1600 Something – Bavarians and Austrians

Politics, we may say, is a strange business conducted by rather odd people. This might be true now (the reader can establish that for themselves by perusing their local news feeds), but is certainly true of the past. The 1600 campaign has now proceeded to Spring 1601, and strange things are afoot diplomatically.

Now, it has to be admitted that the campaign is set up for things to evolve quite slowly. The initial density of armed forces is quite low, and in many places in Europe, they are far apart. Not only that, but with initiative rolls to do anything between 40 and 85%, and only a one in four chance then of moving a military force, things are going to be slow.

Still, the first central European crisis of the game has arrived. The Bavarians, for reasons best known to themselves, raised a second army in Winter 1600. That is, of course, all fine and dandy, except that they cannot afford to support two armies, having only one province, Bavaria itself. From the point of view of the Holy Roman Empire, this looks a bit suspicious. Austria (the said HRE, of course) has just raised a second army in Bohemia and, being a large empire, can certainly afford it. On the other hand, armies sitting around with nothing to do are a bit of a menace to all and sundry.

The round of diplomacy in Spring 1601 did not help. The Austrians attempted to subvert the Palatine away from their friendship with Bavaria, and that did not work, but further raised suspicions. After all, one of the routes to Bavarian expansion is via the Upper Palatinate. A round of general Bavarian diplomacy did not assist either, as the Austrian view of Bavaria slumped to hostility, while the Bavarian view of Austria was hostile.

At this point, the Emperor stepped in. Another initiative roll indicated that military action was viable, and so a punitive force was dispatched from Austria into Bavaria, supported by the new army in Bohemia. The Austrian objective was to maintain the peace of the Empire by preventing the Bavarians from invading anywhere. The Bavarian forces, an army and a garrison, came to meet them, and so the second battle of the campaign came to pass.

Given that the Austrians had a supporting army and the Bavarians had a supporting garrison, both armies could deploy 18 bases to the battlefield. After I had some fun in drawing up the army lists, the Bavarians had 8 cavalry, a light horse, 6 shot, and 3 pike bases. The Austrians had 4 cavalry, 2 light horse, 8 shot, and four pike bases. I went, rightly or wrongly, for one cavalry-heavy army and one foot-heavy.

In the picture, the Bavarians are to the left, with their cuirassiers deployed on their left (far side) and the infantry to the right. The idea was that the cuirassiers would hold off and smash away at the Austrian foot in front of them while the foot outflanked the Austrians on the right. The Austrians simply deployed their infantry advantage in depth, with a back row of cavalry as the final reserve.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I am not sure I have ever had a straight charge of cavalry onto formed up pike and shot foot under these rules. I thought it should be a reasonable match-up – 6 bases of cavalry in the front line of Bavarians, and 6 bases of pike’n’shot for the Austrians.

The initial trempo rolls for the Austrians were fairly awful, which allowed the cavalry to get up close and personal, although the Austrian light horse did get in the way a bit and disrupt the advance. However, for all the low-tempo dice rolls, the Austrian combat dice were hot, hot, hot. You can see that the cuirassiers on the far side have been bounced from their charge, with damage, and now being stationary, disrupted (2 terrain shaken markers – I forgot to put them out), and under musket fire. Hm. That went well.

The Austrians deployed their general with the redcoats on the far side and advanced aggressively against the Bavarian horse. As you can see, they routed two bases. You cannot see that the redcoat pike took another base in flank, and they too are destroyed. A morale check for the Bavarians indicated a fall back, so everyone dropped back, meaning that the infantry, who were far behind schedule anyway, were now even further behind.

The Bavarians were a bit flat-footed after that, despite the heroic efforts of their sub-general to reorganise his remaining cavalry into something that looked like a line. The Austrians, on the other hand, bought up their remaining foot and merged them with the existing front line, and put the second block under the command of their sub-general. They advanced against the remaining Bavarian cavalry and, as seen above, started to blow them away. The Austrians were, by now, busily ignoring the threat to their left flank caused by the advancing Bavarian foot, although the light cavalry had been deployed to try to slow it down a bit.

By this point, Bavarian morale, while holding up just about, was sagging a bit. After all, three-quarters of their cuirassiers had fled the field. While they were not beaten, I decided that a tactical retreat might be in order. It would take a while for the Austrians to redeploy their foot and bring their own cavalry up, so I thought it was best if the Bavarians disengaged to fight another day.

Well, that was interesting. I do not know, as yet, whether the Emperor’s point, about maintaining the peace of the Empire, has been made sufficiently for the Bavarians to disband one of their armies, or whether the Emperor will have to make some further noise. On the other hand, Munich is occupied by a garrison, and the Emperor does not, at present, have a siege train, so starving the Bavarians out is the only option open at the moment. Also, I am not sure what the Bavarian field army will do. It could cross into Wurtemburg anyway, which is what the Emperor was trying to prevent, or, having not actually technically lost the battle, it could hang around in Bavaria and see what happens.

