Lutter 1626 - Twilight of Divine Right

 Next battle up in this series of refights of battles of the Thirty Years' War is the Battle of Lutter; this was part of the Danish intervention in the war. Here an army led by the Empire's foremost general of the time, Tilly, attacks a Danish army led by its King, Christian IV.

As ever, I am using the Twilight of Divine Right ruleset, and the scenario is another one from the accompanying scenario book, Europe's Tragedy.

The Set-Up:

The armies face each other; the Danes are defending the line of the marshy stream, the Imperials are moving forward to attack (top)

The Imperial Army

The Imperial Right - infantry on the wing to try and accomodate the ground, with the stream and the woods ahead.

The Imperial Centre: its tercios ready to roll forward (again)

and the Imperial Left

The main position of the Danish Army, with the entrenched position guarding the bridge

The Danish Left and Centre-Left - a fairly standard deployment except the Danes were organized really by line as much as by wing, which makes them a bit harder to command.

The Danish Right - defended by the earthwork covering the bridge, and anchored on Lutter.

The Battle:

The Imperialists attack - the main thrust is slightly weighted towards their Right, because the stream is somewhat less of an obstacle here

The Imperial Right - mainly cavalry - moves forward to the stream around the bridge

The Imperial horseman move over the bridge, and splash somewaht more slowly through stream and marsh, manfully ignoring the incoming Danish artillery fire

The attacking Imperials splash onwards

The Danes counter-attack across the line

The Imperial Left tries to sweep away the entrenched defenders through sheer elan...

Imperial Cuirassier defeats Danish Cuirassier...at least the infantry seem to be holding fast, however

Danish Foot and Guns prove more than a match for bold (rash?) Imperial Horse on the other flank

The Danish second line gets in to support the Danish front left - this helps to push the Imperialist Right back; the Danish Foot is taking losses, but holding on

The fighting on the Danish Right spreads a bit further towards the marshes and the river - the Danes hold on

The close-range slaughter in the centre continues, but no-one is giving way just yet; note the Danish line just beginning to fold around the edges of the Imperial tercios (right)

A similar effect around the earthworks - Danish Foot deliver oblique fire at the flanks of the Imperial columns

Bloodied but unbowed, the Danes repulse the attackers around the entrenchments

Tilly's tercios push forward again - this time one of the Danish regiments in the centre does break!

The Imperials have pierced the Danish first line, but the Danes are exploring the gap between the Imperial Centre and its Left (right)

The Imperialist Left attacks again: the troops in the defences hold on, but one of the regiments on the far right breaks this time!

Fighting continues on the Danish Left - the leading Imperial regiment goes down in its turn! (left)

One of the Imperialist cavalry forces has been pushed right back to the bridge, but the far force (top-right) seems to have nearly created an exploitable gap

Ferocious fighting continues unabated in the centre

The Imperial Left has turned the Danish first line, pushing back an isolated Dutch cavalry unit (right)

The fighting in the centre and on the Danish Left continues unabated: heavy casualties on both sides, but little movement

But one more assault seems to have created some forward momentum...

The Imperial artillery and Horse defeat the Danish regiment that had been moving forward over the stream - the Imperial Horse has been brutally mauled however in its various failed attacks

But the situation is not so good on the Danish Right - can the outnumbered Danish defenders hold on?

Despite their huge losses, the Imperial tercios maybe on the verge of a breakthrough in the centre

An Imperial Flanking force arrives on the Danish Right!! Surely this flank cannot hold much longer?

and indeed it does not! The remaining Dutch Cuirassiers cannot outface 6-1 sides, being outflanked

And suddenly it is all over -despite their fight in the centre and the upper-hand on the left, too many Danish units have now quite the field or been destroyed, and the army can take no more!

The Danish Right flees

as does its centre and left.

Position at the end of the battle.

Game Notes: 

More good gaming fun. The Danes did rather well I thought, despite a note great deployment and command structure. Rather than any tactical advantage, the Imperials eventually just triumphed through greater strength and the arrival of the flanking force. The fighting in the centre showed the equilibrium that can be reached between the stronger impetus of larger columns and the effect of the Danish enfilading fire. Essentially the large Imperial tercios just outlasted the Danish Foot. The only point to note from the scenario is that I wasn't quite clear how aware the Danish should be of Tilly's off-table flank attack (and thus how much the Danish player should be 'allowed' to pre-deploy troops to defend against it. I don't think it made much difference in this game, the Danes were still capable of  holding on on the right between the built-up area and the entrenchments. 

I am getting more familiar with the rules I think. It was always pretty quick, but once the tactical modifiers and the conditions which trigger actions become more internalized, it does become pretty intuitive. The only thing that is quite fiddly is the set-up and the recording of unit attributes are only somewhat reducible (there are a lot of options).

Figures by Baccus 6mm, buildings are a mix of Leven, Battlescale and Irregular, I think!