Blundering On

 

The opening photograph shows the initial dispositions set by the cards for the fourth battle using the 'Blundering into Battle' scenario generator.  The view is from the wooded hills beside the town of Doranstedt in the foreground, across the open plain in the centre to the village of Kuhfeld and the woods and hills beyond.  This battle was fought over two evenings by Gareth, commanding the Protestant forces while I commanded the Catholic League and Imperial army once again.

The Protestant army finds itself tightly bunched.  Cavalry are on the wooded hills next to Doranstedt and have been deployed in column to try to move along the hills around the edge of the town.  The advance guard is on the edge of the town with the first infantry division marching down the road behind it.   The second cavalry division are in the centre, deployed in column and the second infantry division, also in column, is on the road leading from the centre towards Kuhfeld.  Only one Catholic formation, their first infantry division, is on the same side of the table as the Protestant forces, in column on the direct road to Doranstedt and only their baggage train holds the centre.  Both cavalry divisions, the advance guard and the remaining infantry division are all off at the far side of the table around Kuhfeld.

Rolls to determine how many units would be rated Elite or Raw gave wildly different results for the two armies.  The Catholic side ended up with the maximum possible for each category while the Protestants almost got the minimum.  Raw units will always have a -1 on morale tests while Elite will get a +1.

The view down the road to Doranstedt from the head of the Catholic First Infantry Division column.  The dragoons and infantry of the Protestant advance guard are already on the outskirts of the town with a massive Swedish brigade trundling along behind and columns of cavalry are looming out of the woods on the hills to the left.

To give his isolated division a chance of getting into some sort of order before the mass of enemy troops to its front could get at them, Gronsfeld stationed himself with this part of the army.  He intended to turn the two leading Regiments and march them to the left, the following two coming up into a double line alongside them with the artillery in between.  The leading regiments tested to make the turn.  They failed.  No problem, Gronsfeld is a grade 2 general, allowing 2 retakes of failed action tests.  They test again, and fail again!  Then test and fail again #@!!*.  Only the artillery battery managed to move into position.

Things go better in the centre where a cavalry division makes a wheeling move in column, followed by an extra move forwards, putting it in good position to turn into line in the next turn.

On the Catholic right, the advance guard moves infantry into Kuhfeld while the Light Horse and Dragoons move around the right side of the village.  The infantry column on the road starts to wheel towards the centre, but then the other cavalry division needs to wheel to move through the gap between infantry and hedge line and fails to do so even with a re-roll.  #@!!* again! (and double #@!!* for not having been more careful with the deployment so as to make a wheel unnecessary in the first place)

In response, the Protestants move swiftly around Doranstedt.  Infantry and Dragoons move into the town, the Swedish brigades following close behind, while the cavalry division on the hills manages to wheel without trouble and moves rapidly along the edge of the town, eager to exploit the inaction of the enemy opposite.

Protestant cavalry in the centre move forward in a long column, perhaps hoping to get onto the flank of the Catholic cavalry.

A long line of Protestant infantry heads towards Kuhfeld, marching rapidly.

An anxious General Gronsfeld was able to get his men in motion in the second turn, but all are still in column and the artillery fails to unlimber.

The Catholic cavalry in the centre move to their left in column, then pass an action test to turn into line and make a half move towards the enemy cavalry, putting themselves on the flank of enemy column and within charge range in the next turn. 

This time the second Catholic Cavalry division does make the moves intended in the last turn, putting itself in good position to move into the centre to support the first division.

The cavalry had moved first and now block the infantry from moving far.  At least the commander has the satisfaction of getting one of his unwieldy Tercios to wheel while the other is able to move onto the table along the road.

The Croat Light Horse are now swinging round behind Kuhfeld, looking to cause mischief in the Protestant rear.

In reply, the Protestant infantry continues their advance along the road with the leading regiment turning into line and moving off the road towards their cavalry.  The latter now suffer a terrible failure of action tests to respond to the threat they face from the Catholic cavalry and do nothing.

Outside Doranstedt, the Protestant cavalry again make good progress but need to get out of line if they are to exploit the weak position of the Catholic infantry.  A Dragoon Regiment has advanced, looking to threaten the other flank of Gronsfeld's insecure position. 

