Reprinted from THE WAR GAME DIGEST Fall 1971, Book 7, Volume 1, with the kind permission of Jack Scruby.

In June of 1967 in the first issue of "Miniature Parade" I advertised One-Inch scale Scruby Miniatures of the THIRTY YEARS WAR. I included with this listing a couple of stories with ideas for rules for this type of war game.

Since then as readers of later Scruby Publications will know, I have reported some of the interesting battles we have had using these soldiers. These games proved to be some of the best small scale actions David Rusk and I have ever had, and as a change of pace war game from the standard large-scale (in numbers anyway) Napoleonic battles, it is at the top of our estimation.

As one might suspect, sales of these 30 Year War models did not set the world on fire although those people whom I have met who use my soldiers for war games of this period are wild about their game!

As a result of lack of sales, however, I dropped this line from my 1971 catalogue. This war is unique however. and rather than designing a whole new series in a smaller scale, I decided to "revive" these particular one-inch scale models.

One reason for keeping to the one-inch scale for the 30 Year War miniatures is that this is not a "large-scale" war game, and one does not need to have thousands of models to make the game right. Historically the armies of the times were small, so that a "scale" representation historically will not fill the average war game table up completely with mod el soldiers!

Secondly, the uniforms are much fun to paint, and in one-inch scale models, the player can go all out with color to brighten up his armies.

To paint these troops, the best source is Volume I of the Funcken book "Le Costume et Les Armes des Soldats de Tous le Temps", available through any book shop these days.

In full color the Funckens have several pages of soldiers of this war, and we suggest you purchase this book right off if you plan to go into wargaming in this period. It is available at most book shops, or through book dealers.

While on the subject of uniforms, there seems to have been no standard "uniform" as such for any soldiers during the 30 Years War though some sources believe the Swedish soldiers may have been uniformed at least by regiment. Thus, you can paint your "brigades" as you see fit. I might add that I have found Shining Armor Household Enamel silver, gold and bronze to be the best paints for armor I have yet run across. This brand seems to be available at most hardware or paint stores.

Several months ago, after all these thoughts had traveled through my mind, I began to redesign the One-Inch scale Scruby 30 Year War models. I planned that these figures would be sold through Ambrite Industries as "Ready-Cast" models, which meant they would be stocked ahead for quick delivery, and that prices would be cheaper than the original castings had been. I felt that making these particular figures into our "Ready-Cast" process, would give them a better chance on the market

In order to prepare models for our Ready-Cast process, much work is involved and each figure must be specially prepared. Despite the work involved, the results are most gratifying, and I believe our buyers will find the new models are much better than the old ones. Being ready-cast, they also are cheaper than the original ones were in 1967!

And one major change is the fact that we now cast the pikes in the hands of the pikemen, where before, the buyer had to solder or glue piano wire pikes into their hands. This can be a hassle if you don't know what you're doing. Of course, tin alloy pikes may bend or corkscrew from handling, but they can be bent back into shape. If they break off eventually, you can solder or epoxy steel pikes on.

Thus our new models of the 30 Years War are cheaper than before; are stocked for quick delivery; are better models physically than the old ones; have little or no flash on them to clean. With all these advantages to start with, lets get you started in wargaming with them by delving deeper into the subject!

HISTORY

Technically, the war began as an "armored" war, fought in much the manner of medieval warfare with heavily armored cavalry, massed pikemen, and with most missile fire being the cross bow, plus a few muskets of horrible design.

Gradually, musket fire power increased, and tactics began to change. Armored knights on horseback dropped some of their armor to get more mobility, grabbed hand pistols instead of lances, and now used the "caracole" fire pattern to sweep ranks of immobile pike men with pistol fire.

To compensate for this, the ratio of musketeers to pikemen grew more equal, and the addition of this firepower to a pike square could hold off cavalry with long range fire, thus protecting the pikes from the deadly pistol fire. If the going got too tough the Musketeers were trained to dash inside the pike square for safety.

