Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

A battle of giants between Johan Baner and the King of Poland

Our king had been on his way to relieve the siege of Lübbau at the head of our Yellow Brigade when he was ambushed by an Imperialist army under Michael Goes just north of Lübbau. Our king was surprised and unfortunately had no cavalry with him, nonetheless he won the battle after taking a great personal risk, using his Lifeguard of Horse as a cavalry unit to harass the enemy musketeers. Having relieved Lübbau, the last remaining settlement of the Duchy of Saxony, a faithful ally, we next secured a military access treaty, so that our king could march through the Duchy of Saxony into the area of Torgau and Dessau were our armies were gathering for an attack on Wallenstein's armies. Moreover, we could have greater freedom in sending armies towards Lübbau to protect the Saxon capital from further Imperialist attacks.

In the meantime, Kulm in Poland was captured by our general Moritz Pensen von Ecksadt after two successful battles against the armies of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in and around Kulm. The third significant battle took place when the King of Poland, Sigismund Wasa the Malevolent, besieged the town of Lissa defended by Gabriel Hansdotter. Our Army Marshal, Johan Baner, hastened over to Lissa with a relief force. At around Christmas of 1629 a battle of giants began between Johan Banner and the Polish King.

This episode covers the period from June 1629 to the end of that year.

Do you consider doing a full battle episode? So we can see you strategies in real time. Also, I'm back playing this amazing mod after a couple of months, so I'm going to ask a very n00b question. Playing as Denmark, I make 29 gold from trade and trade buldings don't boost my income. Is this normal? What I'm missing?

Thanks and sorry for the silly questions.

Your question is not silly. In fact we do not completely understand why this happens. The economy script was inspired from Bryg's Grim Reality mod and was tested on Sweden and seems to work as it was originally intended with Sweden, at least as far as I have seen, but it does not work like that with the other factions. What usually - but not always - happens with most factions is that after a short time, about 15 game turns or a little longer, the income made from merchant buildings, trade, and resources starts to diminish, eventually becoming 0.

The economy script was introduced because in the previous version of the mod, the original German version, AI factions accumulated vast amounts of money that they were not spending. So the economy script was introduced to stop that. After the economy script had been introduced it turned out that part of the problem with the economy was that the original AI was very passive, for reasons I will not go into here, and an aspect of that passivity was that it was not spending the money it had.

The problem, however, was not just the campaign AI. For other reasons, the income from resources used to rise too far during the campaign, because of so many buildings giving trade benefits, whereas in the actual war income from trade was ever decreasing because of the war, general devastation and devaluation of the coinage. So the current situation reflects what we wanted to achieve in the end fairly well. The player will have to concentrate on taxation as income, rather than trade, which is more of a challenge, as taxation can affect public order.

It is difficult to make a videoclip of an entire battle because battles cannot be saved with the dvd version of the game, so I only end up being able to film quiet moments during battles, when there is no need to micromanage. I guess I could just play the battle in real time and micromanage and show everything, it would be of zero cinematic value but might be of some interest otherwise. Generally speaking, I leave the army as originally automatically deployed, except of course I choose units carefully so I get the automatic deployment that I want. Most pike & shot formations are reasonable for their respective factions, making use of the best strengths of that faction's unit mix at that time. I usually only make minor adjustments. During a large pitch battle, I tend to leave the infantry alone and concentrate on managing the cavalry, dragoons and artillery.

It can also depend on what kind of army the AI brings. For example in one of the battles in episode 8, the AI brought a lot of musketeers, which unfortunately the AI cannot use very well and tends to separate them from the pikemen, a problem we could not fix. So if the human player has enough cavalry and his cavalry goes unnoticed, it is possible to harass the flanks of the musketeers and sometimes the musketeers will move closer together, blobbing up. Then they become a killing zone for the human player's musketeers and artillery. You could say this is a bit of an exploit, since in reality human musketeers might have been more aware of the tactical disadvantages of blobbing up but in the end it is a game and modding the battle AI can only get us so far without access to the engine.