So, things have got interestingly complex already.

1600-Something: The Muscovite Civil War

For reasons of current events and general mayhem in the world, I have, I think, somewhat shied away from wargaming involving Russia in the last few years. This is probably highly irrational. After all, events of hundreds of years ago cannot really have that much impact today (an arguable statement if ever there were one), and, further, a fictionalised wargame of such events can have even less relevance. Still, who needs to be truly rational?

However, with my megalomanic trends as outlined last week, it is impossible to run a game set in Europe without involving the flank powers, and so Muscovy appears on the easternmost edge of the map. It is, of course, rather small and weak, as indeed was the case in 1600 – it was regarded in England as being exotic. On the other hand, I suppose England was regarded as being rather exotic from the point of view of the Baltic.

Still, Muscovy is in the game, and as I indicated last week, the country, while undertaking a diplomacy drive, collapsed into civil war. The rationale I have put forward for this is a dispute at the Tsar’s court over foreign influence. I am not sure which side is which, but we now have a wargame on our hands between two Muscovite forces. I even managed to dig out some Eastern European buildings.

The field was open and a bit rolling, with a few hills around. The near side edge is the government baseline, and their infantry on the left is deployed on a hill. The rebel Cossacks are also on a hill on the right. There was a fair bit of hesitation on both sides about starting the action (a lack of tempo points for both generals), but the light troops are getting stuck in on the government right, while the cavalry and infantry are slowly advancing.

The way the rules work, like the rest of the Polemarch family, at least as far as I have seen them, it can be important in cavalry battle to get the drop, that is, seize the tempo, and charge first. This was true here, but it did have, as we shall see, a bit of a twist in the tail.

Above, the rebel cavalry has got the drop on the government and routed two bases in the charge and subsequent combat. However, the five rebel cavalry bases have used three to rout two government bases. In the centre, you can see that the government has two shaken bases just about holding out, and two unengaged bases, confronting the rebel infantry. The government infantry, meanwhile, is moving into position against the rebels, and a firefight is breaking out.

A move or two later, and the rebels have routed another base of government cavalry, although the pursuers are becoming quite scattered. One of the pursuing bases was looking like it was going to hit the cossacks, but some accurate fire from the latter gentlemen dissuaded them from that idea, and they swerved past instead. The government Cossack, incidentally, did rather well, outnumbered, against their opponents.

It was that scattering that was the problem for the rebels, along with the infantry assault on their right. The government, having general and some cavalry in hand, firstly rescued one of the bases in trouble with a flank attack. They followed this up by moving two cavalry bases across to the centre and taking on the scattered rebel horse. This was rather successful, as charging bases in the rear tends to be. You can see some of the hitherto successful rebel cavalry routing at the bottom of the photograph, while some others are under pressure from the government general and his base of horse. The rebel general survived all this and is currently wandering around in the middle of the field looking for some troops to command.

The infantry tussle to the top left of the picture is also going the government’s way, with the flanking streltsi and ‘Cossack’ pike taking out a couple of bases themselves. Overall, this was a bit too much for the rebel morale, although with a decent morale dice roll, they went to a withdraw instead of a rout status.

Losses were fairly significant on both sides. The rebels lost 3 cavalry and 3 infantry, the government 3 cavalry bases. In the campaign, the idea is that I keep track of battlefield losses (as in the DBA campaign), so replacements for extant armies only occur in the winter turn, and then at one base a year. On the other hand, countries can raise new forces if they can afford them.

Still, that was a rather good wargame. After a few moves, I was fairly convinced that the rebels would win it, having smashed the government centre. As with Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers, however, that only went so far. The rebel cavalry was used in total, while the government had a couple of bases uninvolved. These were able to pick off the now scattered rebel cavalry, while the infantry, having been set up to have an advantage over their opposite numbers, made good on the promise. The idea of keeping a cavalry reserve is growing in popularity.

In terms of the campaign, the Muscovite GOOS score has, of course, gone up, but the rebellion is not quite over. A bit depends on how the surrounding powers – Sweden and Poland, maybe the Ottomans – react, and, of course, whether the increased Muscovite GOOS score convinces the rebels that God is not with them.

In other news, the Elector Palatine managed to fumble his initiative roll and got an assassination result. He survived the attempt, but the question is now ‘who ordered it?’ Looking across the diplomatic table reveals a number of possible foreign powers who could have sponsored it, with the dice rolling finger pointing at France. It all looks like a decent diplomatic incident, if not a war, is brewing in Western Europe now as well.

So, a decent start to the campaign, with certainly enough to keep the creative juices going, even if most countries are striving to be on good terms with everyone else. I do not suppose that that will last, however, as some of the strategic aims distinctly clash. Which is the point of having them in the first place, of course.

