S12 Fighting Across the River – A Tilly’s Very Bad Day Battle Report 1

I persuaded Adam and Chris to play my S12 Fighting Across the River Scenario for Tilly’s Very Bad Day. Although this is a generic scenario, the armies were from the Thirty Years War. Chris was the Blue player, the attacking Swedes. Adam was the defending Red player, with the Imperialists.

S12-162 Swedes ross on the left
S12-162 Swedish right flank crosses the river

Version of scenario used in the game

We used the second version of S12 Fighting Across the River Scenario. Although we hadn’t played the scenario before, Roger Calderbank had played it twice. You can see Roger’s observations on his games as comments on the original scenario post. The short version is, Roger’s first play test found the first version of the scenario too tough for the defender (Red). His second play test gave the defender an off table reserve to arrive later in the game and Roger found this variant more balanced.

I followed Roger’s lead for our play test and updated the scenario to give the Red defender an off table reserve arriving from the base edge. They were scheduled to arrive on game turn 7 for a shallow table and turn 6 for a normal table. The breakpoint remained unchanged.

Red Off table Reserve

  • 1 x Commander
  • 3 x Pike+Shot
  • 1 x Horse

As it happened we didn’t get to turn 7.

And in this version of the scenario Blue is attacking and Red defending. You’ll see why that bugs me shortly. Since the map is likely to change in a future version of the scenario, I’ve shown the map we used:

Table - S12 Fighting Across the River - Tillys Very Bad Day
Table – S12 Fighting Across the River – Tillys Very Bad Day

Phase 1: Game Set up

A lot of the set up was predetermined by the scenario.

1.2. Recruit armies

The orders of battle were set by the scenario. I went with Swedes for the Blue attacker because the Swedish nation colour was blue. Similarly red for the Imperialists. This did have the odd effect that the Swedes got a light horse unit which isn’t really historical.

1.6. Deployment

You can see the mismatch in numbers from the first photo. Masses of Swedes lined up to approach the far bank of the river. A thin line of Imperialists on the hills behind the near bank.

S12-101 Top view of table after deployment
S12-101 Top view of table after deployment

Chris deployed as far forward as possible. To reduce his marching time.

S12-103 Swedish centre
S12-103 Swedish centre

Adam was stretched. He has a small army to cover the entire river line. The meant the Imperialist left wing had to guard both the stone bridge and the central section of river. Adam didn’t have enough troops to guard from the Stone bridge to the left of the battlefield.

S12-104 Imperialist left
S12-104 Imperialist left

The Imperialist right flank had the wooden bridge and the long stretch of river extending to the right of the battlefield.

S12-105 View from Imperialist right
S12-105 View from Imperialist right

1.7. Bombardment

The defender’s bombardment was ineffectual.


Turn 1

Chris advanced everywhere.

S12-107 Swedes advance all along the line
S12-107 Swedes advance all along the line
S12-108 Swedes approach wooden bridge
S12-108 Swedes approach wooden bridge
S12-110 Swedish cavalry advances on left
S12-110 Swedish cavalry advances on left
S12-111 Swedish centre advances
S12-111 Swedish centre advances

Now that Adam had seen where the threat was he started moving troops towards the river.

S12-112 Imperials man the river bank near wooden bridge
S12-112 Imperials man the river bank near wooden bridge
S12-113 And near the stone bridge
S12-113 And near the stone bridge
S12-114 View from Imperialist left flank
S12-114 View from Imperialist left flank
S12-117 Imperialist horse guard right flank
S12-117 Imperialist horse guard right flank

It must have been pretty lonely for some of those Imperialist units. Alone facing a Swedish horde.

S12-115 View from Imperialist Centre
S12-115 View from Imperialist Centre

Particularly the units guarding the bridges as this was where the Swedes would hit first.

S12-116 Imperialsts defend the wooden bridge
S12-116 Imperialsts defend the wooden bridge

Turn 2

In Turn 2 Chris had nearly reached the river.

S12-119 Swedes close on river
S12-119 Swedes close on river
S12-120 Swedish left flank horse approach river
S12-120 Swedish left flank horse approach river
S12-121 Swedish foot approach wooden bridge
S12-121 Swedish foot approach wooden bridge
S12-122 Swedish right drift right
S12-122 Swedish right drift right

This brought them within reach of the Imperialist musketry.

S12-124 Imperialists fire
S12-124 Imperialists fire

And a firefight broke out across the wooden bridge.

S12-125 Firing across wooden bridge
S12-125 Firing across wooden bridge
S12-126 Imperialists defend wood bridge
S12-126 Imperialists defend wood bridge

Turn 3

Adam got the initiative on turn 3 and closed up on the bridges.