Thank you for you quick answer. So in the end all is going as it should be, with basically zero trade? I was surprised by this because I belive I had played other versions of the mod and there was a huge trade income, now all trade buldings are basically useless. There is any way of increasing your income, besides taxation?

And it would be cool if you did perhaps some custom battle with different factions. If you could play this online, we could do a custom battle to try to replicate some famous battle. Also, did you ever tought about increasing the cannon size from 2 to 3 units?

It would be complicated to play the 1648 mod online but not impossible. Making a historical battle sounds like a fun idea. I don't think when we were making the mod anyone had online battles in mind, although probably they should be ok as most units should be well balanced.

I am working on a couple of custom battle videos that focus more on looking at a battle from above as it unfolds.

There is a problem with larger batteries, it takes them forever to turn around as their targets move, and they simply end up just turning and turning without ever shooting, because it takes them so long to turn. They would be also difficult to use in streets. They would be only useful against static defenses but then star forts are indestructible anyway.

Early period mortar batteries have 4 pieces per battery.

Ok, if you want to play by game-ranger or other site, we could reenact some famous battle. If the walls were working, I would love to reenact the siege of Bréda.

A Clash of Titans

March turned out to be a very bloody month as the Swedish King backed by Gustaf Horn marched into Saxony. Albrecht Wallenstein and Gustavus Adolphus met in a massive battle at the town of Riesa not far from Leipzig where the historical battle of Breitenfeld had taken place at around this time in the Thirty Years War. The Swedish King had the Yellow Brigade under his command and was aided by McKeyes Scottish Brigade. Albrecht Wallenstein had three full stacks at Riesa under three of his leutenant generals, and he himself commanded another half-stack. In the meantime another battle was unfolding not too far away, at the town of Wurzen, between Gustaf Horn and the Imperial armies defending Leipzig. The war between the Kaiser and the Swedish King had reached a crucial point. These two battles would likely decide the fate of Saxony, currently held by Wallenstein.

This episode covers the period from January 1630 to the end of March.

Battles at Meissen and Leipzig

Albrecht Wallenstein has retreated to Meissen along with the remnants of the battle of Riesa. A mixed army of Scottish companies, two companies of the White Regiment and some German mercenaries commanded by John MacKayes captures Meissen, one of the key cities of Saxony that Wallenstein had occupied. Matthias Gallas, the man who succeeded Wallenstein in actual history as the Kaiser's Army Marshal, arrives too late to take part in the battle. Leaving a strong garrison in Meissen, John MacKayes and Robert Monro take quarters in Riesa to refit the Scottish Brigade. Wallenstein is joined by Matthias Gallas in a cunning strategic manouever. They bypass Meissen and attack the Scots in Riesa. A relief force under Captain Johann Philip, always at hand when reinforcements are needed, joins the Scots and Riesa witnesses yet another fierce battle with Wallenstein as the protagonist.

Further to the west, our king surprises the Imperialist army marching to the relief of Leipzig. A glorious battle ensues in which our king deploys the Yellow and Blue Brigade regiments in the Swedish formation with light regimental artillery supporting the two regiments and a battery of mortars to harass the enemy. The Imperialists have brought an army mostly of musketeers and horse that the AI does not use all that well. They are commanded, however, by an excellent general, Franz the Scarred, with more command stars even than Wallenstein. He is seconded by Graf Montecuccoli and 3 other generals, who despite their combined experience in command bunch up their bodyguards, only to become a prime target for our mortars. This does not bode well for our enemy, the balance of power is clearly in Sweden's favour.

Gustav Gustavson, Gustav Horn and the Saxon prince Rudolf join our king in the siege of Leipzig. It was entirely coincidental this happened in the very place where the Swedes and Saxons commanded by some of the same generals fought against Count Tilly in 1631 in the real Thirty Years War.

This episode covers the period from April 1630 to the end of June.

