15mm Thirty Years' War Campaign.

After a rather long interval, I played a game from my Thirty Years' War campaign. I had reached 1622 and this was the third battle for that year, fought between the Elector Palatine's army and the Austrian army. It ended with a victory for the latter, with the Elector himself killed in the battle and the collapse of one of his cavalry wings and one of his infantry 'divisions', as well as the loss of his baggage train, giving the game to the Austrians, although they were being hard pressed on their left at the time.

Here are some photographs: figures are 15mm from a range of manufacturers, mostly Essex, but others now forgotten or unknown, Thirty Years' War and English Civil War types all mixed up; units are all on one base, foot regiments, musket battalions, dragoon, cuirassier and horse squadrons, along with artillery batteries; rules are a 17th Century version of Shako devised by myself, which give a quick game; table was 4 feet by 3 feet, with a random set-up for terrain. Both sides were on the attack.

The battlefield.

The opposing sides - Electoral army at the top; Imperial Austrian army at the bottom.

The Austrian left wing cavalry.

The Austrian infantry centre - two 'divisions' and their artillery.

The Austrian right wing, with dragoons in support.

The Elector's left wing.

The Elector's right wing cavalry and part of his infantry centre, with artillery on the hill behind.

End of Turn Three, with the opposing foot starting to engage; the Austrian left wing cavalry are not doing too well against the Electoral horse, but their right wing cavalry has almost driven their opponents from the table, killing the Elector in the rout.

End of Turn Four, with the Austrian cavalry turning the left flank of the Elector's infantry, while the musketry fight continues in the centre as the Austrian foot push forward through the marsh and wood covering the Electoral positions.

End of Turn Five. The Electoral right wing cavalry have almost beaten the Austrian left wing horse, but the Austrian right wing cavalry is in a very favourable position.

The Electoral baggage train.

End of Turn Six. The infantry combat is in the balance, neither side closing to hand-to-hand combat, just firing at each other.

The Electoral baggage train is attacked by Austrian cavalry, who promptly start pillaging it.

End of Turn Eight. The Austrian rightmost infantry have charged and broken the Elector's leftmost regiment of foot and forced it to retreat, exposing it to attack by Austrian cavalry. On the Austrian left, their cavalry is out of the fight, so their foot manoeuvres to counter the threat from the Electoral horse.

End of Turn Nine. The Austrian right wing cavalry have driven off the retreating Electoral infantry regiment even further, while in the exchange of musketry at the wood, the remaining Electoral foot unit breaks and flees when its general is wounded and carried from the field. With two 'divisions' broken - one cavalry and one infantry, as well as their baggage train overrun, the Electoral army is beaten.

After the defeat, the new Elector Palatine abandoned his attempts to hold onto his possessions in southern Germany and began to retreat north to his remaining lands. The next two years saw some rather cautious moves by the different powers, such that there were no battles. At the end of 1624 (see map below), the Spanish (Red) were well ahead on Victory Points, having secured the Spanish Road from Milan to the Spanish Netherlands, while the Austrians (Orange) and Bavarians (Purple) had gained control of southern and south-eastern Germany. The Dutch (Pink) were pinned by a Spanish army in Köln province on the Rhine; the Elector (Green) was trying to hold out in the north. 1625 will see the Danes entering the war.

The Iotan War Part Two

Before we moved house back in March, I had completed a little more of my Petaudia campaign - The Iotan War - and fought another battle. Dragon Rampant rules as usual; here it is:

Before the Count of Ethonia encircled Iota after his victory in battle, the Baroness tried to get aid from her neighbours, the Barons of the South and West March. Although the former declined, the latter agreed and set about raising his army. The Baron of the West March intended to link up with two of the Baroness' lords - Kynehelm of Doricourt and Pynd III of Bonese - whom she had sent back to their lands to raise more men. However, Pynd III, who had managed to gather a large force of his peasants, plus his own troops, along with some men from the Exarchal Church's Priory of Saint Crinis, along with a band of mercenary cavalry, set off for Iota before the Baron of the West March was ready. But when Pynd III and his men reached the river bank opposite to Iota, the Baroness did not believe he and his men could defend the town against a siege and so, fearing for the population if the Count of Ethonia launched an assault, she sent the garrison across the river to join Pynd III and surrendered Iota to the invader. Pynd III and his men withdrew back to his lands and informed Kynehelm and the Baron of the West March - these having moved towards Iota - of the turn of events. The poor Baroness was bound in chains and sent off back to Ethonia and any protest from the inhabitants of her capital was suppressed.