S12-129 Imperialist Movement
S12-129 Imperialist Movement

The imperialist defenders were suffering from Swedish musketry.

S12-130 Swedes shoot near wooden bridge
S12-130 Swedes shoot near wooden bridge
S12-131 Near the wooden bridge Swedish musketeers fire across river at Imperialst horse
S12-131 Near the wooden bridge Swedish musketeers fire across river at Imperialist horse

Then the Swedes began to cross the bridges.

S12-132 Swedish Movement
S12-132 Swedish Movement
S12-133 Swedish fire infantry advance onto wooden bridge
S12-133 Swedish fire infantry advance onto wooden bridge
S12-134 In the centre two Imperialist regiments face three Swedish and two batteries
S12-134 In the centre two Imperialist regiments face three Swedish and two batteries
S12-135 Imperialists defend the Stone Bridge
S12-135 Imperialists defend the Stone Bridge
S12-137 Virtually unopposed the Swedish line the river near the Stone Bridge
S12-137 Virtually unopposed the Swedish line the river near the Stone Bridge
S12-138 Imperialists outnumbered at wooden bridge
S12-138 Imperialists outnumbered at wooden bridge

Musketry couldn’t stop the Swedes on eh bridges.

S12-141 Musketry
S12-141 Musketry

And they charged. At the Stone Bridge the defenders took a mauling but held.

S12-142 Melee at Stone Bridge
S12-142 Melee at Stone Bridge

The defenders routed at the Wooden bridge.

S12-143 Melee at Wooden Bridge
S12-143 Melee at Wooden Bridge

So the Swedes had a toe hold at both bridges and were threatening the entire river length.

S12-144 Battlefield
S12-144 Battlefield

Turn 4

The Swedes began to wade the river.

S12-146 Swedes cross the river
S12-146 Swedes cross the river

They also began to exploit their bridgeheads. The Imperialists looked weak at both bridges.

S12-147 Swedes on flank of Imperialists at Wooden Bridge
S12-147 Swedes on flank of Imperialists at Wooden Bridge
S12-149 Imperialists at Stone Bridge very outnumbered
S12-149 Imperialists at Stone Bridge very outnumbered

Imperialist musketry scored a hit … destroying a Swedish Cannon. But was otherwise ineffectual.

S12-151 Imperialist shooting on left
S12-151 Imperialist shooting on left
S12-152 Imperialist shooting at Stone Bridge
S12-152 Imperialist shooting at Stone Bridge
S12-153 Battlefield
S12-153 Battlefield
S12-157 Shooting in the centre
S12-157 Shooting in the centre

Adam started pulling back to the hills.

S12-154 Imperialist horse pull back on right
S12-154 Imperialist horse pull back on right
S12-156 Imperialist foot pull back from Stone Bridge
S12-156 Imperialist foot pull back from Stone Bridge

The Swedes launched an ineffectual charge from the Stone bridge.

S12-158 Swedes charge from the Stone Bridge
S12-158 Swedes charge from the Stone Bridge

Turn 5

In turn 5 more Swedes crossed the river.

S12-164 Swedes cross the river
S12-164 Swedes cross the river

There was some shooting.

S12-165 Shooting in the centre
S12-165 Shooting in the centre

Adam tried to stem with tide.

S12-166 Imperialist movement
S12-166 Imperialist movement

But the Swedes swept away the defenders at the Stone bridge including killing the Imperialist general. Adam had nothing left on this flank.

S12-167 Charges on left
S12-167 Charges on left
S12-170 Melee on left
S12-170 Melee on left
S12-174 More Swedes advance across the stone bridge
S12-174 More Swedes advance across the stone bridge
S12-172 Swedes cluster around stone bridge
S12-172 Swedes cluster around stone bridge

Adam still had his cavalry on the right but they were vastly outnumbered by the Swedes.

S12-173 Swedish cross right on either side of wooden bridge
S12-173 Swedish cross right on either side of wooden bridge

That was the end of the game.

S12-171 End game
S12-171 End game

Observations and conclusions

It looked pretty but this really wasn’t a great game. The attacking side (Swedes) just flowed over the river and swamped the defender (Imperialists). A devastating Swedish victory.

S12-161 Swedish left flank crosses the river
S12-161 Swedish left flank crosses the river

In the post game debrief Adam and I got talking about the underlying premise of the scenario, the river crossing bit. My scenario is based on the generic “Fighting Across the River” scenario from a book (Grant & Asquith, 1996). So the premise doesn’t start from a strong point. Some folk would be content to just play the game. But Adam and I are historians as well as gamers, and interested in simulation, so the premise of a scenario is important to us.

