Big Lutzen – A Tilly’s Very Bad Day Battle Report 1

Chris and Adam played a very raw version of my big Lutzen scenario for Tilly’s Very Bad Day.

Summary: Good game. Some debate about how to simulate the road and ditches. Adam (Imperialists) beat Chris (Swedes) on Game Turn 6. The scenario evolved after the game.


Version of Tilly’s Very Bad Day

We played Tilly’s Very Bad Day (version 1.3) with the same experiments we’ve been playing recently:

  • -1d6 in melee if unsupported; support meant any friendly unit to rear within 2 TUM
  • Winner has to inflict 33% loses on the enemy rather than just 25% loses
  • More effective Light Horse, Dragoons and Shot

In addition:

  • Pre-game Scouting by Horse, Dragoons and Light Horse; there was no effect
  • Pre-game bombardment by Cannon
  • Morale erosion when a friendly unit routs
  • Behind flank means BEHIND-FLANK
  • 10 Game Turn time limit for the attacker
  • Saving throw of 4+ on a Commander Casualty

Orders of Battle

I didn’t have enough time to scrutinise the historical orders of battle and knocked something together quite quickly. Richard (doctorphalanx) had previously put something together based on Guthrie. I hacked this a bit to weaken the Imperialists and strengthen the Swedes. So the order of battle we played was a bit different to that given in Lutzen – A Big Tilly’s Very Bad Day Scenario. Smaller for a start.

The Imperialist main force:

Imperial Order of Battle

  • Right Wing (4 Units)
    • 1 x Commander (Wallenstein)
    • 2 x Horse
    • 1 x Shot (Resolve 2)
  • Centre (7 Units)
    • 1 x Commander (Colloredo)
    • 4 x Pike+Shot
    • 1 x Shot (Resolve 2)
    • 1 x Cannon
  • Left Wing (6 Units)
    • 1 x Commander (Holk)
    • 3 x Horse
    • 1 x Light Horse (Croats)
    • 1 x Cannon
  • Both Army size and army morale break point increase as the reinforcements arrive:
    • Initial force: 17 Units; 6 break point
    • With Pappenheim’s Cavalry: 22 Units; 8 break point
    • With Pappenheim’s infantry: 26 Units; 9 break point

The Imperialist reinforcements:

Imperial Reinforcements

  • Pappenheim’s Cavalry (7 Units; arrive Game Turn 3)
    • 1 x Commander (Pappenheim)
    • 3 x Horse
    • 1 x Light Horse (Croats)
  • Pappenheim’s Infantry (4 Units; arrive Game Turn 8)
    • 1 x Commander (Reinach)
    • 3 x Pike+Shot

The Swedes (although only a small proportion were actually Swedes):

Swedish-German Protestant Order of Battle

  • Right Wing (6 Units)
    • 1 x Commander (Gustavus)
    • 4 x Horse
    • 1 x Shot
  • Centre (11 Units)
    • 1 x Commander (Knyphausen)
    • 8 x Pike+Shot
    • 2 x Cannon
  • Left Wing (7 Units)
    • 1 x Commander (Bernhard)
    • 5 x Horse
    • 1 x Shot
  • 24 Units
  • Army Morale break point: 8 Units

Deployment

As I’ve mentioned before, it is always interesting seeing what other players do. Both Adam and Chris surprised me in this game.

Lutzen-106 Deployment
Lutzen-106 Deployment

Chris deployed his Swedes in a kind of inverted “U” shape. A line of infantry across the front. Then each flank had a column of horse. I imagine this was to give him flexibility as the game started.

Lutzen-109 Swedish deployment
Lutzen-109 Swedish deployment

Both Chris and Adam tried to fill up the frontage. That meant their infantry centres were very thin. And thin is brittle in Tilly’s Very Bad Day. Chris’s infantry were in a shallow chequerboard with Cannon interspersed. Adam held back one Pike+Shot Unit to provide support.

Lutzen-110 Opposing centres are quite thin
Lutzen-110 Opposing centres are quite thin

Most of the Imperialist cavalry was on the left flank. Adam had them in two lines. On the far side Adam had Cannon on Windmill Hill and his weak cavalry wing tucked in behind the hill. This was actually historical.

Lutzen-108 Imperialist deployment
Lutzen-108 Imperialist deployment

Lutzen village was on the Imperialist right and Adam deployed an understrength Shot unit there.

Lutzen-111 Lutzen Village
Lutzen-111 Lutzen Village

Turn 1

Gustavus, being the attacker, was on a clock so he set off quickly. In the centre the Swedish foot walked forward. Chris had left generous gaps for his Cannon to fire through.

