Spanish Tercio vs. Dutch Brigade: Playtesting the Thirty Years' War

Phil tried out his rules for the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) last Friday, based on those successfully used in his recent Eastern Renaissance game at the War Room. Using his pukka 28mm figures, Phil has been experimenting to develop a satisfactory TYW set for a few years.

We played a small game, Spanish (me and Patrick) against Dutch (Mal and Mark), with cavalry on the wings and infantry in the centre.

The Spanish infantry regiment was a Late Tercio (four musket sleeves, deep pike block), while Spanish cavalry consisted of two pistoleer and one cuirassier units on each flank.

The Dutch were formed into a regiment of two battalions, deployed in a linear formation (four musket elements), with Reiter cavalry on the flanks, each supported by two more musket elements.

The game effectively consisted of laying down permanent and temporary action markers each turn, which could be spent on various actions and dice rolls.

The Game

1: Advance of the Spanish Cavalry

I began the game by advancing both Spanish cavalry wings, and soon picked up a retreat marker from Mal’s infantry sleeve supporting the Dutch left-hand cavalry wing.

Mark dealt the same to the Spanish left wing cavalry.

It soon became apparent that the Spanish would be facing a rolling volley of musketry from no less than eight infantry elements across the Dutch line.

2: Spanish Cavalry meet Dutch Lead

The Spanish tercio began its plodding advance in the centre.

Patrick arrived and took over the Spanish left and kept advancing with his two pistoleer units, but the cuirassiers halted after taking three markers from Mark’s infantry fire.

I kept the Spanish right wing moving but my lead pistoleers incurred 1 hit and two retreat markers.

The tercio also picked up one retreat marker.

3: Pell Mell on the Spanish Right Wing

I decided to charge ahead, and rolled a 13” move for my cavalry on the Spanish right.

The tercio was edging forward but took casualties from Mal and Mark’s infantry. Returning fire, the tercio inflicted hits on them in due course.

Mal now charged my approaching Spanish cuirassiers with his Dutch reiters. After two rounds of combat, the reiters were defeated and retreated 16 inches!

Mal now launched a second melee: reiters against pistoleers on my left side. My pistoleers narrowly lost but had to retreat 14 inches.

The winning reiters ploughed into my cuirassiers, who were forced back.

4: Tercio advances into Dutch fire

My tercio, rather compact in the centre, continued to advance.

My routing Spanish pistoleers on the right wing failed to rally, and retreated a further 11 inches. Fortunately my retreating cuirassiers rallied and stood.

It was becoming clear that this was a difficult situation for the Spanish, who were losing markers every time they moved while the Dutch could just stand still, accumulate markers, and spend them on firing and degrading the Spanish.

The tercio was peppered with various hits from three of Mal’s infantry elements, with Mark adding a further two hits on the pikes.

Mark also inflicted 2 kills and 4 temporary hits on Patrick’s left Spanish cavalry wing.

5: Spanish begin ranged fire

Mal’s routing reiters rallied, and he also moved up another reiter unit to face my cavalry.

Patrick destroyed one sleeve of infantry supporting Mark’s Dutch cavalry wing on their right

My pistoleers who hadn’t routed now fired 12 dice at the reiters, inflicting 3 temporary and 2 permanent hits

The tercio fired again, dealing two temporary hits to both Mal and Mark’s infantry

6: Tercio defeated; Spanish cavalry counterattack

The Dutch won the initiative and Mark charged two reiters into Patrick’s pistoleers. Both pistoleers evaded and retreated

Both Spanish flanks had been battered and pushed back, and the Tercio had effectively ground to a halt, but Patrick managed to stop another reiter charge by Mark

Mal pulled out the stops and charged his infantry battalion into my tercio. After various rolls of different sided dice, the tercio was pushed back 3 inches

Mal followed up and the Spanish tercio again lost, this time marginally. A quarter of the pikes were duly removed

The last action saw Patrick’s cuirassiers charge and defeat Mark’s reiters.

Mark’s cavalry wing was in disarray with only one musket element left standing on the hill, but this was destroyed by Patrick’s cuirassiers following up

All in all a Dutch victory in terms of casualties inflicted.

Historical Context

The Spanish Tercios were initially developed by Gonzalo de Cordoba (1453-1515), during the Italian Wars (1494-1555), and relied on the power of massed pikes increasingly supported by arquebusiers and musketeers. Over time they became shallower and the number of firearms increased in proportion to the pikes.

Maurice of Orange/Nassau (1567-1625), who led the Dutch Revolt (1566-1648) against Spain, countered the Tercio by developing the Dutch Brigade, using well-drilled, smaller, units of infantry, and volley fire, to break up the slower Tercios before they could bring their mass of pikes to bear. This was the origin of the linear musket-armed infantry formation, and pikes were gradually discarded in most European armies from the 1690s as the bayonet replaced the pike.

Impressions and Suggestions

I enjoyed the game and liked the rules without really grasping them (blogger's prerogative)! None of the players had read them, actually. Phil’s approach is to focus on historical tactics and he emphasizes nuance at the tactical level of warfare, which makes the game unpredictable and interesting. It was good to see the variety of tactical systems from the Thirty Years' War plausibly depicted on the tabletop. The relative complexity of the rules also means that with relatively few units we had a focused and entertaining evening.

I like the concept of permanent and temporary action markers (PAMs and TAMs) which are easy to understand. Although the Spanish were disadvantaged by having to attack, they were really hammered by the numerous opposing musketeers, but this was only a scenario and could be tweaked.

A clear description of the rules in a final version would be beneficial for players, even though Phil’s umpiring was as usual very good. Perhaps the number of different types of dice and markers as well as the relatively short movement distances could be revisited (there is always a balance to be struck between detail and playability), but overall these rules are in my opinion positive and thought-provoking. Thanks to Phil for a good game, with as always outstanding figures. A full-scale battle would be quite a spectacle!