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Thread: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

  1. #41

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    The summer offensive begins

    It is now summer, the month of June, and our armies are gathering for the summer offensive. We have a task ahead of us at the start of June: to dislodge the various Imperialist armies that have been encroaching on our possessions in Saxony. An Imperialist army has appeared outside Leipzig. Dresden is once again under siege by two Imperialist armies with a third army on its way to join them. There is an Imperialist army outside Greiz, where Gustavus Adolphus is quartered. Two Imperialist armies are encamped outside Plauen, to the south of Greiz. Plauen has in addition a strong Imperialist garrison.

    Johann-Kasimir von Vehlen sallies out of Leipzig to attack the enemy Imperialist army in a pitched battle. The enemy army has mostly low quality mercenaries and has been joined by some disaffected rebels armed with arquebuses. Our army has deployed on the high ground. The Imperialists decide to attack with their cavalry and a battle ensues. Johann-Kasimir von Vehlen is eventually victorious and gains renown for respecting the prisoners after a battle.

    While marching to Greiz to unite with the Swedish king, Johann-Kasimir von Vehlen bumps into some rebels. Another battle takes place in which the outnumbered and outgunned rebels are easily dispersed.

    Now is the turn of our King Gustavus Adolphus to strike fear into the hearts of our enemies. He strikes out of Greiz and attacks an Imperialist army that had approached the city. The Imperialists have a small but elite force under the command of Leopold von Vittoria. The King of Sweden is again victorious at the cost of under 200 men. The Kaiser does not ransom the prisoners, who are pressed into Swedish service. Four Swedish armies are now converging. The army of our King with the Yellow and Blue brigades, an army under Graf Gustav Horn quartered in nearby Gera, the Scottish brigade marching from Dresden and the army under Johann-Kasimir von Vehlen marching south from Leipzig. The union of the four armies won’t be to our enemies’ liking!



    Thanks for the support. Gaming time and video-making time is always in competition with real life, so it can be a struggle to keep a campaign up to the end and then spend more time to make these videos. Fortunately, making the videos can also be fun and it has the advantage that you can enjoy some aspects of the game, such as the skins of units, the models of the buildings and so on that you can miss when fighting the battles. In fact I was wondering after seeing the trailers for the Kingdom Come: Deliverance game whether some sightseeing mode can be added to the total war series, maybe with spy missions that can take place on battle maps, so we can wonder around without the need to fight battles, just to admire the modelling in this game and in the various mods.

    I also get a few private comments of appreciation, too, which is nice - this game never gets old, or at least it does not get old fast enough to not come back to it, especially considering the competition from so many of the newer games in the total war series.

  2. #42

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    Battle of Five Armies

    This is not the same battle from the Hobbit but a battle in which two Swedish armies fought three Imperialist armies on the battlefield, perhaps the biggest battle in the campaign so far.

    Gustavus Adolphus has marched south to Plauen at the head of an army consisting of one of the Scottish regiments, a Swedish regiment made up of units of the red regiment and the yellow brigade, his Lifeguard of Foot and some cavalry. He is accompanied by a second army of mostly melee units that can act as forlorn hopes, commanded by captain Petrus. Our spies have reported three Imperialist armies: an Imperialist cavalry regiment under Ludwig August the Scarred camped outside the city, the strong garrison of Plauen under Otto Ferdinand Ritter von Benedek and a third army under Jobst Spiegel. A closer inspection reveals a reasonably strong force with many dragoons. Leopold von Habsburg, the brother of the Kaiser, is with this army as well as a third general, Michael Adolph the Graf of Althan. The king of Sweden marches into what is going to be a mighty battle. The Imperialists have not only a strong force but several pike units of the Imperial tercio. The garrison of Plauen has three silver-chevroned such units under a second general, Ottokar von Marburg an der Drau. Leopold von Habsburg, Jobst Spiegel and Michael Adolph the Graf of Althan have a strong force of mercenaries. The enemy generals are highly experienced, Ludwig August the Scarred and Jobst Spiegel each of them with 10 command stars are as good as Wallenstein. Otto Ferdinand the Knight of Benedek, the survivor of the battle of Dresden last month, is a 6-star commander and a colonel of cavalry - who is, however, afraid of the English, and do not dare to even mention the Scots. Together, this combination of generals and armies represent the most challenging opponents the King of Sweden has faced in battle in the entire campaign.

    Seeing the enemy committing to battle, our king orders our army to dash for the top of the hill ahead of us, as Captain Petrus brings up the forlorn hopes and two troops of Liebenstein Cuirassiers. Our harquebusiers on the left are the first to make it to the top of the hill. Ludwig August the Scarred attacks our right wing with his cavalry as the other two Imperialist generals head for the hill to attack our centre and left wing.

    The cavalry attacks are repulsed but the arrival of the pikemen of the Imperial Tercio begins a death struggle for possession of the hill and of ultimate victory.



    The battle in detail

    Ludwig August the Scarred opened the battle with cavalry attacks on our right wing. The village there prevented outflanking moves by his cavalry that was massacred by musket fire. Next came an attack from an Imperial Tercio battalion on that side also under the command of Ludwig August the Scarred and Ottokar von Marburg an der Drau. In the meantime enemy cavalry had attacked our musketeers in the centre. They were answered by a counterattack by a unit of post-reform pikemen and two troops of Liebenstein Cuirassiers that arrived as part of the reinforcements under Captain Petrus. On the left, the Scottish regiment had taken the hill and had started descending the far side when the Imperialist infantry arrived. You can see the moment the first Imperialist units rushed into melee to prevent the Scottish pikemen from deploying on the hill slopes.