The Sword and Buckler man had been very strong in the early days of the war, but the musket soon proved the equalizer, and these men became the skirmishers, since they could move easier without the cumbersome pike to contend with. They were known as the "lost children" because of the suicide-type work they did on the battle ground.

Under Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, Artillery came into its own during this war. For the first time mobile artillery was used, and great havoc was wrought on the massed humanity within pike squares by these guns. As a consequence, new tactical formations were used that bunched men up in smaller units so that losses might be held down.

In working up a set of rules for the 30 Years War, it is best not to get too bogged down with all these great changes in weapons and tactics. If you do, you may ruin a good war game. In my own rules, I took the most obvious points of combat during the 30 years period, and incorporated them into my game with happy results. I suspect the purist may protest the fact that my cavalry use caracole fire, whether my battle happens to be fought in 1618 or 1648, when it took quite a few years of action before this type of fire was actually developed.

But, to each his own, and I suggest that those interested in this war get hold of all the excellent books on the subject and study it. I'm certain you'll find it a fascinating subject.

WARGAME ORGANIZATION

Our "brigade" of infantry are standardized at 20 Pikemen, 20 Musketeers and 10 Swordsmen. Moving stands of balsa wood are 4 inches long and one inch wide. Five model soldiers are mounted on each stand, representing a "company" or "band" of infantry.

This type of moving stand makes it possible to maneuver your brigade into squares, column or line with ease. And the T/O makes it easy to form up new "brigades" based on the same standard as time and money will allow. It also is easy to beef up a brigade by adding specialized troops to it, as we shall see.

Our castings also allow for some variety within an infantry brigade. A "heavy infantry" brigade can he formed using the armored pikemen (Castings N-90, 92, 93) and thus are limited in maneuverability as a result.

Light Infantry brigades can be formed using the Halberdier casting (N- 108) or the Landsknetch Pikeman (N- 110), and since these men are lightly armored, or unarmored, they can maneuver more easily. Swordsman and Musketeers in the brigade are more agile than pikemen so the term "heavy" or "light" applies to the pikemen within the unit.

We have two types of Artillery; Brigade artillery and Reserve Artillery. Brigade artillery is the Small Cannon and there is one attached to each infantry brigade in our organization.

This small gun can be moved, but it takes one game move to load it, and if it is being moved it cannot be loaded. As a consequence the smart general often saves this firepower for emergency action. Nevertheless it is a fairly powerful weapon on the field.

The Reserve Gun is the Large Cannon casting we advertise, and we generally limit these to two or three per army, depending on the size of your army. These guns have a long range, but must take two game moves to reload, and once set up in position prior to the battle, they can not be moved!

The guns are mounted on a square piece of balsa, but the Gunners (N-101) are not glued to this stand. This is because our rules allow the gunners to fire off a shot, then dash to safety behind a wall of pikemen if the gun is attacked.

Cavalry are mounted on a 4 inch by 2 inch stand of balsa wood. Heavy cavalry have 4 models per stand, Light cavalry 3 per stand. This is done for identification purposes, not for an combat purposes. We find it easier to identify cavalry in this manner, and the numbers of the model does not cut down, or enlarge the combat values of the cavalry.

In my organization, two such stands make a "troop" of cavalry. I did this so that I could enjoy a variety of cavalry uniforms, rather than because of any historic reason Light and Heavy cavalry should be about equal in your army, and since there were lots of cavalry in this war, we generally have 4 stands of cavalry for each full brigade of infantry.

Thus, with these "standard" troops composing a 3 Infantry brigade army, you'd wind up with 12 stands of pikemen, 12 stands of musketeers, 6 stands of swordsman, 6 stands of heavy cavalry, 6 stands of light cavalry, 3 small cannons and 2 large cannons. This makes a good, balanced wargame army to fight with.

Of course, we have some specialized men, and of these the DRAGOONS are the most interesting according to our rules. Dragoons were Mounted Infantry at this period, NOT cavalry. They contained both Musketeers and Pikemen, rode to battle, and then fought on foot. In our armies we have 4 stands of these highly mobile troops - 2 Musketeer units and 2 Pike units. This forms up into a very effective small infantry unit that can do glorious work for your army!

