Back to the 1650s

Back to the 17th Century

As soon as you scratch one itch, another one starts to bother you. As I was putting away my 1815 Napoleonics the other day my eyes fell on a box of 15mm winged Hussars. It must be 18 months since these lads had an outing. That is far too long a break.

The last eastern renaissance game we played was the 1651 battle of Loyev during the Cossack rebellion. My plan at the time was to move on to Berestechko, the largest set piece battle of that year (in fact one of the largest in the 17th Century). So it’s time to pick up where I left off.

The Battle of Berestechko 30 June 1651
I picked up two recently published histories of the 1651 campaign when we were in Kraków in 2016. There is also quite a good English account on Wikipedia and a longer Wikipedia piece in Polish. I won’t rehash the whole story but the main elements I found interesting were

• Nearly half of the Commonwealth army consisted of the ‘noble levy’ (pospolite Ruszenie), who had dutifully responded to King Jan Kazimierz’s summons but who were of mostly questionable quality.
• The Allies also had a great many poor quality troops, mostly peasants who had joined the Khmelnytsky rebellion but were ineffective in battle. Their fighting troops consisted of roughly equal numbers of Tatars and ‘registered’ Cossacks (that is, organised and mostly experienced foot who had fought for the Commonwealth until the rebellion broke out in 1648).
• Jan Kazimierz advanced on Khmelnytsky’s army from the West and found it at Berestechko. The first day saw inconclusive cavalry skirmishing. The second involved much larger numbers but still only cavalry. The Poles did better on the first day but the Allies had the advantage on the second. On both sides the foot remained in their fortified camps and as a consequence neither day was decisive.
• After day two, Jan Kazimierz held a Council of War in which he persuaded his generals to adopt West European methods and bring the foot and artillery out of camp and into an integrated battle line. This decision marks an important transition in Polish tactical methods.
• Day three saw early success for the Polish left, which then became overextended and was sent packing by the Tatars and Cossacks. However the steadily advancing Polish Centre poured fire into the Allied horse and ground it backwards. The Polish right, meanwhile, flatly disobeyed an order to advance as its commander feared a Tatar trap. The pressure from the centre was enough however and as the day ended the Tatars and Khmelnytsky left the field, leaving the Cossack Tabor to its fate. This was besieged for some days by the Poles before the remains of the Cossack army made their escape.
• The story of how the battle ended is clouded by folklore. A popular version has Giray Khan, the Tatar commander, taking fright at a near miss from a Polish cannon and fleeing the field, taking Khmelnytsky prisoner as he did so for misleading him as to Polish fighting ability. However, Konrad Rzepecki suggests neither of these events seem plausible as Giray was an experienced general who had not shown cowardice before and Khmelnytsky was back commanding troops soon after the battle. More plausible, he suggests, is that the Tatars and Khmelnytsky saw that the battle was lost and withdrew with as much of their mobile forces as they could. There was little sense in Khmelnytsky locking himself away with his Tabor, which was too slow to escape but could defend itself reasonably well against Polish assault. He could be more effective organising the next force to confront Jan Kazimierz.
• After the battle the King wanted to go deep into Cossack territory but the pospolite Ruszenie decided to go home, considering that it had done its duty and was no longer needed. Also, soon after the victory Hetman Jeremi Wisniowiecki fell suddenly ill and died, depriving the army of one of its best leaders. The army did continue its advance but in smaller numbers and with less vigour. Further battles were won but the campaign was to end with another inconclusive armistice that once again made further conflict inevitable.

Which rules to use?
We have used two rule sets so far for this period, Pike and Shotte by Warlord and Tercios by el Kraken. Both have given good games, especially Tercios, but the mechanics are a bit cumbersome for a bigger battle. As Berestechko was such a large engagement I would like to use rules with more of a big battle feel. Enter ‘For King and Parliament’.

These rules, by Simon Miller and Andrew Brentnall, are an adaptation of Simon’s Ancient rules, To the Strongest, which I like a lot. They are unusual in their use of a map grid and playing cards. I picked up a copy of FKaP at Salute in April and have yet to play them. They will need a few additions to cover Eastern Europe but fewer than you might expect. I will detail these in my next post.