Pike and Shot
Part 1

Battle of Freiburg 1630

William the Last Attempts to Bring
the Inquisition Back to North Germany

by Pat Condray

Having resolved to investigate various promising sets of pike and shot rules, I began with Kaiserkrieg, a very elaborate and well researched set of rules by William Guthrie. Guthrie is a tireless perpetrator of rules for many periods. During the test game he was frequently interrupted by people with questions relating to ongoing campaigns from Renaissance Italy to intergalactic space. The Kaiserkrieg rules are based on extensive readings on the period including the works of Raimondo Montcucoelli, an opinionated but successful Hapsburg general. As a devout Catholic of the inquisitional school and a convinced monarchist, Willie is well qualified to champion the Imperial interests on the wargame table.

This was the largest 30 Years War game I have ever attended. So far as I could tell there were around 500 foot and 200 horse figures used as well as several guns representing an even larger number. For the horse and foot each figure represented 50. The gun lines were marked out with model cannon only at the center and both ends, the distance reflecting the probable artillery strength at, I believe, Brietenfield, at 1 gun to the inch or so.

Most units were composed of 40 (2,000) foot representing strong Swedish brigades or weak Imperial tercios, or 10 (500) horse. The cavalry were for the most part cuirassiers relying on pistols and broadswords. Each side had a few units of light horses (Croats, arquebusiers, etc.) and the Imperialists had various small detachments of 2 to 4 (100 to 200) lancers. The Imperialists had 7 tercios, the Swedes 5 brigades and 3 Saxon regiments of half strength and reduced morale value. As best I can tell, the combined Swedish and Saxon horse was slightly more numerous. Only Swedish and Imperial lancer cavalry could charge. To compensate for somewhat reduced numbers and lower Saxon morale, all Swedish/Saxon shot were classed as muskets. Some of the Imperial shot were arquebusiers.

THE BATTLE OF FREIBURG

The initial dispositions are as shown on map 1. The major Imperial thrust consisted of 3 tercio moving around the left of their own gun line along the east bank of the river towards Freiburg. At some point in time another may have crossed the gun line to join them but none of my photos shows it ever reaching musket shot of the action. Originally this force was supported by one each Walloon and Bavarian cuirassier regiments. However, the Walloons were soon sent over the river Q turns to ford) where an Imperial Tercio advanced supported by 3 cavalry regiments and 200 lancers. Another Imperial cuirassier regiment joined the main thrust from the reserve late in the battle.

The "Protestant" right, over the river, began with a Saxon infantry regiment (Schwalbach) supported by 2 Saxon cuirassier regiments and 1 of French rnusketeers-a-cheval (a la Dumas). Not trusting the Saxons, the Swedes sent over two strong cuirassier regiments from the reserve.

Facing the main attack were a Swedish brigade and 2 small Saxon foot regiments. Another brigade crossed in front of the small hill, thus not long masking the gun line, and joined the battle late in the day. Each brigade was supported by light artillery.

On the Swedish left, three brigades supported by 4 cavalry regiments advanced against the flank of the Imperial gun line supported by 2 tercio, 3 cavalry regiments, and 3 detachments of lancers, 2 of 100 (2 figures) and 1 of 200.

Guthrie himself commanded the Imperial right. He opened by advancing a party of arquebusiers (horse) to sting the mass of Swedish cavalry and the nearest brigade. The arquebusiers, in forage order, were twice as hard to hit as formed troops, and automatically evade if charged. A "forlorn" was detached from the brigade and a lot of shooting went on. Then a company of 100 lancers crossed the front of the brigade and charged a regiment of Finnish cuirassiers.

The latter, nominally 500 strong, confidently awaited the attack, fired, missed, and fled the field in panic, followed by the lancers who also would not rally. The sequence of all this, as I understand it, was as follows:

a. Defenders, in this case being Swedes (or Finns) could countercharge. Thus both sides would have to roll to resist a shock charge. The latter is apparently the same in these rules whether the charge is by 100 or 1,000 attackers, but large units have better odds to stand.

b. The defenders fired pistols. They had a fair chance of inflicting 1 or 2 casualties (50 to 100) and either eliminating the charge or forcing a morale roll. Small units have inherently weak morale. However, I have heard of two notorious incidents in which lancers were wiped out and still so terrified the defending cuirassiers that the latter could not initiate a melee for the rest of the battle.

c. Having fired and missed, the Finns had a good chance of standing the charge-probably a score of better than 15% on 2 X 10 sided dice. However, they flunked. Had they stood, the lancers would have doubled their melee for frontage on the first round for shock. Fire and melee alone, by and large, is controlled by frontage in this game. As it turned out, the Finns left before anything unpleasant happened to anybody. However, if I ever catch them I may execute every 10th man to encourage the others.

Swedish Cuirassiers join the notoriously unreliable Saxons. Saxons are in foreground, Steinau Rgt. in lead.

Following that debacle, the Swedes replied with a shock charge of their own, engaging a determined Bavarian cuirassier regiment and shoving back the foragers. Back on the far Saxon/Swedish right another Swedish unit charged, producing even stranger results. The Swedes simultaneously engaged a unit of arquebusiers and a unit of Walloon cuirassiers, benefitting from a broad front (Imperial cuirassiers fought in deep order) and shock. When melee casualties were assessed, a roll was made for each to determine if the standard was lost. In this case, the Walloons and Swedes exchanged standards!

