commanded by the very Cardinal-Infante Don Fernando (Great Commander), the Marquis of Leganes and Count Giovanni Serbelloni (troop commanders), the commanders at Nordlingen. The army consisted of:
2 elite tercios
3 superior tercios
1 average tercio
2 superior h arm horse cuirassiers
1 average h arm horse cuirassiers
2 dragoons (3 bases each)
1 artillery (2 bases)
It was a one day competition with three games, all army books allowed.
Game 1 – Later 30 YW Catholic German (Imperial)
In spite of being more heretic and infidel armies, I am pitted against another catholic army. Germans had two artillery batteries, sup det horse cuirassiers, commanded shot, light cavalry and some sup and ave pike and shot infantry, the sup ones with regimental guns.
They deployed in two wings, leaving some empty room in the middle. Spanish on the right:
Battle begins and both armies advance along the whole line.
My right flank cuirassiers charge to avoid enemy fire, which is being deadly there, as the state of one of my tercios can show.
In the center two tercios try to reach their artillery and, behind them, the baggage! Meanwhile, on the left flank, troops get into action.
Double disaster! The depleted tercio suffers another casualty, breaking and leaving unprotected the flank of a Tercio Viejo, also diminished by enemy fire,that was about to charge. The enemy, who seems heretic by its evilness, charges on the flank and breaks it. In the mounted combat, an enemy general suffers a shot on the face and falls dead, but its troops doesn´t falter and hold long enough at disadvantage to allow its comrades to surround the cuirassiers. The right flank is gone!
Things also look bad on the left flank. A group of dragoons breaks due to enemy fire and the other one is fragmented. My cuirassiers, fighting with advantage, can´t break its mounted foes. Enemy fire breaks another tercio... I only manage to break an enemy cuirassier group who charged my infantry.
On the center my tercios have almost reached their target, albeit suffering casualties on the way, but the army breaks before that happens...
The German Army had put its firepower to good use and held in the few place where I fought with advantage. Shame for the Army of Flanders! An enemy regiment and a general are a poor harvest for the supposedly best soldiers in Europe!
