French Armies of the Thirty Years’ War

French Armies of the Thirty Years War 1618-1648 by Stephane Thion is another one of those books from Helion that pops up and elicits a whoop of joy, from me at any rate, covering as it does a period of great interest to me and many others. The French army of the period is somewhat of a mystery to me due largely to the absence of anything of substance in the English language. This new book more than serves that need in providing a comprehensive description of the French army during the period, from a small poorly trained force to a highly efficient, successful and well led army that was more than a match for its many enemies on the battlefield.

The author breaks the period down into three blocks. The first looks at the French army between 1534 and 1616, the second the years before the French entry into the Thirty Years’ War, that is, up to 1635, and the final block the war years of 1635 to 1648. The changes and improvements in the army across these blocks of time are explained clearly and helps set the scene for the chapters that follow.

We are given brief examination of the uniformity, or lack of it, found in the French army above regimental level together with the background behind the decision to limit the number of colours or ensigns carried by an infantry regiment in the field. This was a steady rather than instantaneous transformation, and there were of course exceptions to the rule (the Guards held on to more standards and each cavalry company bore their own ensign).

Much of the book is devoted to the French army on campaign between 1620 and 1648. Each of the main actions are covered and this section includes detailed orders of battle which will be particularly for wargamers wishing to recreate any of the battles of the period.

What is absolutely outstanding is the prolific use of eyewitness accounts and contemporary correspondence, which personalises the narrative, not just throughout the book, but as a discrete and engaging chapter.

One of this books main strengths are the illustrations it contains. We are presented with 14 glorious full colour pages of specially commissioned images; eight illustrating typical soldiers’ dress of the French army and six depicting many of the regimental flags carried by the army. The book also contains a significant number of black and white illustrations, many of which are contemporary images of a wide range of subjects, be they battles, soldiers’ drill movements.

This is an excellent book, clearly one that has been a well researched labour of love, and takes on a detailed subject admirably, presenting it in an easy to follow yet scholarly fashion. Highly recommended.

ISBN 978-1-804514-48-1 soft covers, 213 pages.

The Battle of Novara - Tripping Back to the Italian Wars

John was over for a small game last Friday afternoon. My interest in the Italian Wars has been boosted recently so I decided to stage a refight of the battle of Novara. Swiss in the service of the Milanese against the French. We used Pike and Shot with a number of amendments to the rules and troop statistics. 

French (John) on the left, Swiss (Me) on the right.

Landsknechts in the service of France on their right wing.

Obligatory cat photo - Katrina Spawstza

Two huge units of Swiss pike.

The Landsknechts seen from the front with their supporting artillery.

The French centre, crossbows to the left of the village, three units of gendarmes behind and the right .

A future masterpiece in the making…..? Perhaps not.

The French commander and his choirboys…..

French Gendarmes 

Stradiots and French light cavalry 

The French camp.

A

The two huge pike blocks on the Swiss left.  They failed to move for three turns in a row!

More Gendarmes 

One of the French Landsknecht blocks.

The other one…..

French light cavalry bothering (not very much) the Milanese men at arms. 

The first unit of gendarmes into the saddle.

 My Swiss actually charged this unit of gendarmes and forced them to retire.

The Swiss

French gendarmes move round the village and drive off some Swiss crossbowmen, before charging into the flank of the central Swiss pike block. The pikes turned to face and the gendarmes bounced, but another unit then hit the Swiss, who were shaken.

 

Plucky French crossbowmen.

The Landsknechts and Swiss are getting closer to each other.

The aforementioned Swiss who had turned to face the charge from the gendarmes.

The Swiss and Landsknechts crunch together on the left wing. Both Swiss units had been battered by enemy cannon and arquebusiers so were carrying casualties before they even cross pikes with the Landsknechts. Despite this we’re managed two rounds of melee before there was a decisive outcome; one Swiss unit was broken and the other shaken, and in return one of the enemy units was also broken and the other shaken. 

The broken Swiss.

It was an unmitigated disaster for the Swiss, but a fun one. Novara is a hard one for the Swiss and this is the third time they’ve failed to win. It is possible I am sure…….

The French were supposed to be caught by surprise and began the game disordered and dismounted in the case of the gendarmes, with poor but increasingly better command levels. This should have given the Swiss time to close in on them and catch them with their hose down. Well, it would if I hadn’t rolled a whole series of rubbish command scores so the army either failed to move or ambled forwards slowly enough to allow the enemy to arm themselves, mount up, get into formation and counter attack.