The Catholic cavalry commander has a brain freeze and fails to make good use of his opportunity.  His front line is made up of Harquebusiers and he should have advanced them to fire on the Protestant horse, forcing them to take morale tests.  Instead, he ordered a charge (from which Harquebusiers get no advantage) and failed both test and re-roll.  This allowed the Protestants a chance to adjust their position but only half of the division managed to manoeuvre!  Their commander is praying for support to come up from infantry on both flanks, but they have a lot of ground to cover to do so.

In a cheeky but successful attempt to stop the enemy cavalry getting onto his left flank, Gronsfled moves his musketeers out further and turns them into line athwart the mass of enemy horse.  The artillery unlimber but then the rest of the infantry fail to turn into line.  Fortunately the Protestants have no units in line able to make use of this opportunity.

Uncertain how to deploy his men to advantage in the narrow space around Doranstedt and concerned about the situation in the centre, General Knyphausen decides to wheel half his cavalry division across the front of the still disorganised Catholic infantry to try to get across to the centre while the other part of his cavalry column tries to shake out into line and the infantry move up to support them.  Dragoons move further down the Catholic flank, looking to threaten any attempt by the Tercio to turn to face the main threat coming from the infantry marching out of the town. 

A bird's eye view from behind the Protestant centre and right, showing the threat from the Catholic cavalry (red outline) to the disorganised first cavalry division and the turning move by the second cavalry division to try to send forces over to join the fight in the centre

The view from behind the Protestant left.  Croat Light Horse are advancing on the right, Dragoons and infantry lining up on the edge of Kuhfeld and the front of the second Cavalry division can be seen beyond the village on the left.  This picture is taken after the first cavalry division has advanced to put the Protestant cavalry column under fire from the Harquebusiers forming the front rank of the Catholic cavalry line.

The end unit of the Protestant column fails the morale test caused by the Harquebusiers firing on them and falls back to the rear of the column (we were not sure how to handle this situation where the rear lines of the Protestant cavalry were not in line.  Do they count as giving support or not and does a cavalry unit failing a morale test fall back behind them or not?  Points to clarify later.  For the present game we allowed that they be treated as a support line for the purpose of falling back by cavalry)

By Doranstedt, the Catholic artillery failed to disrupt the Protestant cavalry moving across their front.  Two regiments, together with a regiment of Dragoons from the advance guard, are now moving across to the rear of the Catholic centre.  The Protestant infantry cannot yet advance as it needs to leave a gap for the remaining cavalry to pass through but once this is done then the position of the Catholic infantry is looking very vulnerable as their rear regiments are now in line facing the dragoons rather than facing the Protestant infantry.  The Catholic musketeers are edging back towards the safety of the wood behind them.

In the centre, the Protestants managed to get their cavalry into lines.   Their infantry is closing up on each flank but the Swedish Brigade on the left is still in column.  Artillery have been unlimbered and an infantry regiment turned into line beside it to try to face down any threat from the Croat Light Horse - at the top right of the picture.

In the centre, the Protestant horse have all managed to turn into line, forming a deep supporting column to face the Catholics.  Infantry are moving up to support the Protestant left but the Swedish Brigade on the right is still in column and the small wood obstructs deployment to threaten the flank of the Catholic cavalry line.

The Catholic cavalry advance for their Harquebusiers to open fire.  The commander of the second Catholic cavalry division had failed to move up his men to be within charge range of the Protestant infantry which may cause difficulties for the leading division when it comes for their turn to take morale tests.

Gronsfeld's worst fears are realised when his men fail to disrupt either the enemy cavalry or the infantry.  The Protestant horse then charge his Harquebusiers successfully, throwing them back behind their support, then passing a test not to pursue.  The infantry rout the Harquebusiers facing them.  Suddenly the Catholic centre is looking very vulnerable.

Fortunately the position has improved near the town.  The Musketeers have managed to get back the the wood and are supported by adjacent infantry.  The two units on the right of the position have wheeled part way to face the Protestant infantry while still covering against the dragoons out of frame to the right.   However, the Protestants have now got all their units into line and are ready to strike.

