The bastion at the river ... and Kettie's castle P 5 of the Dumas campaign

After her bad luck at Le Lion Rouge [1] Kettie's had to pay the price and got some weaker units such as militia pike and shot under her personal command. She heard that she would find some gold coins in the ruins of a small chapel at the French border (4 honours for reaching the chapel).

(She had 1 x Aggressive Forlorn Hope, 1 x raw pike and 1 x raw musketeers under her personal command AND 1 x Commanded shot, 1 x Forlorn Hope (the famous musketeers!) and 1 x trotters on the other road.)

Our forces have a strong position behind the river. The vanguards exchanging volleys... Please notice the priest at the chapel! (photo: C. Hanselmann)

Unfortunately for her, her very elegant and somehow sly enemy Augustus von Wiesel had the order to defend two bridgeheads against all Spanish or Imperial troops which would try to cross the bridges over a small river. Augustus would get a nice award for holding a small redoubt with a gun (4 honours for 8 turns) if he would be under attack. 

(I and my good friend had 1 regimental gun, 1 x pikes, 1 x elite trotters (cuirassiers), 1 x trotters, 2 x musketeers and 1 x Commanded shot devided in two wings defending one bridge per wing.) 

 

Kettie's Commanded shot have their first losses. (photo: C. Hanselmann)

But Kettie had some bad luck resulting in most of the units arriving one after the other at the bridges. Her swordfighters for example moved so late that they arrived after Kettie's own pike unit already suffered heavy losses. Therefore I could concentrate my fire on one unit after another.

 

Finally our gun is firing at the advancing enemy. (photo: C. Hanselmann)

However in the first turns I feared that I would pay a high price too, because not only my Commanded Shot run away fast but soon later my arquebusier riders followed that example (and in my Special orders we had to rout or kill more enemy units then we would lose and in my second Special order I had to rout at least half of Kettie's units).

After some bad luck we are successful in stopping Kettie's forces. Early in the game our vanguard was routed. (photo: C. Hanselmann)

After 4 or 5 turns Kettie's subcommander became frustrated because they lost too many of their best soldiers before even crossing one of the bridges because our light regimental gun finally started to shoot very effectively (after missing to fire for 3 turns or so).

Kettie's best unit with their swords and shields lost too many to really attack our fortifications. (photo: C. Hanselmann) 

Running out of options and troops Kettie and her surviving units decided to fall back and lick their wounds until they will see a better chance to get their revenge.

I was surprised that the Spanish shock troops this time had so little of an effect. After a lot of bad dice rolling at the start of our game, the musketeers and artillery shot very well and more or less won the encounter. For his fine conduct at the engagement he was rewarded with his promotion to lieutenant (and got the musketeer master's trait). Let's see if she will have her opportunity to give me a lesson and my happy comrades... 

Finally Kettie had lost too many of her best troops and decided to retreat with all she had left. (photo: C. Hanselmann)

Some weeks later we had another game. The story is easy. There is the ruin of an old castle surrounded by some more recent structures of fortification. But they were never completed. After some success in our previous game Wiesel decided to occupy Kettie's headquarter which was defended by a group of Royal Musketeers, a company of Musketeers and pikemen. My son called it "Kettie's castle".

 

Das württembergische Zollhaus in Bubenorbis 1626 - The Wurttemberg customs house at Bubenorbis in 1626

Dieses Jahr soll es auch um das Zollhaus in Bubenorbis im Jahr 1626 gehen. Die Geschichte der Querelen zwischen der Reichsstadt Schwäbisch Hall und dem Herzogtum Württemberg wegen dem Zoll- und Wirtshaus ist lang. Zwar musste die Reichsstadt 1532 die Zugehörigkeit der Schmiede und des Zollhauses in Bubenorbis zu Württemberg anerkennen, aber nach der Wiedererrichtung des Zoll- und Wirtshauses 1558 vermehrten sich eher die Konflikte mit Hall. Ihren Höhepunkt fanden sie in dem Zusammenstoß zwischen dem württembergischen Zöllner Matthias Dörner und zwei Haller Metzgermeistern, deren Hirte 1564 brutal vom Zöllner angegriffen wurde. Obwohl die beiden Metzger Römig und Groß beteuerten den Zoll für ihre hundert Schweine entrichtet zu haben, setzte sich der Zöllner anschließend mit Unterstützung von Seiten seiner Landesherrschaft durch und die Haller Metzger sollten bestraft werden, statt dem übergriffigen Zöllner, der behauptet hatte, dass er von den Hallern mit Wehr und Büchse bedroht worden war, zu veruteilen. Immerhin erfahren wir, dass die Metzger damals hätten 8 Schilling Zoll für ihre Schweine entrichten müssen [1].