Lutzen-113 Swedish Centre advances
Lutzen-113 Swedish Centre advances

Chris’s “U” shaped deployment slowed the Swedish advance. His cavalry had to fan out of column and they also had to travel from near the base line i.e. further than they needed too.

Lutzen-112 Gustavus Adolphus and the Swedish Right Wing
Lutzen-112 Gustavus Adolphus and the Swedish Right Wing

This was true on both flanks.

Lutzen-114 Swedish left advances
Lutzen-114 Swedish left advances

Adam brought his right wing cavalry forward over Windmill Hill to wait for Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar.

Lutzen-116 Imperialist right adjusts
Lutzen-116 Imperialist right adjusts

Adam also advanced the Shot in Lutzen village. He want to exert a Zone of Control into the area that Bernhard was about to ride into.

Lutzen-117 Imperialist shot prepare to defend the village
Lutzen-117 Imperialist shot prepare to defend the village

But the surprise was on the Imperialist left. General Holk led his cavalry command across the road. It appears that Adam believes the best form of defence is to attack. Holk and Gustavus were on a collision course. Time would tell if Adam had gambled correctly.

Lutzen-120 Imperialist left wing crosses the road
Lutzen-120 Imperialist left wing crosses the road

Turn 2

The Swedish foot continued their plod to the road.

Lutzen-123 Swedish infantry approach road
Lutzen-123 Swedish infantry approach road

It took Chris two turns to shake his cavalry out of the original “U” shaped formation and into a position to attack. Ironically, he could have deployed there at the beginning of the game. So, from my perspective, he had lost two game turns of attack.

Lutzen-122 Swedish right shakes out into line
Lutzen-122 Swedish right shakes out into line

As Adam had hoped the threat of his shot in Lutzen village interrupted Bernhard’s attack. The Swedish horse swerved away from the village to a position in front of the Imperialist cannon.

Lutzen-124 Berhards left wing horse approach road
Lutzen-124 Berhards left wing horse approach road

Adam also aligned his horse on Windmill hill. He also pushed a pike and shot unit into the road to face the Bernhardine horse.

Lutzen-125 Imperialist foot enter road
Lutzen-125 Imperialist foot enter road

Putting pike and shot into the road was controversial because:

  • I had classified the sunken road with it’s ditches as difficult terrain
  • Shot get cover for difficult terrain but other troop types are disadvantaged
  • Under my modified rules Pike+Shot do not like fighting in difficult terrain; they get no cover benefit and fight with a lower to hit
  • Units outside the road fight in the open, even if attacking the road

Chris sent his (Bernhard’s) horse into attack. Despite the disadvantages of fighting from the road, the Imperialist foot destroyed a Swedish horse unit.

Lutzen-136 Berhardine horse have a go at road
Lutzen-136 Berhardine horse have a go at road

Further to the left, Adam has his shot unit in the road with a pike+shot unit nearby. I was surprised by how spread out the infantry centres were on both sides. But here you can see the big gaps between some Imperialist units.

Lutzen-146 Swedish horse routs in front of windmill hill
Lutzen-146 Swedish horse routs in front of windmill hill

The Imperialist shot didn’t fair well against the Swedish pike and shot.

Lutzen-135 Swedes evict Imperialist Shot from road
Lutzen-135 Swedes evict Imperialist Shot from road

But in the centre the Imperialist foot held their own against the attacking Swedes.

Lutzen-134 Crossing the road under fire is not easy
Lutzen-134 Crossing the road under fire is not easy

Even the unit facing two to one odds did alright.

Lutzen-133 Two to one odds for the Swedes
Lutzen-133 Two to one odds for the Swedes

Holk continued his attack on the left.

Lutzen-129 Cavalry battle unfolding
Lutzen-129 Cavalry battle unfolding

All of Holk’s cavalry were either across the road or in the road.

Lutzen-128 More Imperialist Horse cross road
Lutzen-128 More Imperialist Horse cross road

Holk despatched a Swedish unit at first clash.

Lutzen-131 General Holk routs Swedish Horse
Lutzen-131 General Holk routs Swedish Horse

But the Swedish foot drove off some Imperialist cuirassiers.

Lutzen-132 Imperialist Horse does less well against Swedish foot
Lutzen-132 Imperialist Horse does less well against Swedish foot

Turn 3

The big news, Game Turn 3 and Pappenheim arrived.

Lutzen-140 Pappenheim arrives
Lutzen-140 Pappenheim arrives

This was just as Holk and Gustavus had started to engage on the far side of the road.