In the rear centre area, the commander of the Catholic second cavalry division has split his force, sending half to support the first division in the main fight and turning the other half towards the threat from the Protestant cavalry now in the rear of the Catholic lines.

After being disrupted for a turn by Protestant artillery fire, the Croats are now making themselves felt.  One unit is firing on the rear of a Protestant infantry regiment...

the other overrunning the guns.

Looking along the battlefield from Kuhfeld as the action reaches its climax.  In the foreground, dragoons and infantry from the Catholic advance guard are uncertain what to do given the risk of the Protestant rear guard arriving behind them (the Protestants have a similar worry at the other end of the field) but the Croats are now in the fray.  The forward line of the Catholic's second infantry division is on the left of the picture, blocking any further move by the Protestant cavalry around the rear, while the second cavalry division is moving to deal with that threat as well as propping up the thinning line in the centre.  At the top left, opposing infantry are about to come to grips outside Doranstedt 

The Protestant assault on Gronsfelt's isolated command.  A deep mass of Dutch cavalry advances to fire on the musketeers at the end of the line, dismounted dragoons fire on the middle regiment and a pike heavy infantry regiment, backed by the Swedish Brigade, succeeds in charging the regiment on the end of the line.

The assault does not go well.  Protestant fire fails to shake the Catholic line while the return volleys force the leading Dutch style cavalry regiment to fall back behind its supports and the dragoon regiment is routed from the field!

In the clash of pikes, the raw Catholic regiment had the support of artillery.  Although it lost a morale point it did not rout.  Gronsfeld heaved a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile in the centre, the Catholic horse had managed to keep the mass of Protestants in check, swinging the last unit of Harquebusiers from their first line round to fire on the flank of the enemy while their cuirassiers stood firm.  The Protestant infantry has come into range on the right but is now being harassed in the rear by Croats and has been charged by more Cuirassiers from the second division.

The end is swift.  Two Protestant infantry regiments rout under the attacks.  

Protestant bad luck continues as one of the Swedish cavalry in the rear is forced to recoil by fire from the Catholic's Dutch style troopers and then the remaining two Swedish units fail tests to charge.  The Swedish Infantry Brigade in the top centre of the picture has had an interesting journey across the field and finally turned into line but finds itself in position where it can help with neither of the cavalry actions.

At this point, with no sign of the rear guards for either side appearing on the field and with Knyphausen seeing no way to retrieve the position on his left and centre he conceded the game.

Looking back on this game, bad dice rolls for action tests were fairly evenly distributed for both sides.  The difference was that the Catholics managed to deploy into lines before the Protestants and then had less need to manoeuvre in the face of the enemy, whereas the cramped position of the Protestant forces on their right forced them to remain in column much longer to try to get into attacking positions, so failures of tests to deploy became more critical as they were already close to the enemy.  That said, the initial deployment of the Protestant cavalry in the centre put them at a grave disadvantage as they did not have comfortable room and a good alignment to deploy into once the Catholic cavalry had occupied the centre.  

The Catholic side had some blunders of their own, particularly in the handling of their cavalry when bringing it into engagement, but the initial dispositions dealt to them by the cards were easier to manage.

All the games generated by the 'Blundering into Battle' system have presented difficult decisions to both sides on how to manoeuvre the cumbersome armies of the 30 Years War, but this is what was intended.  Players have to decide at the start what the critical points are going to be and deploy their generals where they will give their men the best chance of being able to deploy effectively.  The Catholic side, with Tercios, Harquebusiers and Cuirassiers who all have a 1 in 2 chance of failing an action test, as opposed to a 1 in 3 chance for other troop types under the Twilight of Divine Right rules, have a significant handicap in manoeuvre but have more units in the field to start with in compensation.  The 'military genius' of George and Chris in the third game showed how clarity of thinking and direction could overcome the problems presented by the unpredictable initial deployment.  So, I end this series of games content with the scenario generator and happy to have managed a win in the last battle, even though that was thanks more to the bad fortune of my opponent, Gareth, than to my generalship.

For those who would like the details of the Blundering into Battle scenario generator and the orders of battle for the games in this series, they can be downloaded through this link.

Reports on the earlier games in this series can be found here and here.