Ideas for War Gamers
on the 30 Years War

by Jack Scruby

(Editor's Note.-Reprinted from Vol.1, #1 of THE MIN1ATURE PARADE with the kind permission of Jack Scruby)

It isn't too often in our hobby that you can come up with a really new challenge in developing organization of armies and war game rules. From one military period to the next minor adjustments of rifle and artillery ranges are usually all that is necessary. This is not true where the Thirty Years War is concerned. For this was truly a real transition period between ancient, shock battles, and the new use of musketry - and the development of rules for war games in this period must reflect this combination more so than any other game I have run across as yet.

At the moment of writing this story I have about completed a war game army, and have laid down the basic rules we'll fight games with. As any war game player knows, this is merely the beginning - and after a half dozen experimental battles, there are going to probably be many changes. Therefore, the reader is warned beforehand that the ideas put forth here are merely to give him a chance to see what I have done after much research into the 1618-48 period. If you decide to branch off into this military period, at least it is a start, and no doubt the end results may wind up much different as each individual works out his own plans. I can only guarantee one thing, and that is that this is a DIFFERENT kind of war game, and one you are going to find real interesting to work with.

ORGANIZATION OF THE WAR GAME ARMY

In organizing my 30 Years War army, I took into consideration the basic facts of military life of the times. Cavalry, having been rendered impotent by the infantry pikeman, had reverted to firepower with the hand pistol armed, armored Cuirassier. To protect the armored pikemen from this, Musketeers were stationed with the pikes to fire-fight with the cavalry and not leave the pikemen helpless targets. At the same time, the "phalanx" type pike formations left unprotected flanks, and this too was left to the Musketeer to defend against attack. Thus, basically, the basic "brigade" of infantry had to combine fire power and pike defenses together.

To duplicate this "brigade" with lead soldiers, we set a basic brigade to consist of 20 pikemen, 20 musketeers and 10 sword and buckler men. All brigades in the war game army are based on this concept.

We mounted this "brigade" in multiple units so that many positions could be formed line, column, square, etc. Thus a moving tray (made of balsa wood) Is 4 inches long and 1 inch wide. On it are glued 5 lead soldiers- musketeers, pikes or swordsman. As a result you wind up with 4 pike stands, 4 musket stand and 2 sword stands, flexible enough to maneuver into various defensive and offensive positions.

Using a 4 inch long by 2 inch wide balsa stand, five cavalry models are mounted, whether light or heavy cavalry. This is the basic cavalry unit. In total organization we have a total of 3 infantry "brigades" of 50 men each, and 6 stands of Cuirassiers, 2 stands of Croat light cavalry and 2 stands of German "Reiters". This winds up to be 150 infantry figures and 50 cavalry figures per side.

Dragoons, at this period of military history, were merely Mounted Infantry. Each side has 4 units, which we believe will become very mobile "light" infantry type troops. These are mounted on a "split" stand 4 inches long by 2 inches wide, the front 4 by 1" stand being removable from the "mother" stand. On the "mother" stand I mounted one mounted Dragoon permanently- he is the "horseholder". On the removable section I mounted infantry castings. Of the 4 Dragoon stands, 2 have pikemen mounted and 2 have musketeers. (In fact, the Dragoons were split almost evenly between these troops, just as the infantry was). These troops have no ability as cavalry, but are meant to move fast on horseback, dismount, and fight on foot.

In artillery, we will have three "heavy" cannons per force, and 1, or perhaps 2, light cannons per "brigade". The heavy guns will be pre-set before the war game commences, and cannot be moved during the entire battle, except to spin on their axis. The light guns can be "pushed" along with the troops.

This organization, as you can see, is quite flexible, and is based more or less on numbers as indicated from my research. The war game player, by using this brigade system, can add or detract full brigades from his army, and by keeping the cavalry and infantry ratio the same as mine, can add or subtract cavalry to match. It is felt this organization will be well balanced on the table top, affording the player defensive and offensive alignments as he desires. And flexibility of maneuver is possible due to the way the stands within a brigade are set up- i.e. small stands with small numbers on.