King Gustav Adolf fights a battle outside Dresden

At the Diet of Regensburg, the Prince Electors demand that the Kaiser reduces the seize of his army and relieves Albrecht Wallenstein of his command. Wallenstein is indeed seen first without an army and, next, leaving Saxony to return to his estates in Bohemia. Other Imperialist generals take command of the armies around Dresden, including Don Baltazar de Marradas, Johann Heinrich Graf of Dünewald and Michael Adolf Graf of Althan. When Marradas and the Graf of Dünewald head off to besiege Riesa, Gustavus Adolphus grasps the opportunity to surprise two small armies outside Dresden. The garrison of Dresden sallies out to reinforce the Imperialist commanders. Captain Lennart comes to the aid of the Swedish king, later joined also by the Scottish Brigade under John MacKayes and Robert Monro. A great battle takes place outside Dresden. The fate of Dresden is at stake.

This episode covers the period from July to the end of August 1631. As the campaign heats up, where once an episode covered years, now it is sometimes not enough to cover a couple of months.

The full playlist is here.

Love those videos of yours!

Siege of Leipzig

The winter has arrived early this year and the ground is already covered in snow in September. Robert Monro is appointed Baillif of Dresden in recognition of his services by the Swedish king. After all, Gustavus Adolphus has greater things in his mind than administering Dresden himself. The Imperialists besiege Leipzig. The Imperialist army besieging Leipzig is led by the Graf of Dünewald and has, among much else, three groups of Hussite Wagons. In the open, they would be deadly because of the hail of musket fire that they pour out. This is less of an issue when our men are barricaded behind the walls of a star fort. Fortunately, the Hussites expended most of their ammunition firing at the units on the walls, rather than at the relief force commanded by Johann Kasimir von Vehlen who had deployed outside in the open, at the end of a long trench running along the walls that the Hussite Wagons would have had to navigate under fire from the cannon of the star fort.

Dresden is besieged by a small Imperialist army. The Scottish brigade is the perfect army to defend it.

The Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxestierna happened to be in Poland in the town of Bromberg, when Bromberg was besieged by an army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. A relief force came from Posen and it was joined by part of the garrison, bringing the battle to the enemy with the advantage of being supported by musketeers firing from the safety of the town's walls. A bit further to the east, Sigismund Wasa the Malevolent, the King of Poland, besieges once again Schrimm. He cannot afford to lose face failing to take Schrimm a second time. Let us hope his ambition to take Schrimm does not cost him his life.

This episode covers the period from September-October 1630.

Many thanks for all the nice comments. Of course I love this game, as you can probably tell.

A couple of thoughts about 1648 mod sieges that may be of general interest: You may be wondering why I am always sallying out when besieged. The trick is to sally out some way back and try to tease the AI army into attacking the force that has sallied out. If overconfident in its strength, the AI will most of the time take the bait and will suffer casualties from fire coming from the garrison, including from the star fort cannon. Usually, this is enough to turn the balance in favour of the human player. Allowing instead the AI army to attack on its turn will reduce the contribution of the star fort cannon in the overall battle and will probably diminish the opportunities of musketeers to fire from the walls, at least once the enemy units are on the walls. The Scots of Robert Monro also sallied out of Stralsund to fight under cover from the units and cannon on the walls of Stralsund. Robert Monro also has an account of a small Imperialist force sallying out and barricading behind a redoubt to fight the Scots when they were about to besiege a town somewhere in Germany. So this was probably a common practice. I use it with most mods, whenever I can.

