Somehow, I have managed to get to the thirty-fifth game of the campaign. This seems to me to be quite something, as most campaigns I have run in the past tend to end up with three or four battles, and then one side has lost. Still, we live and learn, and so the 1600 – Something campaign has now rolled around to game 35.
This turned out to be a bit more complex than normal. If you have been paying attention, you will have noted that due to a financial crisis, the Swedish Empire in the Baltic is in a state of collapse. Most of the armed forces have mutinied. This has left a train unit in Gotland (IIRC) and an army in Estonia. The rest have disbanded, except for the fleet in Finland, which has defected to the Muscovites, and the army in Estonia, which was gearing up to fight the Estonian rebels (for the province has revolted) when French diplomacy and money intervened, and the army also defected to the Muscovites. It is remarkable how a relatively simple campaign system can throw up such situations.
Aside from the implications domestically for the French (of which more later in the turn), this left a Muscovite–Swedish army facing the rebels, as the defection did not stop the latter. This is where it started to get even more, um, interesting. I needed to find out what an early seventeenth-century Estonian army would look like. A quick Google turned up … my own previous post about fighting in Estonia. Humbug. Still, a little further digging found that Estonia had been held by the Kings of Sweden (as Dukes) for over 50 years, so it seemed eminently reasonable to give them a randomly drawn Swedish army. The Estonians got 5 cavalry and 7 shot bases via this process.
The situation with their opponents was even more complex, with a Swedish army having defected to Muscovy. Should they be Swedes, Muscovites or something in between? I decided on the in-between, reasoning that a lot of Swedes might just have taken the French money and gone home. A random mixed army was drawn, with red cards being Swedes and Muscovites, black cards, and then the value of the card gives the troop type. This yielded a Muscovite-Swedish army of 3 Swedish shot and two Swedish cavalry, along with 4 Muscovite cavalry and 3 Cossack light horse bases. I was happy with this draw as it implied that the Muscovites had rushed mounted reinforcements in as the Swedes deserted.
The battlefield, as rolled, was quite dense with terrain, which favoured the Estonians, I thought, even more so when another dice roll indicated that they were defenders. They are set up to the left, above, with 3 shot bases on the central hill, 2 in the village on the near side, and 2 on the banks of the stream to prevent any adventures by the Cossacks. The cavalry has two bases by the village, two in reserve on the left and one with the general on the hill.
The Muscovite-Swedes had more of a problem in deployment, hampered by impassable (to cavalry) terrain and other features that would cause disruption if crossed. After a lot of thought, I opted for a relatively high-risk strategy of pushing the cavalry through the gaps in the centre, hoping to be able to deploy before the Estonians got moving. The Swedish shot in the foreground would assault the village or bypass it and aim for the baggage. The Cossacks would try to outflank the Estonian left and also raid the baggage, but I was not expecting much from them as light horse are usually seen off by shot (which is as it should be).
The action got off to a fairly slow start, with tempo for the Muscovite-Swedes being in short supply. However, they did get going, as shown above. The Muscovite cavalry on the far side has got past the rough ground on their left and is trying to deploy. The Swedish cavalry by the field, however, had only just passed onto the open ground when they were charged by Estonian cavalry and routed. That was not part of the plan. The Cossacks across the stream, incidentally, never got any tempo, so sat and admired the view all game.
The Muscovite-Swedes had a poor morale dice throw to go along with the loss of the Swedish cavalry, and fell back. This meant that one of the Muscovite cavalry had to fall back through the rough going, which disrupted them. The victorious Estonian cavalry pursued. Some were stopped by a field boundary, but the general and his base careered on, deep into Muscovite lines. Now, if the Muscovites could only gain the tempo, he could be in trouble….
It was not to be. The Estonian general realised the danger, gained the tempo, and pulled his rallying cavalry back to the road. The Muscovite cavalry and the Swedish infantry pushed forward again. The Estonian cavalry from the hill charged down it and was bounced by the Muscovites, leaving them vulnerable, as seen above. The infantry around the village engaged in firefights. The Estonian general was demanding just one tempo point to finish the Muscovites, but also needed to pull back the bounced cavalry out of danger.
Again, the Muscovite tempo dice let them down. The Estonian general and his base charged the Swedish shot from behind, routing them, while another Estonian cavalry base hit another shot base on the flank, routing that too. In the meantime, the next Estonian cavalry base in the centre charged some Muscovite cavalry in the flank, while the general frantically tried to get up close to help.
The end was clearly in sight. Another poor morale roll had the Muscovites (there was only one Swedish base left now) falling back again, while the Estonian cavalry in the centre routed the base they had charged. Another fallback morale result meant that the Cossacks (top right) were more or less off the table. While morale was still relatively good and he had survived a general’s risk roll, the Muscovite general decided to quit while he still had an army and ordered a retreat.
Up until now, I have largely managed to ignore the effects of lumps of terrain on the battlefield. That is not quite correct, of course, but the impact has been minimal. Not so with this action, and my rules now have copious scribbled notes about moving around, into and through terrain. The Muscovite-Swedes were considerably impacted by having a mainly cavalry army in dense terrain, and their attempts to manoeuvre around it were either moderately successful, in the case of the Muscovite cavalry by the stream, or disastrous, in the case of the Swedish cavalry on the left.
Still, it made for an interesting game, and Estonia is now, more or less, a free state again. The Swedes now have to face a revolt in Gotland with only a scratch army and a couple of guns.
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