Battle of Breitenfeld 1631

I hosted the Battle of Breitenfeld at the South Bay Game Club meeting on January 31 using "Repent or Die" by Manny Granillo of Hoplite Research Games. http://www.lulu.com/shop/manny-granillo/repent-or-die/paperback/product-4896153.html   Manny was Tilly, Bill McHugh was Pappenheim, Robert Packard was Gustavus, and I was Johan Georg of Saxony.  All the figures are Heroic and Ros.   Most of them I received from Bob Bergman in trade for 15mm figures.

Tilly had originally intended to avoid a battle until after winter.   However, Pappenheim, who had been ordered to locate the Swedes had engaged them and sent to Tilly for help.   Tilly advanced his army to support Pappenheim.   The armies fought the battle the next day.   After a couple of hours of artillery fire being exchanged, Pappenheim led his cavalry against the Swedish right.  Seeing this Tilly ordered Furstenburg to attack the Saxons and ordered the tercios to advance on them also.   Pappenheim made six attacks against the Swedes and was repulsed each time.   After being repulsed he led his cavalry from the field allowing the Swedish cavalry under Baner and Gustavus to encircle the Imperial army.  Meanwhile the Saxons put up a token resistance and then fled from the field looting the Swedish baggage on their way.  Isolano's Croatians arrived at this point to join in the pursuit and looting.   Seeing the collapse of the Saxon army, the second line of Swedish infantry faced left and advanced to protect their left flank.   The Swedes were able to capture the Imperial artillery and turn the guns on the tercios.   Only one of the fourteen tercios was able to escape intact.  Imperial casualties were 13,000 and an additional 5000 joined the Swedish army.   The Swedes lost about 3000.

In order to speed up play during the first few turns dicing for move distances was replaced with infantry moving 5 inches per turn, cavalry 10 inches, and generals 14 inches.   Normal dicing for move distances was used  once units got close enough to make contact or declared charges.

Ranges for guns were Light - 20 inches, Medium - 40 inches, Heavy 50 inches.  Muskets had a six inch range and pistols a two inch range.  Ground scale was 1mm = one yard/meter.

                                    







Initial setup looking East.  Imperial army is on the right and Swedes on the left 

View looking west.  Saxons on the right. 

Robert on left and Manny on the right 

Bill McHugh 

First turn.  Imperials moved first.  Pappenheim's cavalry advance. 

Furstenburg's cavalry advance towards the Saxons.

Swedish center advances.  Each Swedish regiment consisted of three battalions of pike and shot and two light gun batteries. 

Saxons advance to front of hill 

2nd turn Saxon artillery fire has no effect.  Troops in other parts of the battlefield closed on each other. 

3rd turn.  Pappenheim's cavalry charges the Swedish gun line. 

Swedish and Imperial cavalry engage on west end of battlefield.

Swedes send second infantry line towards their left. 

Imperial cavalry routs. 

More Imperial cavalry rout after failing to halt and slamming into the Swedish infantry. 

Furstenburg's cavalry engages Bindauf's Saxon cavalry.

Saxon cavalry rout taking most of the army with them.  Surprisingly one of their cavalry units actually routed its opponent.   The rest of the Saxon army then withdrew from the field.  Four squadrons of Croatians would arrive to join in the fun of chasing the Saxons.

Intense fighting in the center.  One battalion of the Swedish infantry regiment in the center was forced back while the other regiment threw back its attackers.

Baner's cavalry chases off Pappenheim's cavalry.  The Swedish cavalry had units of commanded musketeers providing additional fire power. 

More tercios advance on the Swedish line with Colloredo's cavalry behind them.

Furstenburg's cavalry advances towards the Swedish army.   The Croats have arrived at the bottom of the picture.

Swedish second line is arriving on the left flank of the army.as four tercios break in the center.    

The Imperial center and left flank are collapsing.  The tercio on the right precipitated the collapse when it was outscored 6:1 on the combat die roll.  The Imperial army conceded the field at this point as Baner's cavalry would be moving into their rear area.

The battle began about 11:30 and ended about 3:30 with a half hour lunch.

Repent or Die rates units from elite (best), veteran, regular, militia, to rabble (worst).  Elites normally roll a d12, Veterans a d10, regulars a d8, militia a d6 and rabble a d4.   The type of die can be modified by certain conditions and except for rabble will be reduced by one type if the unit is unformed.  Firing and melee cause the units to receive disorder markers affecting the units' cohesion and morale.  Units can be pushed back or rout from melee.   Routs cause other friendly nearby units to check, possibly causing them to rout also. 

deployment map from the (unofficial) Great Battles of History website.  To fit the battlefield on a 5x12 area, each hex was 3 inches across and the east end of the map from the woods was not used.  The whole map would fit on a 5x14 foot area.