In an earlier version of the mod, before the latest patches, the range of muskets had been changed from 300 to 200m. This was later changed to a compromising 250m, since some players thought 300m was too far (although historically accurate). The problem with the range being shorter than 300 is that the AI sets up its units within 300m of the walls (rather than outside the 300m range) so that they are vulnerable to cannon fire from the walls, as wall cannons had a range of 300m. This issue has been corrected in one of the latest patches, so that the AI does not get passively massacred from the wall cannonade. The best way to take advantage of the star fort's cannons is to force the AI to approach friendly units sallying out until the AI units come to within range of the cannon and other units firing from the walls. It is something of an exploit, but at least it makes some kind of sense and it was historically used. If the balance of power turns against the AI, sometimes the AI will abandon the fight and retreat, lifting the siege, which does actually make sense. If the AI army is not strong enough, it will not be fooled to come within range of the star fort cannon. Also whether the AI will make the decision to approach the relief force or the force sallying out under the walls will depend on the skill of the enemy general. All that is reasonably good AI behaviour.

In many ways, the battle and campaign AI can perform well but they need modding love and care and a lot of play-testing, especially as the engine is a black box and the ways of the AI can be a bit of a mystery.

Battle of Greiz

The high point of this episode was an epic battle at Greitz between Gustavus Adolphus and an Imperialist army, probably the biggest battle of the campaign so far. There were also several smaller battles in the four months covered in this campaign, enough to reach the 200 mark for campaign battles so far.

It is the month of November 1630 and the Spanish have lifted the siege of Baden. The Archbishorpic of Trier remain interested in Kaiserslautern, which is under French control.

The Polish king attacks Schrimm for the third time. Captain Richard comes to the relief of the garrison. The Polish king fails for the third time and walks off with his head down.

Next an army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth besieges again the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna in Gnesen. Carl Gustav av Minsk has come to the relief of the Swedish Chancellor. The attackers’ main strength is their post-reform musketeers. Carl Gustav av Minsk takes command of the majority of our units that sally out to fight under the city walls, supported by the cannon and musketeers on the walls.

The handful of Polish Winged Hussars make a desperate charge and are cut down. Among them was the enemy commander, captain Macey (his name probably sounds very different in Polish) who was slain. Our cavalry then moved up to mop up the remaining survivors of the enemy force. Another clear victory with minimal casualties. One unit of late musketeers killed over 900 men, this is probably an all time record for a musketeer unit. Axel Oxenstierna has become an aspiring commander after this second incidental victory, really thanks to our enemy for besieging him in Gnesen.

Lifting off the fog of war once again, we find the Bavarians again in control of Munich – it was probably returned to them by the Kaiser in exchange for a ceasefire as part of their treaty. Baden and Wurttemberg control the rest of Germany’s South. The French have captured Lausanne. Trier have taken Worms and Landau. The Dutch have captured Jullich. While Sweden is now in control of the greater part of Saxony.

The month of December 1630 comes with more snow and a Protestant Cathedral in Elbing built by the rebels taken prisoner in Sweden earlier in the year and sent by our benevolent king to do something good for the salvation of their souls. The Reformed Church is also being re-established in Saxony. We have fought 198 battles in 156 game turns and there are 2 more battles yet to come in this month that will bring the total to 200. Leipzig is besieged by an Imperialist army. Another Imperialist force under Guiillaume von Aldringen besieges Lennart von Brandenburg in Riesa near Meissen. Captain Ericus comes to the relief of the garrison and the garrison sallies out. The enemy's second in command, general Rainald Bruys, is slain at the start of the battle. A cannon shot kills a second enemy general, Gottlieb Schröffl von Mannsperg. The Kaiser seems to have sent his generals into a suicide mission. Another Imperialist general, Hans Ulrich von Schaffgotsch is slain. And finally Guillaume von Aldringen, the enemy commander, is also killed in battle. A troop of enemy harquebusiers make a desperate charge at our lines and are cut down by musket fire. Left without cavalry and with all their generals dead, the enemy pikemen advance under fire from the walls and are cut down without ever reaching our lines. The day is ours and the enemy lifts the siege but at the same time another Imperialist army led by Leopold Wilhelm von Habsburg has been besieging Leipzig. Gustaf Horn comes to the relief of the Leipzig garrison that is commanded by Claus Dietrich von Veltheim. The odds are greatly in our favour. The Imperialist generals are slain one after the other starting with the overall commander, Leopold Wilhelm von Habsburg. Next Thomas von Pragerhof is slain and Hugo von Grönsfeld and Edmund von Bentheim-Steinfurt. The siege of Leipzig was an utter disaster for the Imperialists as we only lost 4 men. The Imperialists lift the siege of Leipzig and walk away in shame.

