Yesterday proving to be a wash-out owing to the weather, all outdoor plans being scratched, I took the chance to have a Sun King game. I decided to try the Battle of the White Mountain from 1620, between the Imperialists and the Bohemians, but using my 1670s figures.

I paired the scenery down to a minimum, as a reading of the events suggested that the slope up the ridge, apart from slowing the attackers down, did not really influence the fighting. The house and walled garden represent the walled summer palace, but it was not occupied by any troops for the game; in the real battle it held only a few companies and was abandoned quickly by the defence. The two artillery positions represent the handful of sconces which the Bohemians used to strengthen their front and left flank. These were not strong positions on the day and fell easily to the Imperialists, so I did not make them more than gabion walls.

Again, to keep it simple, I did a scale of 100 men equals 1 figure, and apportioned foot and horse and guns accordingly. This gave the attackers - the French - five cavalry regiments (each of two squadrons of 6 figures), six foot regiments of 24 figures and one foot regiment of 36 figures, and a light and a medium battery. The defence - the Allies - had five foot regiments of 24 figures, four cavalry regiments (each of two squadrons of 6 figures), two hussar regiments (each of 12 figures) and a light and a medium battery.

The two sides were deployed in a similar way to the forces on the day: the Allies had foot and horse units intermingled; the French had two wings, foot flanked by horse regiments. The Allied hussars were posted beyond the house on the far right flank. On the day of battle itself, they played almost no role so I made a rule that they would only take action if a hostile unit came within 6". The large force of hussars which was behind the Bohemian army I chose not to represent as they did nothing at all on the day of battle!

I set a limit of twelve turns, which proved just enough time to get a clear result. I played as the French side; the Allies were given standing orders - cavalry to attack hostile cavalry forward of the main line (which sort of happened on the day in 1620) and the infantry and artillery to hold their positions and repulse all attacks. I did not try anything subtle for the French, just ignored the hussars and house and aimed to overrun the artillery positions and batter my way through with my infantry. The French had a slight superiority in troop quality as my attempt to reflect the better Spanish and German troops available to the Imperialists on the day.

Victory went to the French, though only after some see-saw cavalry engagements mid-field and some prolonged infantry exchanges and charges, the big Swiss unit having a powerful effect once committed to the fray. Here are some photographs:

French on the right of the picture, Allies on the left.

The Allied hussars who did nothing all game! If I had been playing an opponent, or if I was umpiring for other players, I would not have told the French player about the restriction on the hussars' movement.

The artillery batteries were stormed pretty easily, largely because of the numerical advantage of the attackers and the fact the gunners were not of good quality!

The Swiss regiment Salis moves up to engage: this was, in fact, the first time I had managed to get it directly into action in a game since it was painted and based! Swiss regiments in Louis XIV's army were much larger than their French counterparts, hence the difference in size between the wargame foot units.

The position at the end of turn twelve, with half the Allied host having fled or retreated off the table and the rest boxed into the lower left corner - except of course for those hussars!

Just before clearing away, I rearranged the two sides more in accordance with 1670s deployments, when cavalry and infantry units were not intermingled, but the horse kept on the wings and the foot in the centre. Turenne did intersperse musketeer companies with his cavalry at times, but that was unusual and a legacy of his experiences of the Thirty Years War and the Fronde. Anyway, here is a photograph of the different deployment:

I hope to go to Partizan this Sunday and, if I remember my camera, I shall try to post some photographs of the event next week. I have a small shopping list!