Austro Prussian War Playest

Just finished a cracking Austro Prussian encounter battle using my APW
amendments.

I also dcecided to go for a larger game and see what that did to the time / feel
/ game dynamic, so I fielded 12 units a side with a 3 unit army breakpoint.
Selections were 1.5 x max / minima rounded down on the Army Lists.

The Austrians started rather sluggishly with a general advance while the
Prussians looked set to obtain the favourable positions and towns. This didn't
quite manifest itself as some early Austrian success with their longer ranged
Lorenz rifles and superior artillery blunted a couple of Prussian advances and
must have shaken the confidence of the Prussian General as his troops adopted a
more cautious approach or went prone. I allowed the Dresnye armed Prussians the
ability to go prone and fire. This proved to be a a very useful way for the
Prussians to either hold a position or co-ordinate an advance with a couple or
more infantry units. Seemed historical anyway. I also allowed them to use
assault columns but fire with two stands. Despite being at a tactical
disadvantage I can't really explain how the Austrians seemed to weather the
Prussian storm. They did use their cavalry much more effectively and their
gunners were quite superb.

With more units on the table, particularly more cavalry, there was more movement
on the flanks than I was experiencing in most of my other games. Not unaturally
there were more incident zones where units had mini battles and the outcome of
these could have direct impacts on adjacent contests. The game played slightly
longer - maybe an extra half hour but as the mechanics are pretty fast I wasn't
feeling any in-flight drag. Quite the contrary as I think I enjoyed more not
less for this battle.

The Austrians slowly started to dominate the Prussians and through superior
artillery (and some cracking scores from the gunners!) and a rather flamboyaunt
use of cavalry they won 7 v 3.

I've been looking through my log of Battle Reports and across all the historical
periods I've played since using these rules the Austrian side has actually won
all of them. My Austrians seem to be bucking the historical stereotype of a good
opposition to beat.

These are the games I've played with them:
7.French Revolutionary War:Jun 2010:French v Austrian:Austrian Victory
20.Franco Austrian War:Sep 2010:French v Austrians:Austrian Victory
21.Austro Prussian War:Sep 2010:Austrians v Prussians:Austrian Victory

I think in all of these games they suffered from some pretty severe tactical
limitations so the way I play the Austrian commander must have something going
for it. Solid infantry used in supporting groups, effective cavalry to break and
disrupt and a generally cautious and patient battleplan but decisive strikes
once the enemy wavers or weakens in a sector. Or maybe its the Dice!