We come to January of 1631, the month in which France and Sweden signed the treaty of Bärwalde in which France agreed to subsidise the Swedish campaign against the Emperor and the Catholic League. A Dry Dock is built in Ronne for ship repairs. We are at 88% the strength of Austria. And King Sigismund Wasa of Poland launches another offensive, this time besieging Lissa, courting death for the 5^th time in a year. Johan Baner comes to the relief of the garrison and this time the Polish King is taken prisoner. The defender of Lissa, Georg Lindberg, is victorious. He offers the Polish king for ransom but the Poles seem in no position to pay the ransom so the Polish king will remain our captive until the war ends. The Kaiser has been much more sensible sending off his generals to fight battles for him, never risking his own life. Relations with the Duchy of Brunswick are perfect after a renewed treaty against the Kaiser. The Kingdom of Denmark, which is at peace with the Kaiser, maintains a large army in Lübeck to defend it from a potential Swedish attack.

In the actual Thirty Years War, the German Princes convened in Leipzig in February 1631 to discuss the conditions for ending the war. Our income has once again exceeded 80,000 Gulden. Lifting the fog of war reveals that the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach have taken Munich from the Duchy of Bavaria. An Imperialist army besieges Plauen in Saxony which is under the control of the Duchy of Brunswick. Another city in Saxony, Greiz, that was held by Brunswick has fallen to the Imperialists who have gathered 3 strong armies to defend it. Our great leader, the King of Sweden, honours the new treaty with the Duchy of Brunswick and marches to Greiz. A glorious battle unfolds outside the city. Captain Niklas commands our forlorn hope while the Swedish king takes charge of the main pike and shot formation. The Imperialist armies are under the overall command of Josef the Adored who commands personally a strong and highly experienced pike and shot force with some cavalry. The Austrian second in command, general Maximilian Ramsdorf, is commanding the enemy forlorn hope consisting of 11 units of double handers. The two Imperialist generals are reinforced by a third army of lighter units, including several troops of harquebusiers. A glorious and very bloody battle ensued.

This episode covers the period of Nov 1630 - Feb 1631.

Awesome. Love your perseverance.

Spring of discontent

There are winters of discontent, and sometimes summers of discontent but this spring has been especially hard hit with appalling weather as well as the continuing winter war, as the AI seems to enjoy fielding its armies in atrocious weather conditions.

We are in the month of March 1631. Pirates are raiding our ships. Baden-Durlach have agreed to a truce with Spain. The Archbishopric of Bremen and the Protestant Union have agreed to a truce. More Scots and Swedes are heading south to join our armies.

Liegnitz is besieged by the Imperial Archduchy of Austria. Joakim Kiellström commands the garrison. The Imperialist force besieging Liegnitz is under the command of Captain Eusebius. Georg von Brandenburg-Bayreuth has come with a small force to the relief of the besieged city. Captain Eusebius commands an entirely mercenary force.

Joakim Kiellström sallies out with part of the garrison to meet with the relief force under Georg von Brandenburg-Bayreuth. While the Imperialist dragoons and musketeers are firing at our garrison on the walls, two units of turncoats are sent to test our resolve. They are met with a hail of fire from our two musket units and one of them is routed straight away. The second one is charged in the rear by a troop of Cuirassiers while it was engaged with some halberdiers and is also routed.

One fault of the AI when fighting against a sally out is that units often attack in waves. This is a general behavior of the AI in all mods. In attacking in waves, the AI sends some units forward, then after they perish or if they are routed, the AI sends more units that way piecemeal. So, having not learned a lesson from the quick demise of the two turncoat units, the Imperialists send more units in waves. They get cut down by musket and cannon shot from the walls, as our harquebusiers fire all the time at their flank. Little by little, the Imperialist army withers away until the last stands of pike make a last desperate march against our musketeers and cavalry only to be cut down to a man.

