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Friday, March 04, 2011

The Battle of Trautenau

Today I have a guest blogger, John Mumby of the Colorado Military Historians club describing a battle he ran at Genghis Con on Feb. 19, 2011. Take it away John.

Austrians  vs. Prussians

Overview

Scenario: Trautenau 1866 Austro-Prussian War

Location: Genghis Con, Denver, Colorado, USA

Date Played: Saturday, February 19, 2011

The battle of Trautenau was the only battle that the Austrians won against the Prussians in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. The game that I hosted at Genghis Con on February 19, 2011 is based on this battle.

Deployment

The Prussians have 5 infantry battalions, 1 jaeger battalion, 1 light cavalry regiment, 3 field gun batteries, 1 brigadier general, and the Commander-in-Chief coming in by the bridge (at the top of the map). Next to that Line of Communication (a game concept in the rules used), the Prussians have 4 infantry battalions, 1 light cavalry regiment, 2 heavy cavalry regiments, 1 horse gun battery, 2 field gun batteries, 1 cavalry brigadier general, 1 brigadier general, and 1 division general.

The Austrians in the left corner (bottom of the map) have 4 infantry battalions, 1 jaeger battalion, 1 light cavalry regiment, 3 field gun batteries, 1 rocket battery, 1 brigadier general, and the Commander-in-Chief. Between the farm and the woods, the second Austrian player has 4 infantry battalions, 1 jaeger battalion, 1 light cavalry regiment, 2 heavy cavalry regiments, 1 horse gun battery, 3 field gun batteries, 1 cavalry brigadier general, and 1 brigadier general.

Victory Conditions

The two blue bullseyes (at the top of the map) are Prussian Lines of Communication (LOC) while the two red bullseyes (at the bottom of the map) are Austrian Lines of Communications. Each  LOC is worth one victory point each. The three hills with black bullseyes and the village of Trautenau are also worth 1 victory point each. There are 8 bullseyes on the table so the game could end in a tie.

The Game

The score at Genghis Con was Prussians 4, Austrians 3, with the middle hill disputed (no points scored because both players had units on the hill). The Prussians won the game on the last turn!! The same thing happened the week before at our club meeting (Colorado Military Historians) while playtesting the scenario. The rules used are Wars of Empire I by Keith Warren and Real Time Wargames. This map was created with the free Battle Chronicler software. You can find more discussion on these rules and other Real Time Wargaming rules, and the definition file for Battle Chronicler, on the Real Time Wargaming forum on Yahoo.

Thanks again to John Mumby for guest blogging today's entry.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks, Dale, for putting this battle report on your blog site. Several gamers at are club want me to host the game again at our meeting on the 13th. I'll let you know the outcome.
    John

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  2. OK - a very belated question - how long did the game take? I'm looking at various grid\hex-based miniatures rulesets with the aim of running 4-6 player games in 2-3 hours.

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  3. Dave,

    As indicated in the blog entry this was written by a guest blogger. I am fair sure that the rules meet your criteria, but I have emailed John to verify.

    Stay tuned.

    Dale

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  4. From John,

    "Thanks for your question. I have played this scenario 3 times now with 2-3 players per side. I would say that the shortest time was 2 1/2 hours with 3 1/2 hours being the longest. These playing times were with players not knowing the rules (the longest game had a 9 and 10 year old playing, too)."

    Dave, if you are interested in these rules, I recommend you join the Real Time Wargaming forum on Yahoo. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/real_time_wargaming/)

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