Saints in Armor

The Bohemian Revolt of 1618 triggered the Thirty Years War and in the early period of the war the Catholic/Imperial cause enjoyed an almost unbroken string of victories. This game, part of the Musket and Pike Battle Series, simulates six battles of the early Thirty Years War. In the period covered, the armies deployed in more compact formations so each battle fits on half of a standard map.

The battles covered in this game are:

White Mountain

November, 1620

The combined army of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic League under Johann Tserclaes, the Count of Tilly, strike a blow directly at the Bohemian capital of Prague. The Bohemians make a stand on the slopes of White Mountain outside the town. Their Transylvanian allies desert them at the most critical point of the battle, causing the total collapse of the Bohemian army and its cause.

This is a short scenario where the qualitatively superior Catholic forces must crush the strongly positioned Bohemians who are bolstered by a large Transylvanian contingent of questionable reliability.

Wimpfen

May, 1622

Tilly joins forces with the Spanish under Cordoba. Together they pursue the smaller army of the Markgraf of Baden-Durlach. They catch his army near the town of Wimpfen, where it is drawn up in a defensive position in a river bend. The Badian camp is fortified in a special traditional way with Spießwagen ("pikewagons"), mobile barricades equipped with sharp poles and small mortars. Only when a powder wagon detonates in the midst of the Protestant position, scattering the defenders, the Catholics are able to storm the wagonburg and heavy fighting breaks out.