Joakim Kjaelström is victorious. Next the Duchy of Brunswick pay us subsidies for our war effort, and so does the Duchy of Prussia and the Electorate of Brandenburg. There is a market and trade fair, that boosts commerce. France gives up its newly conquered territories in Italy prior to the Treaty of Cherasco. Inconveniently, two of our allies, France and the Old Swiss Confederacy go to war with each other. Our king sides with the Swiss, being a defender of the weak and a champion of the Reformed Church, which upsets France, our loyal ally. An alliance is announced between the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach and the Duchy of Württemberg, both of which are allies of ours. More units are recruited on our Baltic ports ahead of our summer offensive, which brings our treasury into the red. Our generals are stocking up supplies in preparation for the campaigning season ahead.

April comes with the ground covered in snow. It has been a long and hard winter. An army of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth under Captain Wincenty besieges Gnesen. The city is defended by a strong garrison under Georg Carl van Amstenraedt. Some halberdiers of the garrison sally out to entice the enemy to come closer to our walls. The ruse works and the approaching enemy is fired at by musketeers on the walls, who inflict heavy casualties. Our enemy is wisely avoiding to come too near the walls. Those few men who tried to approach the walls of the star fort from were the garrison is firing have not lived to tell their tale. For them, war is over. For us, nothing endures but war. And since only the dead have seen the end of war, we must be doing well.

Georg Carl van Amstenraedt sallies out with part of the garrison. Two troops of Winged Hussars are sent to intercept him, without any other support. They are met with fire from the walls and one of the troops of Winged Hussars is turned away. The other group attempts to charge the units that have sallied out but is intercepted by our pikemen. A clash of pikes and Winged Hussars is likely to go to the pikemen’s favour. The hussars turn around and flee. Some of our own cavalry chases them as our infantry reforms. Our Horse catches up with them and takes everyone prisoner. The Winged Hussars must have been slowed down by their massive wings, so that our harquebusiers were able to catch up. Did the Winged Hussars actually don those wings in battles or were they more for parades? One can imagine that the massive wings would have been an impediment when making a charge.

Polish and Cossack musketeers make an attempt to close the gap to our sally-out. They are massacred by the murderous musket fire from the walls on their way but to their credit, they go on regardless. Death or victory! So, a heroic death at least. Why live on and die of old age when one may die a glorious death on the battlefield?

The enemy general, Captain Wincenty, is slain. The sally-out slowly moves forward. Our Horse move up to harass our severely weakened enemy. The remaining units retreat and many enemy soldiers are taken prisoner. So another glorious victory, a heroic victory, at the cost of only 38 men. The Polish prisoners were ransomed by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Gnesen has been saved. A small rebel force has appeared to the north east of Gnesen. It is attacked by our general Alain de Courville. The rebels are defeated in battle. The enemy general, Captain Markus, is slain and the battle is won at the loss of only 11 men. Our king is so impressed by Alain de Courville, he is the man of the hour and is adopted into the Royal family.

This episode covers the months of March and April 1631.

Although the AI can suffer heavy losses in a siege, by besieging our frontier cities it slows down our progress. We cannot attack our next target if we are besieged ourselves by powerful armies. And we have to keep other armies in reserve nearby so that they can come to the aid of besieged garrisons, which can be a drain on our resources.

Your AARs and accompanying video are always a treat.

Siege of Liegnitz

We are in the month of May 1631. The long and hard winter is finally over, the snow has melted and our armies are about to take the field. The month of May 1631 was that fateful time when Magdeburg fell to the armies of Count Tilly. Magdeburg had been a bastion of Protestantism since the days of Martin Luther and Wallenstein had already besieged it, unsuccessfully. Gustavus Adolphus was on his way to save the city but was delayed due to a reluctance of the Electorate of Brandenburg to give him military access. Count Tilly was swift in capturing Magdeburg, which he laid waste. One of Tilly’s generals, Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim, wrote that "it is certain that no more terrible work and divine punishment has been seen since the destruction of Jerusalem".