Our Dragoons are mounted on a 4 inch by 2 inch balsa stand, which is split in two, and which is attached to a cardboard stand. One part of the stand contains one Mounted Dragoon casting (NC-105) which acts as the "horseholder". The other half contains 4 Pikemen or Musketeer models. This half of the stand can be moved off the "mother" stand to "fight on foot" when required.

When the two stands are together on the "mother" stand, we consider the men are mounted and they move at cavalry movement. When they fight on foot, the infantry section is moved off the "mother" stand, the horseholder goes to the rear, while the dismounted Dragoons fight onward.

Dragoons on foot have all the prerogatives of "light" troops, but can be totally annihilate if attacked by cavalry when they are mounted!

Special cavalry, firing muskets can be organized (Casting NC-103 and NC-105) as cavalry musketeers, firing at longer ranges than the pistol-packing regular cavalry.

Another special unit is the Landsknetch long swordsman (Casting N-109). These men, with their 7 foot long swords, were not used much during the 30 Years War, but it is fun to have a small unit of them to counter the ever persistent Sword and Buckler men. One swipe of this huge sword could cut a Cuirassier in half. So we assume the men who swung these weapons must have been brawny, so we use them as a kind of super-elite close-in fighting unit. And, with these swords they could effectively defend themselves against cavalry. Normally we have 4 stands of those men, and they are brigaded with our attack brigades, or are used in independent actions, such as taking and holding farm houses, etc.

The German "Reiter" (NC-107) is a sort of super-pistol man, getting superior firepower over standard cavalry. They are not good at melee, being trained only for "caracole" pistol fire. Generally, 2 stands per army are enough.

The Turkish troops are generally organized in our army in the same manner as the European troops, and we use them as "mercenary", rather than "national" soldiers. History shows that at this time the Turks were not great fighters, being better at missile work than melee. So we class them as Musketeers, giving them good firepower, movement, but little ability with the sword. The Mounted archer NC-118) is considered a "Light" cavalry man, and his arrows are as deadly as a pistol. Ile Spahi (NC-119) is another heavy cavalryman, but we give all Turks (as mercenaries) a much lower Unit Efficiency rating than our other soldiers.

RULES FOR 30 YEARS WAR

In italics we explain the reasons for the special rules for this game which are based on historic fact. And of course, these rules are based on the organization of the soldiers as noted above. and use the Unit Efficiency and Roster System as a base.

MOVEMENT

Closed Order - when moving stands are touching each other.
1 -Can move forward, or 45 degree only, at 3 inches per move.
2- Cannot move backwards in column, but may move backwards in square or in closed line formation.
3- In Close order, can only reinforce melees straight ahead of 45 degrees obliquely.
4- To break from closed to open order must be done at rate of 3 inches on first game move.

Thereafter (in open order) move at regular rates.

Open order - when moving stands are minimum of one inch apart

1 - Move 6 inches in open order. may "face" new direction at 90 degrees each move.
2 - Pikemen may "charge" into melee in open order, but in doing so cannot finish this movement in closed order. A "Closed Order" charge must have been pre-formed on a prior movement.

(A study of these rules later will reveal "closed order "fighting is very important to pikemen, and is the standard position they should be in for everything but movement) Column formation 1 -A minimum of three moving stands must be formed to make a column of infantry. In melee fighting, the first 5 stands in a column can be counted in the melee.
2- A column may move an extra two inches over normal move.
3- Add 1 "kill point" per stand if column charges into a melee. (See Combat Table)

LIGHT PIKEMEN (or unarmored pikemen, Halberdiers, etc.)
Same basic rules prevail as for Heavy Pikemen, except in CLOSED ORDER:
1 - May move forward 6 inches (same as in open order) and "face" at 90 degrees per game move.
2 - May break from Closed to Open order at fall 6 inch movement.