Lutzen-139 Swedish horse envelop aggressive Imperialists
Lutzen-139 Swedish horse envelop aggressive Imperialists

Holk was exposed, with Swedish infantry from the centre turning onto his right flank.

Lutzen-143 Charges and counter-charges on Imperialist left centre
Lutzen-143 Charges and counter-charges on Imperialist left centre

The infantry battle rages over the road, with both sides charging. Adam was not content to wait for Swedes to come to him and continued to send own foot into the road.

Lutzen-145 Imperialist charge in centre
Lutzen-145 Imperialist charge in centre
Lutzen-144 Swedish charges on Imperialist right centre
Lutzen-144 Swedish charges on Imperialist right centre

On the right, Chris pushed the attack by Bernhard’s horse forward. He was still careful to avoid the zone of control of the shot in Lutzen village. Adam, having realised pike and and shot didn’t work well in the road, pulled them back.

Lutzen-141 Fight at Windmill hill conitnues
Lutzen-141 Fight at Windmill hill conitnues

Another Swedish charge into the road and another unit routed.

Lutzen-146 Swedish horse routs in front of windmill hill
Lutzen-146 Swedish horse routs in front of windmill hill

Turn 4

On the left Pappenheim raced to reinforce Holk. But it was going to take time.

Lutzen-150 Pappenheim approaches the road
Lutzen-150 Pappenheim approaches the road

The Croats had a surprising success and drove off their opposing horse by fire.

Lutzen-151 Croats on the road
Lutzen-151 Croats on the road

It looked grim for the Holk’s escort unit. The Scottish infantry charged from two sides. Looked like Imperial horse sandwich.

Lutzen-152 Swedish infantry catch Imperialist horse in flank
Lutzen-152 Swedish infantry catch Imperialist horse in flank

Boom. But Holk survived.

Lutzen-153 Oh dear
Lutzen-153 Oh dear

Although Gustavus outnumbered Holk he could never exploit the numbers before Pappenheim arrived. That meant many of the combats were one to one.

Lutzen-154 Swedish horse rally back
Lutzen-154 Swedish horse rally back

In the centre the Swedes had more casualties from being in the road. Two pike and shot units routed. Including some of the Yellow brigade (although in game terms they were like everybody else).

Lutzen-157 Imperialist foot hold centre
Lutzen-157 Imperialist foot hold centre
Lutzen-158 Imperialist foot holding left centre
Lutzen-158 Imperialist foot holding left centre

But being in the road was not always fatal and a Swedish foot unit managed to destroy the Imperialists blocking their way to Windmill Hill.

Lutzen-159 Swedes beat Imperialist foot near Windmill hill
Lutzen-159 Swedes beat Imperialist foot near Windmill hill

Bernhard pulled some of his horse back to reform. But he left some units near the Imperialists.

Lutzen-149 Swedes form up in front of Windmill hill
Lutzen-149 Swedes form up in front of Windmill hill

Turn 5

The Swedish attack continued on the right flank. Chris sent his shot in to counter the Imperialists in the village.

Lutzen-163 Swedish attack on Imperialist Right
Lutzen-163 Swedish attack on Imperialist Right

They cleared the village at the first rush.

Lutzen-172 Swedish shot clear the village
Lutzen-172 Swedish shot clear the village

Near Windmill Hill the Swedish foot broke across the road and through the Imperialist line.

Lutzen-161 Swedish foot break through
Lutzen-161 Swedish foot break through

One of the Swedish unit then charged the guns. They got interrupted by the Imperialist horse charging over the crest, through the cannons, and into the Swedes.

Lutzen-165 Charging through the guns on Windmill hill
Lutzen-165 Charging through the guns on Windmill hill

The Imperialist horse bounced but they saved the guns.

Lutzen-171 Imperialist horse rally back
Lutzen-171 Imperialist horse rally back

In centre Colloredo was overseeing a bitter infantry battle. We were trying new rules for being behind flank. Basically a unit has to start and end its charge behind the front edge of the target unit to count as Behind-Flank. The Imperialist infantry unit managed this. The Swedish unit did not.

Lutzen-166 Bitter infantry fight in centre
Lutzen-166 Bitter infantry fight in centre

The Swedish unit caught Behind-Flank routed.

Lutzen-170 Swedish foot come off worse
Lutzen-170 Swedish foot come off worse

On the left Pappenheim’s horse were getting into action.

Lutzen-164 Pappenheim approaches Swedish foot in road
Lutzen-164 Pappenheim approaches Swedish foot in road

They charged in but without a significant result.

Lutzen-168 Pappenheim goes in
Lutzen-168 Pappenheim goes in

Similarly Holk’s horse.