The recruitment of Scottish and Swedish units continues on our Baltic ports, pushing our economy further into the red. With money funneled into unit recruitment, construction slows down. Our generals supply their armies in preparation for the campaigning season.

Gnesen is besieged by the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth and Liegnitz is under siege by the Imperialists. So before marching on, we must first relieve those two sieges. Liegnitz is besieged by an Imperialist army under Michel de Gorrevod. It is defended by Joakim Kiellström and Georg von Brandenburg-Bayreuth comes once again to the relief. A sea-saw battle takes place outside the walls of the city in which our Horse sees a lot of action and plays a crucial role in defeating our enemy. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army lifts the siege and retreats with heavy casualties. One of the late musketeer units of the garrison has made a new all time record, by scoring 1354 kills. The Kaiser does not ransom the prisoners taken in battle, so they will be pressed into Swedish service.

This episode covers just the battle of Liegnitz, since now so much is going on that probably several episodes will be needed to cover a single month, when before several months were being covered in a single episode of the campaign let's play.

On this opportunity, let me just add that Monguntiacum and Gigantus did most of the hard work for this mod, the scripting, map, factions, EDU and EDB, UI and custom graphics and the historical events among else. They really had a hand in everything, so this mod is their baby. The rest of us at Infracta and elsewhere worked on the unit and map models (e.g. star fort) music, campaign and battle AI, the EDU and some minor things as well as playtested. Gigantus then put everything together in 6 consecutive patches, the 6th of which is a standalone latest version of the mod.

As for the cavalry terms, just to clarify, at this period, a company of cavalry was known in English as a troop of horse. The flag was smaller and was called a cornet and the officer that held the cornet was also called a Cornet. He was the third in rank within the company, he was more commonly referred to as an ensign and was equivalent to a modern second leutenant. In the mod the term cornet is used to indicate a company of horse, although I have modded that out in my own version because I am not sure the term was used in such a way in English usage. It may have been so in German usage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Geoffrey of Villehardouin

On this opportunity, let me just add that Monguntiacum and Gigantus did most of the hard work for this mod...

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:blushing:

Glad it is still being enjoyed.

Siege of Gnesen and battle of Dresden

We are still in the month of May 1631 and the Imperialists have just suffered a defeat that caused them to lift the siege of Liegnitz. At the same time, an army of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth was besieging Gnesen. The garrison of Gnesen is commanded by Georg Carl van Amstenraedt. Alain de Courville comes to the relief. We have a small superiority, so all the more reason to sally out and bring the battle to our enemy!

Seeing the garrison sallying out the enemy general, captain Siecich sends some cavalry to scout. The Polish cavalry comes under fire from the garrison as Alain de Courville appears in the distance with a small relief force.

Captain Siecich is slain early in the battle and the Polish-Lithuanian army left headless is destroyed. The enemy lifts the siege of Gnesen after suffering very heavy casualties. The post-reform musketeers have excelled once again, one of the units of late musketeers firing from the walls inflicted 870 casualties. We only lost 42 men. A few prisoners taken in battle are released. Gnesen has been saved. Georg Carl van Amstenraedt is a proven commander.