    At this point, Ludwig August the Scarred was killed and the Imperial Tercio unit opposite our right wing broke and were taken prisoners by our cavalry. Our cavalry there rushed forward but just then the reserves under Jobst Spiegel started arriving. Many of these units were thrown at our cavalry, forcing it back behind the Swedish Foot on that side. Then the Imperialist attack on our right wing was renewed with dragoons and mercenary pikemen. The King’s Lifeguard of Foot unit kept in reserve was thrown on that side and slowly we started gaining the upper hand on the right pushing the enemy back little by little. Captain Petrus' army were mostly melee units and were thrown in to bolster the centre. A long line of melee fighting was formed along the brow of the hill. At the far end on the left, where the Scottish pikemen were, near the top of the hill, two of the Imperial Tercio units of Otto Ferdinand Ritter von Benedek marched up to take the hill. These were more than a match for the Scots and if there were not the reserves of Captain Petrus, the garrison of Plauen under Philip Ferdinand the Knight of Benedek would have taken the hill. Under the circumstances they were just contained, not least thanks to the arrival of a unit of the Household Regiment of Anhalt, a tough unit armed with polearms, commanded personally by Captain Petrus. So a bloody stalemate ensued and just then the AI made an accidentally brilliant move. A fresh unit of the Imperial Tercio moved to our far left, pushed away our skirmishers on the very left – a troop of Harquebusiers and a company of Scottish musketeers – outflanked our left then turned about and marched up the hill from that side. Fire from our harquebusiers and musketeers was brushed off. Some light units of the reserves brought by Captain Petrus tried to stop them from taking the hill but were slaughtered. The Imperial Tercio got to the hill and our last surviving unit of Scottish pikemen left the main line and went back up the hill but not fast enough to stop the Imperial Tercio from getting to the very top first. From there, the Imperial Tercio attacked the rear of our main line with a height advantage, being prevented only by the Scottish pikemen from destroying the lighter units further down below. All 4 companies of Scottish musketeers started firing at the flank and rear of the Imperial Tercio at the top of the hill, supported even by a unit of dragoons from the reserves. But the Imperial Tercio could not be moved from the top of the hill. The death of the enemy general Otto Ferdinand Ritter von Benedek, the commander of the units of the Plauen garrison that were the majority of the units on that side, made no impression on the Imperial Tercio that tenaciously defended its position.

    Fortunately, the battle had gone well on the right. There eventually the enemy had been pushed back. Our cavalry, including our king with his bodyguards had been chasing the retreating units, preventing them from reforming and returning to battle. The rest of our right wing, the Swedish regiment and the King’s Lifeguard of Foot swiveled about to attack the Imperialist centre. After throwing into battle his last reserves, the enemy general Jobst Spiegel charged into battle at the head of his bodyguard, trying to contain the advance and flanking move of the Swedish regiment. Gustavus Adolphus then abandoned the chase of the routed units and charged the rear of the bodyguard of the enemy general. Surrounded, the enemy bodyguard unit broke and Jobst Spiegel was taken prisoner. This had a dramatic effect. Many of the units under his command that were struggling in the bloody melee at the bottom of the hill, seeing that their commander had been taken prisoner, broke and started to flee the battle. At this point the battle was suddenly decided. Even the Imperial Tercio at the top of the hill finally broke. Just a couple of depleted enemy units kept fighting as the majority of the Imperialist army beat a retreat. Fortunately, we had enough cavalry left to chase down the retreating units. Many were taken prisoner and only a few units succeeded in reaching the safety of the star fort of Plauen.

    Leopold von Habsburg, the brother of the Holy Roman Emperor, made it to safety, together with the Graf of Althan and Ottokar von Marburg an der Drau.

    It was a very epic battle with almost 10,000 men and felt almost like a real historical battle, maybe thanks to the reinforcements for both sides that acted like reserves in an actual battle and also thanks to the fact that the enemy army had three commanders that were active on the left, centre and right of the enemy army and made it all seem more real. The presence of the Kaiser’s brother in the battle was especially poignant. It was worth the entire campaign to have the chance to fight a battle like this one. I wish it had been possible to show you more but I could not film everything at once and also had to micromanage at times. Sadly, it is not possible to save campaign battles in M2TW and so the scenes in the videoclip are just snippets of everything that was going on.
    Last edited by Geoffrey of Villehardouin; February 09, 2017 at 04:55 PM.

  3. #43

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    Dresden under siege

    Dresden is again besieged by an Imperialist army, in fact two Imperialist armies. Dresden had a strong garrison of musketeers and pikemen under the command of Adam of Pfalz-Simmern, a relative of Frederick the V of the Rhine Palatinate who had been adopted earlier in the campaign by Gustavus Adolphus into the House of Vasa. He is a colonel of cavalry and a man loved by his soldiers thanks to his House of Griffin ancillary, and a religious man as is his second in command, General Leonart von Östergötland, a confident defender. A third Swedish general, Georg von Derfflinger, comes with a relief force from Meissen. Georg von Derfflinger is also a colonel of cavalry and has also been adopted by Gustavus Adolphus into the Royal family. The two stepbrothers are facing two large Imperialist armies commanded by two captains, both named Ulrichs. The Imperialist armies combined number about 5500 men, experienced and battle hardened mercenaries.

