Polish War 1625-1629 - AAR #4 and #5

Two more games have been played out in my Polish–Swedish War 1625–1629 campaign at the club to get further playtest games of the Pikeman´s Lament rules that I and Dan Mersey are working on.

The Campaign revolves around the war between the Swedes and the Poles in 1625-1629 and we have started of during the autum of 1625.

The Polish–Swedish Wars were a series of wars between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden. Broadly construed, the term refers to a series of wars between 1563 and 1721. More narrowly, it refers to particular wars between 1600 and 1629.

The Polish–Swedish War of 1625–1629 was the fourth stage (after 1600–1611, 1617–1618, and 1620–1625) in a series of conflicts between Sweden and Poland fought in the 17th century. It began in June 1625 and ended four years later with the Truce of Altmark and later at Stuhmsdorf with the Treaty of Stuhmsdorf.

In 1621, the Swedes besiege and conquered Riga, which attracted attention, as it was the first time a Protestant leaders defeated a Catholic power. The Swedish army was worn and the Poles could regain the initiative at Dorpat. Truce was signed in November 1622 and was extended until March 1625. Any acceptable terms for peace with Poland, could not be reached, so Gustav II Adolf planned a new campaign against Poland, which began in June 1625. Kokenhusen, Birze and Mitau was captured and Dorpat was taken after six days of siege. During the autumn of 1625 two Polish armies appeared against the Swedish forces and Gustav II Adolf decided to get into a clash before the Polish forces managed to unite.

So this is the starting point for my Polish War club campaign.

Below are a map of the area around the Town of Kokenhusen where the campaign are set during the Autum of 1625. The Red and blue sabers mark the point of each game and the winner...

This time we run two games during the evening with 24 point standard Companies. As Rotamaster Janosz Kowalski could not brin his troops to battle this day, he managed to hire the Flemish mercenarys to fight for the Poles this day...after all the Polish trechery was filled with swedish goild sins the last game...

OOB Polish

1st Company 
Officer Ensigne Tzerclaes Van Kökkenpanne a.k.a. “The Turncoat from Temse”, are a Flemish mercenary officer, the bastard son of a priest. He have turned colours several timer and are now in service of the Polish Swedes Polish...

1x6 Elite Trotters
1x6 Forlorn Hope
1x12 Pike
2x12 shot

OOB Swedish
Officer Lieutenant Henrik av Hunneberg "Hammar-Henrik". Hammar-Henrik are a mighty fine Swedish officer that command the forces of the region Västergötaland, he have a fine moustache and pointed berd as the young king. He are also a early user of the Swedish GÅ PÅ! tactic...

1x6 Elite Gallopers
2x6 Forlorn Hope
1x12 Pike
1x6 Commanded Shot

Notes on unit types used in these games of Pikeman's Lament:

Gallopers are cavalry relying on rapid charges into close combat in the style of 30 Years War Swedish and French cavalry, when used we also put the Polish Winged Hussare in this unit type.

Trotters are cavalry relying more on pistol/carbine fire at some distance and are often in our games heavily armoured curassiers that may use caracolle tactics.

Forlorn Hope are small elite infantry units that usually are good at both melee and long range fire.

Pike and Shot are the iconic massed pikemen and musketeers of the pike and shot period. 

Commanded shot are small units of skirmishing musketeers.

My matey Ulf a.k.a. Hammar-Henrik have posted full AAR´s on his blog and I only posted the OOB and my pictures here, so please take a visit to Ulf´s blog to read more about the battle after you had a look at my pictures:)