Monday, August 6, 2012

Last Battle of Tord Bond, 15th century AAR

I was lucky enought to get to games last week:) This is a AAR of a 15th century "Kalmar Union War" game I and my Danish friend Sören played using the Hail Caesar rules. This is a new scenario that I´have been working on and it needed to be tested, might get some rewrite after this game...

Historical background
It is January 1456. It have been war between Sweden /King Karl Knutsson Bonde and Denmark(Union/King Kristian I of Oldenburg sins 1451 but it have not come to any decisive victorys.

During the summer of 1455 the Danes invade the southern swedish county of Småland and started to build a castle that they call Danaborg (Danish Castle). The Swedish King responden by sending he´s most prominent Knight, the Lord High Constable/Marsk, he´s cousin Tord Karlsson from the House of Bonde.

Tord Bonde and his troops managed to storm the Castel and kill all inhabitants, the castle was them called Danasorg (Danish Sorrow)...

The Lord High Constable was then sent to the Swedish westcoast there he started to build a castle, Karlsborg/Karls Castle, in defens for Danish aggressions from Norway.

Some times during the Autumn/Vinter/Spring of 1455/1456 the Danes responds by sending the Norwegian Knight Kolbjörn Gesth and a infantry force of about 3000 norwegian allmoge soldiers. The heroic Tord Bonde mustered his Knights, Svenner and knechts about 300 mounted men and rode out to attack the invaders...

OOB

Sweden
C-in-C Tord Bonde (CV:9 and adding up to +3 in battle)
2 Small units of Knights (6 bases/12 minis each)

1/3 of the Swedish force was held in ambush...
Erik Eriksson (CV:8 and adding up to +1 in battle)
1 Small unit of Knights (6 bases/12 minis)

Denmark/Norway
C-in-C Kolbjörn Gesth (CV:8 and adding up to +1 in battle)
2x Allmoge units (12 bases/36 minis each)

2nd-in-C Grette Asmundsson (CV:8 and adding up to +1 in battle)
2x Allmoge units (12 bases/36 minis each)


...as the Danish/Norwegian force saw the mounted force they responded by forming a defensive line with there wagons. About 2/3 of the Swedish cavalryforce charged the enemy defenses... a fierce battle took place, the Swedish cavalry made a voluntary retreat luring the triumphant Danes/Norwegians out of the security of theirs wagon lager...

Here our battle started...


The retreating Swedes with the purcueing Norwegians...the Norwegian wagons in the back.

The Norwegians widen theirs line... The Swedish commander Tord Bonde turned his Knights around for a new attack... but he din´t charge right away as he wanted the Norwegians to move further and expose their left flank...

As the Norwegians moved to get within shooting distance, the Swedes reveal their ambush... It truly caused some fear at the Norwegian commanders:)

The Swedes didn´t wait for a new invitation but charged right away... three small units of knights could truly cause some hawok... Several of the Norwegian Allmoge units had to retreat, seriously damaged...

Soon the first Norwegian allmoge unit was broken... and the main Swedish forse started to turn to the left and continue the attack. 

At the same time the Swedish ambush force under command of Erik Gyllenstierna was in a hard fight with the Norwegian Commander in chief, Kolbjörn Gesth, and he´s last unit of allmoge...

Kolbjörns allmoge soldiers broke and he was wounded and had to retreat to tha norwegian wagon lager...

Meanwhile the Swedish commander in chief Tord Bonde lead he´s Knights in a new attack on the last Norwegian battle...

One again a Norwegian commander was severly wounded in the heat of battle... But the Allmoge soldier keept on fighting...

The battle was extremly tense, Tord Bonde exposed him self by leading his men from the front... It payed of as the Allmoge unit broke...

But to a cost... The Swedish C-in-C Tord Bonde was badly wounded in the last fight...

Then the third norwegian allmoge unit broke the battle was won for the Swedes...

This was a realy nice and tense battle, I actually belived that the small knight units would not be any match for the average Allmoge units... but it felt realy even. 

We both had ha realy good and enjoyable game with stunning 3 wounded commanders...Hail Caesar are truly good rules that work even on small tables, we used a standard 120x180cm one but with 2/3 of all distances.

Historica endnote
The Swedish Lord High Constable/Marsk Tord Karlsson of the house of Bonde was murdered a few month later, may 1456 at the Castel Karlsborg by he´s own Castlevogt the Danish born Jösse Bosson...

Thanks for reading:)

21 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. God Morning Stephen !

      Thanks for providing me with a opponent :)

      Best regards Michael

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  2. Really nice! Your minis are, once again, wonderful, and the battle seems great and intense!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Phil !

      It was indeed a very intense battle me thinking the Knights would be defeated as there was so few of them...

      Best regards Michael

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  3. It seems to be a great battle, one more time ! We all want more pictures ! ;)

    J-B

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    Replies
    1. Thanks you Jehan !

      more pictures??? at least you got 12 this time I use to only have 6-7 pictures ;)

      Best regards Michael

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  4. Great AAR!
    Inspiring stuff this Swedish history lessons you give us...
    Im allways tempted to get me some own medieval miniatures after visiting your blog.

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  5. Great report and beautiful troops in those wonderful photos Michael.

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  6. Yet another great AAR! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. A really nice and interesting AAR. "Hail Caesar!" is a very good rulebook.

    Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Beautiful armies and great AAR.

    I've been thinking of buying HC. You used to play Impetus. Is HC now your rules of choice? If so, I think I'll put in an order. :-)

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  9. Thanks Mates !!!

    @Monty, HC are absolutely my rules of choice at the moment. I realy like Hail Caesar and Black Powder as they give me the freedom I want when I whrite my scenarios, but they are absolutely not competetive rules that I would use for the occational club game (They both are best with an umpire). For the occational club game at a set army point I rather play Impetus:) So they both fill there role;)

    Best regards Michael

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    Replies
    1. Interesting. We haven't gamed with an umpire in forever. I'll roll it around with my gaming friends to see if we can convince someone to be ump and not push lead. Thanks for sharing!

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    2. God Morning Monty

      a Umpire are absolutely not a necessary but it gives a extra depth to the games as every one dosen´t have to know all about the scenario, ie ambushes etc

      best regards michael

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  10. What an excellent blog! I don't know why it's taken me so long to find it but it was all the better to be able to sit back and have a look at what you've been doing. You've really taken pains to explain the history of the period and what an opportunity to see such colourful and unusual skandinavian heraldry. I raise my glass to you ! and very much look forward to your next instalment.

    Stuart

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    Replies
    1. Cheers Stuart !

      Glad that you found your way over here:)
      I Got to explain the history as no one? outside the northern contrys know much about it;)

      I´m a greate fan of your blog, love all the efort you put in every singel mini, just love the barding of your latest hores!

      best regards Michael

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  11. Great write up and lovely looking battlefield!

    Christopher

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Christopher !

      Appreciate your support:)

      Best regards Michael

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  12. Nice AAR, as always, your blog really is a source of inspiration!

    What army lists do you use for this time period?

    Cheers,
    Thomas

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Thomas ! Glad you like my work:)

      The army lists I use are my own work as I interpret the Swedish history and the Hail Caesar rules.

      I have changed some of the unit stats along the way but I think I soon will have what I looking for. I plan to maka a small summary and historical background about this part of the Swedish history with armylists at least for Hail Caesar.

      Don´t know when it will be finished, but I working on it then I get some time over...

      Best regards Michael

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