Battle at Julitaslätten, August 1467 an Hail Caesar AAR

Last AAR for 2013 ofcourse one more Kalmar Union War AAR;) Not that much text but I hope the pictures will tell the story and that you will enjoy it.

My Danish friend Sören commanded the Union side and I commanded the Rebels. The rules used was Hail Caesar.

Background
The Civil war in Sweden has raged for about 2 years, The Union army besiege Stockholm when the Rebels advanced with a force to start a siege of the Union Castle in Örebro. Erik Nilsson from the house of Oxenstierna the owner of the castle in Örebro leaves Stockholm with his part of the army to relief his Castle.

The Commander of the siege force of Örebro Castle Ivar Axelsson from the House of Thott moves his forces to engage the Union troops by the lake of Öljaren near the Julita fields in the county Södemanland in August 1467.

Opposing Armies 
As there is 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 at the moment. The commanders that a mentioned in the sources is for the Union party Erik Nilsson from the house of Oxenstierna and for the Rebels Ivar Axelsson from the house of Thott, Arvid Birgersson from the house of Trolle and Magnus Bengtsson from the house of Natt och Dag.

Deployment 
The game starts when parts of the two forces have deployed on the field of Julita, the remaining parts of the forces arrive during the battle. As there have been very good weather the last weeks the fields does not effects the movement, but provide cover from shooting.

Union forces

Both sides advanced, but the Union Skirmishers didn´t realy understand the order...

...as the Union forces halted they reveled their secret weapon, 

a light gun hiden amongst the infantry...

The Rebell allmoge troops tried to extend heir battle line...

The allmoge started to shoot crossbowbolts at the Union knechts...

Reinforcements arrives for both sides, the rebells got even more allmoge and the union side are reinforced by two units of Knighst in shining armor...

As the Union party started to feel that this would be an easy task to sweep the allmoge from the field, the rebells recive even more reinforcements in the shape of two units of mounted allmoge...

The mounted allmoge was under command of Magnus Bengtsson from the house of Natt och Dag...

The main battle lines continue to shoot at each other in wait for the reinforcements to join the battle...

Like lightning the three union leaders seize the initiative and each order a unit to follow them in a headless charge that realy surprise the rebells...

A fierce close combat emerge...

The rebels are realy battered and some of the allmoge units stars to flee...

There are not much left of the rebel main battle line...

But the Union knechts does not choose to puch forward, instead they start to prepeare to recive the arrival of the rebel reinforcements...

In cover of the attacking mounted allmoge some of the fleeing rebells from the main battleline manages to rally as the Union knechts didn´t follow up their victory...

One of the mounted allmoge manages to give some grave damage to the Union knights before theur call it a day...

The other unit of mounted allmoge was revoked in to a long lasting mounted combat...

The rebel handgunners harassing the gravely damaged union knights...

On the rebels left flank the reinforcements have charged the union knechts...

...and they manage to get them on the retreat...

The unionist´s start to withdraw their troops to set up a new battle line...

As the Union troops retreate the rebels gets new confidence and advance after them...

The Union side decide that it is better to save what is left and fight a nother day...

Rebel victory !!!

Yet one greate game of Kalmar Union War using the Hail Caesar rules. The Union side seemed to getthe upper hand after their lightining attack BUT they chickened out and didn´t follow up their victory. That mistake made it possible for the Rebells to rally and reorganize their center battle and seize the initiative again and in the end win the day.

Of course more Kalmar Union War gameing and painting during 2014:)

Kingdon of Heaven

Yesterday I got my self a copy of Greate Escape Games new sourse book for Clash of Empires, Kingdom of Heaven, from my friend Stephen...the author of the book himself. Thank you very much !!!

Back in the summer of 2012 I spent a couple of days during my summer vacation to write army lists and a short historical background to the Scandinavian Crusaders, to my joy Stephen had use of the stuff I wrote and used it in the book, it even made me in to the "Special thamks to" list :)

I also spent some time sins then to proof read the chapeter "The Perpetual Crusade" or Baltic Crusades as I use to call it. Not a big contribution but it was fun to be involved and now to see the finished product.

The Kingdom of Heaven book look very nice with it´s 136 pages, hardback, full colour, 19 armylista (even more if you count the several sub-lists), 3 Historical battles and the best of all, a map of Scandinavia during the crusades;)

The only downs side to the apperance of the book are that several of the fotos of minis are very dark in colour, but that is not a reason not to buy the book if you are in to Clash of Empires rules and will game the Crusades. The armylists are in my mind very well researched and usefull, and I know that Stephens have put a lot of research in to the greate historical background for each armylist and he sholuld know as he is a scholarly in the subject.

You can find a very nice Kingdom of Heaven AAR at Stephens blog.

Here follows some sample pages from the book and ofcourse parts of the Scandinavian Crusaders:)

Mercenary Casualty

I hope you all have had a realy good Christmas and may be even got some gifts.

I wanted to show you the two stunning Danish/German Mercenary Casualty markers I got as a Christmas gift from my friend Jonas, perfect addition for my 2 units of knektar...might even be that he think I realy need them as he and the Swedish Allmoge will beat them up...

Minis from Artizan and the Casualty bases from Warbases (Style 2)

More Medieval Danish Mercenarys

As I been working on my 17th century minis I also managed to paint me some more Medieval Danish Mercenarys for my on going Kalmar Union War project.

Here are some pictures of the 36 minis for the 2nd unit, the 3rd row the sharp eyed might already have noticed in the last AAR, now I also finished the 2 front rows. They are built from Perrys WotR plastics mixed up with some old GW Plastic Empire minis. I also painted me two new striped linnen flags  to match the ones I already had.

The two units side by side ready to fight the Swedish Allmoge.

Swedish Scanian War Cavalry

Here comes some pictures of the painted Swedish cavalry or "Ryttare" for our Scanian War project.

all minis from Wargames Factory WSS plastic boxes exccept for the commander that are a metal mini of unknown origin, but he was in my leadpile:)

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..