Use of Formations in DBR

One of the defining characteristics of later Renaissance warfare was that the army was made up of individual Brigades or Squadrons laid out in a checkerboard type formation. The key tactical formation was the independent Brigade operating by itself in open country with considerable amounts of space around it, vulnerable to cavalry and needing all round defence, yet supported by other brigades some distance away.[1] In turn, these brigades were made up of Battalions or Squadrons around 500 strong (in Spanish service they were 600 strong,) which were tactical formations and made up of Companies and their associated Regiments which were administrative groupings. The operation of both Battalions and Brigades was a key factor in tactics, as the formations changed shape to deal with different threats, detached groups to provided bodies of 'commanded shot' or tercios detached entire sleeves of arquebusiers to act independently. [2]

DBR Rules

However De Bellis Renatonis (DBR) has always wrestled with recreating these sorts of tactical groupings, depending as it does on individual elements joining up as temporary groups. The forst attempt started with DBR v.1 when the definition of a Group was no more than 4 Elements, a feature that was dropped in DBR v.1.1 and in due course led to Frields of Glory Renaissance (FOG-R) adopting fixed brigades of pre-determined shapes and sizes. The key factors are the ideas of Commands, PIP and Groups, as most players will organise the game to get the maximum use out of their PIP score and so will group the elements of a Command into the smallest number of groups possible or form a group of a double line of elements. One big blob of all the elements in a Command.

 It detail it works like this: a Command is an Army under the control of an Army Commander or a Subordinate Command under the control of a Subordinate Commander and they both have a PIP allocation and a number of units beneath them. The Army Commander will have Subordinate Commands plus a number of independent elements such as the Supply Base and support troops, while the Subordinate Command has troop elements under their command. Usually three commanders and the Army List allows you to allocate elements across the Commands as the player sees fit.

Historical Option

The concept is to introduce a new 'level' into this structure called Formations. The Army would be defined in an Order of Battle into its Subordinate Commands, which would be formally grouped into Formations containing a defined number of elements. This would be based on historical research, so for example the Swedish Brigades at Lützen are given in Wilson’s book and number around 1,500 using the four battalion Squadrons of the day.[3] Groups would remain temporary bunching of elements, however Formations would not gain any PIP advantage by bunching together, so there is no advantage in moving two Formations into base contact because they would still count as two groups as regards PIP. The PIP score would be used to move Formations, Groups and Elements as per normal in the rules.

For example the Swedish infantry at the Battle of Lutzen were grouped into 8 brigades and so in the Order of Battle, this would list 8 Formations and they would be deployed on the table as separate groups, unable to gain any advantage by bunching together.

A Formation remains intact until it has lost 50% of its starting Elements at which point it becomes disordered, has to RECOIL back to supporting Formations/Groups and now behaves as a normal group. Formations can become broken up by enemy action, or by the player detaching sub-units for independent action at which point they will cost additional PIPs to move but the intention is that they should strive to reform as an entire Formation as quickly as possible. Examples of this would be a tercio detaching sleeves to fight independently.

Different types of implementation

So I envisage two ways of playing this, firstly the Subordinate Commander is a sub-general with a number of brigades or lines of horse under his command and the Formations are full brigades or squadrons or lines of horse. This would mean that a Subordinate Commander would be needed for every four brigades. If commanding more than this then the Commander would need a permanent PIP score equal to the number of brigades in his command minus four. So in our example the Swedish infantry commander (if the Sub-General) would need a permanent PIP of 4 plus a 1D6 die roll for his command of eight brigades.

The second idea is that the Brigades themselves are the command level with a Sub-General in command of each Brigade and then the three or four Battalions (usually 500 men for most countries except Spain which used 600,) of the Brigade are each Formations which require a PIP score to move. There is less incentive to split up a brigade so having its sub-units as Formations forces the player to use their PIP score carefully and this makes detachments of shot, etc less onerus. This concept is based on the Horse, Foot and Guns v.1.1 rules for the period 1701-1914 where each Corps in the Army List has a Subordinate Commander and a mixed force of some 15 off elements of foot, horse and artillery which can be grouped together.

References

  1. Swedish Brigade of the Thirty Years War - Steven's Balagan blog 26 April 2005 https://balagan.info/swedish-brigade-of-the-thirty-years-war

  2. Alberto Raul Esteban Ribas, The Battle of Nordlingen 1634, Century of the Soldier 1618-1721 77 (Helion & Company Ltd, 2021).

  3. Peter H. Wilson, Lützen, First edition, Great Battles (Oxford University Press, 2018).

A Mad Dane

As an aside, I recently came across Josias Rantzau, Herr auf Bothkamp, a French and Imperial general who happened to fight at the Battle of Rocoi. HIs picture was in the book by Ribas, and I took no more notice of his picture which was in black and white. However, later on I came across the same picture in colour (see below) and notice that he is riding his horse with a wooden leg and he has a bandage over his right eye!

Looked him up online in Wikipedia, nothing about a wooden leg, typical. However the German Biography is much more interesting so I quote it here:

Herr auf Bothkamp (born in Holstein, Kreise Kiel), where he was born on October 18, 1609, Marshal of France, was a grandson of Paul, the younger son of John, and married to the youngest daughter of the governor Gerhard, Hedwig Margarete Elisabeth. Both spouses converted to the Catholic Church in France; the Holstein ancestral estate was lost in the Concurs, and the marriage remained childless. Josias Rantzau was one of the most adventurous figures of the 30-year German and simultaneous Spanish-Dutch war; he is said to have gradually suffered 60 wounds, lost an eye, an ear, an arm and a leg. In his early youth he served under Prince Maurice of Orange and under King Christian IV of Denmark, then with the Swedes, the Imperial and again with the Swedes, until he entered the French service in 1635 and attracted attention at the Paris court for his blond beauty. He commanded now in Franche-Comté, now on the Rhine and on the Flemish frontier; but on the whole seems to have proved more an impetuous and often successful bravery than a real general's art. At Honnecourt, on 18 May 1642, he was taken prisoner by the Spaniards, and at Tuttlingen, on 23 November 1643, by the Imperial forces, on 30 June 1645 he was appointed Marshal of France, and also governor of the fortress of Dunkirk, which had been conquered in 1646. During the disturbances of the Fronde he was imprisoned at Mazarin's instigation, but acquitted, and died shortly afterwards in Paris on the 14th of September, 1650, aged just 41. He had spent most of the family money and his wife entered a convent for the rest of her life.

In short he fought for the Dutch; Danes; Swedes; Imperialists; Swedes; French and he lost an eye at the siege of Dole 1636, a leg and an arm at the siege of Arras 1640 and an ear at the siege of Bourbourg 1645.

Reference: German Biography - Rantzau, Josias

A Danish source claims ‘his good luck’ (!?) was due to having an enchanted piece of gold mounted in his sword hilt. Bless!

pre-1636