Lobositz Design NotesA major feature of this battle was fog that was slowly lifting during the morning. Instead of using a simple "fog - no fog" change at one point in the game visibility rises step by step in these scenarios. So you start the battle as blind as the historical commanders did, and over the time more and more of the enemy army is revealed.
That's also the background behind the fixed units in the default scenario: Units are released according to what becomes visible of the enemy army. This should also prevent the armies from blindly charging into the fog. Because that can become somewhat stricktly, the second scenario does not feature any fixed units. This can be more suitable when playing against a human player, agreeing on certain houserules that prevent from early mass assaults.
The Map
The map is based on that of the Prussian General Staff. It was the only one that showed sunken roads, in game displayed as roads with embankments.
After having finished the map and started to deploy units on it, I noticed that the accounts of the cavalry charges don't really fit the map: The Prussian cavalry is said to have attacked the Austrians deployed south of Lobositz from their position behind the Prussian right wing infantry. This would have them required to ride through their infantry.
While approaching the Austrians they are said to have come under musket-fire from Sullowitz. But the road from the Homolka to Lobositz is too far away from Sullowitz to hit anyone even with a modern sniper-rifle, leave alone an 18th Century musket.
After having routed the Austrian cavalry the Prussians had come under fire from Croats and grenadiers in a sunken road. Duffy also speaks of a "masked battery". The only artillery in question outside Lobositz would have been the battery south of Lacy's position. The sunken road in question was, according to the Prussian General Staff, the road running from Sullowitz to Lobositz; according to Duffy, the road from the creek to Lobositz Castle. Neither road would be fitting: the sunken part of the Sullowitz road would again have been too far away from the encounter, while the road Duffy names has no sunken parts; and there also would have been no artillery near by.
I finally came to the conclusion that the sunken road would have been the sunken part of the road from the Homolka to Lobositz. And the artillery would have been the battery north of it. But the road is running from east to west and the artillery would have been in the path at least of some of the Prussian cavalry coming from between the Homolka and the Lobosch.
This would be fitting if the second Prussian attack had been coming from the south: They would then have moved south around their infantry, passed the vineyards of the Homolka on the trails running down to Sullowitz, and from there turned north in direction of Lobositz. This also would have brought them close enough to Sullowitz to have come under musket fire. When the Austrian horse had wheeled left to meet the Prussians named sunken road as well as the battery would have been behind the Austrian cavalry.
Apart from that the map fits perferctly into the accounts. The landscape, as well as the strategical meaning of the region would also make it a suitable battlefield for what-if scenarios in a campaign.
The oobThe oob for the Prussians is lacking an additional corps-level. So the FMs Gessler and Keith are listed as substitude commanders to the king. Historically Gessler was in charge of the entire cavalry. Prince August Wilhelm is listed as commander of the left wing, even though he seemed to had spend the day at the king's HQ on the Homolka while the fighting in the Lobosch was commanded by the Duke of Bevern.
Kleist most likely was in command of the right wing, but was killed by artillery fire before that one started advancing. At this point the king had already left the field and Keith was in overall command while Ferdinand of Brunswick had taken over Kleist's command.
Before that Duke Ferdinand had commanded a brigade that inculded his own regiment, the same seemed to have been true for Major General Itzenplitz. The rest of the Prussian brigades is more less guess work, based on where the single regiments had been deployed.
The cavalry is rather certain, even though the "task force" that did the first attack was composed of regiments from different divisons.
The Austrian oob wasn't without trouble either: I sometimes find General Hadik listed as commander of his own regiment. That's certainly not correct because Hadik's regiment of hussars wasn't present and Hadik most likely was in charge of the entire advanced guard. The composition of his battalions of grendiers mostly is guess-work; I am only certain that the Kaiser and J. Esterházy grenadiers were deployed in the Lobosch.
Major General O'Donnell's command (in terms of C1776) also is a bit unclear. I have placed him in charge of Hadik's cavalry (he definitly had the Carabiniers under his command). Later in the battle he took over command from killed Lieutenant General Radicati. This would not be possible in game because O'Donnell is part of Hadik's divison and Radicati part of Lucchesi's divison of cavalry.
On the right wing I had placed all regiments that not were part of Lacy's command under command of Major General Wied, even though some of them not were part of Wied's brigade in the "official" Austrian oob. This also required some minor changes to the brigades of the left wing infantry.
The number of Austrian batteries in the accounts of the battle does not fit the overall ammount of heavy artillery Browne had at his disposal. It seemed General Feuerstein had formed a couple of ad-hoc batteries with regimental guns. I have kept the regimental guns with their parent units, but as the Austrian player you should keep that option in mind in order to counter the superior Prussian artillery.
Just in case you are wondering: yes, the "OTL Loudon" is the later Field Marshall
Ernst Gideon von Loudon (also spelled "Laudon")
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