Game of the Week, September 7-13

From September 7 through September 13, this week’s Game of the Week is Musket & Pike: Seven Years War, featured at 25% off. Most of its battles take players to the European theatre, where Frederick II’s attempt at a short war became a seven-year struggle for the survival of Prussia. Most of its battles take players to the European theatre, where Frederick II’s attempt at a short war became a seven-year struggle for the survival of Prussia, drawing in all of the great powers of the time. The conflict would become part of what some have dubbed the first true "world war". From the fog at Lobositz to the hard-won victories at Rossbach and Leuthen, it is a war of disciplined lines, narrow opportunities, and commanders forced to make decisions before their enemies can concentrate.

"Seven Years' War" is compelling because its famous battles were never simply contests of Prussian drill against greater numbers. On the battlefield, commanders must bring their infantry into line under fire, use artillery to prepare the critical attack, and commit cavalry where broken ground or a wavering enemy offers an opening. The linear battlefield rewards patience as much as dash: a line committed too early, a cavalry charge sent against steady infantry, or a flank left exposed can overturn a carefully prepared plan.

Prussia’s War for Survival

The Seven Years’ War grew from an unresolved peace. In the War of the Austrian Succession, Frederick II of Prussia had seized the rich province of Silesia from Maria Theresa, transforming his small kingdom into a major European power. Austria never accepted the loss. During the 1750s, its chancellor, Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz, worked to overturn the old diplomatic alignment that had kept France and Austria apart. The result was the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756: Austria gained French support, Russia moved against Prussia, and Britain—concerned above all with protecting Hanover and confronting France overseas—subsidized Frederick. What began as a contest over Silesia was now tied to the struggle for colonial and maritime power across the world.

Frederick understood that Prussia could not safely wait for its enemies to complete their preparations. In August 1756, he invaded Saxony, hoping to secure a forward base and defeat his opponents separately before their combined weight could be brought to bear. The Saxon army was trapped at Pirna and compelled to surrender, but the campaign showed the flaw in his calculation: the invasion gave Austria, France, and Russia a common cause. In 1757, Prussia faced threats from every direction. Frederick defeated an Austrian army at Prague in May, only to be checked by Marshal Leopold von Daun at Kolin in June. The setback forced him to abandon Bohemia and race westward, where French and Imperial armies threatened Hanover and central Germany.

The crisis of 1757 produced Frederick’s most celebrated victories. On 5 November, at Rossbach, he used rapid movement and the exposed flank of the advancing Franco-Imperial army to strike an opponent much larger than his own. A month later, at Leuthen in Silesia, he shifted his army against the Austrian left under the cover of broken ground and concentrated the attack on a sector the defenders had not expected to bear the full weight of the battle. These victories restored Prussian morale and the strategic balance, but they did not destroy Austria’s capacity to continue the war. They also established the operational problem that would recur throughout the conflict: Prussia could win a battle brilliantly and still be compelled to march immediately toward a new danger.

In the west, Ferdinand of Brunswick commanded the Anglo-German forces that protected Hanover and prevented France from concentrating entirely against Prussia. His campaigns, including Hastenbeck and later Minden, were essential to Frederick’s survival, yet they operated within a different political framework. Britain wanted security for Hanover while committing its greatest resources to the naval and colonial war against France. Subsidies, allied contingents, and the presence of British troops gave Ferdinand useful strength, but also required constant attention to coalition interests. The European war was therefore not a simple duel between Frederick and Maria Theresa; it was a linked series of campaigns whose decisions in Germany, at sea, and overseas affected what each government could sustain.

Prussia’s position became more desperate in 1758 and 1759. Frederick won at Zorndorf against the Russians, but Daun surprised and defeated him at Hochkirch. The following year brought the disaster of Kunersdorf, where a Prussian attack against the combined Russian and Austrian forces broke down after costly early success. Frederick’s army suffered losses it could scarcely afford, and Berlin itself was briefly occupied in 1760. Yet the coalition could not convert tactical success into a final decision. Russian, Austrian, and French commanders had different objectives, communications were slow, and every advance strained supply arrangements. Frederick used interior lines, fortresses, and the resilience of his remaining formations to keep the separate threats from closing together.

The war’s decisive change came not from the battlefield but from the Russian throne. Empress Elizabeth died in January 1762, and her successor, Peter III, an admirer of Frederick, withdrew Russia from the war and returned the occupied Prussian territory. Sweden soon made peace as well. Peter’s brief reign ended in a coup, but Catherine II did not resume the war. Austria was left without the eastern partner on which its strategy had depended, while France was exhausted by defeat at sea and overseas. In 1763, the Peace of Hubertusburg restored the European territorial position largely to what it had been before the war, leaving Prussia in possession of Silesia. The Treaty of Paris, concluded at the same time, confirmed Britain’s sweeping gains from France and Spain in the wider conflict.

The peace left no European power untouched. Prussia had proved that it could endure as a great power, but it had paid for that status with enormous casualties, financial strain, and years of devastated countryside. Austria had failed to recover Silesia but learned hard lessons about administration and military reform. Britain emerged with a vastly enlarged empire, while the costs of defending it would soon sharpen tensions with its North American colonies. For the player, the European campaigns retain their tension precisely because their outcomes were never foreordained. A disciplined line, a timely flank march, or the decision to preserve an army for the next campaign could matter as much as the dramatic charge at the moment of battle.

What's in the Game

• Seven Years' War includes 113 Scenarios – covering all sizes and situations, including a solo tutorial scenario plus specialized versions for both head-to-head play and vs. the computer AI.
• A range of maps are included covering all the significant locations fought over during the Seven Years' War.
• The order of battle files cover the various forces that participated in the campaign with other formations added in for hypothetical situations.
• Campaign and Scenario Editors which allow players to customize the game.
• Sub-map feature allows the main map to be subdivided into smaller segments for custom scenario creation.
• Design notes which cover or include the production of the game, campaign notes and a bibliography that includes the sources used by the designer team to produce this simulation game.
• Seven Years' War provides multiple play options including play against the computer AI, Play by E-mail (PBEM), LAN & Internet "live" play as well as two player hot seat.

Book and Video recommendations

Duffy, Christopher. The Army of Frederick the Great. Newton Abbot, England: David & Charles, 1974.

Duffy, Christopher. Instrument of War: The Austrian Army in the Seven Years War. Chicago: Emperor’s Press, 2000.

Duffy, Christopher. Russia’s Military Way to the West: Origins and Nature of Russian Military Power, 1700–1800. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981.

Duffy, Christopher. The Military Experience in the Age of Reason, 1715–1789. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987.

Kennett, Lee B. The French Armies in the Seven Years’ War: A Study in Military Organization and Administration. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1967.

Showalter, Dennis E. The Wars of Frederick the Great. London: Longman, 1996.

Szabo, Franz A. J. The Seven Years War in Europe, 1756–1763. Harlow, England: Pearson Longman, 2008.

Screenshots

We hope you enjoy this week’s Game of the Week: Musket & Pike: Seven Years War. Like all WDS titles, it provides countless hours of rich historical gameplay at a very attractive price.