Lutzen-169 Imperialist horse keep charging
Lutzen-169 Imperialist horse keep charging

Turn 6

On right Chris lined up his horse for another go at Windmill hill.

Lutzen-174 Swedes starting to look dominant on Imperialist right
Lutzen-174 Swedes starting to look dominant on Imperialist right

In the centre the infantry fight raged on. By this stage there were lots of gaps in both battle lines so unit has opportunities to get on the flanks. This turn it was the Imperialists chance. The first one didn’t quite manage to get Behind-Flank with the new definition.

Lutzen-180 Imperialist foot charge in centre right
Lutzen-180 Imperialist foot charge in centre right

But the Imperialist charge on the Yellow brigade was definitely Behind-Flank.

Lutzen-179 Foot charges in centre left
Lutzen-179 Foot charges in centre left

And boom.

Lutzen-181 Yellow brigade in road rout
Lutzen-181 Yellow brigade in road rout

On the left the Imperialists formed a giant arrow head pointed towards Gustavus.

Lutzen-175 Imperialists poised to attack on left
Lutzen-175 Imperialists poised to attack on left

Holk was still out the front.

Lutzen-176 Holk leads the intrepid Imperialist advance guard
Lutzen-176 Holk leads the intrepid Imperialist advance guard

Pappenheim formed the base of the Imperialist arrow head. And he crossed the road.

Lutzen-177 Pappenheim crosses the road
Lutzen-177 Pappenheim crosses the road

Lots of charges.

Lutzen-178 Imperialist horse charges
Lutzen-178 Imperialist horse charges

On the road a unit of Scots fell to Pappenheim’s horse.

Lutzen-182 Scots in road rout
Lutzen-182 Scots in road rout

Near the stream Imperialist horse and croats drove some Swedish horse back.

Lutzen-184 Imperial left wing forces Swedes back
Lutzen-184 Imperial left wing forces Swedes back

Holk lined up with Gustavus at the tip of the arrow.

Lutzen-185 Holk versus Gustavus
Lutzen-185 Holk versus Gustavus

Boom. Gustavus’s escort cavalry broke. End of game.

Lutzen-186 Holk decisively drives off Gustavus
Lutzen-186 Holk decisively drives off Gustavus

Observations and conclusions

It was another good game of Tilly’s Very Bad Day. It was a tense but Adam (Imperialist) prevailed in the end. We played 6 Game Turns in 3 hours. I’ll elaborate on this in the tactics section.

After the game I spent a couple of days furiously researching Lutzen. I found the Lutzen scenario itself, needed some work and the published version includes those changes. So I’ll look at a number of suggestions for tweaking the rules and/or scenario.

Tactics

Both Adam and Chris was very brittle infantry centres. The infantry were spread out over a wide frontage. So once a unit routed, it left a giant hole. There was no second line to close the gap. This allowed both sides to have infantry units conducting flank attacks in the centre.

I was surprised by Chris’s “U” shaped deployment. It took him 2-3 game turns for his cavalry wings to fan out to form any semblance of a combat formation. But they never managed to form a proper line so never managed to exploit their superior numbers.

Adam did better with his cavalry. He played very well on Windmill hill. Using his two units of horse to hold up the massive attack from Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, aided for some time by the shot in the village.

Speaking of which, Chris put his detached shot at the end of the cavalry columns. It was game turn 5 before Bernhard’s shot engaged the Imperialists in the village. This could have been game turn one. The Swedish shot on the other flank never saw action at all.

The defence of Windmill hill was expert, but the thing that impressed me most was Adam’s bold move to attack across the road with Holk’s command. He did this on game turn 1, with no hesitation. It put Gustavus’s command on the back foot and compounded the problems of a clumsy deployment. It changed Pappenheim’s role from a game winner to the position of a supporting act. Go Holk!

Melee order

In almost every game Chris takes the opportunity to ask “So what is the melee order? Who chooses”. What we played was “The player that had the most charges this Game Turn chooses either left or right, then go across the table.” I think it can be even simpler, perhaps “Go across the table, from the Attacker’s right”.

Windmill hill

I think it was too big. In the game I chose the 6 TUM x 4 TUM option i.e. the smallest of my normal hill features for Tilly’s Very Bad Day. But even this took up too much space relative to the battlefield. I’d reduce to 4 TUM x 4 TUM.

Overhead shooting

I introduced overhead shooting for this game. I wanted a reason to put the Imperialist Cannon on Windmill Hill. But, having done it, I regretted it instantly. Two reasons for this:

  • They didn’t do it historically
  • Windmill Hill, in this battle was only 1-2 metres high. So “overhead” really means “through the head”.

