Background
The Battle of Oldendorf (German: Schlacht bei Hessisch-Oldendorf) on 8 July 1633 was fought as part of the Thirty Years’ War between the Swedish Empire with its Protestant German allies and the Holy Roman Empire near Hessisch-Oldendorf, Lower Saxony, Germany. The result was a decisive victory for the Swedish Army and its allies.
On 8 July, the Swedish army commanded by George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Marshal Dodo zu Innhausen und Knyphausen faced an Imperial relief army commanded by Field Marshal Jobst Maximilian von Gronsfeld, Count Jean de Merode and Lothar Dietrich Freiherr von Bönninghausen. Merode commanded 4,450 infantrymen and 1,245 cavalry troops, Bonninghausen 4,475 infantry and 2,060 cavalry, Gronsfeld 2,000 infantry and 600 cavalry. The armies met near Hessisch-Oldendorf, northwest of Hameln.
Both armies attacked, a rare event in the Thirty Years’ War, which besides Oldendorf only occurred in the Second Battle of Breitenfeld. The left wing of the Swedish forces was commanded by the general of Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel and later imperial field marshal Peter Melander. Subsequently, field marshal Torsten Stålhandske led a Swedish brigade. The later field marshal Gottfried Huyn von Geleen participated in the battle on the imperial side.
Gronsfeld was captured after his wing was routed by Melander, leaving over 3,000 dead and wounded and 1,000 prisoner. The Swedes lost 700 soldiers.
The Game
We wanted to try out Valour and Fortitude in the ECW/TYW period and see how they would fair. We decided to use the ECW army sheets as a base and try them out. We did tweak the rules for Dutch System cavalry (basically adding a six inch skirmish fire option). Other than that, we kept most of the other rules.
The big difference in this period, is that infantry units have limited movement (I personally think this would also be better for periods into the Napoleonic period). This makes the battle lines a bit more linear in nature. The artillery is also a bit more static. Everything else is pretty much straight out of the rules.
We opted for a Thirty Years War fight and went with one of the online downloadable scenarios from Helion.
The day arrived, the terrain got all set up and the forces were deployed. The battlefield was relatively open, except for three streams that intersected no man’s land. Both sides set up on the heights on each side of the battlefield. We had six players show up for the game. Since we had plenty of troops, this proved to be just right! each commander either took the center, right or left commands.
The Swedish plan was to hold the center and use their artillery to weaken the larger Empire forces, while using their cavalry advantage to win on the flanks. The Empire plan was to refuse their left and push forward with their infantry to overwhelm the center, while pinning with their cavalry on the right.
Both sides initiated their plan and maneuvered forward. The Swedish left cavalry wing engaged with he Empire facing cavalry to initiate the fights. This went on for a few turns, with the Empire gaining the advantage and pushing the Swedes back in disarray. The Empire had taken a bit of disorder themselves and decided to hold back and reorganize for the next strike.
The Swedes on the right moved forward aggressively. However, the streams slowed down the advance and resulted in them getting to the point a few turns later than the left flank. The Empire decided to occupy the woods with their shooters and engage with their heavy cavalry on the high ground. The superior Swedish cavalry were able to overwhelm their opponents and open a hole in the line, while screaming the Empire Dragoons and Shot units in the forest. While the attack was successful, the Swedes did need to do a little reorganization to get ready for their sweep to the center, while finishing off the remaining Empire troops around the woods.
The Imperial center advanced forward straight into the Swedish guns and thin blue line. The three streams caused the advance to slow to a crawl, while the Swedish artillery took their toll. The Imperials finally made it to contact, as the Swedes on the flank restarted their own advances.
On the Swedish left, the cavalry fight re-started, with the Swedes outmaneuvering their Imperial opponents and clearing the flank. On the Swedish right, the remainder of the Imperials (except one dragoon unit deep in the woods) were cleared out, while the heavier elements began their charges into the rear of the Imperial infantry attacking the center.
As the Imperials had their flanks turned, they finally were able to strike at the center of the Swedish line. Unfortunately, their units had taken a pointing on the way to the fight and were not able to overcome the defending Swedes and decided to quit the field, giving the Swedes the victory… In the end, we had a very historical fight!
The game played well. We were able to get ten turns in, over the three hours of game time. All the mechanics seemed to work. The only negative observation was that the musket detachments were far too powerful, when providing melee support. So, the one adjustment we would make is that units providing melee support could only provide the two extra dice to the fight, if they had a fight value of at least two. Smaller units should only provide plus one. With that behind us, we are ready to try another fight!
- Manteuffel
Nice AAR, collection looks great!