SOME BASIC WARGAME RULES IDEAS

Since firepower is very important in the 30 Years War Game, we worked on the "increasing" kill factor. Musket range was set at 16 inches with a very small "kill" at extreme range, a somewhat better potential from 6 to 12 inches, and a really potent kill power at ranges of less than 6 inches. Artillery was set up on the same basis. The closer your enemy gets to your gun, the more effective the fire is.

Pistol range, essential to this game for your cavalry, was set at a 12 inch range, with more effect at the closer range. At the same time consideration had to be given to armored men, so that you wind up with less kills against armored men than unarmored Musketeers. Actually then, range and defensive armor must be considered important.

"Caracole" fire was one of the finer "developments" of the early phases of the war. Here, ranks of horsemen dashed up, discharged their pistols, and wheeled to the rear to reload. Musketeers worked the same way, one rank firing, then filing to the rear to reload. To take care of this it was decided that cavalry, in ranks, on one game move, could take a "split" move; that is he could move forward half a move, fire his pistol (or pistols) and retire. As many ranks as you had could repeat this - all in one game move. So long as he fired only one pistol, you need not worry about a re-loading move. However, the player has the option of having each cavalry unit fire both pistols (on one move). If he does this, he must stand still one move before he is reloaded.

This "re-loading" feature is carried on with cavalry, muskets and artillery. For example, a stand of musketeers can fire on one move, but must take a full game move to reload his weapon. Heavy cannons must take 2 game loads to re-load, and light field guns take one game move to reload.

Thus, in fire-power factors in this game, we had to come up some new ideas, allowing for split moves, several "volleys" of separate firing ranks and reloading features not used before in war games.

Movement also is important, more so than in many other war games. The Pike "phalanx" is a cumbersome thing when in "closed order". Normally pikemen, swordsman and musketeers would move 6 inches. In closed order, the Pikes are cut to 3 inches, and to change "face" will take two game moves - the first move to 45 degrees of the new facing position, and the second move sees it turned 90 degrees. Since Musketeers are allowed to jump out from behind a row of pikemen, fire, and then retire, they are the mobile troops of the "brigade". And the swordsman have a definite function as flank protectors, and for any "in-fighting" that might occur between opposing pike units. A throw of dice might allow your swordsman to work in "under" the enemy pikes, and if this occurs, they are given a double-kill factor over their normal melee power, since this maneuver was a deadly thing in historical fact. The pikemen were almost helpless against the sword and buckler men in these circumstances.

The Melee is of extreme importance also, for remember, this is a combination ancient-musket period game. Cavalry have two types of "charges" they can do. One, where no shock power is given, is to move forward, fire a volley of pistols, then continue into melee. The second is a straight forward charge with no stop for pistol firing. The Musketeer too can take counter-action against charges. If they are in front of their brigade line, they may fire, and then retire out of danger. Cavalry may never charge frontally against pikemen, but if they get to the flank or rear, their "kill" power is doubled over normal. Musketeers have little or no chance in a melee with anyone, and if they are caught unsupported, they will not live long to tell the tale.

Our "morale" factor is somewhat different also. We will be using a "scatter" rule in that one will determine the fate of each individual stand and what happens to it when it breaks from loss of morale. For example, a dice roll of 1-2 means it retires to its left rear, a 3-4 to its center rear, and a 5-6 to its right rear. Thus a broken "brigade" may be so scattered as to have extreme difficulty in rallying together as a unit again, and may be highly susceptible to horsemen in this situation.

The artillery crew presents something new - at least in our own war gaming here in Visalia. Normally we glue our artillerymen down (with the gun) on a stand. However, for the 30 Years War, the artillerymen will not be glued down, for they will be able to fire their guns. then retire behind supporting troops to keep out of dangers way. Thus, if guns come under direct attack, the gunners can be saved. They must of course, re-man the piece before it can again be loaded.

Dragoons when dismounted will use the same rules as the infantry. When mounted, they will have no melee power, so they cannot be considered as cavalry.

These, then are some basic rules ideas which may help you get started if you decide to branch out into this interesting new military war game period.

Related 30 Years War

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© Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum
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