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.