Spanish/Danish/Dutch alliance prevail over the Swedes.

John and I had a rematch of sorts on Friday, swapping sides for another game featuring the Swedes holding off the Spanish/Danish/Dutch corps intent on invading Southern Sweden. Never happened of course but there were plans to just that while the Swedes’ attention was diverted by the Russian invasion of Finland. All the Swedes had to do was repulse the enemy, who had to win control of the road leading off  the Swedish base line. Three Swedish infantry brigades and two of cavalry were facing four allied infantry brigades and two brigades of cavalry. I did have the option of deploying a British brigade (again it could have happened as Sir John Moore and a large expeditionary force were bobbing around in Swedish ports without permission to disembark) but if I had done so John would have got a brigade of French. Probably wise not to use the British I thought. 

Using General D’Armee 2 most of the Swedish infantry were classed as ‘reservists’ while I had upgraded the Spanish from ‘recruit’ to ‘reservist’ as these were arguably Spain’s finest. Everyone else, with the exception of the Swedish Guard and Grenadier battalions were ‘line’. The two aforementioned battalions were classed as ‘grenadier’. Most of y Swedish army was built up for the Finnish campaign but I have no intention of producing more non-Finnish infantry.

So followed a brisk action to determine the fate of this little part of Sweden. As per usual here some photos of the action, suitably annotated.

The Swedes are on the right. The other lot are on the left.

The Spanish cavalry amd one of their infantry brigades on the enemy left.

My brave troops lining a wall in the face of a whole brigade of five battalions of Danes supported by artillery.

The Danish cavalry brigade facing my left flank.

The other Spanish brigade on my extreme right, no doubt trying to outflank me.

The main line of battle as seen from the Swedish right.

My only reserve was this brigade of two dragoon regiments. Would they be enough?

I forgot the move sequence momentarily and left this battalion in line, thinking I’d have time to form square later. Nope. I was charged and failed to form square, becoming unformed as well! Oops!

Predictably my infantry ran away at first contact!

The Danes had to take the ground rather than pursue so in the next turn my other cavalry brigade, led by the Lifeguard (in their full dress uniforms) hit these Danes and bundled them back.

Meanwhile the Danes were closing in on my thinly held centre. My musketry forced one battalion to pull back but there were plenty more behind..

The view from my centre. The Kimgdom of Holland brigade were about to loose their skirmish screen, but their infantry columns were inching closer. My line was being hit by the enemy artillery just out of the picture and taking losses.

The Danish cavalry were forced to retire quite some way, giving me a bit of a breather on this flank.

John duly ordered the Dutch to charge but they were thrown back by accurate musketry from my defenders. 

It was getting a bit tricky on my right so I decided to sacrifice a regiment of dragoons. The Spanish skirmishers withdrew to the woods.

My Guard and Grenadier battalions were my best troops, and were taking casualties from the Spanish artillery.  My entire flank was also in danger of being turned. Not even these fine chaps would be able to withstand eight battalions of Spanish!

Lots of Spaniards, supported by their cavalry brigade ready to pounce on my Guardsmen and Grenadiers.

Throwing caution to the wind my dragoon regiment charged the Spanish guns that were doing too much damage to my Guards. Johns infantry had all formed square the previous turn, so I suppose their advance had been halted, but what the hell I thought, ‘go for it!’ Moments later my dragoons were streaming to the rear, battered but not broken.

On the left the Swedes were gaining confidence and attacked the Danish horsemen. 

The fight went to a second round but John elected to pull back while I had chosen to fight, so the Danish cavalry brigade withdrew almost to their starting positions. A victory of sorts me me.

Sadly, in the centre the Danes charged and overran my centre, breaking this battalion amd causing the brigade to falter. As this happened to be the final turn I tested on the faltering brigade table and the entire lot ran away. Game over.

The Swedish CinC. Not a smiley face.

This was another tremendous game, especially as the rules were coming back to us and we managed eight leisurely turns in about three and a half hours of play. With eleven brigades on the table that was pretty good going. It was certainly a very colourful spectacle with the eclectic mix of nationalities and uniforms on the table. I plan to add to the Danes, Dutch, Spanish and Swedes in due course. I have more than enough French (20+ battalions etc) and there are some Russians to finish off.

Thanks to,John for giving me a good drubbing. 

A Few More Danish Napoleonics

This week’s efforts have been focussed on finishing some more Danish Napoleonic troops, so here they are. A regiment of heavy cavalry and an amussette artillery piece.

Here they are.

This is from the Perry range of Danish Napoleonics and is rather nice. The gun itself, representing a 1pdr amusette, is resin, and very nice it is too with lovely detail. I’m not sure I’d be happy sitting on the back of it to fire even if it is only a pea shooter! I have another one almost done. 