SWORDSMEN

MUSKETEERS

HEAVY CAVALRY

LIGHT CAVALRY

Movement in the 30 Years War wargame is very important, and it cannot be emphasized too much the restrictions on Pikemen in their movement in closed order. Pikemen may not "wheel" around freely, since inclosed order they are thigh to thigh and pike to pike. Thus the reasoning in allowing them only a 45 degree 'face" when attempting to change ftont.

The straight ahead movement of a column is fast, BUT, watch out for those flanks! Or the rear! Better keep some Swordsmen handy to guard these vulnerable positions.

And, since Pikemen cannot face around to the rear under any circumstances, it has ofien happened that cavalry are suddenly upon this rear Line, with woeful results. You'll find these restricted movement rules will suddenly change your tactics in short order, and that the vulnerable flanks and rear of any Pike formation must be protected with something!

As you will see later in these rules, you MUST put your pikemen in closed order when under attack for in open order, they will be slaughtered But, a penalty is paid for the protection offered by closed order formations!

MUSKET AND PISTOL FIRE

"Caracole" fire was one of the big tactics of the period, developing into a kind of "rolling" fire of lines of cavalrymen or musketeers. The front line of such a formation would blast away, then peel off to the sides, running to the rear rank, where they commenced the complicated task of loading again. By the time this was accomplished they were back at the front rank once again ready to shoot the enemy.

Thus, to use "caracole" fire in our war game, it is best to line up your cavalry or musketeers in "column", which will allow you to use every stand in the ensuing firefight.

But, remember it takes musketeers one full game move to reload their muskets, so if you let them empty their muskets completely on one move, you'll be helpless on the next! Experience has taught us to hold at least half the musketeers fire for the next move!

Thus, one finds the fire rules for a 30 Year War Game quite different from any other. For one must use fire and movement in this game, and a careful study of the fire rules below should explain the basic ways you can use cavalry and musketeers in fire fights.

MUSKETEERS

• a - If the Musketeer does not move, he may use a split move. He may advance 3 inches, fire, and retire 3 inches. The player indicates this to his opponent and cannot change his order.
• b - Fire and Retire Move - If they have not been moved on game move, Musketeers may fire, then retire 6 inches. However, if caught in melee in attempting this, they cannot move, and must dice their Unit Efficiency to get off a volley at the attackers.
  • 1 -If they were placed in front of a pike line, they cannot be meleed except by attacking infantry. In this case, the attacker takes a volley, and if he wins the ensuing melee, he may continue his charge on into the pike line.
• c - During any of these Split Moves, the Musketeers must "take" enemy fire and casualties before retiring.

CAVALRY

1. -This is done by forming a column, allowing each stand a half move forward, a pistol shot (or two), and a half move to return to original position.
2. -During this maneuver, if opposing Musketeers had not moved or fired, they are allowed under Musketeer Rule 3 - a above, to move out from behind pike ranks, fire at the enemy cavalry, and retire, taking casualties as allowed under the rules.

MORALE

THE MELEE

PIKEMEN

• -If caught in flank, rear, or open order, pikemen kill only half-their normal quota, and the attacker has double-kill power. The Pike stand thus meleed automatically loses post-melee morale.

CAVALRY

MUSKETEERS

SWORDSMEN

DRAGOONS

1 -Dragoons can make a full cavalry move, dismount into CLOSED ORDER on one game move.
2 - They may mount, move full move, but not dismount on one game move.
3 - They may move half a cavalry move, dismount, move half an infantry move, or vise versa.
4 - They can use any of these moves to reinforce melees, seize terrain positions, fill gaps, attack artillery, etc.
5 - Dragoon musketeers and Dragoon pikemen follow all combat rules as for regular troops.

THE "SCATTER" RULE

Dice a 1 or 2 .... the unit retires to the left
Dice a 3 or 4 .... the unit retires straight back
Dice a 5 or 6 the unit retires to the right

As a result of the Scatter Rule, no "brigade" or cavalry formation will ever retire in one mass, but will be scattered all over the table top.

