17th Century Games
One unit is a a Swedish brigade, or a (late-why would they never be on time?) tercio (1500 men) or a "regiment" of 1000 foot or 500 to 800 horse. A lot of work started to have my By Fire and Sword "Swedes" convertible and heavily augmented to provide two armies and allow me to cover most of the the first half of the 30yw.
Harquebusiers in the rules are 800 a unit vs 5-600 for the others; suposed to do a bit of caracole or the like. So 12 vs 9 and deeper. To make it clear I made sub bases to have a 12cm front. Additional command stands will give the reuse of them as later sub Kuirassiers, 3 stands, one command to resuse two stands from two ex deep ones.
I wanted to minimize counters and looking at papers, and of course avoid numbering units/Id...
Swedish brigade stands position for the rules to show Pike heavy or musket heavy or mixed modes.
It sorts of gives them this shallow cross formation.
Pikes front PH, musket center front Musket heavy; command left MX.... tercios have one more stand, regiment only a command stand at the rear. Needs more commands/ flags and front pikes to use in later period with only regiments (freeing part of the brigades and tercios stands).
Chosing +painting....
18+TURNS! Not to complicate the life, all imperial infantries were early tercios, all normal size, all balanced mix of pikes and shots. One was a dismounted dragons who did nothing but collecting wild nuts in a wood on the flank. All protestant infantries were on the Swedish brigade models, one deemed Elite, one big. I used the random true value when first needing to know it; added much uncertainty. Some were B most were C. All protestant cavalries were Swedish types, with 2 elites, one trained big. The imperials also had my two Croats light horses. Blue dice and green dice were near the units to show sides and "moral fails allowance",(size). 4 guns each side. Overall the Imperials were slightly more numerous, the "Swedes" had one cavalry general rated 2, as both army commanders also 2, all others were 1. More than 20000 troops on each side!
As the rules do not give anything but to have some units within extreme artillery range at the beginning, I used a modified version of the pregame system from the defunct versions of Father Tilly rules.
The imperial guns did damage. Their target listed as C quality revealed itself as Raw when shot at. The swedes approach was very slow as they did not want to leave behind their batailon guns.
The swedes infantry center finally went close to shoot, staying in mixed pikes order to be equal to the imperials if they wanted to come to close contact, but still shoot better thanks to their battalion guns.
The test system can bring strong results, but with little chances; you hardly can ever be sure of anything. Here an average swede vanished at first fire, with a lowly 3 to 2D6. The harquebusiers close by unsetlled them, and the general was too far away to help.
The swedes left flank cavalry stayed put all game long because of a stream between them and the enemy with near equality in prospects. When wearing my fur hat I (rightly) counted on the flexibility of the Swedish brigades to carry the day.
The imperial left center falling apart. I still have forgotten the supporting protestant cavalry to come and engage these harquebusiers. I refrained from committing the army general to try saving this unit as his loss would be more damaging.
The first 5 turns were a bit of redeploy and bombarding. The Swedes 4 guns in 2 batteries able to kill, the imperials one alike and two smaller just to annoy manoeuvre from a distance then support. Another protestant unexpectedly vanished, here something like turn 10. Imperials bring in their cavalry reserve for the ever important rear support.
There was quite a long series of turns with hits and no results, attritional fighting in the center. With no big modifiers and good troops plus rear support, it could last quite long indeed.
Left flank cavalry viewed from the imperial side. Not feeling much superior to the other side, they waited a long time, but were under fire from 2 guns which inflicted damage on the extreme left arquebusier. The imperials having only a 1 general, failed twice the action test to put the fellow in second line. Waiting for this to go in and do something significant.
The imperials finally moved in close. The harquebusiers starting their shooting, largely offset by the musketeers detachments with the protestant first line; here represented by one solo foot figure close to the unit. At the same time, in two turns they lost their left flank Kuirassier from artillery fire and combat. Doomed. The hard action test for them to manouever allowed the Swedes to extend.
I used one turn the two guns to force them to even one more test to move on two units.
The center fight raging on. I use brown and black small smoke puffs to mark the units who need action tests from gun fire or -1 for enemy supporting fire in combat. Those black smokes from WW2/3 games found another use...besides villages aflame. If I have a game with numerous differences in pike to muskets ratios, and troop qualities, I will have to put the little iD numbers with units, another thing to move ;)
Imperial center giving up. the left flank cavalry was broken but succeeded staying on with a good die roll of the leader and then miraculously good combat dice, 2 turns.
All in all something like 18+ turns were done.
Here the final turns. I just rolled the dice, not much moving the troops to speed up things. Flanking is a death sentence. It would be very interesting to play vs someone, with part secret unit characteristics and enhanced deployment system. Need a system to sort out pursuit after battle or not, casualties etc. integrated with GMT excellent boardgame
"Won by the sword". Page up
My additional gun and concentration allowed to destroy one of his giving a significant support advantage. But it nearly went to the tubes as many of my units turned to be dissatisfied today despite testing on the B class! The the Birt Ai decided it will bring in its reserves, and engage them in the most unbalanced place.
