Battle of Wimpfen

[chanss]

Have any of you actually managed to win it? If so how did you do it? I have even tried it on 2nd lowest difficulty numerous times without success.

[Adebar]

I'm at my first try with Wimpfen. Good defensive position with fortifications - if they do not blow up! I was quite surprised when I suddenly heard a big explosion and saw a cloud of smoke over a section of my front. Then a pop-up message appeared which informed me that some powder barrels were stored to near the fighting area and blew up. The fortification in the square is gone and also one of my musketeer units dissolved. All what's left is a big crater. An enemy Tercio exploited the situation and smashed through my front line ... Merde!

[TimW]

I've won Wimpfen (middle difficulty against AI) by moving up two or three tercios in to the fortifications then hammering the approaching enemy with the shot+organ guns. until as the enemy close into a move away from contact then moving the foot+organ guns back and parking Tercios in their place. Ideally do this after the gunpowder's exploded. Don't want to lose a Tercio. After that shift the foot+guns into any available slots in the fortification and keep shooting.

Other than that it's a matter of resisting the temptation to try anything clever with your outnumbered cavalry on your flanks. Let the enemy cavalry come to you, shoot them until they've had enough then hit them with a Tercio or Kurrasiers. The commanded shot in the woods can be very useful for breaking up the easily distracted AI's strategy..

Shifting Tercios into the fortifications may be unhistorical, but I tried Mansfeld's approach the first time I played the battle. It didn't work for him and it didn't work for me.

[Adebar]

Ideally do this after the gunpowder's exploded.

So the explosion is scripted in the scenario? I thought it occured randomly as a part of the combat system when fighting at fortifications is going on. Interesting.

Lost the battle BTW. After the explosion I had two enemy Tercios behind my lines which I couldn't destroy nor even disrupt. Those things are terrible war machines, they can lose hundreds of men but still move on. I tried to close the gap with one of my late Tercios but it was attacked by two Imperial Death Stars who blew it away instantly. Haven't found a way yet to protect the right side of my defenses. The single Tercio there is overpowered very soon. On the left the Musketeers hidden in the woods are very effective against approaching infantry and cavalry. - So let's replay this.

[Vadim84]

I had a great time with Wimpfen this weekend, really enjoyed this scenario. I could win (3 stars level but oh man that was close) bu thanks to the overwhelming advantage you have in term of firepower which is exactly the tercio's weakness. Focus on one, with your artillery & frontline until it gets Disturbed/Fragemented, then another one etc (or two at the same time, depending on their direction). I also transferred one musketeer bataillon into the forest, which helped because imperial cavalry got sort of stuck at the entrance of the fores (with 3 musketeers in line).
Right flan was more problematic, ultimately the Empire was able to pierce my defense but a little bit too late, the late tercio in front of the church held very well. Also took the risk to send one kuirasser outflanking the IA via the swamp, worked even though he end up outflanked himself ( but could route couple of units before and saved some time).
To see these 4 little musketeers able to take down quit a few tercios only by themselves was quit enjoyable I have to say ! As Tim said, cav is mostly defensive, but you can try something if you have the opportunity to charge on the enemy's cav flan/rear-I had a unit in the wood, sort of useless until the end when I took it out to charge on the flan of an imperial cav. Just no need to go out of your position to meet your foe.

[TimW]

The explosion of powder stored in the fortification is something that happened during the historical battle, so I assume its scripted in. It doesn't always happen in the same place though. The first time I tried the scenario the powder explosion blew out the wall in the middle, wrecked my infantry at the spot amd let two Tercios come storming through the breach.

[Deanglen]

Presently fighting it. Not looking good for me. Hope to report a victory.

[Pixel]

Been fighting this one too. Can get very close on the medium difficulty setting but haven't won yet. The Imperial side usually seems to cause the Protestant right to collapse by massing on the single redoubt. While I hold the center they usually get at least one or two Tercios through on the right. The lighter firearm cavalry seem useful for delaying this as long as they mantain distance. I can usually bottleneck but not outright break enough of the enemy cavalry on the left which appears to give the AI enough leverage time to get in multiple melee assaults on the right.