BONUS MOVES

2-Pursuit by Cavalry a-If cavalry were involved in a melee, or are in "close support" of a melee (within six inches by our rules), the cavalry may take a bonus pursuit move of the defeated enemy who have lost the melee.

• 1 -The losing force does not use the Scatter Rule, but retires a normal cavalry move length behind the melee line, and are set with their backs to the pursueing cavalry. The cavalry of course, pursue these poor fellows, giving it to them in the back at a double-kill ratio, without any loss to themselves. It is an automatic defeat for the beaten troops unless:
  • a-The retirement of the loser force goes through support troops, who may engage the cavalry, or if the retirement brings the losers force to with in the six inch supporting range, at which time the support troops may engage in the extra melee.

Thus, when you lose a melee, you may be in for deep troubles. The Winner has two beautiful choices open to him for Bonus Moves - the regular winners move, or the Pursuit by Cavalry move. Either of these can be disastrous, so it behooves one to never Let his opponent outnumber him too much in melee, or a whole army can be destroyed on Bonus Moves alone! I have had this happen to me more than once!

INFANTRY SQUARES

1 -Cannons can form one face of a square, or can be set in a squares comers and are counted as part of the square.
2 - Men in square have their Combat Value (Unit Efficiency) upped, but are massed and thus suffer heavier loss to Artillery.
3 - Cavalry cannot attack a square of Pikemen, but can attack Musketeers or Swordsmen squares, but lose their Shock Power kills in doing so.
4 - A Column of Pikemen lose shock power in attacking a square.
5 - Squares may move in all directions at a normal 3 inch per game move movement. (Light Pike square can move 6 inch)
6 - A square is a defensive posture, not an offensive one, and normally cannot be used to attack with.
7 - Should one "face of a square" be swept away by artillery or musketry, and there be no replacement stand to take its place, the square is "broken" and can be attacked by cavalry with the horrifying results that the other outer faces (if pikemen) are caught in the rear, since they cannot "face" around according to the movement rules. Any stand inside the square can take the place of the stand swept away by fire.

ARTILLERY

SMALL GUNS

CREWS

COUNTER BATTERY FIRE

CAPTURING A GUN

The Combat Table below shows you our rate of kills for guns, but of course you can setyour own as you wish. As for numbers of gunners, we generally use 4 gunners for a large gun and 3 for a small gun. As long as one gunner remains at a gun, it operates at full capacity. If one wants larger crews, he of course can set up fire rules depending on the number of men in the crew, etc.

COMBAT TABLE

Type of Soldier	Musket and Pistol Fire	Musket and Pistol Fire	Musket and Pistol Fire	In Melee Kill	Movement	Point Value of a Stand	Unit Eficiency of a Stand
Musketeer	6 points	3 points	4 points	1	6"	10 points	4
Heavy Pike	.	.	.	6-closed 2-open	3" close 6"open	30 points	5-closed 3-open
Light Pike	.	.	.	4-closed 1-open	6"	30 points	4-closed 2-open
Swordsman	.	.	.	4 points	6"	30 points	4-closed 2-open
Heavy Cavalry	1-6"=kill3 7-12"=kill 2	.	.	6 points	12"	20 points	5
Light Cavalry	Same	.	.	3 points	16"	20 points	4
"Reiter"	1-12:=kill 4	.	.	2 points	16"	20 points	3

ARTILLERY
Throw one die per gun. All but a "2" are hits. Miss on "2".

Large Gun	Closed Order	Open Order
Range 20"-36"	Kill 10 points	Kill 5 points
Range 37-48"	Kill 6 points	Kill 2 points
Cannister P-20"	Kill 15 points	Kill 7 points
Small Gun
Range 13"-24"	Kill 6	Kill 3 points
Range 25"-36"	Kill 4 point	Kill 2 points
Cannister 1"-12"	Kill 10 points	Kill 5 points

Related 30 Years War

Thirty Years War: History and Wargame Organization
Ideas for War Gamers on the 30 Years War
Part 1: Bibliography
Part 2: Leaders and Motivations
Part 3: Uniforms