Lace Wars in Tin: Wild Geese 2025

I was asked for some pictures of recent games, to be quite honest I've not been using the semi-flats much recently, however back in June I put on a game for the meeting of the 'Wild Geese' wargamers at our annual event in Kenilworth.

For something a little different I put on the Combat at Domstadtl, 30th June 1758, which was a raid on a HUGE wagon train - a bit of background from my briefing notes for the players.

Combat at Domstadtl, 30th June 1758

From May 20 1758, Frederick conducted the Siege of Olmütz, by late June resistance was nearing its end, just one last convoy of ammunition should have been enough to finish the siege.

On June 21, a large Prussian supply convoy set off from Troppau under heavy escort. The convoy consisted of some 4,000 wagons of which 818 transporting the vital ammunition. The convoy extended for about 32 km, with an escort in three brigades: vanguard, middle, rear-guard, with sparse pickets in between.

On June 28, Loudon attacked the convoy, however the escort managed to repulse him. To further support the convoy Zieten came from Olmütz with extra troops and Loudon was strengthened by Siskovics with an additional Austrian corps. The forces all converged on 30th June near Domstadtl. At a point where the road went through a pass and over a stream (I represented this as a bridge over a river), at this point Austrians sprang their ambush.

The best description of the battle I could find is on the Kronoskaf website - it's worth a read!

The game was played on a 12' x 6' table, so I placed the 'bridge' at Domstadtl at one end and the village of Altliebe at the other, connected by a road near the middle of the table.

I like to get the troop density about right, based on unit frontages (obviously all the other dimensions are way out). I scaled the battle based on the 3.5 Prussian battalions of infantry and a few hussars attacking Siskovics; which I represented by 3 battalions.

The units in the game are (very) approximately 75% of those present, for example there were 12 Austrian battalions in the battle, 2 grenadier, 6 infantry and 4 grenzer, which I represented with 9 battalions; 2 grenadier, 4 infantry and 3 grenzer.

The game was played with 4 players, who were sat in alternating corners, with Prussians controlling the two halves of the road, and the Austrians attacking from the south east and north west. In addition to defeating the enemy, the Austrians had to destroy as many wagons as possible, and the Prussians protect them and get as many as possible over the bridge as possible - simple.

Preparation

I had all the Austrian and Prussian troops needed (not the actual regiments, but the right types), however I was just a little short of 40mm wagons. Originally I was just going to use a few token wagons, but in the end megalomania took over and I decided to fill the whole road; so I have over 20!

The wagons themselves are 3D printed with the bodies on a filament printer and the wheels in resin. They are Napoleonic types, but I decided they would do the job, even though they are obviously wrong, particularly the caissons - I did modify some of the later prints to look a little more in period, overall I was pleased with the result - and the players liked them..

The horses and mounted drivers are cast from the Karoliner range, some with SYW heads, although the wagons should have 4-horse teams I went for 2-horse, as I got fed up of casting horses that I would probably never use again.

The wagon driver on foot is a resin printed 'special', which Chris kindly sculpted for me, unfortunately being semi-flat his arm is a long way from the horse - and resin does not bend!