Breitenfeld 1631 - A Twilight of Divine Right Refight

It is always nice to get a little bit of gaming in over a Bank Holiday, and this weekend's was no exception. The first game was a refight of the Battle of Breitenfeld. I had wanted to do this for a while, but it took me a little while to clear a table from work and home detritus! Anyway, it is one of the most important battles of the Thirty Years' War (maybe along with White Mountain and Rocroi? - and Spanish speakers often seem to mention Nordlingen too - might think about this a little more at some point) and I have never played it, so was looking forward to it. I had also seen a game of the battle done this year at Partizan - in 15mm, by one of the Scottish clubs I think - and that had also inspired me to give it a go.

 

 

As usual in this series, I am using the Twilight of Divine Right rules and the associated Europe's Tragedy: Thirty Years' War scenario book. 

 

As an aside, I actually met Nick Dorrell briefly at Joy of Six - he seemed like a nice, friendly chap. I wanted to tell him how much I was enjoying the rules and the scenario books, but he was called away briefly, and then I left early so I didn't get the chance! Maybe next year...

 

Anyhow, as a very rough indication of forces:

The Imperial Army:

14 Tercios, 1 Musketeer regiment (n.b. some of these Tercios were particularly large)

15 Cavalry units, 3 Light Cavalry units

4 Guns

 

The Saxon Army:

6 Tercios, 1 Musketeer regiment

8 Cavalry units

2 Guns 

The Swedish Army:

7 Brigades, 1 Musketeer regiment

15 Cavalry units, 1 Dragoon unit

2 Guns

Both sides are looking to defeat the other, but the Allied Saxon and Swedish armies win if there is no result.

 The Set-Up:

The Imperial Army at the bottom, the Allied Army at the top: Swedes left and centre, Saxons to the right.

Pappenheim's Imperial Cavalry

Pappenheim's Imperial Cavalry face off against Baner's Swedish Cavalry on the Imperial Left.

The Imperial Centre and Reserve

The Imperial Right under Furstenberg

The Saxon Army on the Allied Left

Another view

The Swedish Centre, under Gustavus himself

The Battle:

The Imperialists begin the battle with an assault on the Right against the Saxons - the Imperial Horse lead the way, with some Tercios following up (left)

The Imperial Centre launches a partial attack on the left flank of the Swedish contingent, to disrupt the slow Swedish advance

The fight with the Saxons on the right intensifies - but so far, so good for the Saxons in holding off the Imperial attack

Swedish cavalry troopers pit their mettle against that of the Imperial tercios - there are losses on both sides; note the elements of Commanded Shot amongst the Swedes

The fight in the centre begins to develop, as the Swedish infantry push up into range of their muskets and crucially, their regimental guns

Fierce fighting around the hill - the Saxons are losing, but not by  much, and not quickly

The Imperialists are facing a torrent of fire in the centre, but their tercios on the right have driven off the Swedish cavalry and are trying to turn the line - they aren't very manoeuvrable though! Gustavus calls up a couple of cavalry regiments from the Swedish Right (left) to stave off disaster.

The 'crumbling' attacks on the Saxons continue, although the Imperialists are suffering losses too

The fighting in the centre is intense - can the Imperialists' flank attack tell before the centre gives way?

The Swedish Right charges, hoping to increase the pressure all along the line

The Saxons are hanging on...just

The Swedish Left (i.e. the left of the Centre) begins to give way!

The Saxons have caused quite heavy casualties amongst the Imperialists, but the gaps are becoming wider in their ranks - it is only a matter of (not much) time now...

It looks bad for the Swedes, except their Horse have destroyed the lead tercio (extreme right) and are threatening the flanks of two more tercios...

The Saxons can take no more, and flee!

As do the Swedes!! Their attacks have not been sufficiently effective, and now it is sauve qui peut...

...in the centre

...and on the left

Game Notes: 

Very exciting stuff! The Saxons seemed to fight much harder than their historical counterparts, but the Imperialists also seemed to fight a little harder in the centre and when they got some luck, they made the most of it. But it could easily have gone either way. 

The rules seemed to handle the battle pretty well. The Imperialists used quite unusual tactical formations (1-up, 2-back) which were a little challenging in some particulars, since all the examples in the book show rear support in a straightforward column of bases. I am guessing that both units count for support, at the cost of making some of the manoeuvres significantly more difficult (like replacing a damaged unit). Not sure this is the case though, since in principle that would allow a really unstoppable column given enough units (1 unit in the lead, supported by 2 columns of 10 units each...it would be like a +8 attack & -6 to the opposing troops or something). The Swedes have some nice/clever rules to model their greater tactical flexibility and firepower, although there is a bit of me which thinks that you might do better to streamline the rules and call it +1 for being Swedish. There are quite a few factors in combat generally in these rules, although you do internalize most of them after while. They all seem pretty reasonable. I think I am still making the odd mistake with the rules, but I am getting better!

Figures by Baccus 6mm, buildings are a mixture of Leven and Battlescale I think.

Britcon 12 Aug 24

On Saturday, I went to Britcon, one of the shows most local to me, with my eldest daughter and youngest son. The main focus is on gaming - there seemed to be some Bolt Action and some Chain of Command games, but there were some traders and a few demo games.

Some kind of pirate game, with a suitably dressed pirate.

A Franco-Prussian War game, complete with some nifty conversions of some French Colonial infantry (light blue, by the buildings)

Warlord had a couple of their new games on display

There was a separate room for the Bring and Buy, and then there was a Wargames Illustrated room, with a few really big games set up.

The Boondock Sayntes' latest game (which I had seen at Partizan), a typical India-based epic

Next up was a Revolutionary Wars' game, set in Egypt:

And finally, an 1815 'What if?' game, exploring a potential French flanking move around Nivelles

A few pics of the busy gaming area:

There were a few mini participation-games (I think!), featuring a variety of periods:

We didn't stay very long - it was more a quick shopping trip and scoot around since we were local, and the littlest one wanted some more Romans for his collection. There were perhaps a few more traders here than last time I went, although they didn't necessarily cover an enormous range of wargaming stuff, but I think there would have been some bits which would have interested most gamers at least a little. The Bring-and-Buy was in its own room, and there was actually space to look at stuff, which is a bit of a rarity for me, in that most of the ones I have been to at other shows are more like a rugby scrum. There were plenty of people there but it didn't seem 'too' busy - perhaps one of the areas, a little walkway near the gaming area, with the Rapier painting stand, Gripping Beast? (maybe) and a fantasy trader (I want to say something like Hayland), was a little crowded and dark! On the other hand, it was downstairs on quite a hot day, and some areas in the show felt a bit warm.

The little one duly got his Romans (from Warlord), and some Victrix Gauls to fight them. The eldest one picked up a really big wolf which she liked the look of. I got a French artillery piece and crew, plus some Perry Napoleonic British Light Dragoons. I ummed and aah'd about some other stuff - primarily a few 6mm buildings from The Square - but decided against it for now. I think I am getting worse at shopping, as I get older!! 

One thing did get me wondering - there were a few painted armies for sale, several in the £500-1000 range. Do people actually buy painted armies at shows for that kind of money? Please note, I am not saying that the armies aren't "worth it", more just musing on the activity from the buyer's point-of-view - is this a thing that people do, on spec?

This is the second show I have been to in a couple of months. I went to the Joy of Six in July. It was a good show with lots of nice looking games, but I didn't really feel in the mood, so left early. But there is a good write-up with pictures in the latest Miniature Wargames. I did strongly consider getting the new Napoleonic rules from the Wyre Forest 'Twilight...' stable, but decided against it. For now, at any rate.