Following the play test and the post game discussion with Adam, I did some research and wrote up what I found as Contested river crossings in the Seventeenth Century – Musing for Tilly’s Very Bad Day. This research highlight some things for me. Multiple crossing points. Tick, there are two in the scenario but even more would be fine. A vastly outnumbered defender is fine. That is the reason the defender is behind a river. Tick, the scenario does that. Hills behind the river are fine but the fighting happens at the river bank until the defender is pushed back. Tick, that seems to happen. The game should end when the defender can’t drive the attacker back into the river with counter-attacks. Tick, got that one too. The river should be impassable except at bridges and fords. Ooops, got that one wrong.

So, for the next play test, I’ll change the river rules. For a start I’ll bring back Tilly’s Very Bad Day’s rule that rivers are impassable except at roads and bridges. I should have just stuck with that. But I think I need to add another nasty scenario special rule … units cannot fire while any part of the unit is in a water feature, and that includes crossing a bridge or ford. These are black powder weapons and water and gunpowder do not mix. So the troops have to get out of the water before they can fire. I’d apply the same rule to troops crossing bridges. That might seem counter intuitive as troops on a bridge are out of the water, right? But there are two reasons for this restriction to apply at bridges: (1) either the troops are crossing the bridge in narrow column so have limited fire power or (2) the unit has troops are on the bridge but also wading the river on each side of the bridge and water is bad for gunpowder. And I’m going to make the bridges difficult terrain for similar reasons.

With those tweaks to river crossing I’d drop the defender’s off table reserve. The measly troops on table have to hold the river or the army loses. Seems to match historical precedent better.

I think the victory conditions are okay as they are. As a reminder the diagram shows the combinations resulting in a Red/Defender or Blue/Attacker victory.

Victory - S12 Fighting Across the River
Victory – S12 Fighting Across the River

Finally, and a bit trivial, as I mentioned above, in this game the Swedes got a light horse unit which isn’t really historical. If I really cared I’d flip the colours around so Red is attacking and Blue is defending. God I can be a pedant. I think I’ll have to make that change.


Where to get Tilly’s Very Bad Day

Tilly’s Very Bad Day is available for Download (PDF).


References

Grant, C. S., and Asquith, S. A. (1996). “Scenarios for all Ages”. CSG Publications.

2 thoughts on “S12 Fighting Across the River – A Tilly’s Very Bad Day Battle Report 1”

  1. Great AAR and set of scenario and rule changes as an outcome. Makes lots of sense to me! Looking forward to trying this one out too.

    Reply
  2. Hi Steven,

    This and last week’s posts have been really engaging, perhaps mainly because I have the typical wargamer’s romanticised fascination with “heroic” scenario ideas and forcing or defending a river crossing definitely fits that description. Nevertheless they also got me wondering how such a scenario might be handled using rulesets or game design approaches that I’m familiar with so I thought I’d share a couple of thoughts.

    You make the point above that rivers “should be impassable except at bridges and fords”. I definitely agree. It seems to me that the approach used in TVBD gets it right whereas the original scenario design suffers from a reasonably common tendency to conflate the idea of a river with that of a stream. Marlborough and Eugene won the battle of Blenheim partly because the allied armies were able to cross the Nebel along it’s length, albeit with difficulty, to attack the Franco Bavarian army. That was because it was a stream and generally fordable. If the Nebel had been the Lech it would almost certainly have been a different story. HFG is my preferred ruleset for playing black powder warfare at the same tactical level as TVBD (element = brigade) and the rules handle the difference between rivers and streams in just that way. Streams are crossable everywhere but with realistic difficulty whereas rivers are impassable except at bridges and fords.

    Regarding fords, in HFG the location of each bridge is known whereas the locations of fords may not be but the rules have specific mechanisms that allow the player to search for them. On the odd occasion that we’ve needed to use that option it worked well and added an enjoyable degree of tension to the game.

    Finally, in the previous post you record Adam making the point that contested river crossings led to a “a series of nasty fights at the bridges, rather than a grand ‘battle'”. That got me wondering whether it makes best use of the gaming opportunity presented by a river crossing scenario to depict in one game what is in essence a collection of lower level but individually exciting actions? Well, maybe not, but I recognise that this is really about getting opposed river crossings into a game of TVBD, not opening up another can of wargame projects.

    Anyway, thanks again Steven and I look forward eagerly to the follow up game. Regards, Chris

    Reply

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