ORGANISATION OF THE SWEDISH BLUE BRIGADE AT THE BATTLE OF LUTZEN 1632
Organization of Swedish Musketeers:
I found also different opinions about ranks for pikemen, but it seems to me the more common idea that it was a 6-ranks deep formation too.
I started to cut my papersoldiers to recreate the Old Blue Brigade at the battle of Lutzen in 1632 under the command of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. The actual size of this Birgade (deplaced in the front line of the Swedish battle array) was of 486 musketeers and 102 officers ( I think included corporals) for a total number of 588 men plus 432 pikemen and 90 officers for a total of 522 men.
I decided to place the papersoldiers on stand that could recreate both shape of the Swedish Brigade as conceived by Gustavus Adolphus. As it is know there is not a clear idea of how it actually worked on the battlefields the Swedish brigade. I did some research and some thoughts how to make this up.
I decided then to recreate the Swedish Brigade in this way (M = musketeers and P = pikemen):
MM-MM
MM-MM PPPP-PPPP-PPPP MM-MM
As you can see every MM or PPPP represents a stand I am going to do. So you can see that on the left the Musketeers formations is made by 2 stands, while the central Pikemen formation is made by 3 stands. This could allow the player to move (splitting each formation in its stands) and trasform the unit from an offensive unit with musketeers shootin on a wide range to a defensive formation with the pikemen arrayed in defense of the musketeers, as here shown:
PPPP
MM PPPP MM-MM PPPP MM
MM- MM
As you can see the central Pikemen stand moved forward, while the 2 front Musketeers units slippered back in reserve, while 2 lateral Musketeers stand found shelter in between the Pikemen stands. It is then posible to understand how complicated was this maneovre - above all on battlefields - and how high level of training should have the soldiers to perform this and why just after the death of Gustavus Adolphus this system was no more used by the Swedish.
The Musketeers stands (MM in the above diagrams) are on 16 rows (on 6 ranks deep) for a total of 96 papersoldiers (and real soldiers too!!), with a front of 8 cm wide (i.e. 2 papersoldiers every cm) and 7 cm deep.
The Pikemen stands (PPPP in the above diagrams) are on 29 rows (on 6 ranks deep) for a total of 174 papersoldiers/stand with a front of 14 cm wide and 7 cm deep.
With the numbers I gave it is easy to calculate the frontage of the Swedish Brigade on the 1:1 rate: 32 cm for Musketeers and 42 cm for Pikemen plus a little interspace between units for a total of about 78 cm wide.
There is the problem of Officers, drummers and Colours. For this purpose I saw a lot of printing of the epoch to have an idea. The Colours were in total 12, divided in 4 - 4- 4 in front of the units. There was also a clouds of Officers around the unit. So I decided to put 3 officers in the front, with flags and drummers, and 4 officers on the back of each units. The drummers I put inside the units but I didn't have any evidence in the printings that they were actually inside and I think that it would have been weird and hindering the movements of the soldiers in their very elaborated way of firing and defending with pikes. So I decided to put on a stand together with the officers and the colours.
Considering that at the Battle of Lutzen the first line of Infantry was based on 4 Brigades (but the others with much less Pikemen and then narrower) you have to consider that your boardgame will have for the Infantry 320 cm wide front.
PS: the terrein of the boardgame is a simple fake grass booght at Leroy Merlin, 3m X 2m. I will add some brown colour to give it a more realistic outlook.
It is now interesting to note how wide is the Old Blue Brigade as deployed in the photos at a ratio 1:1.
I actually read on this site https://www.baccus6mm.com/index.php?content=projects where they reproduced a 1:1 battle of the English Civil War. (by the way a phantastic work!) where he says that :"Each of the larger formations contains over 1000 individual miniatures, and measures 50cm (20 inches) across its frontage."
I was a little bit astonished by this measurements. The frontage of my Old Blue Brigade is actually 79 cm wide for about 1.000 figures (displayed on six ranks deep as in the baccus 6mm site is visible to be those troops too).
In the photos I published you can see that every figure is very close to the other and so I am wondering how it is possible to make it thinner.
Obviously what is really a plus in the papersoldiers is the fact that the figures are 15 mm tall. I think this is the unique case when is possible to see a Swedish Brigade at 1:1 ratio on a 15 mm scale. The effect is great.
Persons that saw this Brigade thought the number of figures being just about 300 ca.
Then I let to everyone of you to judge the effect. Obviously now I would like to recreate the Yellow (Guard) Brigade of the Battle of Lutzen, also because it sacrified itself along with the Old Blue Brigade in that fight.
Michele L. SAVASTA FIORE
Organization of Swedish Musketeers:
- Six musketeers made a file
- Four files made a corporalship, commanded by a corporal who was also one of the four file leaders. A drummer was attached to each corporalship.
- Two corporalships made a platoon, commanded by a lieutenant and a sergeant.
- Two platoons made a division of musketeers, commanded by the senior lieutenant.
- Two divisions of musketeers made a squadron when combined with two divisions of pikemen and a reserve of four corporalships of 'commanded' musketeers.
