With a great delay, I’m writing a kind of
battle report for the match we fought some Saturdays ago. The idea was to
recreate the battle of Zorndorf using Might & Reason rule systems. I have
to be honest … it was the first time a I played with this rulebook but the
system of game works well as in all games written by Sam Mustafa.
The battle of Zorndorf was fought on August
25, 1758 during the Seven Year’s war between the Russians, commanded by Count
William Fermor, and the Prussian army under the rule of King Frederick the
Great. Unfortunately the battle was inconclusive and was fought in a land with
more linear obstacles (ie marshes, woods and so on)
The historical researches and the preparation
of the battle is totally thanks to Ezio
Below the map with the orginal deployment …
… and the initial deployment in the match.
Please notes the fire in the village in the bottom of the photo … Ezio was so
accurate to recreate the battle that he decided to put the fire into the
village because, before the struggle, some light Russian cavalry regiments got
to burn the village at the back of Prussian army.
All miniatures are 15mm and they are mainly
painted by Alberto M. (another club member). On the table there were around 51
units plus the commanders.
I had the control of Prussian troops. For me
it was the first match using M&R rules so my initial attack was not so
coordinated. I attacked on the center and I used my two wings of cavalry as
screen. The Russians were under the commander of Ezio and Flavio
My first fire
After the cannons' fire my troops advance …
… brave men
My cavalry regiments on the left try to reach
Russian light cavalry but the terrain is covered by marshes and it is not a
great idea to do it. In real battle these regiments will be redeployed on the
center after some hours
On the right my cavalry tries some skirmish
attacks against the Russians.
I continues my attack on the center …
On the right my remaining infantry units are
steady. In the real history they attacked the Russian Observation Corps after the main attack in the center was repelled.
On the center the struggle continues and the
Russians decided to use their cavalry to repelled my troops.
This action was particular strange because we
found in an Osprey publishing book the same imagine
On the right it is a cavalry match
Considering that on the center I started to
have some troubles, I decided to redeploy the cavalry regiments on the left …
… while I’m recreating the line
On the right my cavalry is destroyed by the
Russians so I start to move infantry against Russian Observation Corps with a
little screen of two cavalry regiment of my reserve
The real battle continues on the center but my
cavalry does not create holes
The final position of the two armies …
… a draw as in the real battle
Below a schematic explanation of the real
battle mouvements
I know that it is a very long post but I
cannot publish some further detail of the battle
Russian infantry
Prussian cavalry
A detail of Russian cannons that are firing
King Frederick the Great
Russian cavalry against Prussian infantry
