Fleurus 1622 - Twilight of Divine Right

 I managed to get a couple of Thirty Years' War actions in the other day: this is the second one, Fleurus. It is one of the two introductory scenarios within the Twilight of Divine Right rulebook itself, and features a Protestant Army under Mansfeld attacking a Spanish army. Fleurus seems to be a popular place for a battle, there are at least 3 battles of Fleurus (4 if you count Ligny too)!

A smaller Spanish force under Cordoba is defending a hill, the Protestant force under Mansfeld is moving up to attack it.

The Set-Up:

Mansfeld's force to the left, Cordoba's Spaniards to the right.

Cordoba with a conventional deployment, his Tercios in the centre and cavalry at the wings. Some musketeers defend the Chateau and grounds (top-left); the Spanish baggage is quite close and may interfere with the movement of both sides

A closer look at the Spanish centre

And at the Spanish Left (right)

And the Spanish Right (centre), with the occupied Chateau.

Mansfeld's Right

The Protestant Centre

And the right

The Battle:

The Protestant Horse on their Right Wing attacks first

The Foot and Guns follow up in the centre

The outnumbered Spanish cuirassiers and harquebusiers win the first clashes

The Horse on the Protestant Left get stuck in too, although the terrain is somewhat more constrained here

The Protestant Horse regroup and attack again

But the Spanish Horse hold hard - the Harquebusiers have taken on the main role in stopping the Protestant Horse with their firepower

The Protestant Horse on the other flank has fared no better

The Spanish Horse on the right flank are forced back - they recover in the woods in the rear; Cordoba has refused his infantry flank to stop his centre being rolled up

The Foot in the centre begin their push of pike...

Neither side gains the upper hand - Cordoba has had his men attack down the slope to try and sweep the Protestant Foot away

Flanking fire from the Spanish Foot causes some panic amongst the Protestant Horse -  a regiment breaks and flees to the rear; note that the Protestant Foot has pushed the Spanish back up the slope, with loss.

Seizing the moment, the Protestant infantry attack again

Meanwhile, Cordoba organizes a counter-attack on the Spanish Left

More Protestant Horse is routed!

The second attack of the Protestant Foot has been partially beaten back

Whilst the attack on the left is making some progress, it is also incurring some heavy casualties too - the Spanish then counter-attack again, and the leading Protestant infantry regiment breaks!

The Protestant attack seems to have culminated, but they are now coming under increasing pressure on all quarters...

Then the Protestant Right collapses entirely!

The Spanish are grimly inching forward - they feel that the day must soon be theirs...

The fighting in the centre continues with undimmed intensity - the leading Spanish tercio has been ground into the dust by the Protestants

And another Protestant Regiment breaks and runs

And another! They have caused a lot of casualties over on the left, but the Spanish Horse will just not run!

The combined fire from the Spanish and the threat to their right flank make another Protestant infantry regiment run...

It is all looking a bit bleak for Mansfeld's men...

Mansfeld orders his uncommitted Horse to switch flanks to protect his army from total collapse...

But to no avail, as the centre has collapsed too now

Only the Protestant Left is in anything resembling order: a crushing victory

Game Notes: Well, the Catholic armies are on a bit of a roll, aren't they? Still, it was a good game which could easily have gone the Protestant way and at one point I thought it probably would. The left-rear Tercio really saved the Spanish Army, and then delivered the coup de grace to both the Protestant Right and Centre! Playing-wise, it felt pretty smooth. I am not going to say I am doing everything totally correctly, but I think I am doing most of it right now. That in turn is helping me to sharpen the tactics somewhat, especially in estimating what manouevres can be carried out, and the slightly visually unintuitive way that artillery works best. It is a very good scenario actually, really recommended. The main area still to work on somewhat are the visual markers - there are a lot of dials for troop type and quality, and I want to be able to see at a glance which factors apply to which unit. Having generals accompanied by some singly-based horsemen to indicate their command ratings, for instance, has been really helpful. Having some flexibility in markers to indicate unit size, determination, quality etc. will help too. I use the different flags for some of that, but they are limited to one axis of quality. Maybe some camp followers or something?!?!?

Anyway, all very good stuff. Figures by Baccus 6mm, buildings by Leven.

And for comparison purposes, this was the first time I played it.