Another very bad day for Tilly

 

Let's begin at the very beginning, a very good place to start.  Before the Battle of the White Mountain in 1618, the Protestant forces tried to block the Imperial and Catholic League army under Tilly from reaching Prague.  Time after time Tilly found a way around the blocking positions and it was only by dint of hard marching that Christian von Anhalt was able to get his demoralised army back to make a last stand just outside Prague.  As a first trial of my Thirty Years War armies and the Twilight of Divine Right Rules, I decided to set up a small 'what if' scenario that would have part of the Protestant army getting into a position where Tilly would have to fight them to in order to be able to press on to Prague.

So, a table about 4' deep by 5' wide was set up, one side ending in a large river with no crossing places, the other side rising to steep, wood covered hills, providing a battlefield between with a broad plain near the river, suitable for cavalry, giving way to some low hills in the middle.  The Protestant army had 12 units divided into a cavalry wing under Anhalt and and infantry wing under Heinrich von Schlick.

The Protestant cavalry Record Cards : 4 regiments of horse trained in the Dutch style to fire and counter-charge and two of wild gallopers.  Three of the regiments are rated as Elite, one as Raw, the other two are Trained.

The Protestant Infantry Wing : 2 Tercios and 4 Regiments.  One of the Regiments is Raw, all the others are Trained.

The Imperial Army had only 9 units, so under the rule system could have only one general.  All of its 4 infantry were early Tercios, very strong but unmanoeverable formations.  For cavalry they have 3 Cuirassier Regiments, one of which was Elite, and 2 Harquebusiers.  Although fewer in number of units, the morale strength of the infantry equalled the Protestant infantry while the cavalry was superior to their opponents.  Added to this, Tilly was rated as an exceptional commander, giving him three intervention points per turn, compared to the two Protestant commanders who were both rated as average and having only one intervention point each to use with their commands.

The Imperial's line up : Wallensteins Cuirassiers rated as Elite, all the others as Trained.

We drew cards for who would have which army and I ended up with the Imperial force, facing my son playing the role of Heinrich von Schlick in command of the Protestant Infantry and Chris, a friend from the HK Society of Wargamers, as Christian von Anhalt with the cavalry.  Each army started with an artillery battery on a hill near the centre of the board and with a requirement to deploy with their front line in range of the enemy battery.

Initial dispositions.  Protestant army in blue, Imperial in Red

Battle began with the Protestant artillery bombarding the Imperial Tercio closest to the cavalry wing, requiring it to take an action test before moving.  The Tercio passed the test, allowing the whole of the Imperial line to move forwards, save for the Tercio at the very right hand end of the line, protecting the flank of the artillery, which remained stationary.  In their bombardment turn the Imperial gunners targeted one of the Tercios at the left end of the Protestant line, which failed its action test, causing the infantry line to break up as the rest advanced, the four small regiments formed up in double line wheeling to their right to face towards the Imperial Tercios.  The Protestant cavalry also moved forwards.

Initial movement, seen from the end of the Protestant left where one of their Tercios failed to move under enemy bombardment.

Over the next couple of turns, the Protestant cavalry wing fell back rather than come to grips with the Imperial horsemen, who were content to follow up slowly with one of the Tercios moving along with them while the other two Tercios in the centre managed to wheel to face the four Protestant Regiments.  This lead to the first clash arising between the infantry forces in the centre, rather than on the cavalry wing!

The infantry lines meet in the centre.  Each of the Protestant front line units has support from their second line.  The regiment and the Tercio that have met head on each have flank support.  The Tercio is classed as a large, early Tercio that gives itself rear support but is now under direct fire from the Protestant artillery. 

A terrible start for the Protestant Infantry!  The Regiment in contact with the Tercio rolls a 3 on its first morale test, so immediately routs.  Their formation is further broken up by one of the unengaged Regiments managing to make a double move forward towards the Imperial artillery, which responds by starting to target it.

While the infantry clash in the centre, the Protestant cavalry charge one of the two Imperial Harquebusier Regiments but other Regiments fail their charge tests, leaving the left of the Imperial cavalry unengaged.