I have a house rule where the Swiss ignore break results unless the whole of the battalia is shaken. That provided a period of grace for my huge pike blocks but not a long enough one. 

It was enjoyable getting these armies on the table after a long break. I shall be running a few more Italian Wars games between now and the end of the year.

The Swabian War of 1499 - a review of a super book

Helion’s latest in their growing from Retinue to Regiment 1453-1618 series is The Swabian War of 1499 by Albert Winkler. The war was the first occasion where the feared Swiss faced the Landsknechts raised and indeed trained and equipped in their image by Maximilian von Habsburg the future Holy Roman Emperor. It was a relatively short war, yet costly in lives and destruction to land and property. Not a great deal has been published in English about this war, so this is bound to be an attraction to anyone interested in later Middle Ages and early Renaissance warfare and the rise of the Swiss’ and Landsknechts’ reputations as formidable soldiers.

The author first of all takes us through a brief description of the weapons and armour used by the Swiss, together with their dress, discipline (or lack of it), aggression on the battlefield, organisation and tactics. This sets the scene nicely for an introduction to the complex background and causes of the war.

The war itself is of course covered in detail, with opening moves and the plans of the opposing armies described clearly. While not wholly unified, the Swiss Confederation and the Grey Leagues proved superior in their strategy while the Empire was riven with petty squabbling, in-fighting and the scarcity of funds, which made things difficult to say the least. The major engagements of the war, at Schwaderloh, Frastanz, Calvert and Dornoch are covered in great detail, with excellent full page colour maps for each of them. Other operations surrounding these actions are also covered putting the whole campaign into context. It was indeed a very costly war in terms of the lives of soldiers and civilians, the land was laid waste, and ultimately neither side could see much point in continuing with the war, which came to an end in September 1499. The author’s analysis of the war and its impact on the participating countries is sobering - militarily and geopolitically it was senseless; nothing changed, no land was won or given up, and the relationship between the Swiss and the Empire remained essentially as it was before hostilities broke out. He does note however that in the rise of the Swabian Landsknechts the Swiss met a worthy and bitter foe.

There is the now expected and much anticipated central spread of eight pages of colour illustrations. For me the best of these are those original images depicting the appearance of the common soldiers on both sides. There is also a splendid, vibrant and very ‘busy’ reproduction of a near contemporary woodcut of the battle of Dornoch. We also get full page colour maps of three of the key battles of the war thus enabling the reader to follow the narrative on the maps, together with a wide selection of black and white images. Some of these are photos of surviving weapons and armour, while the rest, near contemporary and more than likely as close as you will ever get, are woodcuts, and are illustrative in their depiction of soldiers or scenes representative of the appearance of the men and the armies they served in.

The book is aimed at a broad target audience, from wargamers, military history enthusiasts and researchers to more serious historians, a job the author has done well, and will be of interest and perhaps even inspiration to them all. It certainly ticked all my boxes and I found the entire book well written and an incredibly informative and engaging read. An excellent addition to the series.

ISBN 978-1-804515-54-9 Soft covers 115 pages

Waging War in America - Review

 

This book takes a look at the operational challenges facing the British, French, Spanish, German states’ and Continental armies during the American Revolutionary War of 1775 to 1783.

Author Don Hagist has put together a fascinating collection of essays from a number of extremely accomplished authors and military historians from the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, each focussing on one of the armies or one of the particular challenges facing the commanders, officers and men and indeed the wider civilian population. Putting this combination of expertise together within the pages of one book is an accomplishment in its own right, one which the author and Helion should be congratulated for, and allows readers to absorb the materiel presented and then, armed with this knowledge pursue their own particular lines of interest or research.

The stand-alone essays are clearly written, well researched and pose some challenges to popular thinking, and are particularly diverse in their subject matter. As an example, we have chapters covering the British army training objectives and their suitability for operations in North America, the tactics of the ‘Hessians’, the Loyalist militias of New York, the French and Spanish expeditions, problems facing the Continental Army and the impact of massacres on the frontier. There are a number of black and white illustrations, several useful maps and the authors make good use of original correspondence and documents to add to the narrative.

For those with an interest in the armies of the American Revolution this is a book you will find both enjoyable and enlightening.


From Reason to Revolution 1721-1815, No. 120
ISBN 978-1-804513-46-0 soft covers, 212 pages