Any wargame is made more interesting - and true to life - if the wargamer knows what made the soldier 'tick.' For instance, the men who fought in the 17th and 18th century wars played out their roles in what was subsequently recognized as a period of courteous and moderate warfare - conditions and rules controlling such games should be designed to reflect this. Possibly this is an Olde Worlde concept but it certainly brings a recognizable degeree of give-and-take between wargamers; endeavoring to live up to these period precepts!
The color went out of warfare when the Hore-and-Musket period ended; when soldiers forsook red coats for khaki and breech loading firearms allowed them to lay down and load, the pageantry of colorful formations of men departed leaving in its wake only the hardships and horrors of war. However, the wargamer has salvaged more than anybody out of it because he is able to parade his armies in all their old-time glory. Wargaming in the Horse-and-Musket period gives him plenty of scope! It was a period when dress and maintenance of parade ground uniforms achieved a precedence over commonsense training in many of the armies of the era. Nevertheless, there were some of the greatest armies and the finest leaders of military history in those days when gorgeously clad soldiers marched and wheeled in close formation.
Some of the earlier conflicts of the Horse-and-Musket period, particularly the Thirty Years War, are recalled as symbols of man's inhumanity to his fellows. But after a century and a half of merciless warfare by pitiless armies with little regard for the rights of captives or civilians and with massacre the rule rather than the exception, there was a transition to the most temperate military era since the renaissance. Beginning in the second half of the 17th century, by tacit consent armies and leaders fell into a pattern of . warfare of moderation" which lasted until the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. It was a period when commanders sought to conserve the valuable lives of their trained soldiers, winning their wars by maneuver and siege craft in leisured summer campaigns, culminating in discussions around a peace table where provinces and fortresses changed hands while leaders discussed the art of war with philosophic and intellectual detachment.
The Thirty Years War seemed to drain the viciousness out of soldiers and for the next 130 years armies of highly trained troops fought without heat in a series of summer campaigns waged with the greatest consideration for the rules of war. The extensive training of troops meant that at least five years was required to fit a soldier for the maneuvers of the day so that the man in the ranks became an investment that had to be cared for and not wasted in pointless battles.
Warfare in the late 17th and early 18th centuries was carried on with some caution as commanders endeavored to conserve the valuable lives of their soldiers whose training had been so long and expensive. At the onset of the wargame, both commanders must agree to avail themselves of the "Honors of War" system when a suitable situation arises and each commander tries to outmaneuver the enemy army into untenable positions so that they must accept the "Honors of War." With the points value of each army recorded, victory goes to the army with the highest point total.
An interesting feature of the Horse-and-Musket period was the marked manner in which groups of countries allied themselves together in a common cause so that the majority of the wars considered in this volume were fought, not between belligerent nations, but between groups of allies, often strange bed-fellows. Few commanders can have worked under greater and more practicable difficulties (nor handled them better) than Marlborough in his association with the Dutch. Pride, precedence and specific national interests breed discord and dissention among allied armies with commanders displaying a marked reluctance to taking orders or to conform to plans not of their own devising.
At the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745, for two hours the British, Dutch and Hanoverians endured a terrible enfilade fire from four redoubts built across the French front and all their attempts to storm these redoubts had been repulsed. Then Cumberland, "...resolved to push on between them..." in a suicidal attack on the French main force. He drew up 14,000 infantry in a compact oblong measuring only 500 by 600 yards. The cavalry followed with a few guns dragged by hand. From this moment the battle became an epic of the bright hard insouciance affected by professional soldiers of the time. With colors flying and drums beating, the crimson column came on in a stately parade step. Meanwhile the redoubts kept up a withering cross fire which caused a shrinkage in the human rectangle as the survivors shouldered inward and dressed their ranks.
When they drew within 60 paces of the French line, Lord Charles Hay stepped out of the Allied formation, swept off his hat and drank a toast from the pocket flask. He called for a cheer, which his men gave lustily. The French officers, not to be outdone in international courtesies, returned his salute and ordered a cheer from their ranks. There followed a taut moment when the opponents stared into the muzzles of muskets at the ready; and just before the volley an English voice was heard in mock prayer, "For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful!"
This new style of warfare meant that armies and their leaders had accepted a formal etiquette controlling the conduct of soldiers in battle and sieges. There are numerous instances of fortified places being surrendered when further resistance could only result in needless slaughter and, far from being thought a disgrace, the submission was considered praise worthy. All the honors of war were afforded to the defenders who were permitted to march out with drums beating and flags flying and it became the duty of the victors to protect the unarmed inhabitants of the city from pillage or violence. Officers were quickly paroled and soldiers were frequently exchanged after a brief period of sometimes even dignified and courteous captivity
Such warfare offers admirable opportunities for an attractive stylized and formal simulation on the wargames table as colorful regiments with flags flying mass in formation and maneuver, because short-range firing allowed these maneuvers to be carried out with impunity. It is even possible to reproduce the "Honors of War" method where the loser surrenders but retains his honor.
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© Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum
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