Still in May 1631 and two Imperialist armies have appeared near Dresden. John MacKayes and Robert Monro were about to march westwards at the head of the Scottish brigade to join up with the King of Sweden for the summer campaign but have to turn around and head south to deal with the advancing Imperialist army. The Scottish brigade attacks the Imperialists in a pitched battle near Dresden. This is the first pitch battle of the season. The Imperialists are commanded by Otto Ferdinand Ritter von Benedek and Don Baltazar de Marradas. Marradas has a decent army but von Benedek has been surprised, presumably while on his way to join Marradas, and has only his personal bodyguard with him. The Scottish brigade deploys on a high ground in the foothills of the mountains south of Dresden. The Imperialists approach under partial cover from the hills and the forested area in front of our lines. Marradas approaches from the right while von Benedek comes from the left. The Imperialist Horse open the battle by a charge at the centre of our lines. Their attack is repulsed with musket shot and also by grape shot fired from our field artillery. Most of the cavalry eventually abandon the field of battle but the Imperialist musketeers provide support for the Imperial tercio that engages the Scottish pikemen in melee. In the meantime, a company of turncoats sneaks up to our general, John MacKayes, who was on the right wing, and attacks him in melee. Fortunately, a company of highland swordsmen were nearby and hurry up to rescue our general from the polearms of the turncoats.

A company of grenadiers pummels the Imperial tercio with grenades, forcing the enemy pikemen to retreat. Seeing their pikemen in dissarray and with John MacKayes in their rear, Don Baltasar de Marradas calls a retreat. The enemy musketeers head off at the heel of their two generals. Von Benedek retreats westward while de Marradas retreats towards Silesia with the remnants of his army. The Scots have won another battle with respectably low casualties. Half the casualties were sustained by the pikemen who held back the Imperial tercio.

We have 215 turns to take 6 cities and win the campaign. Victory is on the horizon. At this point in the campaign we have 13 allies – all the Protestant factions – and only 2 enemies: the Kaiser and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Siege of Allenstein

We are still in the month of May 1631 and an army of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth has laid siege to Allenstein, a small town with a medieval wall in East Prussia near Marienburg. Victor Amadeus von Jullich-Kleve-Berg commands the garrison of Allenstein and Bengt av Danmark arrives from Marienburg with a relief force. The enemy army is commanded by captain Rene and has many companies of highly experienced and very formidable Winged Hussars. Victor Amadeus von Jullich-Kleve-Berg has two troops of Junkers, demilancers in plate armour, under his command and so this promises to be a contest between two of the heaviest cavalry units of the period.

The Junkers sallied out as Bengt av Danmark appeared in the distance at the head of the relief force.

The battle lasted a long time as the Polish Lithuanian army moved back and forth looking for opportunities to encircle the Swedish force that had deployed outside Allenstein. The Swedish force deployed behind some fences and farmhouses, making pathfinding a nightmare for the Polish cavalry. While the Winged Hussars tarried looking for weak spots in our lines, they were all the while being fired at by our musketeers and by men of the garrison that had taken position on the medieval battlements above the force that had sallied out.

The Winged Hussars made one very dangerous attack on our cavalry on the right flank that could have turned the battle around but a unit of pikemen who were nearby hastened to the aid of our Junkers saving the day.

Making the AI cavalry attack the human player cavalry as seen in this battle was one of the battle AI modifications for this mod. It does not always happen but it happened at around this period historically and most commonly you will notice AI cuirassiers attacking some of the lighter cavalry units of the human player, if they are on the wings and relatively unprotected. Nonetheless, the priority for the AI seems to be to attack our musketeers, which they perceive as a missile unit in the rock-paper-scissors style of TW series gameplay. The musketeers in this mod, however, not only have formidable pike support if commanded by the human player, they are moreover supposed to be behind redoubts, walls or fences, or in trenches which was historically very common at this time (hence having no body armour, since traditional metal body armour was inadequate against muskets anyway). Moreover, the late period post-reform musketeers are supposed to be able to fire volleys (hence their devastating missile attack of 20) and it can be suicide for units to venture close to them unless in a giant melee situation where they are caught in hand to hand combat - and then cavalry is useless anyway.

Hopefully you will notice in the large battles of forthcoming episodes, how the AI tends to fight in a more historically correct way, with cavalry active at least partly on the flanks or against other cavalry and infantry engaged with infantry, especially pikemen of opposite sides locked in a push of pikes, the most common type of hand to hand combat for infantry at this period.

Glad to see you are still going strong on this campaign - always enjoy the replays.