    Leonart von Östergotland has sallied out in the heavy rain with the pikemen of the garrison to join up with the relief force under Georg von Derfflinger. Adam von Pfalz-Simmern, having commanded the musketeers onto the walls, heads off to join the other two generals outside the star fort. Hopefully the two Imperialist captains are incompetent enough to not be able to coordinate their attack on the sally out.



    Fighting in sieges during the Thirty Years War often took place outside the star forts, more rarely inside them. Much of the fighting Robert Monro describes in his Expedition around Stralsund took place outside Stralsund or at the outlying ravelins. Tilly attacked Göttingen in 1626. A a relief force commanded by the Rheingraf of Salm-Kyrburg attempted to join up with the garrison but was prevented by Tilly's army from joining up with the defenders. Christian IV the king of Denmark attempted to relieve Northheim in 1626. Resistance in Magdeburg collapsed once the Imperialist entered the city. The picture one gets from many of the sieges is that fighting tended to take place in front of the walls or on the walls. This battle and many of the other sieges in this campaign have involved a lot of fighting in front of the walls, with sally outs and relief attempts.
    Last edited by Geoffrey of Villehardouin; February 02, 2017 at 06:52 PM.

  4. #44

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    The strongest faction

    As a result of our many great victories and especially our glorious victory at Plauen in June (episode 19), we are now the strongest faction. We can enjoy a month of rest while this lasts.

    Wallenstein is back, roaming in Saxony. The Imperialists have retaken Erfurt, that had rebelled earlier in the year, sadly we could not march fast enough to save it. They also have a strong force in Weimar under Bonaventura von Tunderfeld. Our priests are in Silesia, on a mission to convert the citizens of Breslau to the Reformed Church. Our general Friedrich Philipp Rudbeckius defeats some rebels in East Prussia. July was a quiet month but in August the Imperialists are back with renewed attacks on Dresden and Wohlau. The Imperial Archduchy of Austria is once again the strongest faction, which is why they have gone back to their old ways of sending armies to besiege our cities. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth has laid siege again on Bromberg.

    Sigismund von Bournonville is now Bailiff of the Vogtland in addition to having just recently become Earl of Reuss. Johannes Speerreuter in Königsberg has hired an inventor to improve farming output and mining income. Our copper merchant Stanislav Sendivogius has gone out of business. Gustav Gustavson is Governor of Leipzig, Earl of the Saxonian Östmark, in addition to being Duke of Holstein and Duke of Mecklenburg, which makes him a master in the art of increasing crop yield and trade income. Gustavus Adolphus has reached the river Elbe on his march to Weimar. He is in the good company of the Scottish Brigade and Gustav Horn who has taken command of some of the reinforcements that arrived from Mecklenburg by boat.

    A heretic named Christoffel is in this area near Weimar and two Protestant pastors are on his case. Duke Christian of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, the Mad Halberstädter, is here with a pitiful force of underpaid mercenaries – scarred, having lost a limb in battle, and dreaded by all the enemies of the Reformed Church. Our spies have revealed several Imperialist generals in and around Weimar. In addition to the governor of Weimar, Bonaventura von Tunderfeld, there is also Guillaume de Lamboy, Rudolf von Tiefenbach, Sigismund Wolfradt, Lothar von Nassau-Ussingen and Octavio Piccolomini.

    As already said, Wohlau was under siege. Colonel Georg Lindberg was at nearby Lissa with a strong garrison when he saw a Polish-Lithuanian army on its way to reinforce the army that was besieging Wohlau. Of course this called for immediate action. Georg Lindberg sallies out of Lissa to attack the enemy force in a small pitched battle. Our general’s bodyguard begins to snipe at the enemy musketeers from the distance forcing them to move forward. They come to within range of musket shot and our infantry and saker batteries begin to play on them. Then the grenadiers spring out of cover and pelt them with grenades. The enemy musketeers are stunned and begin to flee, having hardly fired a shot. Georg Lindberg gains in both loyalty and command rank as a result of his victory.


    Last edited by Geoffrey of Villehardouin; February 09, 2017 at 04:29 PM.

  5. #45
    Shankbot de Bodemloze's Avatar From the Writers Study!
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    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    Just came across this and watched the battle of five armies, awesome stuff! Your narration is fantastic.
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  6. #46

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    Absolutely love this series. You have the perfect voice for this.

  7. #47

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    Siege of Wohlau, Aug 1631

    Just before marching to Weimar in East Franconia, our king came across Christian, the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbütel, also known as the Mad Halberstädter for his risk-taking, that costed him a limb lost in battle as well as a string of defeats. He eventually died from his wounds and sickness. But this time he is still alive, roaming the map with characteristic energy at the head of rag-tag underpaid and pitiful-looking mercenaries. It was a fun meeting in which Duke Christian said to the king of Sweden: “Let me crash your enemies!” to which our king happily agreed and Duke Christian rejoiced: “The foreign scum shall fall before us!”. I wish there was a way to help the Mad Duke raise a better army, so he could join us on our march to the river Elbe and to Weimar.

    In East Prussia, our Colonel Blasius zu Solms-Braunfels marched south from Marienburg to Kulmerland in search for some rebels under a certain captain Daniel. The rebels were defeated in the ensuing battle. It was a small but decisive victory thanks to the ferocity of our general, whose bodyguard took half the enemy army prisoner.

    Wohlau, also in the east in what is today Poland, has come under siege as you may remember by an Imperialist army under a general called Johann Sylvio. The garrison of Wohlau has a good mix of post-reform pikemen, musketeers and cavalry, commanded by Johann-Kasimir von Santes. An additional troop of cavalry arrives from Lissa to help us out. The enemy general has hired a mercenary force with many good units but no cavalry – perfect in every respect for a siege. Johann-Kasimir von Santes sallies out and tries to provoke the enemy into battle under the walls of Wohlau. For quite sometime, the enemy general avoids battle but at last, irritated by the raids of our cavalry on his positions, he orders an attack that seals his own fate.



