SYW Wargame Campaign Report: Week 6

Jaeger and Grenzer skirmish in the Bohemian foothils

Dear Reader,

Today, I am reporting on the sixth week of the Seven Years War Campaign which I have been umpiring over the last two months. You can find links to previous weeks at the bottom of the post. Beginning in the middle of March, the campaign is ongoing and still in progress. The period of time for today's post is roughly April 22nd-28th. Below is a map for those dates. As stated before, the campaign switched to a new map to allow for in the inclusion of a few more players.  I have first included the new map, followed by an update from the old map.

The new campaign map for week 6 

In this week, Prussian forces drove the Swedes back in the direction of Stralsund in the far north. In Saxony, Reichsarmee forces were on the retreat, informed that the King of Prussia had arrived in the area. On the Oder/Russian sector, Zieten pulled off an impressive maneuver, covering hundreds of miles in a short period of time with the cavalry of his army and General Huelsen's army, riding from the Oder to Saxony and back without his absence being reported to the enemy. General Tchernychev returned to Russian positions around Schwibus, and launched another raid on the enemy.  In Silesia, Austrian forces confronted the small army of the Duke of Bevern, pursuing him from a position around Schweidnitz, and running unexpectedly into Frederick and Bevern's combined force around Landshut.  Sieges proceeded at Glatz and Schweidnitz.  In a rare bit of good fortune, no major tabletop battles were fought in this week, and the umpire breathed a large sigh of relief. 

The Old Campaign Map for Week

In the north, no major battles were fought, and the Swedish commander pulled his forces back from Anklam, and holed up inside Stralsund with his army and supporting naval squadron. Generals Mantueffel and Dohna constructed a fortified camp outside of Stralsund, attempted to blockade the position from the landward side. General Dohna also sent out several raiding forces, in an effort to collect funds for the ongoing war effort.

In the Russian theater of war, General Buturlin waited fairly patiently for the arrival of reinforcements under the command of both Generals Saltykov and Rumyantsev, who had been redeployed from areas where they were going to cooperate with the Austrian Army. General Tchernychev returned from his first raiding expedition, and departed on his second raid. General Zieten, growing nervous that the quiet Russians in his front boded poorly for other theaters, rode from the Oder river near Gruenberg to Muska in Saxony in under a week, to date the fastest redeployment of troops during this campaign. Zieten met with Frederick briefly in Saxony, and turned his forces back towards the Russian position.

In Saxony, the arrival of the King sent the Austrians into a hasty retreated.  Prince August Ferdinand (Henri's successor) marched south, reuniting his army with the forces under FM Keith in Dresden. Prince A.F. than turned over his command to Keith, the senior officer. During the same period, General d' Kavallerie Serbelloni took his force to the southwest, crossing the Elbe at Meissen, and linking up with forces under the command of General Hadik near Chemnitz.

In Silesia, the Austrians pursued a siege at Glatz, really blockading the city, while dispatching most of their force north towards Schweidnitz. Aggressively maneuvering from the area of Glatz, the armies of Daun and Loudon approached the entrenched camp of the Duke of Bevern. The umpire lovingly spent 4 hours finding period maps of this location for a potential conflict, only to have the ungrateful Duke of Bevern withdraw immediately before the vastly superior enemy forces.

A report to the Duke of Bevern on his defensive position near Schweidnitz
(from a 1736 map)

Bevern, ever canny, moved his forces to the northwest, and then sharply cut to the south, bringing his army into a position near Hirschberg. The Austrians initially let him go, and pursued a siege at Schweidnitz.

An Austrian progress report from the Siege of Schweidnitz

 Frederick's force, moving a great rate of speed from Saxony, met Bevern near Hirschberg. Together,  they immediately moved in the direction of Schweidnitz, via Landshut. Since the Prussian Royal Army had left Breslau over two weeks earlier, the Austrians had been unaware of its position. Worrying that Bevern might be threatening their communications, the hot-tempered Ernst Gideon von Loudon took his force from Schweidnitz, ignoring a directive from General Neipperg, and moved to Landshut.

The Austrian forces under Loudon near Landshut

On the evening of April 28th, both the Prussian forces and the Austrians became aware of the enemy to their front. The combined armies of Frederick and Bevern numbered 70,000 men, while the forces under Loudon were much smaller, in the neighborhood of 30,000 men. Realizing the danger that his forces were in, Loudon immediately ordered his troops into defensive positions, and awaited the Prussian onslaught.

Everything hung in the balance. The arrival of the King's Army had temporarily restored their situation in Saxony, new field commanders had driven the Swedes back to Stralsund in the north, and in Silesia, all things pointed to a massive victory over Loudon. Tune in next week, as the Prussians began their most daring operational maneuver of the war to date. 

Background and Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

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Thanks for Reading, 

Alex Burns