Holy Roman Empire – Turn 2

About the first battle, there is little to say. The Swedes, with half a Brandenburg army in support, faced the defending Polish army in Pomerila, In case you are wondering, the province is the one on the map next to the Baltic, where the Swedish army has just arrived, transported by its own fleet and supported by the said Brandenburgers.

The Poles placed their Haiduks on the hill with dragoons to the fore, while their cavalry was in three lines – light horse, Pancerni and then the Hussars. The Swedes deployed with their cavalry to the fore, backed by their infantry, with the Brandenburgers on their right. The Swedish plan was to protect their advancing infantry with the cavalry as much as possible, while the Brandenburg infantry stormed the hill. As the above photograph shows, this was not really necessary. The army of Brandenburg had not so much as moved when the Swedish cavalry routed the Polish light horse and the Poles withdrew.

Not much of a wargame, I suppose. If it were a one-off game it would be disappointing, but as part of a campaign, we can simply move on to a more complex case in central Germany. As I mentioned last time this was a rather more interesting affair in the Bishopric of Bamburg, featuring one and a half Palatine armies against one Bavarian force.

The Palatinates are to the left here, on the left side of the stream, while the Bavarians are to the right. The Palatine plan was to advance half the army across the stream and thus to take any defence of it in flank while masking it in front. The Bavarian plan was to attack the outflanking movement with their cavalry while defending the stream.

The battle evolved pretty well as both sides had predicted. The Palatinate just about got its infantry across the stream and deployed before the Bavarian cavalry could attack their cavalry. Meanwhile, the Bavarian infantry got to the stream and, by virtue of a few lucky shots, managed to prevent the other wing of the Palatine horse from doing much for the central part of the game.

Eventually, the rest of the Palatine foot caught up in the centre, as pictured above. The Palatine horse can be seen on the far side, aiming to loop around the rough ground, cross the stream and take the Bavarian infantry from the other flank.

In the foreground, the cavalry fight has started, with six bases of Bavarians against three of Palatine. This started badly for the latter, with them refusing to charge, but then their general led them into a trotting encounter. Rather surprisingly, all three bases of Bavarian horse were routed. As the Palatine horse had not charged, they were not disordered and did not need to pursue. This was just as well, as the Bavarian cuirassiers were lurking in support of their reiters. If the Palatinate horse had charged they would have, first, left their foot exposed to the cuirassiers and second, been open to destruction themselves.

Anyway, the Palatine horse were able to amble into the Bavarian cuirassiers and, rather to my surprise and theirs, rout the base on the far side, which was led by the Bavarian general. The other two cuirassier bases held firm, just about, but the Bavarians had to dice for their general and then for their army morale.

The general dice indicated that he was a casualty. Thus the Bavarian morale was at -10 (four bases and a general) and the roll was minus four, which meant that the army was routed. This seemed fair enough. With their cavalry defeated and the infantry about to be taken in both flanks, running away seemed like a good survival option for them.

These campaign games do seem to throw up a lot of unbalanced wargamers. In some parts of Germany, the situation is locked as I am not prepared to risk a smaller force attempting to attack a much stronger one.

If you examine the picture of the board after the next turn (number three) you will observe there are several blocked positions. Bohemia I have already mentioned, but in central Germany, there are three mutually supporting Palatine armies, backed by the Saxons in their home territory. The Bavarians and newly arrived Austrian army simply cannot muster the forces to attack. There is a closely similar situation on the Rhine, where French and Spanish armies are confronting each other in mutual near deadlock (the armies are white counters of coloured counters with symbols on them. The coloured counters with, for example, fleur-de-lys are control markers).

On a similar basis, the Swedes have advanced in Poland. In order to keep Sweden out of Germany the Imperialists are probably going to have to send an army to Silesia, but getting involved in Poland would further divide their forces and also permit Sweden to invade Germany anyway.

As I may have mentioned, the game is rather complex (I nearly typed fiendishly complex) and I am not playing it right, I know that. But, as a strategic game, it is making me more battle averse. Hence the deadlock in Bohemia, for example, where neither side can gather the forces to make an attack.

Still, it is very interesting. I have no real idea of where the strategic points are on the map, so far. Nurnburg, by the way, right in the middle of the map, is an Imperial Free City and penalties are exacted against anyone invading it, so it is rather blocking the Hapsburg and Bavarian advance. It is, I suppose, touches like that which make the game a bit more historical than Machiavelli, but also a lot more complex. Whether this is a good thing or not is a matter of taste.

I could solve the blocking problem by changing my stacking rule, but that can make these games unwieldy too. The other option might be to adopt the Machiavelli bribing idea, so a state can pay the army of another to disband or even swap sides. This might not make things any more straightforward, particularly as I am not playing the leader counters. In the original game, you could buy mercenaries (Wallenstein, Armin and others) and any forces they had with them.

Still, we plough on. Turn four beckons.