- When firing by division, musketeers doubled their ranks to create a three-rank line, allowing all to fire simultaneously.
- When firing by platoon, either two or four salvés may be discharged.
- If two salvés, ranks 1-3 in each platoon would fire the first round with ranks 4-6 the second.
- If four salvés:
- Ranks 1-3 in the two right-hand plattons fired for the first salvé,
- Then ranks 1-3 of the left-hand platoons for the second,
- Then ranks 4-6 of the right-hand platoons for the third salvé,
- Then ranks 4-6 of the left-hand platoons for the fourth.
I found also different opinions about ranks for pikemen, but it seems to me the more common idea that it was a 6-ranks deep formation too.
I started to cut my papersoldiers to recreate the Old Blue Brigade at the battle of Lutzen in 1632 under the command of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. The actual size of this Birgade (deplaced in the front line of the Swedish battle array) was of 486 musketeers and 102 officers ( I think included corporals) for a total number of 588 men plus 432 pikemen and 90 officers for a total of 522 men.
I decided to place the papersoldiers on stand that could recreate both shape of the Swedish Brigade as conceived by Gustavus Adolphus. As it is know there is not a clear idea of how it actually worked on the battlefields the Swedish brigade. I did some research and some thoughts how to make this up.
I decided then to recreate the Swedish Brigade in this way (M = musketeers and P = pikemen):
MM-MM
MM-MM PPPP-PPPP-PPPP MM-MM
As you can see every MM or PPPP represents a stand I am going to do. So you can see that on the left the Musketeers formations is made by 2 stands, while the central Pikemen formation is made by 3 stands. This could allow the player to move (splitting each formation in its stands) and trasform the unit from an offensive unit with musketeers shootin on a wide range to a defensive formation with the pikemen arrayed in defense of the musketeers, as here shown:
PPPP
MM PPPP MM-MM PPPP MM
MM- MM
As you can see the central Pikemen stand moved forward, while the 2 front Musketeers units slippered back in reserve, while 2 lateral Musketeers stand found shelter in between the Pikemen stands. It is then posible to understand how complicated was this maneovre - above all on battlefields - and how high level of training should have the soldiers to perform this and why just after the death of Gustavus Adolphus this system was no more used by the Swedish.
The Musketeers stands (MM in the above diagrams) are on 16 rows (on 6 ranks deep) for a total of 96 papersoldiers (and real soldiers too!!), with a front of 8 cm wide (i.e. 2 papersoldiers every cm) and 7 cm deep.
The Pikemen stands (PPPP in the above diagrams) are on 29 rows (on 6 ranks deep) for a total of 174 papersoldiers/stand with a front of 14 cm wide and 7 cm deep.
With the numbers I gave it is easy to calculate the frontage of the Swedish Brigade on the 1:1 rate: 32 cm for Musketeers and 42 cm for Pikemen plus a little interspace between units for a total of about 78 cm wide.
There is the problem of Officers, drummers and Colours. For this purpose I saw a lot of printing of the epoch to have an idea. The Colours were in total 12, divided in 4 - 4- 4 in front of the units. There was also a clouds of Officers around the unit. So I decided to put 3 officers in the front, with flags and drummers, and 4 officers on the back of each units. The drummers I put inside the units but I didn't have any evidence in the printings that they were actually inside and I think that it would have been weird and hindering the movements of the soldiers in their very elaborated way of firing and defending with pikes. So I decided to put on a stand together with the officers and the colours.
Considering that at the Battle of Lutzen the first line of Infantry was based on 4 Brigades (but the others with much less Pikemen and then narrower) you have to consider that your boardgame will have for the Infantry 320 cm wide front.
PS: the terrein of the boardgame is a simple fake grass booght at Leroy Merlin, 3m X 2m. I will add some brown colour to give it a more realistic outlook.
It is now interesting to note how wide is the Old Blue Brigade as deployed in the photos at a ratio 1:1.
I actually read on this site https://www.baccus6mm.com/index.php?content=projects where they reproduced a 1:1 battle of the English Civil War. (by the way a phantastic work!) where he says that :"Each of the larger formations contains over 1000 individual miniatures, and measures 50cm (20 inches) across its frontage."
I was a little bit astonished by this measurements. The frontage of my Old Blue Brigade is actually 79 cm wide for about 1.000 figures (displayed on six ranks deep as in the baccus 6mm site is visible to be those troops too).
In the photos I published you can see that every figure is very close to the other and so I am wondering how it is possible to make it thinner.
Obviously what is really a plus in the papersoldiers is the fact that the figures are 15 mm tall. I think this is the unique case when is possible to see a Swedish Brigade at 1:1 ratio on a 15 mm scale. The effect is great.
Persons that saw this Brigade thought the number of figures being just about 300 ca.
Then I let to everyone of you to judge the effect. Obviously now I would like to recreate the Yellow (Guard) Brigade of the Battle of Lutzen, also because it sacrified itself along with the Old Blue Brigade in that fight.
Michele L. SAVASTA FIORE