This year's focus will also be on the customs house in Bubenorbis in 1626. The history of the disputes between the Imperial City of Schwäbisch Hall and the Duchy of Württemberg over the customs house and inn is long. Although the Imperial City had to acknowledge the Württemberg affiliation of the smithy and customs house in Bubenorbis in 1532, conflicts with Hall only intensified after the customs house and inn were rebuilt in 1558. These conflicts culminated in the clash between the Württemberg customs officer Matthias Dörner and two master butchers from Schwäbisch Hall, whose shepherd was brutally attacked by the customs officer in 1564. Although the two butchers, Römig and Groß, insisted they had paid the toll for their one hundred pigs, the toll collector subsequently prevailed with the support of his sovereign, and the Haller butchers were to be punished instead of condemning the overzealous toll collector, who had claimed that he had been threatened with weapons and a rifle by the Haller men. We do, however, learn that the butchers would have had to pay 8 shillings in toll for their pigs at that time [1]. 

 

Württembergische Musketiere 1623 anlässlich des Einrückens der Kompanie des Hammer von Marbach mit Fahne. - Musketeers from Württemberg in 1623 during the indent of Hammer of Marbach's company with their flag. (photo: A.-K. Kemmer)

More Musketeers for the king

 I decided to paint some more figures for PML using sets by RedBox only. First I used the "Guards of Cardinal Richelieu" [1]. There is even a figure for the "men from Meung" in the set. As the Plastic Soldier Review mentioned it, the cross on all of the cassocks is wrong. We find a very simple cross on the only contemporary painting of that unit from the 1620s [2]. Maybe RedBox relied on photos from TV or cinema productions. Although in the most recent movie we see no cassocks for those guards at all [3]. I just ignored the crosses on the figures and painted as I wished. The arquebuses of the set are looking very short compared with the weapons on the painting.

The guards of Richelieu mostly have nice marching poses. One of them has very simple clothes and a long cloak for some reasons. Maybe he has to attack one of D'Artagnan's friends in a narrow street? (photo: F. Hanselmann)

Maybe the guy in the black cloak is one of those poor scoundrels from the novel. The other prominent figure maybe is the comte de Rochefort? (photo: F. Hanselmann)

The Musketeers of the Royal Guard are sculpted with more elaborated details. All of the horses have 2 pistols hanging from the saddles and have very relaxed poses. I decided that these poses are better for escorting the king or a very important commander. (photo: F. Hanselmann)

After these figures, I tried to paint more Musketeers of the famous Guard under the comte de Tréville (1598-1672) - although he was not Capitaine-Lieutenant in 1627 during the siege of La Rochelle [4]. Some of them are on horseback and therefore I had to use the Mounted Musketeers of the king of France [5] however the muskets are looking much too short and they even miss the forked rest. That's very strange because the companions on foot do have them and it's not plausible at all why they should lose them on horse. I asked myself how to use them in the skirmish games because the musketeers on their horses would fight like trotters, maybe using their pistols because you surely can't use your musket shooting from the saddle. In a very interesting documentary by arte you can see the real muskets from the period [6]. These weapons are not only too heavy but too long too. The historian presented a very elaborated model - but maybe these guns were very much decorated because all of the guards were aristocrats such as the famous d'Artagnan himself [7].

Unfortunately riders by RedBox and Strelets mostly don't fit on the somehow fat horses. But the beards are very nicely done. (photo: A. Hanselmann)

Maybe here you can see how I tried to paint most of them very individual clothes, because they are nobles. I didn't cut the feathers as I normally do for that period. (photo: A. Hanselmann)

I have no idea how the flag of the musketeers was looking. Therefore I painted one of them as a normal infantry flag with a with cross on a white field. (photo: A. Hanselmann)