The Count of Ethonia was set on conquering all of the East March, so he sent a force, led by one of his own barons, Arldred of Priscia, across the river to attack Pynd III and his army. Once the latter was defeated, the Count intended to turn on Kynehelm and the Baron of the West March. Arldred reached Bonese and found Pynd III and his men drawn up for battle. The latter had an advantage of numbers, but his peasants would be little match for the better quality troops of Ethonia and their mercenaries.

The opposing sides - Ethonians at the top, East Marchers at the bottom, with Pynd III's peasants off-table, waiting to come on behind the centre.

East March longbowmen and spearmen in their black and yellow colours; to the left, plançonmen - big wooden clubs with spikes in the end - and hammermen from the Exarchal Church; the latter keep their own troops to defend their priories and intervene in conflicts where fellow believers are under threat. In this conflict, that meant siding with the Baroness, as the Ethonians are non-believers.

More of Pynd III's men - spearmen and crossbowmen.

The dwarf allies once more, plus the mercenary light cavalry.

Arldred's left wing - hobilars and mercenary longbowmen and a mixed band of mercenary macemen, axemen and billmen.

The Ethonian centre - pikemen and longbowmen from the Count's own household,

along with ordinary longbowmen. Red and green are the colours of Ethonia.

Arldred's right wing - dismounted knights, mounted knights and men-at-arms.

The random monster element! A forest lizard dwells in the woods around the ponds.

Pynd III's bands of peasants.

Hardly had the Ethonians got moving, than the forest lizard charged out of the woods and attacked the mounted knights. The latter were forced to retreat, unsurprisingly!

The Ethonian commander, Arldred, and his banner bearer.

Pynd III and his banner bearer.

Slow progress by the Ethonians, their right wing in some disarray from the attack by the forest lizard.

And again it attacked! This time the longbowmen, who were also severely handled by the creature, forcing them to retreat before returning to the woods. All this was, of course, much to Pynd III's satisfaction!

Over on the Ethonian left, their hobilars ended up in a long action with Pynd III's mercenary light cavalry, watched by the dwarves.

Realising he was not going to get his right wing into action against the East March force if he did not get rid of the forest lizard, Arldred sent his knights against the monster, but they were beaten off resoundingly.

However, his men-at-arms got in a successful charge and injured the creature enough for it to retreat into the woods to lick its wounds..

Not much success for the Ethonians; in fact, Arldred's troops are all higgledy-piggledy and have not even reached the East March line. 

Hobilars and light cavalry still fighting it out.

At last, the mercenary mixed band clash with East March spearmen, but are repulsed.

And still the hobilars and light cavalry fight it out.

And again they clash between the hedgerows!

Arldred's army still all over the place, the centre well up, but the wings not in support.

And yes, they are still battling away!

Again, the mercenary mixed band attack, but the hedgerow helps the East March spearmen and the attackers win, driving back the defenders, but then fail their morale test and have to retire as well. They were then broken by some good shooting by Pynd III's crossbowmen.

Pikemen and spearmen clashing on the road; the latter, fighting better troops,

is beaten and breaks in rout.

Things looking a little better for the Ethonians, but not much; Pynd III still has all his units and is holding his ground.

A lot of dithering by the Ethonians, in other words, they did not pass their activation dice rolls!

Pynd III throws in his peasants to fill a gap in his centre. Men-at-arms against toilers of the soil? Unsurprisingly, the horsemen routed the peasants with little trouble.

Arldred's left wing is still not getting anywhere; his centre and right are pressing forward, but Pynd III's men are still resolute in defence.

Exarchal Church troops engage the dismounted knights, but get beaten back.

And the forest lizard reappears, this time to Pynd III's dismay, as his Exarchal Church unit is caught by surprise and roughed up by the monster before it withdrew into the trees.

Dusk falling, Arldred decides that he cannot beat Pynd III before night comes on. So he called back his foremost units - the pikemen and men-at-arms, and reassembled his force.

The action was declared a draw, although Pynd III's side suffered the most losses, mainly amongst the peasantry. The next morning, both sides were still facing each other, Pynd III bluffing his opponent into thinking he could still beat him. So the Ethonian commander pulled back to Iota, intending to persuade the Count that he needed more men.

By then, the conflict was beginning to widen, as dark forces to the north, from Flamia, prepared to intervene...

As always with Dragon Rampant, a fast and fun game, often in the balance, with rules that are straightforward and ensure a decision to a battle; none of your three turns in four hours and everyone ready to go home, weary from wading through the rulebook or bored from the slow tallying of factors in favour or against!