the Russian infantry flank.
The Russian infantry facing my denuded wing of Prussians now began a slow and steady advance.
My cavalry just managed to escape being trapped by the Russian infantry!
The Russian Cuirassiers facing Lawrence failed to charge!
The Prussian infantry were having a hard fight against the Russian left wing infantry.
Their return fire was slowly knocking Ivans down!
My cavalry wing reached the Right of our army and deployed cleanly into battle formation.
The Russian left wing Infantry were coming under pressure, my arrival to support Lawrence's heavily engaged cavalry allowed him to use his infantry to outflank the Russian infantry line.
A heavy Russian gun ws destroyed.
The Russian second line infantry closed with and destroyed one of Lawrence's battalions.
The second Battalion of the regiment retreated under the pressure.
Lawrence's Kuirassiers charge dth standing Russian horse, but the Russians put up a fierce fight before retreating.
Another Russian Cuirassier regiment wheeled to attack the Blown Hussars.
The Russian right looked likely to outflank my infantry.
My heavy gun fired ineffectively. 
Lawrence's infantry moved to engage the stubborn Russian infantry.
Having destroyed the Russian gun, Lawrence moved onto the Infantry wing.
Lawrence's Dragoons moved through the wood to support his Hussars!
The Russian Cuirassiers had failed to charge, Lawrence had the Hussars try a desperate charge themselves...
...but Lawrence's last Kuirassier regiment charged the Russians flank and they routed!
The Russian infantry were unable to advance with their flank open and under attack.
The flank unit finally went into a retreat.
They disrupted the following infantry.
The Russian grenadiers tried to outflank my gun, but I survived!
My infantry fought back hard.
Lawrence's pursuing Kuirassiers ran into the Horse Grenadiers and were defeated!
My Kuirassiers prepared to sweep the rest of the Russian cavalry away.'
At this point, Phil finally ceded the battle to the Prussians!

I was amazed again how the Russians held up so well in such a difficult situation, even with half the army in tatters, individual Russian units still resisted bravely.

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