Ancient Ends and New Beginnings

After the War of Stuart Succession, I had thought to do some ancients wargaming. I had the Roman invasion of Britain in mind, and mined my books for some ideas. As logged here, a couple of test games were conducted. But something did not feel quite right. I could not put my finger on it.

The ancients have always been a bit of a sideline to my wargaming activities. I have, as I have said before, mostly been an early modern wargamer. The variety is fascinating, and the world was just becoming global. There are lots of opportunities from near-stone-age civilisations to those which look roughly like modern states. So I struggled with the ancients setup; it was too vague, too abstract, and, as the Estimable Mrs P said, my heart was not really in it.

Heck, this is supposed to be a hobby. The decision was not that hard. The ancients are abandoned. If anyone would like a collection of 6 mm Baccus ancient armies, or part thereof, make a comment to this post with your email address in it. I’ll not publish it, but I will reply, and we can discuss the options. I’d prefer UK-based wargamers, having had enough of tangling with HMRC for the moment. For the record, there are Greeks, Persians (both early and late), Macedonians and Successors, Indians, Pontic, Late Republican Romans, Early Imperial Romans, Celts, Dacians, Germans, Parthians, Moors, and Sarmatians. There is also a fleet of 1:3000th triremes and similar, and some Celtic roundhouses. Quite enough for someone augmenting their collections, or starting ancients from nowhere.

Now, for the new idea, which is actually something that has been floating around in my consciousness for years, nay decades, but has come a little more to the fore recently. Many years ago, in the early days of the Internet, I ran a play-by-email game set in 1618, which covered, initially, the whole of Europe and expanded to cover the Eurasian land mass. Ambitious, and it did work, but it got a bit oversized and eventually collapsed, not least because I couldn’t keep up with the administration, and because few people sent in orders.

I am not proposing to revive that game, but I am creating something that looks like a bit of a solo version of it. Firstly, of course, I needed a map. This took some drawing, given I wanted to go from Norway to North Africa and Portugal to the Urals, but I got there. Naturally, it had to be simplified quite a lot. Real maps of the period show a lot of detail in Germany, which bewildered most contemporaries, let alone modern wargamers who expect nice, neat boundaries. I used a couple or three boardgame maps I have around (Holy Roman Empire, Thirty Years War, and Machiavelli) to include some of the relationships between states and geography, and my previously developed (for the WoSS) ideas for land areas (mysteriously named ‘provinces’ in this game) and sea areas. Again, I have simplified significantly, but there is still a daunting quantity of detail there, and more could be added.

After a bit of thought, I did add some extra detail. Some more German states were added, such as Cleve, Mark, and Berg, which caused the 1610 crisis, as well as the Basque Country and Catalonia, given that they were much fought over in the Seventeenth Century. I could not quite find it in my heart to add in the Val Telline, vital though it was for the Spanish Road. There has to be some sort of a limit, doesn’t there?

Well, I am a wargamer, so I suppose the answer to the rhetorical question is ‘no’. But the whole idea of a wargame campaign is to have an excuse for some linked-up wargames, even if they are at opposite ends of the continent. I did, this time, draw the line at including India and the Far East. Firstly, I have just run campaigns in these areas – A Very Mogul Civil War, the Japanese Invasion of Korea, and the Burmese campaign – so I do not feel a particular need to include them at the moment. Secondly, these more easterly areas are conveniently buffered to the rest of the map via Persia, so they can be added on as I see fit, if I do so.

The final result, with some initial dispositions on it, is shown above, together with my scrawl down the left corner, which indicates which coloured pin refers to which country. The map is actually that of Summer 1600. You can see that some states have increased their military force, most notably the Swedes, who have created a fleet to augment their army in Gothland (white pins), and a rebellion in Catalonia (shorter green pin), which the Spanish fleet, originally based in Leon, is about to put down (by negotiation).

The running of the campaign is supposed to be simple and straightforward. I have built in some complexity, however, in that each major player has a set of strategic aims, such as keeping open the Spanish Road, or expanding at the expense of minor states, and so on. I have also introduced budgets, although it has to be admitted that sticking to a budget was not a hallmark of the early modern political entity. The threat of bankruptcy could keep rulers on their toes, however.

The above shows the paraphernalia needed to run the game. The map, my diplomatic table, notebook (campaign journal), rules, assorted dice and playing cards, and, somewhere off to the left, the treasury reports. Each player is controlled by their initiative dice; those who pass draw a card to determine their action.

As was more or less the case from a Europe exhausted by the previous set of wars, not much happened in 1600 (OK, the Spanish-Dutch war was very much ongoing in reality), the first two turns (spring and summer 1600) were quiet. Then, in autumn, the Muscovites launched a diplomatic initiative, which led to a lot of re-rolling on the diplomatic table. There must have been some factional infighting at court, however, as the Muscovite internal score slumped to one, and a civil war broke out.

So, the first excuse for a wargame, and it is two armies of Muscovites facing off against each other.