Thursday 16 June 2016

Bohemian Blitzkrieg Campaign. The set up.

(EDIT: Please ignore the previous version of this post. Due to something equating to a complete cock-up, we will restart the campaign from scratch).

We are about to start our Bohemian Blitzkrieg campaign. This campaign is the campaign that features in Campaigns and Battles From The Age of Reason by Tod Kershner and Dale Wood. It is with Tod's kind permission that I am able to post images of the map and, in writing up the campaign as it unfolds, some of the scenario notes and rule stuff.  

"In the April of 1757 Frederick of Prussia’s second great campaign of the Seven Years War began as four massive columns of dark blue troops entered the Austrian-held province of Bohemia from the strategic heartlands of Silesia and Saxony.

In a lightening movement, the Prussians concentrated at Prague and fought one of the bloodiest battles of the war that ended in a costly victory for Frederick. Prussian losses were slightly higher than the Austrians and the irreplaceable general Schwerin was killed by a blast of cannister. The Austrians payed dearly, as well, with the loss of von Browne, hero of Lobositz, also mortally wounded leading a bayonet charge.

In June the Prussians fought again, but this time their opponent was Marshal Daun and a vastly superior army at Kolin. The ‘Great King’ launched a doomed frontal attack on the white-coats’ strong position and was decisively defeated in a blood-soaked and demoralising repulse.

Through June and July the Prussians lingered in Bohemia but the initiative had passed to the Austrians and by August events in north-western Germany compelled Frederick to vacate the province and deal with the growing threat posed by the French and Reichs Army.

Frederick would return and avenge his first major defeat with his crowning masterpiece of Leuthen but that, as they say, is another story……………….."

Where possible we will be fighting the campaign exactly as written but, because we will be doing the map moves by email, and because we will be using our house amended Piquet rules to fight the table-top battles, I have had to make some alterations to the campaign rules so that it will work. Where rule changes have an effect on the way the campaign is played and unfolds I will detail the changes as they are applied.


The Map
The Map is a scanned and enlarged copy of the map as it appears in the book except that I've added some colour coding. Pink dots are rough terrain. Names highlighted in yellow are supply base dots.

Blue map pins are Prussian, yellow ones are Austrian. The larger map pins show the name of the force commander, the commanders rank (top) and initiative rating (bottom). The small pins the last side to occupy /pass through the dot and indicate 'possession': in effect they show possible routes of supply.

The Starting Positions
Graham: Austrian
Browne at Budin with 37 SPs.
Konigseck at Reichenberg with 19 SPs.
Macquire at Gabel with 13 SPs.
Serbelloni at Koniggratz with 34 SPs.

Starting VPs - 59
Peter: Prussian
Frederick at Dresden with 49 SPs.
Bevern at Zittau with 25 SPs.
Schwerin at Landshut with 42 SPs.

Starting VPs - 14









The Campaign Roster Sheets 
To save on paperwork, and to keep everything in one place and organised, we will use my usual army campaign roster sheets.

RULE NOTE: In the campaign rules it says that players should choose each commander they wish to activate in turn, roll to see if he does, move him, then move onto the next commander. We are playing the map moves by email so, to speed play, each player will be sending orders for all commanders at the same time and I, as umpire, will roll to see if they activate, move them as ordered, and then report successful movements to both players. 

So that neither player is fully aware of the other's strategy I will only detail moves made; I will not detail any commander's failure to activate or any orders he has failed to carry out.

So there it is. Ready to go again. Good luck chaps.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi James
Very pleased to see you're using Todd & Dales Bohemian Blitzkrieg campaign, Over the last year or two I have been asking if there was an campaign in the offing for an Eastern front campaign but to no avail, if there were this complete the trilogy with Brunswick's war
Ian

JAMES ROACH said...

Hi Ian, Many years ago I took Bohemian Blitzkrieg as the base to do (if I remember rightly) a three way campaign based (very loosely) on the 1759 campaign with allied Russians and Austrians fighting it out with the Prussians on the Oder. It was called "Another River To Cross", which I always thought a very good name for a campaign. By the by, I can't remember that much about it but I might sill have it on an old hard drive somewhere. If you drop me a line via email (see side bar for contact details) I'll have a root around for you - the map might be useful if nothing else.

If this campaign works, and the lads enjoy it, I'll probably write a new version of Another River to Cross anyway. I've always liked the look of the Paltzig / Kay and Kunnersdorf campaign, especially as it involves, with the odd 'what if' - such as possible independent Austrian forays towards Berlin, three genuine players. With all of the SYW collection painted it seems a waste not to get some serious campaigning done with them, even if it means bending history a bit to get it all going at once.

James