    Many thanks for the kind comments. And talking about soul-smithing - to remember those dead long ago and re-live their lives is immortality, my friends!

    "About the middest of Iuly 1631 his Majesties forces being come together of Horse and Foote, he did resolve to set downe his Leaguer [i.e. his camp] at Werben on the Elve, where the River of the Haggle [i.e. the river Haale, modern Saale] enters into it, and spying a parcell of ground, the most commodious that could be had, for situation, and aire, having first the commodity of transportation by water, on the River of the Haggle running into the Elve at the Leaguer, whereon all provisions could be brought for maintaining of his Army; He had also the whole country on the other side of the Elve, behinde him as his friends."

    Robert Monro, His Expedition with the Regiment of Scots
    Last edited by Geoffrey of Villehardouin; February 26, 2017 at 04:33 AM.

  8. #48

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    Second Siege of Dresden

    Some rebels have been devastating the land north of Greiz in Saxony The governor of Greiz, Jons av Brandenburg-Küstrin, sallies out of Greiz with part of the garrison and attacks the rebels in a pitched battle. The rebels consist partly of unpaid mercenaries and partly of peasantry, perhaps destitute men angered at the pillaging of their land and the destruction of their homes in the continual fighting. Our general being cruel and cunning comes up with a suitably cruel and cunning plan. He hides the cavalry out of sight behind a village and surprises the rebels as they were engaged with our infantry, winning a victory with minimal losses.

    The Imperialists have besieged again Dresden with two armies, led my two lowly captains. One of them is the survivor of the previous siege of Dresden in June. They lead two armies consisting mostly of mercenaries, as you might expect so far from the Austrian heartlands. Dresden is defended by a strong garrison under Adam av Pfalz-Simmern, a general of the House of the Palatinate, and he is relieved by a force led by Leonnart von Östergötland.



  9. #49

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    Face off with Wallenstein

    There is one last battle before the month of August 1631 ends. You may remember that a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwelath army has been besieging Bromberg. Bromberg is defended by Captain Georgius. Alain de Courville comes from Gnesen with a relief force. Seeing Alain de Courville coming to the relief of Bromberg, the Polish army moves to intercept him. Part of the garrison sallies out so as to act as forlorn hopes blocking the charges of the enemy cavalry. Alain de Courville's force has taken cover behind some farms to avoid being charged from the Polish cavalry. Eventually, the enemy is defeated and lifts the siege of Bromberg. The prisoners sigh a sigh of relief as they are ransomed by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and so they will not have to suffer serving in the much more disciplined Swedish armies.

    Off with August and onto September of 1631. We have fallen behind the Kaiser in overall strength and military strength, which has obviously encouraged the Kaiser to take to the field. The Imperialists besiege again Wohlau. There is a face-off on the river Haale between two massive concentrations of armies, three Swedish armies under Gustavus Adolphus on the eastern bank and four Imperialist armies led by Albrecht Wallenstein on the western bank. Ferdinand von Habsburg, the Holy Roman Emperor, is present in person in Wallenstein's army. Gustavus Adolphus commands the Yellow and Blue brigades and some cavalry. The Scottish brigade is here commanded by John MacKayes and Robert Monro and also a reserve army under Gustav Horn. The first Imperialist army has some post-reform units, the second Imperialist army has plenty of mercenaries under Dietrich Chemnitz, and amazingly a third army is commanded by Albrecht Wallenstein accompanied by none less than Prince Ferdinand of the house of Habsburg – the Holy Roman Emperor in person – and also in the good company of two other generals Martin von Lalaing and Rudolph von Marzin. Unfortuanately, the force they lead is unremarkable, consisting mostly of mercenaries. The fourth Imperialist army under Melchior von Hatzfeld is hardly more remarkable - it has some battle hardened mercenaries - but the Imperial Tercio is conspicuous by its absence.

    There is still a very formiddable garrison in Weimar under the command of Bonaventura von Tunderfled. Several other Imperialist generals are still in the area: Lothar von Nassau-Usingen, Rudolf von Tiefenbach, Sigismund Wolfradt and Maximilian von Oettingen-Oettingen. The garrisons of Dresden and Wohlau have replaced their casualties and are mostly back to full strength. Protestant preachers are active at Greiz and Plauen. Our armies on the Haale have received fresh supplies, just as Robert Monro said in his diary. Our governors are gaining chivalry traits because of their citizen-friendly conduct. Bengt av Danmark has hired an alchemist to improve the strength of his armour and provide better gunpowder for his men, which has increased their morale. Adam av Pfalz Simmern has hired a master archer in Dresden from those archers so frequently coming to the aid of the city, which has improved his command. Other governors have hired other experts to improve all kinds of things and all seems well.

    In September of 1631 the battle of Breitenfeld was fought between the Swedish King and Count Tilly near Leipzig - not far from where our king is now encamped. The battle of Breitenfeld was the first major victory for the Protestants. This victory ensured that the Protestant German states would not be forcibly reconverted to Roman Catholicism, The victory further confirmed Sweden’s Gustavus Adolphus as a great tactical leader and induced other Protestant German states to ally with Sweden against the German Catholic League led by Maximilian the 1st, the Elector of Bavaria, and the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II of Austria. Unfortunately because of an edit I made in the campaign we cannot fight the battle of Breitenfeld, which you should be able to fight in your campaign. I will look into this and try to work out what has caused this bug and sort it out.



