Battle of Fleurus - 1622

This game was played a couple of weeks ago but I never got the time to write it up. On a night when lots of folks were away on holiday we did the Battle of Fleurus, 1622. This was one of the early battles of the French Wars of Religion. It saw a Protestant army under Von Laurenstein attacking a Catholic army commanded by Don Phillipe De Sylva trying to defend his line of retreat on Antwerp. As the Catholics were surprised they had their baggage train with the army, and this formed the objective for the game.

Spanish tercio

The Protestants had the more numerous cavalry and had recently adopted a Dutch style organisation, so had more firepower than their opponents. The Catholics had a decent position with one flank guarded by a village with a shot company there. They also had some old style tercios, this being one of the last times they were used.   

Protestant left wing

The Protestants advanced their infantry and made their strongest attack on the left side where they had a 50% cavalry advantage. Some shooting from the village disrupted them and they failed to break through the Catholic horse.  

In the centre battle was joined and the Protestant shooting drove back the Catholic foot. More unexpectedly the Protestant horse managed to breakthrough on the right and a unit of cuirassier found themselves loose in the enemy rear.  

Pinned to their front, the Catholics were unable to reach very effectively to the cuirassiers and they went on the sack the Catholic baggage. This reversed history with the Protestants the winners.   

The baggage falls