Danish cavalry in overcoats/cloaks. These are inspired by an illustration in Helion’s Danish Armies of the Napoleonic Wars by David Wilson. The figures are all from Steve Barber. The horses and riders are his French dragoons or cuirassiers with cloak covering the saddlecloth. The riders come with separate heads, so the heads shown are Swedish Napoleonic ones in round hats which do nicely for the earlier (up to 1808) headgear. As with much of my Danish collection I’ve opted for the earlier style of uniform as I’m sure delays in replacing stuff would result in some units keeping their old kit post the official exchange date. I do like the red riding cloaks as it makes them quite a distinctive unit.

 

Remote Wargame in the Sumer(ian) time.

 

Yesterday evening I took part in a wargame hosted remotely by Jonathan Freitag of  https://palousewargamingjournal.blogspot.com/  along with three other members of the Virtual Wargames Group (set up using Zoom during Covid so numerous wargamers across the globe could catch up, chat, do show and tells and so forth). The group is still going strong and we ‘meet’ every Saturday at 16:30 BST for a chinwag. Jon has also taken to offering to run games remotely using Zoom, and I was fortunate enough to be invited to take part. Jon is in Spokane WA, I am on Teesside, and the other players were Stephen in E Yorkshire and Doug and Alan a bit north of Edinburgh or thereabouts.

The game this week was a battle between two Sumerian armies, using Basic Impetus on a hex cloth for ease of movement ent and reference. Once I was into the game the hexes were unobtrusive and certainly were a great help in keeping the game going. Even better for keeping it going was Jon, who as umpire applied his seemingly encyclopaedic knowledge of the rules in order to keep us on the straight and narrow. I’d never used Basic Impetus but have used Impetus Baroque (which worked well and provided an enjoyable game but gave me a headache).

Here a few photos I took off my monitor. Doug and I are at the bottom of the screen. Before anyone asks the cotton wool denotes a war cart in motion. Important as they take time to start and get up to full speed and to slow down and stop again. 

Doug and I faced Stephen and Alan. Very briefly, our side went storming forward. My sub-commander got stuck in and drove his mule-power war cart pedestrianaly fast through a couple of enemy units before coming a cropper when a flank attack against some enemy spearmen failed and he was destroyed. A similar fate lay in wait for Doug’s sub-commander, enough for our CinC to be heard to mutter that ‘there’s something wrong with our bloody battle carts today!’

It all got very messy and the fortunes of battle ebbed and flowed all evening with much cheerful sledging going on, until the enemy army gave way. We won, but I’m not totally sure how. Our dice rolling was probably not quite as bad as the enemy’s. This was a great game and a splendid way to spend a Tuesday evening ( or I guess morning for Jonathan?) and I look forward to the opportunity of taking part in another game soon. It may be even something I can take part in when I am next in India.

Again, a very big thanks to Jonathan for running the game. It was great!

The Army of Transylvania 1613–1690

The Army of Transylvania 1613-1690; War and military organisation from the ‘golden age’ o the Principality to the Habsburg conquest is the second book by Florin Nicolae Ardelean on the Transylvanian state between 1541 and 1690. Volume 1 covered the emergence of an independent Transylvania (notionally vassals of the Ottomans a high degree of autonomy was allowed in internal matters) up to 1613. This volume, as the title suggests, takes us through to almost the end of the seventeenth century, during which time the state had been caught between two warring empires (Habsburg and Ottoman), become involved in the Thirty Years’ War as an ally of Sweden and France, and was ultimately taken over by the Habsburg through a mix of diplomacy and military action.

The book benefits from a significant number of largely contemporary black and white illustrations, although there are a few depicting surviving items of weaponry and armour. As we have come to expect, there is the usual eight pages of dazzlingly beautiful colour plates, all specially commissioned and painted by a very talented artist Catalin Draghici. They depict the different types of soldiers to be found with an army of the Principality at this time and all of whom look like they mean business!

The narrative begins with a broad overview of the Principality and its rulers during the seventeenth century, with due recognition to social, economic and military developments. The analysis of the army and its organisation is clearly written and s a fascinating insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the military system, as is the following chapter covering the state’s fortifications, artillery and garrisons found within the Principality. What we are given is a comprehensive guide to the military machine that existed, seemingly almost permanently on a war footing.