The Protestant cavalry attack does not go well, with their leading regiment failing a morale test and falling back through their supporting line. The unengaged Harquebusiers move forward with Cuirassiers in support and open fire on the Protestant galloper regiment that failed to charge.  The Tercio advancing on the right of the cavalry blocks the attempt of more Protestant cavalry to threaten the Imperial horsemen's flank.

In a terrible shock to the Imperial side, their left hand Harquebusiers, after inflicting a morale loss on the Protestant gallopers through fire collapse when their opponents pass an action test to charge and stream from the field in rout.  The Protestants then fail their test to avoid pursuit and end their turn in disorder crashing into the advancing Cuirassiers.

While the cavalry fight was heating up on the flank, the contest between the infantry in the centre  swung wildly from side to side.

The Protestant infantry get a flanking position against the end of the Tercios but the Regiment that had been advancing on the Imperial artillery comes close enough to take direct fire, fails a morale test badly and routs!

The outflanked Imperial Tercio fails a morale test.  General Tilly is attached to it and could enable it to retake the test but a natural 4 is rolled.  Tilly is killed and the unit is routed as it took a -1 modifier on the test - a rout requiring a final score of 2 or 3! 

The rules do not require an army morale test on the death of the commander, only if half or more of its units have been routed, but the Imperial army seems to be on the ropes.  

But just as Tilly falls and the Tercio flees, the Imperial artillery is able to hit the outflanking Protestant Regiment with direct fire.  It fails its morale test with a 3 and routs as well!!  Perhaps the day is not lost.

The loss of a third regiment means that the Protestant Infantry wing has now lost half its strength and must start to take tests every turn to see if it remains in the fight.  It passes the first test.

Mayhem among the infantry is matched on the cavalry wing, where Protestant gallopers collapse and run before the Imperial Cuirassiers.

And the Protestants take a further set back when the cavalry they had been trying to move onto the flank of the fight fail to get out of the way of the slowly advancing Tercio, have to test for enemy fire and fail the test badly, routing again!!!  Could no-one get an ordinary fail and just lose a morale point?

Well, the second Imperial Harquebusier Regiment had been quietly losing the odd morale test and now gave way.  This just revealed another Cuirassier regiment standing behind it, but the Protestants passed a test to avoid having to pursue.

After all that excitement, things slowed down.  The Imperial Cuirassiers needed to get one of their units onto the enemy flank but kept failing the action tests needed to wheel and the continuing melée failed to produce any results.  Their supporting Tercio also failed to do anything more to help.  In the centre, the remaining Imperial Tercio tried to fall back but could not do so.  On the far flank, finally the two Protestant Tercios managed to engage the solitary Imperial Tercio but were having to do so uphill.  In a long series of morale tests for melée it was slowly worn down, but so was the Protestant unit directly attacking it.  Every turn the Protestant Infantry Wing was having to take a test but managed to pass it to the despair of the Imperial commander.  He had no reserve left to throw in.

The stalemate was broken in a rush.  The Imperial Cuirassiers on the far left of their line finally managed to complete a wheel and then charged into the flank of the Protestant support line.  At the same time, Heinrich von Schlick who had attached himself to the Tercio fighting uphill  to help them retake a morale test fell casualty to another natural 4 dice roll.  Without his bonus on the wing morale test, the infantry wing failed its test, forcing the remainder of the Protestant army to test as well. They failed, sending the remaining cavalry streaming back in flight along the road to Prague.

Anhalt's cavaliers flee the field.

The players, who happily had survived the swings of fortune despite the fate of their leaden counterparts, surveyed the scene over a cup of tea and chocolate biscuits.  We were conscious that our lack of familiarity with the rules had slowed things down a lot, as well as leaving our men in some difficult positions, particularly the large Imperial units that have greater difficulty in passing action tests to manoeuvre than the smaller Protestant regiments.  We were quite taken aback by the high proportion of losses to routs, but this was down to generally poor dice rolling, for which there is no remedy.  We very much approved of the action test mechanism and the handling of artillery (the Imperial commander being particularly appreciative of his gunners for digging him out of holes twice over).  So, still quite a lot of learning to do and some re-thinking of the player aids I had prepared - the unit record cards did not prove as helpful as expected : more useful would have been a crib on the different cavalry types and how to handle them in relation to each other.  That said, we felt that these rules showed a lot of promise for large battles.  All that is needed is to paint a lot more figures!