THE SWEDISH AND SAXON ARMIES

Unit	Strength	Rating		Unit	Strength	Rating
Gustav II Adolph				Hepburne
				Schaffman	4	veterans
Horn				Kochitzky	4	veterans
Upplander	4	veterans		Taupedel	4Dragoons	regulars
Baudisson	4	veterans		Thurn	17R	regulars
Caldenbach	4	veterans		Grona	17R	veterans
Courville	4	veterans		Vitzhum	17R	veterans
von Efferen-Hall	4	veterans
von Efferen-Hall2	4	veterans		Torstensson
Steinbach	3CM	veterans		artillery	2H, 4M	regulars
hand1	3CM	veterans
hand2	3CM	veterans		Johan Georg
oxenstern	3CM	veterans		von Arnim	12B	rabble
				von Arnim2	12B	rabble
Baner				Loser	12B	rabble
Smalander	4	elite		Loser2	12B	rabble
Vastergotland	4	veterans		Starschedel	12B	rabble
Damitz	4	veterans		Starschedel2	12B	rabble
Rhengreven	4	veterans		Klitzing	12B	rabble
Stalhandske	4	Fanatic		Klitzing2	12B	rabble
Wunsch	4	Fanatic		Schwalbech	12B	rabble
Tott	4	veterans		Schwalbech2	12B	rabble
Ostergotland	4	veterans		Schmbrg	4	regulars
Livland	4	veterans		artillery	4M	rabble
Donhoff	4	veterans
Sperreuter	4	veterans		Von Arnim
baner1	3CM	regulars		Arnim	4CR	veterans
baner2	3CM	regulars		Kurfurstin LG	4CR	veterans
baner3	3CM	regulars		Kurfurstin LG2	4CR	veterans
baner4	3CM	regulars		Steinhaus	4CR	rabble
Teuffel				Bindauf
Kings Own	17R	veterans		Bindauf	4CR	militia
Oxenstierna	17R	veterans		Bindauf	4LC	militia
Hand	17R	veterans		Altenberg	4CR	militia
Blaa	17R	regulars		Altenberg	4LC	rabble
Ortenburg	4	veterans		Loser	4CR	rabble
Ramsey	3CM	veterans		Loser2	4CR	rabble
Monro	3CM	veterans		Pflugk	4CR	rabble
Hamilton	3CM	veterans		Pflugk2	4CR	rabble

The light guns attached to the Swedish regiments were all rated as veteran.  Each strength point represents 100 men.  Swedish 17R infantry regiments are organized as three infantry battalions in a wedge shape with one in front and two behind and have two batteries of light guns attached.   3CM are commanded musketeers.   4LC are light cavalry.  Artillery H = heavy M= medium number = batteries,  Saxon 12B are pike and shot blocks (a mass of poorly trained infantry),   Saxon CR are armored caracole cavalry, all other Swedish cavalry are heavy cavalry.

For the Imperial Army T = tercio,  HC = Heavy cavalry, Croats are light cavalry lancers, LC = light cavalry, all other cavalry are armored caracole cavalry, artillery groups are two heavy guns and one medium gun.

For both armies the actual historical strengths of the units varied.  The strengths were averaged to 4 for mounted squadrons, 17 for the Swedish regiments, 15 for the Tercios, and 3 for the commanded muskets.

THE IMPERIAL ARMY



Unit	strength	rating		Unit	strength	rating
Tilly				Colloredo
Tilly LG	4	veteran		Monteccelli	4	veteran
				Monteccelli2	4	veteran
Pappenheim				Erwite	4LC	veteran
Strozzi	4	regular		Erwite	4	veteran
Neu-Sachsen	4	veteran		Hareacourt	4LC	regular
Rangoni	4	regular		Coronino	4LC	veteran
Neu-Picollomini	4	regular		Colloredo	4LC	veteran
Alt-Picolomini	4LC	veteran
Alt-Picolomini	4	veteran		Furstenberg
Pernstein	4	veteran		Wengersky	4HC	veteran
Pernstein	4	veteran		Schonberg	4	veteran
Merode	4LC	veteran		Schonberg2	4	veteran
				Alt-Sachsen	4	veteran
Sachsen-Altenburg		career		Alt-Sachsen2	4	veteran
Holstein	15T	veteran		Cronberg	4	veteran
Chiesa	15T	veteran		Cronberg2	4	veteran
Gallas	15T	veteran
Neu-Sachsen-Furstenburg	15T	veteran		Isolano	4Croat	veteran
Baldiron-Dietrichstein	15T	veteran		Isolano2	4Croat	veteran
Alt-Tilly	15T	veteran		Isolano3	4Croat	veteran
Geleen	15T	veteran		Isolano4	4Croat	veteran
Artillery	2H, M	militia
Von Wahl		career
Goess	15T	veteran
Savelli	15T	veteran
Blankhardt	15T	veteran
Pappenheim	15T	regular
Comargo-Reinach	15T	regular
Wahl	15T	veteran
Wangler	15T	veteran
Artillery	2H, M	militia