For the published scenario I’ll only allow overhead shooting over Shot in the road, who are assumed to be in the ditches. For the rules I still won’t allow overhead shooting.

Off table reinforcements

I didn’t have an idea how the off table reinforcements would arrive. When they did arrive I let them appear on the base edge then move away. But that means they appear in one long line. I think they should arrive by deploying within 3 TUM of table edge. This replaces their normal movement for the Game Turn. It means they can arrive in a variety of formations, not just line.

Shrink the Imperialist army

I took the order of battle from Guthrie (2002) but seconds before the game I realised the Imperialist army was too large relative to the Swedes. So, in a rush, I tried to match the total numbers in Wilson (2010). The Imperialists need to shrink to 87% of the infantry and 62% of the cavalry. That will make the Swedish job easier. I took away the Imperialist reserve and gave more units to Swedish. That gave us a viable game but I was conscious that I had to revisit the orders of battle entirely. Which I did.

Swedish Brigades

Gustavus was in charge so all Swedish infantry were in Swedish Brigade, whether actual Swedes or German. So I gave the Swedes Large Pike+Shot units (Swedish Brigades).

The road

Adam and I had a heated debate about the road. He was very keen that I change how the road behaves. The problem was that a 1 TUM deep Unit in a 1 TUM wide road fills the road, and anybody charging that Unit is in Open Terrain. That was true but, at the time, I thought it missed the point. Both Adam and Chris seemed to view the road as an entrenchment, something to stand in, but historically the Imperialists stood behind it. Only the Shot fought from the ditches.

Historically the road was an obstacle and classifying it as difficult terrain makes it an obstacle. And for the shot deployed in it, difficult terrain gives them cover. Job done.

(although we’ll come back to this in the next play test)

Bend in the road

We used a straight road but really it should have had a bend near the Flossgraben Stream. I so put a bend in the road. Okay that won’t make any difference to the game but it is more historical.

Bolster the Imperialist Shot

The two Imperialist Shot units were half size, compared to other infantry units. That warranted giving them a reduced Resolve. But, after the battle, I decided to bring the Resolve of the of the detached Shot up to full i.e. Resolve 4.

There were only 420 shot (Guthrie, 2002; Wilson, 2010) detached to fight in the ditch at the front of the Centre command. This is half the size of other infantry units and smaller than mounted units. However, I have given them full infantry Resolve for two reasons: (a) they contested the ditch fiercely and caused the Protestants considerable problems; (b) I have rounded down the number of Pike+Shot units in the centre command rather than rounding up so I thought I should compensate elsewhere.

Wallenstein detached shot to defend Lutzen village. There were probably only 346 of them (Guthrie, 2002, says 400 but I have scaled down to match total numbers in Wilson, 2010). They were deployed in the castle and environs. Again this is less than half the number of men for other infantry units and less than a mounted unit. But I have given them full infantry resolve because they have the advantage of the castle which is not otherwise simulated in the game. Although a medieval castle would not stand up to the siege of the time, it provided an advantage to the skirmishing musketeers.

I also made their deployment in the road/ditch and village compulsory.

Pappenheim’s arrival time

Chris suggested Pappenheim arrive Game Turn 4. I left it at Game Turn 3. Pappenheim arrived 1 hour after the battle started. That isn’t very long. Even Game Turn 3 is generous.

My other reason is that Chris hindered his own attack. In the game the Swedish cavalry on both wings was deployed in a marching formation. They then had to fan out into a combat formation and this took a couple of Game Turn. The Swedes could have got to the road much faster if they deployed for battle and deployed forward.

Saving Throw for Commander Casualties

Previously we found our generals dropped like flies. Every game has seen the loss of at least one commander. We felt the casualty rate was too high.

The score to hit a commander depends on whether the attached Unit was Routed or not: 5-6 if the attached Unit took hits and Routed; 6 if the attached Unit took hits but did not Rout. (It used to tied to the number of hits and that was even more brutal.)

So I introduced a saving throw. Roll for commander casualties like normal. Then the owner has a chance to save them as a “its only a scratch!”. The saving throw was 4+ on 1d6.

No generals became casualties in this game. Adam had his general leading from the front. The saves saved them. Chris didn’t because I’d neglected to call out the saving throw before the game started. Once he discovered the rule, he sent his generals in as well.

On balance I think the idea of a saving roll is sound but perhaps the saving throw was too generous. Next time I’ll try 5+ on 1d6.


References

Guthrie, W. P. (2002). Battles of the Thirty Years War: From White Mountain to Nordlingen, 1618-1635. Greenwood Press.

Wilson, P. H. (2010). Europe’s Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War. Penguin.

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