    You saw already since the last episode that Gustavus Adolphus had encamped by a river. It was not Elbe but a side-branch of it called the Saale or Haale. Gustavus had encamped on the Elbe where it is joined by the Haale in July 1631 before entering Saxony. There he was confronted by Count Tilly and they fought a series of skirmishes and small engagements for several days before the Swedish king marched into Saxony when the Saxons entered the war on the side of Sweden.

    You may be wondering if I brought those armies together using a cheat but I do not use cheats. This campaign has evolved naturally. For example, I was frustrated that the Catholic League was destroyed and that Count Tilly died. I was hoping that with the help of Count Tilly, Wallenstein would have marched further north, as he did in real history but the collapse of the Catholic League made everything more difficult for the Kaiser than in real history. On this occasion, however, history repeated itself in this campaign, just by chance. Our King did indeed receive reinforcements and supplies that had sailed up the river of the Haale and indeed he had the country behind him as his friends. The Swedish campaign submod I am using has no script changes other than strengthening Austria and the Catholic League by giving them more cash.
    Last edited by Geoffrey of Villehardouin; February 28, 2017 at 08:29 PM.

  10. #50
    Gigantus's Avatar I am not special - I am a limited edition.
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    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    July 1631, that's about 150 turns, isn't it? Great campaign, that's for sure.










  11. #51

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    Are you going to continue this series or have you finished it? I absolutely loved watching it.

  12. #52

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    To battle with the Kaiser!

    It is the month of September 1631 when the historical battle of Breitenfeld took place and we are encamped by the river Haale, not far from Breitenfeld. The Imperialists have made a dangerous move. They have brought together four armies and have crossed the Haale. Their armies have surrounded Gustav Horn who was bringing up the reserves. He is completely trapped and cannot even retreat to the boats that were in the river. Not wishing to risk a battle against such odds, Gustavus Adolphus marched onto Weimar, intending to attack one of the Imperialist generals outside the city, thereby forcing the garrison of Weimar to sally out to come to his aid. Then we would have a chance to quickly defeat them in battle and take Weimar in one swift stroke. With Weimar lost, the AI would withdraw its armies from Saxony and we would avoid going into battle against such a large force led by Albrecht Wallenstein and with the Holy Roman Emperor present in person.

    It was a good plan which completely backfired. Gustavus Adolphus had with him our elite units, the Yellow and Blue brigades, which he needed to fight the Imperial tercios and other elite Imperialist units stationed in Weimar. But he ran out of movement just as he was attacking the units outside Weimar. I suppose one can imagine our King marched cautiously or that our enemy got word of our coming and made preparations or that they sent word to Wallenstein to come back to Weimar or whatever - the situation was such that our King and the best part of our army could not attack. And on the other hand, Gustav Horn was surrounded by the armies of Wallenstein. So the Imperialists, the Kaiser, Wallenstein and the Ai could now call the shots. They could attack Gustav Horn with four stacks and destroy his army. Or else, they could run back to Weimar, gang up on our king and destroy that army, that having spent all its movement would not be able to retreat to avoid battle. What was going to be a master stroke, ended up as a debacle and something of an embarrassment for our king.

    The only way to get out of this mess was to attack Wallenstein but we without our King's army, we were vastly outnumbered. So Johann Kasimir von Vehlen left Jons av Brandenburg Kustrin in charge of Greiz, took with him practically the entire garrison of Greiz and any units that could be spared from Plauen and Leipzig, hired what mercenaries could be had and marched to relieve Gustav Horn. Upon reaching the river Haale, he attacked the army closest to him, the force under Melchior von Hatzfeldt. Wallenstein and the Kaiser responded immediately by coming to the aid of von Hatzfeldt, while Gustav Horn, beset by Imperialist armies on every side, failed to come to the aid of von Vehlen. So once again we were outwitted by the AI. Fortunately, the Imperialists had no elite units under von Hatzfeldt or under Wallenstein - just mercenaries and Italian Reiters for cavalry. So although outnumbered, we had quality on our side: several post-reform units and three troops of Swedish cavalry - a troop of Finish Haakkapelita and two troops of the fabulous looking Trott's Smaland Cuirassiers.

    Johann Kasimir von Vehlen erred on the side of caution, placed the Foot in the Swedish formation on a gently slopping ground while our enemy was deployed nearer the river and there he made his stand and waited for our enemy to come to us. At first our Horse harassed the enemy flanks and repulsed the enemy cavalry attacks but our Foot made no attempts to march down the hill. Still, no sooner was an enemy attack repulsed that another followed and the reinforcements under Wallenstein renewed the force of the enemy attacks. It was a fast and furious battle with moves and counter moves from both sides. The Imperialists launched several attacks on our main line, which were fortunately repulsed with the help of our grenadiers. The most amazing thing was that the future Kaiser was here. Make no mistake. This was not a random namesake of the Kaiser, it was Prince Ferdinand Ernst von Habsburg, the Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary King of Bohemia who historically became the Kaiser in 1637, succeeding his father also called Ferdinand. At this time he has been nicknamed "the Scarred" as he must have already fought another battle. He had a very large bodyguard with him and aided also by Wallenstein's bodyguard managed to repulse a charge by our Hakkapeliitta.