A confused melee built up. The first set of Swedes left with the enemy standard in place of their own. There were also some Bavarian cuirassiers around who quickly departed. The Saxons, who, like the Imperialists, could only trot up and fire pistols, managed by long range pistol fire to rout a 200 man lancer detachment that was angling to take the flank of the second Swedish cuirassier unit to emerge. The Walloons followed the Bavarians off the field with the lancers, but the large arquebusier unit held on grimly and a Croat regiment joined the fray. By the end of the battle both sides had lost about 2.5 heavy regiments, and the arquebusiers and Croats were still gamely resisting the French musketeers and Saxon cuirassiers.

On the Swedish left, the Bavarian cuirassiers fought down to the last man before losing their standard. However, while pursuing another less courageous Imperial unit, another regiment of Finns thundered down on 1/5 their number of hesitant lancers, panicked, and fled across 1/4 of the board and by numerous friendly units to escape. It should be noted that while the flight of a friendly unit in sight forces a morale roll for unshaken troops, fugitives are in no way encouraged by the appearance of a whole army of supporting troops.

Meanwhile, along the river, the three tercios pushed forward, and, after their supporting cuirassiers attempted an abortive attack on the Saxons near Freibourg, came in contact with the Protestant infantry. The cavalry attack led only to an exchange of pistol and musket fire, with the perfectly reasonable result that fewer horsemen trotted back than had trotted forth. When the infantry came into contact, notwithstanding the very different formations and frontages on which Guthrie places great store, brigades and tercios effectively seemed to oppose pike to pike with 2 shot bases each blazing away.

As it turned out, since the Swedes had cannon attached, brigades usually ground down the tercios opposing them. The Saxon Loeser regiment, half the size of the opposing tercio, still opposed pike for pike and shot for shot, but had weaker morale. It was still holding at the end, even though the Starschadel regiment, having suffered minor damage from fire over the river, was heading for the rear.

Imperial lancers charge Swedish Cuirassiers at 1 to 5 odds and rout them!

On the last turn (at nightfall), the Protestants were holding at Freiburg. Over the river the tercio was driving back the Saxon foot, but their supporting cavalry was in deep trouble. Over to the center a battered tercio lost its standard and the reserve Imperial cuirassier regiment was swept away by a Swedish cuirassier charge. Although the big Swedish push was halted before the right of the imperial gun line, the last of those weird lancers had been run off and the remaining Swedish horse was unopposed. The advantage, as best I could tell, lay with the Protestants, but, between the larger number of shock cavalry units, and cavalry generally, not to mention the battalion guns, they had at least as great an edge to start with. When I looked over the photos it developed that 1 or 2 Swedish cuirassier units were still in reserve behind the center. (Final dispositions shown on map 2.)

Large Maps 1 and 2 (slow: 138K)

CRITIQUE

Kaiserkrieg is well researched and, in theory, adaptable to a variety of periods and unit compositions on a 50 to 1 basis, which well suits the large formations of the period. By using 10 sided dice in pairs, a large range of rather remote possibilities can be accommodated. Thus the case of the standard being captured when the attacker rolls a score, I believe, of under 15 using 2 x 10 sided dice for each casualty he inflicts in a melee.

Of course, the net result of the large number of rolls for unusual results leads to many unbelievable things happening in a large game. Thus lancers routing 5 times their number on 2 occasions and being blown away by 2 times their number on the third, and two cavalry units exchanging standards in a melee. In fact, there are so many things which can force a morale check in a single round of play that unusual results become commonplace, and enough oddities for 15 of the 30 Years of War may happen in the same game.

On the whole that general quality can make a small game, especially a solo game, very lively. However, it can give chance too large a part in the game for competitive players.

I also noted in the entire game no apparent flank or rear attacks. Guthrie assures me that the French musketeers could have hung one on the Croats, and, had they not been daunted by Saxon pistol fire, the leftmost Imperial lancers would have done so to the Swedes. Similarly, for some reason, cavalry made no attempt to do anything particularly unpleasant to the opposing infantry, although there were several occasions in which it appeared to me that something lively might have been accomplished. Guthrie assures me that there were sound reasons (usually the presence of enemy cavalry) which caused this charitable attitude.

When it came to pike and shot coordination, the rule seems to be that shot, when touching a pike base, need not melee but give way and let the pikes fight. This led to musketeers, and in some cases even gunners, blazing away while their pikes fought a dagger's length away. This may be the best way to handle it. However, my less widespread readings of the period covered mention sword and musket-butt melees, and offshot troops unable to load and fire while they cowered under the very pikes of their supports. Musketeers in these rules are, apparently, not above looking a trooper in the eye and telling him that he has to go down to the other end of the formation and fight the fellows with the pikes.

All in all, however, Kaiserkrieg is lively, varied and in at least moderate touch with history. Unfortunately the rules are not published. If there is enough interest among the readership, perhaps we can prevail on William the Last to publish the minimum essentials of these rules.

More Renaissance

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