Been playing Stratton a bit too this weekend and figured my way up the hill only to find the AI which I bypassed on one of the flanks pushing back up the hill at me. Our over eager royalists got a ripe surprise. I think I had decent instincts in the opening phases of these battles but might be getting sloppy later in the fighting where avoiding being teamed up on/getting bogged down seems to be essential.

[stormbringer3]

Maybe I was just lucky, but it took me less tries to win this scenario than any of the other battles in this Campaign. My strategy was as follows. Buy the two Musketeers which the AI places in the woods. Buy as many Later Tercio as you can, then one Kurassiers. I moved all the Musketeers out of the fortifications, three to the woods edge and three to the swamp edge. I replaced them with a Tercio. The Musketeers in the swamp were mostly ignored by the AI which let them fire away. I used the Cavalry on the left where most of the Musketeers were in the woods.
I hope that this helps.

[Pixel]

Useful tips there strombringer3. The detached musketeers worked nearly as well in the marshland as they do in the forests. The Kurassiers did well sent around the left too. The gunpowder explosion didn't trigger for me this time (so it seems like it doesn't necessarily happen on every play through).

[Rmarsden]

This one was interesting. My first time through I watched my wall blow up and Veteran Tercios march up and crash through my lines, wall or no wall.

Round 2...

Short Version = I used Musketeers to distract the enemy on both flanks and on the wall. I placed the main army far to the south in the creek with the swamp in front of it. The Imperial army became disorganized and filed into my trap, and was more hesitant to charge through a swamp than it was to batter at a wall.

Long Version

To defeat the Imperial army I bought as many Later Tercio as I could and filled out the rest with Musketeers, cannons and cavalry.

Rather than make a stand at the wall with the main army, I had some of my Musketeers harass from the woods on the left, some, from the swamp on the right, pushing them far north of the redoubt, and a few Musketeers in the middle held the wall. The AI became fixated on chasing them down in melee, going so far as to launch attacks with their cavalry and infantry into the woods and swamps. This kept about a 1/3 of the Imperial army out of the battle. The losses, and ultimate route, of the Musketeers mounted at no immediate cost to the Imperial army.

My cannons did little, causing some casualties at range, but eventually getting overrun by the Imperial center. My attempt to withdraw them proved ill-advised. Their amusing 1 hex retreat was perhaps deemed as 'cute' by the enemy. They stalled the Imperial center, when in hindsight I did not want this to happen to help separate them from their wings.

The Protestant Tercio in the redoubt on the right flank lasted a few turns, and this ended up being beneficial, distracting about another 1/3 of the Imperial army. However, as it routed, the odds once more were heavily weighted on the Imperial side, with no routing units for them, while I was at 30%.

With the Imperial army distracted on both flanks. This left a much smaller force to crash through the middle with reinforcements from the flanks showing up in a disjointed manner throughout the battle, if at all.

At the south of the map is a swamp, behind that is a creek. I placed my infantry in the creek, with a cavalry unit tucked in the clearing in the woods just north of the town on the left, and cavalry, Kuriassier and Arqebuser, on the right, with the swamp to their front.

The AI marched ever south in a disorganized fashion, allowing my Tercios to concentrate fire on the Imperial Tercios who arrived in groups of two or so. I focused heavily on the large Veteran units which did not crack quickly despite three or four Tercios firing upon them. The AI probably should have just sought out melee, but instead halted outside the swamp to trade a few rounds. This ultimately led to them to being shot up, and routed. Only one of my Tercios engaged in melee, and only then to save a Kuriasser unit that had charged to prevent a gap in the lines.

[Waldorf]

I followed stormbringer's suggestions, suffered the explosion and lost a tercio, but still went on to win on my first attempt on the middle difficulty.

Next one looks hard though!