War of the Austrian Succession Playtest

Here is a short battle report of a game I played set in the War of the Austrian
Succession using the Napoleonic rules modified with my Linear Warfare rule
modifications and the specific Prussian and Austrian army list special rules for
the period.

The Prussians were the aggressor and were led by a competent if rather rash
General Reinhard. The Austrians were under von Steich who was a more reserved
but experienced General who had a good eye for the defensive and had deployed
his forces in favourable positions along a line of hills, using a meandering
river to split the route of Prussian advance.

The Prussians made a poor start in the initial cavalry battle on each flank with
their charging cavalry faring poorly vs the firepower doctrine Austrian cavalry.
I might make their firepower less effective in future games as this seems to
give a significant initial advantage allowing them to benefit for both defensive
and offensive fire using a 4-6 hit. I think I'll change this to a 5-6 hit score.

With the cavalry out of action, Reinhard focused on using his superb infantry to
punch a hole in the centre and hopefully force through the line and roll up a
flank or two.

The Prussian infantry performed excellently. Deployed in a line of three units
supported by a Grenadier unit they advanced issuing fire and managed to whittle
down a couple of defending Austrian battalions on one of the hills. The drill
rule which stopped the Prussians from having to check after the loss of the
first base to firing was another useful rule for the Prussians allowing them to
maintain unit cohesion and staying power.

That being said and despite some local Prussian victories in the centre, the
Austrians were prevalent on the flanks and performed the coup de grace on the
Grenadier unit held in reserve by attacking from front and rear thus eliminating
it and allowing the Austrians to achieve a narrow victory.

My Linear rules worked OK but I felt they were a bit too narrow in their
requirements and I'll modify them in future tricorne games to looser criteria
for flank and rear support. The depoloyed lines did look good and the presence
of a second line was pleasing to the eye as well as historically accurate.