Battle of Mollwitz - Afterthoughts

After the battle, the victorious General Count Wilhelm Reinhard von Neipperg reviews his remaining forces on the snow-covered fields of Mollwitz

IN some ways it is easier to command the army that lost in real life.
This may seem counter-intuitive, but your predecessor will almost certainly have made mistakes - mistakes which you can avoid.
The chap commanding the army that originally won, however, can be in something of a quandary. If he follows the plan of the victorious commander, he knows his wargame opponent will be ready for him. But if he deviates, he risks throwing away his advantage.
I was able to improve the Austrian performance by not having my cavalry make futile frontal charges against formed infantry. The lesson that muskets beat sabres is not an easy one to learn, it seems, as the French were to make the same mistake at Minden.
My opponent in our refight felt he got several things wrong.
Firstly, but perhaps of least importance, was how he sent his hussars to their doom. His idea, he revealed, had been to hope the hussars could avoid my cavalry and cause confusion among the infantry around Mollwitz. But half a squadron of hussars was never likely to achieve much by itself and, as he admitted, he had failed to take into account the ponderous movements of the Prussian horse.
A more serious mistake, he felt, was to have advanced his infantry on too broad a front, making them vulnerable to both Austrian guns.*
Thirdly, and most seriously, was his decision to split his infantry, detaching two battalions - a quarter of his foot - to deal with my left-flank cavalry. If my horse had obligingly charged his infantry from the front, his decision might have been justified. But I had no intention of doing that, and my cavalry only closed in when one of his battalions became isolated. As my opponent observed: "The poor so-and-sos had two exposed flanks and an exposed rear - they didn't stand a chance."
At the time, he thought he was copying the successful Prussian tactic from the original battle. But what actually happened in 1741 was that the Prussian infantry as a whole turned to fight off the Austrian cavalry. Only after being successful in that endeavour, did the Prussians advance on the outnumbered Austrian foot.
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So our campaign to refight the War of the Austrian Succession has begun.
The 275th anniversary of the next battle, Chotusitz, is over a year away, which should give me plenty of time to get on with painting more figures.
I also intend to publish the latest version of the rules, and follow with rather more detailed explanations of the thinking behind their mechanics.
*Incidentally, among the changes I made to the rules shortly before the battle - minor tweaks are always going on - was a major one to make the artillery less effective. We felt guns had taken on a Napoleonic aspect in our playtesting, and it was necessary to rein them back. In the event, both armies' guns played a role that seemed well in keeping with the standards of the mid-18th century.