While the Austrians won the last battle (they must have done, their GOOS score was boosted by 5% while the Bavarians lost 10%), the wargame was really indecisive. It was, I suppose, a tactical victory for the Austrians and had distinctly weakened the Bavarian army, but as the latter chose to withdraw, rather than being forced to by a morale roll, it was still an extant, potent force on the campaign map.
This led to some head scratching, which is what campaigns are for. How would the two sides react? The Summer 1601 move saw some interesting action – the French ensuring they did not collapse into civil war, for example, and the Ottoman army heading vaguely towards Poland, but the main action focused on Bavaria. Both sides passed the initiative rolls, and both sides drew a ‘move’ card.
With all the resignation appropriate to a wargamer who has another encounter on his hands (i.e. not much), I had to decide how to set this one up. Given the casualties on the Bavarian side, I decided that they would have a 12-base army, while the Austrians would maintain 18 bases. The Bavarians would be on the defensive, however.
Doing the calculations, it turned out that the Bavarian army was still a potent cavalry force, having five bases to the Austrian four. The Bavarian cavalry is being played by Baccus cuirassiers, by the way, who never seem to win a wargame. The somewhat scrappier Irregular armoured cavalry, who are their normal opponents, always seem to have the upper hand. In infantry, the Austrians maintained 12 bases (3 regiments) and their Croat light horse, while the Bavarians had two regiments of foot and one base of light horse.
I was hoping for some terrain that the Bavarians could actually defend, and the photograph above shows that they smiled upon the Bavarians, albeit just. The Bavarian baseline is actually on the right, but I decided to cluster them behind the stream (except the light horse), defending a ridge running from the left of the blue-coated foot to the edge of the table. The second regiment of foot defended the stream, along with some cavalry protecting the ford. The rest of the cavalry was on the top of the ridge, except for the light horse thrown forward over the stream. The cavalry were, basically to smash anything that got across the stream or overwhelmed the blue coats.
The Austrians went wide. The plan was to pin every Bavarian unit in place, and then use the extra infantry to force a passage across the stream, or up the ridge, or wherever it could be forced. To this end, the cavalry on the far left was to advance towards the ford, while the infantry next to them was to pin the Bavarian foot on the stream. The two regiments of foot on the near side were to enter the wood and open fire on the Bavarians on the hill, with their right protected by the rest of the cavalry. The extra foot, hopefully protected by everyone else, was to cross the stream and overwhelm whatever was in front of them.
Both the plans sort of worked, to a point. The picture shows that the Austrian right and centre have become, basically, a firefight. The outnumbered Bavarian light horse is holding their own against the Croats, and the extra red-coated Austrian foot in the centre is having some difficulty crossing the stream. On the extreme Austrian right, some cavalry is moving up to support the foot, as the sub-general in charge on this flank has a cunning plan to utilise all his firepower, rather than just half of it as at present.
As seen above, the crunch point approached. The sub-general’s cunning plan is to deploy musketeers on his further flanks, concentrating firepower on the blue coats. This has started to drive them back and, actually, given them a bit of spare firepower to disrupt some cuirassiers too. Those cuirassiers have not charged because the general knows full well that the next bound they would get counter-charged by the Austrians and, in all probability, routed. This is not in the Bavarian game plan.
You can also see that the Austrian red coats in the centre have ( or are) forded the stream. This was in the Bavarian game plan, and the cuirassiers on the ridge should have charged home and put them to the sword. Inexplicably, this did not happen (a rubbish dice roll, of course).
The redcoats were able to form up on the Bavarian side of the stream and attack the Bavarian infantry up the hill, led by their general. The cuirassiers on the hill refused to charge again, while the Austrian horse nearest to the camera charged home and inflicted considerable damage on the Bavarians there.
The afternoon did not get any better for the Bavarians. They lost the base of cavalry nearest the camera and the blue-coated musketeers, and morale went to fall back. The light horse was hit hard by their Austrian counterparts, and the Austrian infantry attacked the blue-coated pike in flank, routing them as well. The rest of the Austrian foot on this flank were now emerging from the wood, a daunting prospect for the rest of the Bavarian army.
This was all too much for the Bavarians, and their morale went to withdraw mode, so they did, officially this time. The Austrian plan had worked, to pin and overwhelm, even though it has to be admitted that they were extremely lucky not to get charged downhill while in disorder by the cuirassiers. But the luck (or lack of it) of those Baccus cuirassiers seems to have struck again.
Strategically, this gives me another problem, of course. The Bavarians, from their two forces, have now lost 9 bases (out of 24), and some of those are in garrison. They cannot really face the Austrians on the open field again, so where are they going to withdraw to this time? Crossing one of the frontiers would only arouse the wrath of the locals, especially as their GOOS score will take another hit. Perhaps their best course would be to sue for peace, disbanding the extra army they raised, which caused the invasion and promising to keep the peace of the Empire.
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