USING A BOARD-GAME FOR CAMPAIGNING the 30Yw!
Maybe the best thing, but a bit long and slow, so be played online with vassal and the battles on table instead of the inbuilt system, unless too lopsided.
Won by the sword by GMT, (there is a vassal module there) and more presentation here.
Analysis and more of this game on boardgamegeek .
WHY?
TIME SCALE 5 to 7 days per Turn
MAP SCALE Point to Point
UNIT SCALE Infantry Regiments = 800-1000 men (1-1/2 unit on table)
Cavalry Regiments = 400-500 men (1-2/3 of a unit on table)
Detachments = 200-300 men
Artillery Units = 8-10 guns (2 guns on table)
Does not that fit nicely with TWILIGHT OF THE DIVINE RIGHT? (or other systems). I will study more of the terrain making, as having historical battlefields located on some map zones and allowing for a die roll system to chose them or another, plus sort of scenario generator for encounters when it is not obvious from the boardgame. You can also use the system by the creative thinking Steve Balagan with his card system for randomized terrain. Never underestimate what has been already done well by another!
OLDENDORF 8 JULY 1633
The objective: The Catholic forces marching to the relief of the town of Hameln, under siege by Swedish and German forces. Receiving word of the approaching relief force, the Protestant army have taken up a defensive position near Oldendorf. The Catholics need to push them out and better demoralize them.
I used free deployment. One might want to add a bit either numbers or quality to the Catholics as like in history, it can be a bit tough for them.
TERRAIN
of course the picture of the table is reverse side from the map!
the big wooden hill which should be bigger is no go except for loose order muskets or the like.
Mostly you have two rises on the sides of the streams and part one higher between. The villages should hinder XVIIth century formations. The streams be counted as an obstacle in the rules., significantly so for artillery.
As an afterthought this here table was giving too much space rear of the imperials and not enough rear for the protestants. In the game it did not matter, but it could have.
the game was fun, the Catholics took risks, nearly won, but protestant reserves carried the day.
Catholic Imperial Army!
CinC: Bonninghausen 1
Right Wing Gronsfeld 1
Unit Tactic Grade No. of Units Strength
League Horse Dutch Regular /C 1 average
League Arquebusier Regular 1 big
Musketeer (Det) Regiment Regular 1 small
Centre Merode 1
Unit Type Grade No. of Units Strength weapon
Imperial Infantry Tercio (L) Veteran /B 1 big MH
Imperial Infantry Tercio (L) Regular/C 1 av MH
League Infantry Tercio (L) Regular 2 av MH
Demiculverin Artillery 2
Left Wing Geleen 0
Imperial Cuirassier KU Veteran 2 average
Imperial Arquebusier Regular 1 small
Imperial Dragoon Dragoon Regular 1 av. muskets
League Horse Dutch Regular 1 av.
Imperial Infantry Tercio (L) Regular 1 small MH
Musketeer (Det) Regiment Regular 2 tiny M
Reserve (Bonninghausen)
Imperial Cuirassier Veteran/B 2 av
Imperial Dragoon Dragoon Regular 1 av M
Musketeer (Det) Regiment Regular 1 av.
Imperial Infantry Tercio (L) Regular 1 av MH
PROTESTANTS
CinC: Duke Georg 1
Right Wing Stalhansk 1
Unit Type Grade No. of Units Strength Weapon
Swedish Horse Veteran 3 average
German Dragoon Regular 1 av
Musketeer (Det) Regiment Veteran small M
can be 4 det. attached to the horse instead.
Centre Kagge 1
Unit Type Tactic Grade No. of Units Strength Weapon
German Infantry Regiment Veteran* 4 av. MH*
German Infantry Regiment Regular* 2 av. MH*
Demiculverin Artillery 3
*Battalion guns attached.
Left Wing Knyphausen 1
Unit Type Tactic Grade No. of Units Strength Weapon
Swedish Horse Trotter Veteran 1 av
Finnish Horse Galloper Veteran 1 big
German Dragoon Dragoon Regular 1
Life Guard Horse Trotter Veteran 1 av.
German Horse Trotter Regular 2 av
German Horse Trotter Conscript 2 average
Reserve Uslar
German Horse Dutch Regular 2 av.
German Infantry Regiment Regular 1 av MH
RANDOM GENERATOR FOR BATTLES OF THE THIRTY YEARS WAR.
PDF HERE
To be used with the cards system of Steve Thomas and terrain generator I did for cyberboard.
It provides with a set up and an army generator for non historical pick up battles, still based on what was available at some different periods of the war. All constructive comments and amelioration are welcome.
Rules mods and generating Forlorn hope and shooting detachments for the rules . here.
Email:Contact: UR2plus(hat)gmail.com
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