    The battle ebbed and flowed and at times it looked like we could not make any gains on our enemy. Enemy units that were routed were being rallied by Wallenstein and returned to battle. Even the death of Melchior von Hatzfeldt in battle was not enough to break the spirit of the Imperialists. Until something happened that no one could have foretold, a dreadful thing for the Holy Roman Empire, a nightmarish thing.


    Thank you for your kind comments. I also love this campaign, it has been on my computer for two years and has been burned into my brain. There were some unexpected twists, such as the untimely demise of the Catholic League, but for the most part it has tested me through 165 game turns and counting. I intend to carry on until final victory. I had some issues with some lost files but we are back on track. Thanks for coming back to check the progress. We are nearly there, we just need a handful of settlements and it is over - but what a struggle these last few months have been! There are a few more large battles following this one, so our road to final victory will not be strewn with flowers.

    EDIT: As I mentioned, I had lost a chunk of saved files and I had to go back and reconstruct a part of the campaign that was missing from the saved games. So when I got to this point I had forgotten why Gustavus Adolphus had marched onto Weimar, leaving the rest of the Swedish army behind. I had assumed he had run out of movement points but I have now checked and he had not. He could have still attacked Weimar. Now I think the only real issue was that Gustav Horn had been completely surrounded and he had to be extricated by a part of our army, but Gustavus Adolphus could still carry out his sneak attack on Weimar. What does not seem possible is that he would have gone to help out Gustav Horn and THEN attack Weimar. He would have not have enough movement for both. So he just marched on to Weimar on his own, leaving the task of relieving Gustav Horn to the rest of the Swedish army. Albrecht Wallenstein has now retreated to Weimar, which is a very good thing. This means that we will soon come to witness a mighty battle outside Weimar between our King heading the elite Blue and Yellow Brigades, against Albrecht Wallenstein supported by the garrison of Weimar with many elite units, including the awesome imperial tercios! That battle is coming up in a couple of episodes and it will be a very glorious battle.
    Last edited by Geoffrey of Villehardouin; May 06, 2017 at 04:39 AM.

  13. #53
    Foederatus
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    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    Awesome series! Keep up the good work!

  14. #54

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    A night battle

    This may be the first night battle of the campaign. After the main Imperialist generals were defeated and retreated to Weimar, there came the opportunity to attack the remaining armies at night, since combined they would have been too strong for any one of our own armies.

    A surprise night attack by the Scottish brigade under John MacKayes and Robert Monro stunned and confused the Imperialists. They had strong units with multiple silver or even golden chevrons of experience but they were commanded by just a captain. It took them some time to respond. The musketeers set up a firing line in haste but the pikemen never really moved much beyond their original positions during the early part of the battle. As our own line fired at the Imperialist musketeers, a Muintir company, this actually may have been an Irish unit rather than Scottish highlanders, approached the enemy musketeers under cover from a troop of harquebusiers. They proceeded to attack the enemy musketeer companies one by one, starting first with the company in which the enemy commander was in, who was slain by a lucky cannon shot. That unit routed and the Muintir company, doubling up as a Forlorn Hope attacked the next enemy musketeer unit, until one by one they were all forced to abandon their positions. Once the pikemen woke up, there was an attempt to march off, but they were completely surrounded and had the river Haale in their rear with no easy escape route. Further confusion ensued - some units run off in panic, others made a show of resistance but were mauled by the musket and cannon fire and the Scots won a decisive victory.



    Thanks again for the kind comments!

  15. #55

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    Gustavus v Wallenstein

    After being defeated by von Vehlen, Albrecht Wallenstein retreated towards Weimar.

    Gustavus Adolphus attacks Melchior von Hatzfeldt who was in the outskirts of Weimar and von Hatzfeldt retreats towards Wallenstein. Gustavus catches up with him and attacks him a second time. This time von Hatzfeldt cannot avoid battle. Wallenstein comes to his aid. They have with them the remnants of their armies, what was left after that hard fought battle near Breitenfeld, in which Ferdinand Ernst von Habsburg died. By the way, Ferdinand Ernst was not yet the Kaiser, he was only the heir. His father Ferdinand was still Kaiser at this time.

    Bonaventura von Tunderfeld sallies out of Weimar and comes to the aid of Melchior von Hatzfeldt and Albrecht Wallenstein. That was our king's plan. To defeat them in battle outside Weimar, then walk into Weimar unopposed. To achieve this, he would have not just to defeat them in battle but also to prevent any retreating units from escaping back to Weimar. This was a very tall order, seeing that they were commanded by Albrecht Wallenstein. But even destroying the formidable garrison of Weimar out in the open would be better than having to fight them in a siege. Bonaventura von Tundefeld has with him the elite units stationed in Weimar, some Imperial tercios, halberdiers from Baden, musketeers, dragoons and double-handers as well as several troops of harquebusiers. Gustavus has with him the elite Blue and Yellow brigades and some Liebenstein cuirassiers and a troop of the Saxon Hofahne Harquebusiers. The odds are even. At last, Gustavus Adolphus and Albrecht Wallenstein go head to head with elite armies on both sides.

    The Blue brigade deployed on the left and the Yellow brigade on the right. While the Yellow brigade had a relatively easy task, that of dispersing the weak units under von Hatzfeldt and Wallenstein, the Blue brigade had to endure the onslaught of the garrison of Weimar. The enemy Harquebusiers attacked on the far left and were countercharged by our Liebenstein cuirassiers - but our cuirassiers were hopelessly outnumbered and despite firing support from the Hofahne harquebusiers and the musketeers of the Blue brigade they were losing the fight. A company of Blue brigade pikemen was commanded to that side and the cuirassiers held long enough for the pikemen to join the fight. The Imperialists responded by sending a company of Baden halberdiers and the bloody melee became even bloodier.