The final chapter describes the military campaigns, battles and sieges that took place throughout the century, by a large well equipped and well led army. This was quite a complex period, but the narrative is something I became engrossed in. Led by dynamic rulers, Transylvania was allied to Sweden and France during the Thirty Years’ War against their Habsburg neighbours. A further alliance with Sweden, the Cossacks, Moldavia and Wallachia against the Polish and Lithuanian Commonwealth ended in the total destruction of the army and capture by the Tartars, and hard on the heels of this disaster, a devastating invasion by the Ottomans laid waste the whole country. The author’s description of these campaigns makes for very interesting reading and paves the way for the telling of the desperate and ultimately doomed battle for survival by the Principality, ending with its conquest by the Habsburgs in 1690.

Like his earlier work, the author has provided us with a magnificent description of the golden age of the Principality of Transylvania in the first half of the seventeenth century, but also of its decline and conquest. The history of late medieval and Renaissance Eastern Europe is a fascinating and colourful period of history, and one not often found in such detail in English. This really is a tremendous book and one for enthusiasts of Eastern European history in whatever context that may take.

ISBN 978-1-804513-49-1 soft cover 149 pages

Danish Horse Artillery

 

I’ve just completed this battery of horse artillery equipped with 3pdrs for my Danish Napoleonic cavalry brigade. The figures are from the excellent Perry range. While most of my Danes are in the pre-1808 uniforms I have these in the newer issue with a shako instead of a round hat. Horse artillery being somewhat an elite (if only in their eyes) formation I decided that they’d get all the up-to-date kit ahead of anyone else. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Now I need to do a limber.

Gettysburg Refight

Last weekend at the Durham Wargames Group John H ran a two day refight of the battle of Gettysburg using his 10mm collection (largely Pendraken I believe). The plan was to fight all three days of the battle over the weekend…….and as we know, no plan survives contact with a bunch of wargamers. There were 10 players plus the umpire and the rules used were Alter of Freedom, which I had never heard of let alone played but they were quick to pick up and worked well imho.

I won’t go into any detail about the real battle and will only give a brief summary of how the game progressed. (Mainly as I can’t remember!). Hopefully the photos will help illustrate how things went.

Saturday began with day 1 of the battle, with precious few troops on the table to start, but as the ‘day’ progressed the Confederate army was making good progress in pushing the Federal troops back off Seminary Ridge and capturing Gettysburg quite quickly despite a valiant holding action by Buford’s cavalry and Reynolds’ corps. However the highlight of day 1 was the overrunning of Lee’s HQ and the removal of the grievously wounded man from the game! Well done Nigel and the Iron Brigade. The Confederates seemed to spend too much time chasing after Buford and too little in moving forward as quickly as possible to keep the Federals on the back foot. As Day 1 came to a close the Federals were under significant pressure but were holding on, occupying Cemetery Ridge,  although Reynolds was put out of action as he commanded the withdrawal of several exposed brigades on Seminary Ridge.

Day 2 of the battle saw the Federals redeployed and massively reinforced. The Confederate army had pulled back slightly from its more advanced positions and was ready to try and give the Union a good licking. It was not to be. 

The game continued on Sunday for those who could make another day, which wasn’t many of us. (I was one of the deserters). Nevertheless battle continued. A massive Federal attack on Gettysburg with two corps from two directions had been building up from Saturday and it eventually drove the Confederate garrison out. Pressure was put on the whole Confederate line and despite the arrival of Longstreet’s large corps early on Day 2, at some point around lunchtime the magic break point was reached and the Rebs were defeated. No need to play through Day 3 as their army was in full retreat.

So, hurrah for the Union and where did it all go wrong for the Confederacy? Loosing Lee at the start of Day 1 was a major factor no doubt, and overwhelming Union superiority in numbers was another, especially as the Rebs had failed to break or even seriously damage any Union corps on day 1. 

A fabulously exciting and enjoyable game to be sure. Thanks to John H for organising it and herding cats, er, keeping us all under control, all weekend. Here are a load of photos in nothing approaching the right order but as usual Blogger has mixed ‘em all up. 

Lee’s HQ just before it was over rand the man himself grievously wounded.

The Confederates wondering how it all went wrong.

The victorious Union commanders.

Some strange Danish reinforcements.

 

I recently noticed that Steve Barber produces Danish Bosnaik Uhlans for the Napoleonic Wars. Moments later I had ordered half a dozen to form a squadron, which was nominally attached to the Danish Hussar Regiment. I believe the Bosnians were more of a ceremonial unit but who could not resist a squadron of these to bolster the Perry hussar regiment?

The men were volunteers and I doubt any were actually from anywhere near the Balkans, but they look rather pretty so that’s enough for me. I’ve not given them lance pennons as I have it my head somewhere that in action these were packed away. I may be totally wrong but that’s my reasoning.

I’m on with a battery of Danish horse artillery and should get them finished this weekend. Red gun carriages and yellow fittings is quite striking!

Hoping and planning for a game during the coming week to refresh our memories of GdA2.