Having recently moved from Michigan to Salt Lake City, Utah, and not having connected with any historical miniatures gamers in my new area yet, I took the opportunity of a holiday visit back to Michigan for family visiting to also include a game with some of my old comrades in arms. Both Jim McIntosh and I had been working on new 25mm Renaissance armies to use with DBR before I left, so an engagement to let us try out our new troops using these new rules seemed the logical thing to do.

We had originally been intending to do a Thirty Years War campaign, so Jim had been working on a TYW Swedish army, and I had been working on a later Dutch army of the same era. Since neither army was complete, and since the second book of army lists for DBR is not out yet, we decided to model his Swedes after the Low Countries Spanish (List 47), with some minor tinkering allowed to reflect the Swedish units he had painted. Mine were based on the Dutch Rebellion (List 45).

The battle described below was fought with 25mm figures on a 4 foot by 8 foot table. We adjusted deployment distances and the size of the waterway on one flank to account for the smaller size of our table compared to that recommended by DBR (5 feet by 9 feet).

Order of Battle

The Dutch deployed using the Maas-Waal canal (a river in DBR parlance) to cover the front of their deployment, anchoring their left flank on the river Waal (a waterway covering an entire short table edge in DBR terms) with the emplaced heavy battery set for enfilading fire across the battlefield with their baggage to the rear. The Dutch CiC's command of 3 foot battalions and a dragoon unit anchored the right flank resting on a wood plot fronting the canal along the right shorter table edge, with his small cavalry contingent in reserve. The remainder of the Dutch Sub-General's command, which was entirely cavalry, deployed between the infantry line and the battery. The Dutch plan was to counter punch those elements of the Spanish force which became disjointed, and to wear them down with shooting from the shot, pistoliers, and artillery.

The Spanish opted for a more balanced deployment, with their three major foot groupings and their force of fast lancers split between their two commands. Their plan was to angle both wings in an attempt to crush the Dutch center.

Map of Battlefield

1st Bound (Spanish)

The Spanish were the aggressors, as determined at deployment time, and therefore took the first bound. The suffered from a slow start (their pip dice were fairly low), and the Spanish left's cavalry mass moved quickly into the center to pin the Dutch behind the Maas-Waal canal. Artillery in DBR only fires during the opponents bound, so after the Spanish moved, the Dutch "great gonnes" opened up on the center Spanish foot unit, killing a pike element, and on the Spanish cavalry mass in the center of the table, recoiling a pistolier element.

1st Bound (Dutch)

The Dutch responded aggressively (they had fairly good pip dice) and first tested the fordability of the Mass-Waal canal with a light horse element. The canal turned out to be an insignificant obstacle, not slowing or restricting movement at all but offering a defensive bonus to defenders on either bank. The Dutch then advanced their infantry right across the canal by units (DBR requires a pip penalty for group moves over 4 elements wide-- encouraging players to use realistic pike and shot units). Their left of reiters also moved forward across the canal to challenge the Spanish center. The Spanish advanced guard cavalry started to look fairly isolated. The Spanish heavy artillery fired at the center Dutch foot unit and succeeded in recoiling a pike element.

2nd Bound (Spanish)

The Spanish continued to suffer from a lethargic deployment pace (their pip dice were again rather low), and they again allocated the majority to their left hand command. This allowed the dangerous gap between the two commands created by the allocation on bound one to widen even further as the cavalry of the Spanish left pushed forward in the center of the battlefield. The Dutch great gonnes again shelled the Spanish right with no effect.

2nd Bound (Dutch)

The Dutch were again quite active (good pip dice again). The Dutch line of foot units on their right continued to angle forward toward an enveloping position on the Spanish cavalry in the center, while the left hand foot battalion moved into close combat with the left end of the Spanish cavalry. The Dutch dragoons moved forward in the center into firing range in order to support the advance of the foot battalions, while the Dutch reiters from the left command moved forward into firing range of the line of Spanish lancers in the center. The Spanish scored their first success in fire combat, as two elements of their reiters destroyed an element of Dutch dragoons, while the Dutch reiters eliminated an element of Spanish lancers with fire. In close combat, the Dutch foot forced one mounted arquebusier element to flee and eliminated the other, while the Spanish reiters proved tough by recoiling two elements of Dutch shot.

3rd Bound (Spanish)

The Spanish, realizing the danger to their center cavalry thrust, became quite active (they finally threw very hgh pip dice). The Spanish right advanced as quickly as possible to support the center, but were prevented from marching by a lone element of mounted arquebusiers (forces within 300 paces of an enemy) element may not march make multiple moves with a given unit or group using multiple pips]).

A similar situation had developed on the Spanish left, as their lone foot unit moved up to support the left flank of their center cavalry but were barely able to get into firing range due to the proximity of the right-most Dutch foot battalions. The Spanish got the worst of the ensuing fire fight as two elements of shot were forced to recoil. The Dutch great gonnes continued to bombard the Spanish right, this bound eliminating a pike element from one of the Spanish foot tercios. The Spanish reiter in the center shot at the Dutch sub-general's element, forcing him to recoil.

