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Königgrätz

Königgrätz
A Game by Ray Weiss
Based on Mark Hermann’s Gettysburg

1.0 INTRODUCTION
On the 3rd of July 1866, a battle for hegemony over Germany took place between the two remaining Teutonic empires, Austria and Prussia. Both powers were locked in a power struggle for control over German speaking Europe. A resurgence of German nationalism nostalgic for the exploits of Frederick The Great, prompted Prussia to begin contesting Austria for influence during the middle of the 19th century. Much like the start of the Franco-Prussian war 4 years in the future, Bismarck worked behind the scenes using Machiavellian tactics to both initiate the conflict while placing Prussia in the best possible position to win any potential conflict.
At the time, Austria was generally considered to be the greater of the two German powers, which was somewhat Ironic given Austria had suffered a string of defeats throughout the Italian wars of liberation. The fact that Prussia in turn had allied with Italian forces in April of 1866 hadn’t helped to calm the tensions between the two German powers. While in hindsight it may seem reasonable to assume that Prussia would come out of any potential fight with Austria on top, this was not widely accepted at the time, and during the battle of Koniggratz itself, the Austrian army very nearly destroyed one of the Prussian armies before the other two were able to come to the rescue.
Commanding the Austrian forces was veteran Austrian commander Joseph Radetzky who was arguably one of the more competent commanders of the period. He was revered by his own men and had an exceptional talent and experience with war, quite in contrast to the other Austrian leaders of the time. Radetzky had stationed his forces on high ground to the west of the city of Koniggratz and amassed a huge quantity of artillery waiting for Prussian forces to arrive.
Miscommunication between the various Prussian army leaders resulted in the Prussian armies all showing up to the battle at different times, putting the initial Prussian forces at serious risk of being overwhelmed by the more consolidated Austrian forces. The battle of Koniggratz would be the first step on Bismarck’s quest to unify Germany under both his terms and Prussia. Will you meet historical expectations and lead Prussia to victory? Or will you lead Austria to change the course of history?