Battle at Kolbäcksån 1467 an Hail Caesar AAR

Inspired by the Baltic Crusade game we run some time ago I and Jonas decided to run a Kalmar Union War game in our on going 1466/67 campaign using the Hail Caesar rules as a change from our Dux Britanniarum/Dux Suecia games. Here follows a AAR.

Background:.The Civil war in Sweden have raged for about two years, The Rebel army was on it´s way to besiege the capital Stockholm, when the Unionist´s advanced with a force inland by Örebro, to Västerås and initiated a Siege of the Rebel held castel in the town. The main part of the rebel army then returned to Västerås to lift the siege, the unionist´s the started a retreat back against Örebro but decided to stop then they crosed the strem "Kolbäcksån" and to prepeare a defence against the approaching rebel army. The union troop started to rawage the the suroundings as several of the estates and farms in the area belonged to the Rebel nobles.

Opposing Armies: As there are no true historical account of which and how many participated in the battle, I have based the army lists on the minis I had available in my collection. The commanders that are mentioned in the sourses are for the Union party Erik Nilsson from the House of Oxenstierna and for the Rebels Nils Bosson Sture from the House of Natt och Dag, Sten Gustavsson from the House of Sture and Erik Axelsson from the House of Tott.

Deployment: When the game starts the Union force have one unit of handgunners, from Kristiren Bengtsson´s command at the farm to try to set it on fire. The Rest of Kristiren Bengtsson´s command are deploued at the bridge. The remaining parts of the Union forces will arrive during the battle.

The Rebel force arrive in the first turn. Exccept for Ivar Axelsson´s command that will arrive in turn 2 or 3.. The rebell had the first turn.

As there had been very good wether the last weeks the fields does not effect the movement, but provide cover from shooting.

The stream "Kolbäcksån" may be crossed at two places, by the bridge or by the ford. To cross the bridge does not effect the movement of the unit. To cross the ford the unit must spend one move action to wade through the water in open order.

The Allmoge troops under command of the rebell leaders Nils Bosson Sture and Sten Sture advanced to cross and engage the Union troops on the other side of the Kolbäcksån.

The Union troops guarding the bridge sen some handgunners forward to slow down the Rebel advance...

As the Rebell commander Ivar Axelsson ordered his Knights and Allmoge troops to advance and follow the other two commands, the Allmoge units refused and declared that they would not participate in todays battle as a couple of month erlier Ivar Axelsson had urged the allmoge NOT to fight the union...

As the Union handgunners fight a deffensive action against Nils Bosson Stures allmoge the Allmoge under command of Sten Sture starts to wade through by the ford...

The rebells think they have an easy victory at hand even though Ivar Axelssons Allmoge just look on. 

But at that moment they can see and heare a force of mounted knechts and Nobles emerge over a hill just in the back of the rebell troops...

Even more union reinforcements arrive as some German and Danish Knechts march along the road to support the hard pressed union troops at the bridge...

The troops guarding the bridge are forced to retreat as the allmoge make good use of their crossbows...

The Union Knights see some easy prey in the approaching allmoge...

The rebel commander Nils Bosson Sture order his Allmoge to leave the bridge and line up and engage the Union Cavalry...

The union foot knechts hurry on to link up to be able to puch back the rebells that pours across the ford...

By the bridge tha Rebell Knights under command of Ivar Axelsson (Tott) charges the German and Danish knechts that are trying to defend the bridge...

The Union Knights hesitate a bit in front of the Allmoge battle line 

that shower them with crossbow bolts... 

The rebel knights swiftly routed the first unit of union knechts and puched forward to engage the second one...

The union mounted knecht and knights took a greate deal of beating by the allmoges crossbow shooting...

The knechts was puched back along the small road by the fearsome rebell knights...

At last the union knights managed to make a charge of the rebel almoge lines that was scatered at once, but as the second unit of union infantry broke the union side had to call it a day...

The command of the upcomming hero Sten Sture...

In a last atempt to even the scores the union knights slaughtered some allmoge...

One a gain a realy good game of Hail Caesar in my favourite wargaming periond the Kalmar Union War:)

We decided to run one more game of HC when I finished the Union infantry I currently working on..