    In the meantime, the Blue brigade had to hold against the main thrust of the Imperialist attack and did so admirably, holding back even one of the Imperial tercios. Another Imperial tercio and a Forlorn Hope of double-handers sneaked past to attack our right wing but a well aimed shot from the saker cannon battery broke the Imperial tercio. The double-handers became encircled and also broke.

    We had no cavalry in this part of the battlefield. The Italian cuirassiers were skirmishing on the right and the rest of our cavalry was on our left. Still, we could not let the Imperial tercio to retreat and reform, so Gustavus Adolphus had to gallop after them and take them prisoner. Another company of pikemen and another Imperial tercio, however, sneaked past the Blue brigade and the fight on the right was renewed. While our pikemen were engaged with the Imperial tercio, the Weimar garrison pikemen attacked a company of musketeers, forced them to fall back and broke through our line, advancing to the rear. This created havoc in our lines as the yellow Brigade ended up completely disorganised with musketeers and pikemen moving around trying to deal with the Imperialist pikemen in our rear. Our saker and leathercannon tried unsuccessfully to get some shots into their ranks. In the end, after much running around, they broke from volleys of musket fire and were cut down by Gustavus Adolphus and his bodyguards.

    In the meantime, the battle on the left had become a stalemate. Gustavus appearance helped sore up the morale of our hard-pressed men and put for a while the Imperialists on the back foot, until he had to leave to help the Yellow brigade against those pikemen. Eventually all enemy pikemen retreated but the enemy musketeers prevented our cavalry from chasing after them, so that they managed to escape back into Weimar. Then a lull came as both sides retreated to regroup, having suffered heavy casualties. As our foot was reforming their lines, our Hofahne harquebusiers skirmished near the enemy generals' bodyguards and a lucky shot killed Albrecht Wallenstein. So, this time Wallenstein died as a hero on the battlefield, fighting alongside his men, rather than being ingloriously assassinated in his castle.

    Following Wallenstein's death, the other Imperialist generals retreated to the recessed side of the hill where the battle had raged on all this time. The enemy musketeers deployed in front of their generals, firing opportunistic shots at our army. Our musketeers returned the favour but the position of the Imperialists was out of sight of our cannon. Repositioning our cannon did not help and eventually our pikemen charged forward and down the hill, put the enemy dragoons to rout and then ganged up on the musketeers. The surviving enemy generals fled one by one. Bonaventura von Tunderfeld retreated last, with only a single bodyguard with him - practically his entire bodyguard had fallen in battle. The more depleted enemy units now began to flee but two companies of Imperialist musketeers stayed back to cover their retreat. They fought bravely until they were overwhelmed by the Blue brigade pikemen and our double-handers. Those that could flee, fled, the rest were taken prisoner. Unfortunately, enough Imperialist soldiers managed to retreat to Weimar that we could not just walk into Weimar, we would now have to lay siege to it.

    This was the most pyrrhic victory in the campaign, because in no other battle so far had we lost as much as two fifths of our force. Still, they never had an evil day who got a merry night after, as Robert Monro said. This was a great victory. The Imperialist army under Albrecht Wallenstein had been broken. Albrecht Wallenstein was dead and the garrison of Weimar was all but destroyed, so that taking Weimar should now be much easier than had at first seemed.



    I had said that Gustavus Adoplhus had run out of movement but that was not the case. I went back to a saved game and checked it. As you can see at the start of the videoclip, he had enough movement to attack Weimar. I think the reason he had headed straight to Weimar was because he could not help out Gustav Horn and attack Weimar, both in the same game turn. There was not enough movement for both. So he left the business of rescuing Gustav Horn to Johann Kasimir von Vehlen and the Scots. It all worked out after a fashion, so far, and although Weimar still held, the Imperialists had suffered a string of defeats.
    Last edited by Geoffrey of Villehardouin; May 20, 2017 at 06:45 PM.

  16. #56

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    Siege of Weimar

    Gustavus Adolphus besieges Weimar which is defended by the units that survived the battle outside Weimar, commanded by Bonaventura von Tunderfeld. In the meantime, the Imperialists are besieging Wohlau in the East, in Silesia.



    We have reached the end of September. The 1631 campaigning season is over and what a summer it has been! Two of the biggest battles of the entire campaign were fought in the last few months, the first one being the battle near Greiz with 5 armies and then in September the 3-part battle near Weimar in which the Imperialist Heir Ferdinand-Ernst von Habsburg and Albrecht Wallenstein died. Both sides are exhausted now but there are still a couple of battles waiting for us in the Winter months ahead.

    Following the conquest of Saxony, according to Robert Monro, Gustavus Adolphus gave the Duchy of Anhalt back to Christian von Anhalt, who had once fought for the Palatinate and Frederick the V. He gave Leipzig to the Duke of Saxony and he then marched off towards During Land (Thuringen) -

    "The seventeenth of September [of 1631, same month as in our campaign], our first nights quarter was taken at a Dorpe, two miles from Hall; where those of Erfort being so displeased at our coming, as unwilling to entertaine such Guests (they being all Catho∣liques, Iesuits and Monkes) being mightily afraid, they did send their Commissioners before them, to treate with his Majesty, but his Majesty did give them their answers, by Duke William of Wymar, that they should quit the Catholique faction, and give their oath of fidelity to his Majesty of Sweden" - Robert Monro, His Expedition.