The Dutch shot from their left-most foot battalion, meanwhile, eliminated the remaining Spanish mounted arquebusier element in fire combat. In close combat, the charging Spanish lancers were uniformly unsuccessful, as the Spanish sub-general and two other lancer elements were forced to recoil.

3rd Bound (Dutch)

The Dutch continued to be very aggressive (excellent pip dice), and closed very quickly on the isolated Spanish center cavalry. A pike element was able to swing uound the left flank of the Spanish cavalry line (which costs an extra two pips in DBR - very expensive and a tough choice to make on pip allocation). In the ensuing close combat this move paid off as the element was eliminated (units with enemy in contact to their flank or rear are eliminated if they lose a close combat roll without requinng a doubling as normal).

In fire combat, the Spanish recoiled two elements of shot from the Zeeland regiment, while the Dutch Zeeland and Gelderland foot battalions concentrated their shots at the Spanish left tercio, eliminating a shot element in fire combat. The Dutch reiters continued to pummel the Spanish lancers, recoiling the Spanish sub-general again and eliminating another element of lancers. In close combat the roof fell in on the Spanish, as the Freisland battalion's pikes with an overlap eliminated two elements of Spanish reiters, and the Dutch cuirassiers with a double overlap eliminated the remaining element of light lancers and with a single overlap recoiled another lancer element into a reiter element facing a different direction, eliminating both.

Almost Beaten, but not Quite Ready to Quit

At this point, the Spanish left command was wbeaten", having lost in excess of one third of the elements it had started the engagement with. However, the Spunish right command had been heretofore unengaged, its only casualties coming from artillery fire, so the Spanish retained some hope that they might hit the Dutch while they were still disorganized and pursuing their own beaten left command.

4th Bound (Spanish)

The Spanish reacted very well to the debacle on their left (they rolled exceptionally good pip dice again). They were able to steady all of the remaining troops from their beaten command except for their heavy guns, who crews and train fled from the field.

An element of Spanish reiters used the beaten command's one aggressive move to charge into the remaining element of Dutch dragoons, and successfully eliminated them in the ensuing close action (dragoons are eliminated by any cavalry which scores higher in close action). The remaining Spanish reiters fired at the Dutch CiC, recoiling him, and as the Spanish foot units [finally] came up to support their battered cavalry, the Spanish shot was able to eliminate an element of Dutch reiters. Dutch fire forced the remaining shot from the Spanish left tercio to recoil yet again.

In close action the beaten Spanish sub-general was eliminated and the remaining element of Spanish lancers were recoiled by the Dutch reiters.

4th Bound (Dutch)

The Dutch concentrated on widening the now gaping hole in the Spanish center. The Dutch reiters moved up into fire range of the cavalry of the remaining Spanish command, and eliminated an element of lancers. The Spanish left tercio, part of the beaten command, began to come apart under Dutch fire from the two battalions facing it, suffering several recoils and losing another pike element. One bright spot for the Spanish, however, was an isolated unit of arquebusiers from the beaten command were able to recoil two elements of the pursuing Dutch shot.

In the ensuing close combats, the Dutch sub-general eliminated a Spanish reiter element and the zone of death (equal to a base depth to the rear in DBR) eliminated another element.

At this point, although they had technically not yet been driven from the field, the Spanish CiC conceded the game to the Dutch. His remaining forces were hopelessly mispositioned - there was very little left of his left command, which was in the process of being driven from the field by two battalions of Dutch foot, while the remaining Dutch foot and all of the Dutch horse descended on his outnumbered right. The bulk of the Spanish foot units were not even engaged - suffering their only losses from the Dutch great gonnes, and were still not in a position to support their few remaining elements of cavalry by the game's end.

The Spanish had certainly suffered from a shortage of pip dice on the first two bounds of the engagement, but their defeat was more than anything a product of their deployment and their allocation of most of their pips to their left command at the start. DBR is a much quicker, bloodier game than DBM, and the command isolated in the center attempting to pin the Dutch was overwhelmed and destroyed long before the supporting troops could come up. The reiter cavalry proved very effective using their caracoles to shoot up the opposing horse, especially as the bulk of the Spanish horse were light (fast) lancers quite vulnerable to shooting. The historical pike and shot foot unit deployment works quite well in DBR, both the pikes and the shot are much more effective when deployed in historical formations.

This battle was fought in about 2 hours, and reached a quite decisive conclusion. My initial impression of DBR is quite favorable - I've long been interested in this period, but haven't been satisfied with any previously available rules sets. I suspect that between DBR and Armati (especially if the rumored new renaissance army lists allowing some choice on army composition are released) will generate a great deal of new interest and enthusiasm in renaissance gaming.

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© Copyright 1996 by Terry Gore

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