Hold: Pratplatkof

 Some explanation and commentary here for the battle of Pratplatkof. This is behind the scenes and Out of Character. 

The In Character video report is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOni1nTXyk0

I made up a screen for the background of shots so folks don't see so much of my shed. The clouds are blu-tak'd on, so can move to show the passage of time - or fall off without me noticing to destroy any and all realism.

Houses and Trees are inherited from the old QMCG inc - Warhounds - I was there at the final division of the spoils, and took some things. The houses are too big for 15mm scale, but look okay in the distance.

The Maustrian Militia - they don't have the orange band at the top of their flag to show they are not part of the full-time Military (or something - make up your own story). 

For this game I used my 15mm AWI figures - but both sides are the Continentals - no redcoats, since there are no Crimsonians on the field. 

The Maustrian right - you can see that some of the flags are on upside down - the Orange should be on the top. I need to pay more attention to this kind of thing...

The Maustrian Left. Militia in front, regulars behind. Militia run when a unit nearby breaks, so there is no point putting Militia in the back, since if they make it to the front the unit they were behind would have broken anyway.

In my test photos I had a flag bearer follow Stepka around so it would be easy to see where he was. I decided against it as it was too distracting in the photos.

See what I mean about the flag? 
The road is rice that has been "washed" with food colouring, and then dried. I've had it for years. It makes for a flexible road path, looks good from a distance, and is only slightly annoying to clean up at the end. 10/10, would recommend. 

General Von Mauskopf and Prince Stepka meet before the battle, calling on each other to surrender. The audio section of this was damaged in the video report, so that's what happened there.

I think this is where I decided to get rid of Stepka's Banner.

Yup. Gone now.

Lots of photos. This was going to be a big thing, with speeches, and rhetorical flourishes.

And from above, showing the whole field. The fences are merely for display, by the way - they had no effect on the battle or rolls.

Opening Cannon fire. The orders were "focus on counter battery fire."

I added some arrows to show movement.

The Maustrians move into range - except against the Guards - the Infantry does not want to end up in grapeshot range of the Adoean Artillery.

Left of the road.

Right of the road. 

The opening volley from the Infantry on the left "pinned" the Militia (smoke in the front). 

The Adoean guns fired on the infantry in front of the Guard, hoping to "pin" or "disrupt" them.

On the left, the opening volley is less powerful.

Artillery can fire and move - unlike the infantry. In 2x2 once Infantry start firing they are "pinned" and cannot move in the next turn. The guns are field artillery, so can be "manhandled" or "prolonged" across the field (albeit slowly).

Von Mauskopf watches the battery fire.

Then the guns move up some more. The aim is to get within normal range (6 inches) of the enemy guns and really pound them to bits.

But during the Adoean fire (player one moves, player two fires), the Infantry with the upside down flag in front of the Guards become pinned (I said disrupted in the video - this was wrong).

The pinned thing means that the Guard can charge to contact with less chance of getting trapped and pinned themselves.

Stepka joins the guard and they advance.

The Infantry get to shoot, but are pinned, so don't get "opening volley". The Artillery fire in support, and scored a hit, but Stepka used one of his "Bravado" rerolls to push through. The Adoeans have two rerolls - one for having a higher quality fore (Guards and no Milita) and one for Stepka - charismatic leader that he is. They only used one Bravado reroll all game.

The Guard charge home. I think the figures are dismounted AWI Cavalry - probably Dragoons or something.

With an advantage for Guards in Melee, and General Attached, the Adoean gain +2 to the combat roll, and send the infantry running.

Since a unit broke near the Militia, they run as well. The other units don't care if Militia run - it is to be expected!

The second line of Infantry have a better chance of holding the guards - having already fought a round of combat the Guards get a net +1 to their roll (Guards+1, General+1, already fought -1).

They roll high enough to destroy the unit in front, but not enough to force them to pursue further. They had an optional "follow up", and I rolled to see if they would keep going, but the did not.

It's Maustria's move now, and the units turn to engage the guard - they could have charged I suppose, but Guards, General attached, etc. It would have been a close thing. Instead they just advanced...

And rather than shooting the Guards marched backwards, at half speed (3 inches at this scale).

Stepka moves over to help rally the unit on the left, still pinned from firing.

 The Guards move backwards out of the range of the pursuing Infantry

The guns fire out of their flank into the guard, so gain a bonus for grapeshot and for the enemy flank, but get a big negative - not all their guns can fire - so the Guards just ignore it and keep on marching.

If the guards could have been pinned they would have been in a bad position and been shot to bits - but they just kept ignoring the cannon fire and retreating in good order.

After about six turns of shooting each other, the Militia finally become disordered, and will be vulnerable to an attack. 

But to charge them the Infantry behind the fence will need to rally from shooting.

Stepka rides over to rally them, which they do with the necessary 6! Any other result and they would have stayed pinned and kept on shooting.

Cleared of their smoke, the regiment is ready to advance.

Disordered units cannot move or fire, so the Militia are trapped. (I think Light Cavalry and Light Infantry can choose to rout - but are destroyed on a 1 or 2).

Meanwhile the Maustrian Militia rally on the left behind the lines,

And reform

But the Regular Infantry refuse to rally, even with Von Mauskopf present. They failed 3 rolls to rally on a 4+.

only the cannon are firing now...

Stepka orders the Charge, but does not accompany the assault - he has seen enough close hand melee this battle...

First round of combat is a draw. The red die is the Adoeans - they get +2 for their enemy being disrupted, and the Militia get -1 for being Militia. So reroll.

The Militia are beaten, but have forced the Adoeans to fight two rounds of combat, making them vulnerable.

With modifiers, the difference is 4, which means the Adoeans must pursue / advance, right into the waiting fresh unit - it's a trap!

Except it is not. The Adoeans are at 02 to their roll, having fought two rounds of melee already. But the Maustrian 1 is an awful result, and they...

Break and run.

Von Mauskopf calls it a day and retreats. 3 of 8 units lost takes the army to breaking point.

The three lost units - two with flags upside down! Perhaps they are in distress!

This result might seem strange, but it accords with the auto-resolve rules - for Campaign purposes, the Maustrians lose 3 units (2 Infantry, 1 Militia). The Adoeans lose 1 unit due to casualties from all that cannon fire and musket volleys.

Stay tuned for more battles!