    Duke William of Weimar was the brother of a tireless German general Bernard of Weimar. Both brothers had fought under Mansfeld, Georg-Friedrich the Margrave of Baden and under Christian IV the King of Denmark during the Danish phase of the war. When King Gustavus Adolphus landed in Germany, Bernard of Weimar joined him and for a short time he was colonel of the king's Lifeguard of Horse. He was to become the main Protestant leader in Germany at the end of the Swedish phase of the war. Unlike Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia, the Duchy of Weimar had declared for the King of Sweden. Robert Monro says that after listening to the Erfurt commissioners and being convinced that they would not join the Swedish cause, the king of Sweden commanded the Duke of Weimar to ride as fast as he could with his men and enter Erfurt ahead of the Erfurt commissioners, and take command of the city for the king. Erfurt will be our next campaign target.

  17. #57

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    Siege of Erfurt

    The long and eventful summer of 1631 has passed by. The Archduchy of Austria has taken a beating and we now have parity in overall strength. Nonetheless, the Imperialists turn up again outside Dresden putting the city again under siege.

    In the meantime, Gustavus Adolphus has not been idle. He had no Duke of Weimar to rely on, so he marched himself at the head of a small army to Erfurt and put it under siege. There were Imperialist armies in the area, however, and one of them in particular, a strong force that was survived the battles of the previous month near the river Haale, was now marching westward towards Erfurt. The Scottish Brigade marched after them and engaged them in battle.




  18. #58

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    Sieges of Bromberg and Glogau

    We are in the month of October 1631 and in control of the area of Thuringia. However, there is trouble in the east. An army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth besieges Bromberg and an Imperialist army besieges Glogau.



    Remember, if this campaign looks hard, it is mainly because of a submod I am using. The Sweden campaign is actually one of the easiest campaigns in the mod.

    There are a couple of things we would have liked to improve on in this mod but have been difficult to resolve. One is the occasionally buggy star forts. If anyone has experience on modelling settlements, your help would be much appreciated. The other is probably intractable unless someone knows how to mod the animations. I have tried and failed to make the musketeers fire on their march or on their retreat. The rotation of the ranks animation is there but it is slightly buggy and in any case we could not edit it so as to make the musketeers fire as their formation advances or retreats. In other words, if the AI moves its army as a combined force, which we achieved at some point, the musketeers would try to catch up with the pikemen and would not fire. The animation is so broken, it takes them too long to reload, whereas many of the ranks would have been loading while the others were shooting, so it should not take so long. Some of the ranks should be ready to fire on the march, but not only do they never fire on their march, they start all over the reload animation before they fire. All this time, the human player can fire at them or move towards them unharmed. So then you get in situations such as you saw in the siege, where no one is shooting, they are all waiting to reload, then something happens, some movement and then the animation has to restart all over again, another half minute, and all through this time they are being fired at by the human player, from the walls, from the garrison and they get massacred without ever firing back very much. I would say these are the two biggest remaining issues.

    There are also a few things that are impossible with the M2 engine, such as making musketeers to take cover in trenches or behind hedges, etc (such terrain features don't even exist in M2TW battlefields) or making dragoons to mount and dismount actual horses.
    Last edited by Geoffrey of Villehardouin; October 20, 2017 at 09:46 PM.

  19. #59
    Mr_Nygren's Avatar Berserkir
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    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    Quote Originally Posted by Geoffrey of Villehardouin View Post
    Sieges of Bromberg and Glogau

    We are in the month of October 1631 and in control of the area of Thuringia. However, there is trouble in the east. An army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth besieges Bromberg and an Imperialist army besieges Glogau.



    Remember, if this campaign looks hard, it is mainly because of a submod I am using. The Sweden campaign is actually one of the easiest campaigns in the mod.

    There are a couple of things we would have liked to improve on in this mod but have been difficult to resolve. One is the occasionally buggy star forts. If anyone has experience on modelling settlements, your help would be much appreciated. The other is probably intractable unless someone knows how to mod the animations. I have tried and failed to make the musketeers fire on their march or on their retreat. The rotation of the ranks animation is there but it is slightly buggy and in any case we could not edit it so as to make the musketeers fire as their formation advances or retreats. In other words, if the AI moves its army as a combined force, which we achieved at some point, the musketeers would try to catch up with the pikemen and would not fire. The animation is so broken, it takes them too long to reload, whereas many of the ranks would have been loading while the others were shooting, so it should not take so long. Some of the ranks should be ready to fire on the march, but not only do they never fire on their march, they start all over the reload animation before they fire. All this time, the human player can fire at them or move towards them unharmed. So then you get in situations such as you saw in the siege, where no one is shooting, they are all waiting to reload, then something happens, some movement and then the animation has to restart all over again, another half minute, and all through this time they are being fired at by the human player, from the walls, from the garrison and they get massacred without ever firing back very much. I would say these are the two biggest remaining issues.

    There are also a few things that are impossible with the M2 engine, such as making musketeers to take cover in trenches or behind hedges, etc (such terrain features don't even exist in M2TW battlefields) or making dragoons to mount and dismount actual horses.
    How do you film it in campaign without a UI? I find it hard to control anything when there isn't any UI - have you learnt playing without a UI or do you have access to a camera mod?
    Be your friend's, true friend. Return gift for gift. Repay laughter, with laughter again
    but betrayal with treachery.

    - The Havamal

  20. #60

    Default Re: Kingdom of Sweden campaign let’s play

    I love this mod, but honestly I wouldn't mind if there was a sub-mod that decreases the crazy ranges. I think its not good for mtw2 engine to have so much range.

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