"Must be my bitter doom": March 1758
Saxony
Despite the defeat at Leipzig, my main army is still in good shape (in terms of organisation), so I decide to initiate a second battle for Leipzig.
Well I lost again, but again, its the sort of loss that will win me the war in the end. There are two reasons for the defeats, one is that, with exception of Nadasdy, my commanders excel on the defense (Daun has a 6, Von Bilberstein is a 4 in this respect). Equally its clear from the battle logs, my army is not fully committing while the Prussians are. This is not all bad, I'm rotating brigades to some extent, Narwhal is taking sustained damage, hence the loss of another element. Note that, thanks to the Saxon guns, I actually have an advantage in artillery and you can see the impact in the ranged-fire phase (one reason why unlike in our earlier game, the final battle losses are coming out much more even).
More importantly I hold the battlefield, but this time my organisation is badly damaged especially in Nadasdy's formation (I suspect a consequence of his reckless trait)
Thus Daun's force is ordered back to Dresden to recover. In case Frederick opts to raid into Bohemia, Chevet's French corps is ordered to build a fort so as to secure the passes south of Chemnitz.
It looks like Frederick is badly battered too (remember this army was about 6000 power before I started the sequence of battles at Leipzig - most of the loss will be temporary and related to lost organisation)
So I suspect he will try to retreat north. Now in view of what happened in the turn resolution element for late March, I was very glad I made this decision to pull back, regroup and allow the damaged brigades to absorb the significant number of replacements I have generated over the winter.
The North
In the spirit of being more aggressive, the two Swedish corps (I lack the commander needed to make an army of them, so they will not mutually support unless they both arrive at the same time), are committed to drive the Prussians from Rostock.
And ends in a dismal defeat, well not too bad, my losses don't matter, but that is another drain on Prussian numbers.
In pulling back, another short skirmish occurs, but I manage to retreat into Stalsrund with no real damage.
In better news though, Kolberg falls at the start of March, as the guns of the Third Division flatten the walls.
I need 1-2 turns to recover and move up the rest of the army and then its time to take Stettin.
The Rhineland
Here, I create a special 'siege-brigade' to take out Paderborn. From experience, if I leave it behind my lines it becomes a base for all sorts of annoying Hussar-types who then take back MC and threaten my supply convoys.
The rest of the army marches on Minden, if there is a battle, they will be in a position to support each other. But when I arrive, mysteriously, the British are not to be found.
At the end of March, a scouting group of Cossacks at Magdeburg sends back interesting news.
It looks like the British have abandoned Hannover and will join up with Frederick in Saxony. This is maybe not good news for Daun.
In better news, abandoned by the coward Cumberland [1], the garrison at Minden quickly surrendered, opening the way to take out Bremen and advance on the Elbe.
And a fresh Saxon force arrives in Paris, and I have the 'Armee Francaise' already there to provide command and they will reinforce the main French armies. For them, the road back to Saxony lies across the plains of Hannover.
Oder
Not much happens here, Kosel is under siege and I am a little worried at that Prussian force at Schweidnitz. In theory it could threaten E Bohemia, but with mounting pressure in Saxony I can't see the Prussians being able to spare it for independent action. Especially as it seems to consist just of Moritz's cavalry.
Summary
Well I now have two of the outer doors to Prussia secured. Minden and Kolberg mean that the French and Russians will move onto the Elbe and Oder respectively and feasibly threaten Berlin. With the French, I'll take Bremen first to secure my rear against any more British reinforcements.
The Swedes clearly can't fight their way out of Stalsrund, but at the moment they are pinning down a corps of some 25,000, so its a pretty good trade off.
The worry is in Saxony. Cumberland plus Frederick is an army of about 120,000 so larger than the 110,000 with Daun. I'm glad I took the chance to allow Daun's army to recover as it looks like a lot of fighting is going to happen. My guess is that Narwhal has decided to ignore the Russians and the French (& the Oder) for the moment and try to destroy the Austrians.
[1- Yes I know he wasn't that bad, that it is good the Stuarts lost and all that, but ...