South Bay Game Club Meeting January 31, 2015

The January meeting had a lot of games being played and visitors from one of the local schools.  In addition to the Battle of Breitenfeld that  I ran the following games also took place.  

 

54mm American Civil War battle of Brawner's farm.  Rally Around the Flag rules.

Student visitors take to the air in Aerodrome tournament

"Nuts" "Hell Hath No Fury" tank rules 28mm

Battle of Britain Aerodrome

 Tactica.  Byzantines vs Sassanid Persians

 

Tactica.  Byzantines vs Sassanid Persians

 

DBA tournament

2nd Aerodrome tournament table.

Miniature Wargaming Society of Sacramento Club Meeting

I ran the game that I will be running at Dundracon in February on Sunday, January 18th at the MWS club meeting.  This is a fantasy version of the Battle of Bibracte with dwarfs taking the place of Caesar's legions and a mixture of Orcs, skeletons, humans, and others taking the place of the Helvetii.  Normal sized humans provided the dwarf cavalry and light infantry.   Unlike Caesar, Geezer (played by Aaron Martin) advanced his legions off the hill and met the opposing force commanded by The Dark One (played by Bernie) near the stream.  

The cavalry and light infantry on Geezer's right were swept away by the opposing mounted troops.   On Geezer's left the cavalry held out longer, but eventually fled also.   The two new legions forming the back line were at first being moved to bolster the left flank, but one was dispatched to the right flank to cover the exposed  opening caused by the flight of the cavalry and light troops on the right.   This was the first use of the new rule for shifting troops from one flank to the other.  The legion arrived on the right flank just in time to meet the arrival of an additional 15,000 enemy infantry. 

The dwarfs had two heroes who were attached to a couple of cohorts of the elite 5th Legion (so named for the amount of whiskey they drank with each meal).  The two heroes helped to hold the end of the right flank even when the cohort "Mohawk" was attached to became disordered.  the other hero, "Hairy", managed to survive the battle.   The same could not be said for the two magic users on the opposing side.   The magic users managed to unleash a few fireballs on the dwarfs before the first one died.  The second one exploded during the next turn leaving a mushroom shaped cloud of smoke rising from the spot where he had been.

As the battle raged on the dwarfs would pull exhausted cohorts from the front rank and replace it with a fresh one.  Meanwhile their opponents were massed in a formation 50 ranks deep and were able to absorb the casualties inflicted on them by the dwarfs.  Eventually some of the dwarfs' enemies facing the left end of their main battle line broke.  However only part of the line broke leaving their center and left flank intact.  

At this point the game was called as Chris, the other dwarf commander had to leave.  The battle was declared a draw as the dwarfs were still in fairly good shape though their right flank was in a precarious situation.  

The only changes from the historical battle other than the type of beings fighting it were the addition of two heroes to the dwarf (Roman) side and two magic users to the other (Helvetii) side.  The dwarfs were also rated as being resistant to magic and had a saving throw for any hits caused by magic.  The figures used were all plastic 28mm figures from a variety of manufacturers with the majority being various Games Workshop figures.  The battle was fought on a 6 foot by 71/2 foot area.

 The main battle lines engage.  In the left center of the picture the legion moving to the right flank can be seen.  At the bottom the cohort with "Mohawk" attached is holding its own against the infantry and cavalry even though it is disorganized.  Hairy is attached to the second cohort from the right in the front line.  The 5th Legion is at the right end of the dwarf line.

Fighting on the dwarf right flank as the last surviving unit of cavalry is engaged by three opposing units.  The pictures were taken with my cell phone camera as the batteries in my camera had died.

There were several other games that day also.   Two different Saga games, two Lion Rampant,  Xwing, and a Warhammmer fantasy game.