Two decisive battles of the Thirty Years War, and featuring King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden and his exciting new model Swedish Army. The revolution in military affairs and all that.
First up Brietenfeld, which was fought in Saxony in September 1631. The Swedes and the Elector of Saxony took on Tilly and the Imperial-Catholic League. In all the games below, I used Alan Saunders suggested modifications for mixed pike and shot units.
Battlefield from the north (Swedes/Saxons closest to the camera). The village of Podelwitz and the marshy wooded Loberbach stream are nearest the camera. Gobschelwitz is to the left and the actual village of Brietenfeld to the right in the left rear of Tillys army.
The Swedish front line is Saxons (musketeers and pikes), elite Swedish infantry (musketeers, pikes and organised into battalions with light artillery etc) then Swedish horse who are apparently just average. The reserves are another elite Swedish infantry and another Swedish horse. I've marked the Swedish infantry by using attached light artillery pieces, as Gustavus liked to do.
Tilly's Army is quite formidable, armoured cuirassiers on each flank, and two units of armoured musketeers (and pikes), one in the centre and one in reserve. They are described as being in big blocks, so I've used four bases for these units, while the Swedes and Saxons are more linear. Gustavus outnumbered Tilly irl, and does have a larger army.
Tilly is the attacker so picks his bombardment target first. Historically he put his guns in the centre on a low rise so I did too although it is a bit pointless as even if he forces a unit to retreat, it will juts be replaced by another Swedish infantry. In the event neither sides artillery hits anything.
tbh the Swedes are really up against it in this scenario, they don't have any favourable matchups at all as all the Imperials are armoured, the best they can do is 50:50 using the Swedish infantry, but the do have superior numbers. The weakest unit is the Saxons which Tilly duly routs (they can only hit the cuirassiers on a 6 with their muskets and unsurprisingly miss). They are replaced with a Swedish infantry which at least had a 50:50 chance against the cuirassiers.
The Swedes also have a 50:50 chance against the Imperial infantry (their +1 elite cancels out the Imperial -1 armour). They get lucky and rout the Imperial centre, which is replaced by a reserve musketeer unit.
The Imperial cuirassiers attack the Swedish left but are unlucky and are shot down. The Swedes then outflank the Imperial centre and rout the last Imperial infantry. They fail to rally so it is a win for Gustavus.
I tried that again, and again the artillery barrage was both a bit pointless and missed in any case. It is only worth prompting an enemy cavalry to charge if you have an advantage over them, and similarly no point in retreating an infantry unless the reserves are worse. This didn't apply to either army, but the smoke looks nice I guess!
The Imperials charge the Saxons but bounce this time (no losses on either side), and the Swedes rout the Imperial centre.
The Saxons are made of stern stuff and rout the cuirassiers (they rolled a 6!). The Imperials don't have any reserves now so the writing is on the wall.
Rapidly followed by the rest of the Imperial army, although they did rout one of the Swedish horse on the way (who are at a considerable disadvantage against the Imperial cuirassiers). Another win for the Swedes, although they were pretty lucky to pull that off. What was it Napoleon said about lucky generals?
One last try, the Imperials try to tempt the Swedish horse into charging and fail.
And although the Swedes lose the Saxons and one of their horse, the Swedish infantry blow the Imperials off the field. Three convincing Swedish wins, so it looks like I misjudged my initial assessment. I think this scenario (marginally) favours the Imperials, but the Swedes certainly rolled some hot dice which always helps. tbh I'd be inclined to make the Swedes both Elite and Armoured, their new military system was so superior to what had gone before that it revolutionised infantry tactics and made the musket the dominant weapon.
Next up is Lutzen which was fought in November 1632. This time between Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein. Gustavus was very keen to bring the Imperials to battle, and Wallenstein reluctantly accepted, fortifying his position against the Swedish attack.
Compared to Brietenfield this battlefield is fairly bare, there is a river off to the left and the village of Lutzen on the right. This is the view from Wallensteins position, the front line is musketeers (and pikes) flanked by cuirassiers, and in reserve are more musketeers, cuirassiers and a unit of Croat carbineers, essentially light cavalry armed with muskets (missile cavalry). None of these troops have any special attributes.
The Swedes are attacking with an identical army to the previous one, two units of horse, two of (elite) Swedish musketeers and another unit of average musketeers. Their front line is horse, Swedish infantry, horse with the others in reserve. As before the Swedish infantry have attached light artillery.
Again, there isn't much point in the artillery firing at the centre as there are units in reserve, so they pick on each others cavalry to prompt a charge and both miss.
The Swedes attack the centre where they have an advantage and are promptly blown away! Historically this was a very bloody battle and even victorious units took heavy losses.
The Swedes plug the gap with their reserve infantry and the Imperial cuirassiers charge on the left.
Routing their opposite numbers. The Swedes launch another catastrophic attack in the centre, being routed and are forced to commit their last infantry reserve to plug the gap. The Imperials are now outflanking them on the left.
Surprisingly they Imperial centre is now routed and the Croats move up to fill the gap, but the Cuirassiers on the open flank ride down the Protestant infantry and the Swedish army is routed.
Ouch, that was a pretty convincing win for Wallenstein. Historically the Swedes scraped a win, at the cost of heavy losses on both sides and the death of Gustavus Adolphus himself.
OK, lets give it another go. Once again the cannonade is on either flank, but this time the Imperials manage to hit the Swedish horse!
The Swedes are spurred to charge and are duly routed by the Imperial cuirassiers.
Maybe not so great for Wallenstein as their place is taken by those scary firepower led Swedish infantry.
The Cuirassiers give it a shot anyway, the Swedes miss and the heavy cavalry ride them down.
They are replaced by regular infantry who this time defeat the cuirassiers, who in turn are once more replaced by the Croats. I rather like the idea of mounted musketeers - perhaps if they were armoured and had tracks...
The Croats sadly don't last long and are replaced by more cuirassiers. Wallenstein engages the Swedish centre...
Which after a bitter struggle duly collapses, but not before one of the Imperial infantry has been routed.
The following turn the Swedes are utterly routed, although at heavy cost to the Imperials. That was a real slog for the Swedes and I can't help feel that fortune favoured the Imperials in this one. In all five games both sides rolled appallingly to rally their routed units (every single attempt failed).
I enjoyed both those scenarios, although I'd like to revisit both of them and see if I can recreate the historical outcome for Lutzen and also to see if there is some mysterious Swedish superpower at work in Brietenfeld! Both these battles make useful test beds to compare traditional and modern pike and shot tactics in terms of fiddling with troop modifiers.
The Swedish cavalry should probably be superior in some way too, as everyone busily copied their tactics as well over the next 30 years. I slightly wish I'd used some river sections to add to the terrain although they don't affect the gameplay, they do make the battlefield look more interesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment