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A History of Baden

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Thank you for reading, Sir Humphrey. It’s a pleasure to know you’re here.

In case anyone is wondering, I played until 1437, and then decided to make an AAR out of the game, so most of the screenshots are me playing up to a certain point, then taking them. So there will be a few discrepancies between the screenshots and the text. For example, the one I just edited onto chapter 1, part 3 shows 4,000 Tyrolean’s in Southern Baden; in the game that I played, there were only 2,000. In the text, I will be sticking to what happened in the original game, so always trust the text over the screenshots. Sorry about the inconvenience.
 
My dog’s situation has deteriorated; she now has a 50/50 chance of survival. :(
 
The vet just called: my dog now has pneumonia in addition to CPV and probably won’t survive the night. :( :( :(
 
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I'm very sorry to hear that, Fulcrum. :( I know it's cold comfort, but at least we know the pain will soon be over. :(

Your Baden AAR, btw, looks very good so far - regardless of age, and 'even though' English is your native language. I'm very impressed! I think SURVIVING as Baden is fairly doable - in my games Baden usually vanishes because France diploannexes them. Just say no! :) Getting yourself to a reasonable size might be harder.

You mentioned a reasonable/possible Baden in your initial post. What would that be? Southern Germany?
 
EnemyGeneral1.jpg

A contemporary painting of Ludwig von Kulmbach, a brilliant Baden-Sausenbergen general.​


A History of Baden ​
From the Reign of Bernard I to the Present Day​
Chapter 1-The acquisition of Baden-Sausenberg, Part 4​
​

The Battle of Altdorf​


Bernard had initially marched to Altdorf because he had heard reliable reports the Elz river had frozen over sufficiently there to support the weight of his army crossing over it. When he arrived, he found that this was true; the Elz had, in two spots, frozen over heavily. This, however, did not change the fact that there were enemy troops waiting for him on the other side.

Even under perfect conditions, attempting a river crossing is hazardous business. Early January is far from “perfect conditions.” Troops could only pass at frozen stretches, and if a man carrying dozens of pounds of armor, let alone a horse, strayed onto thin ice, they would die of shock (if lucky) of hypothermia and drowning (if unlucky). And these were the things that Bernard was worrying about before he even learned of his opponents’ existence.

The Elz river was a perfect defensive line for an inferior force. The army of Baden could only cross it at two spots, each barley wide enough to accommodate several hundred infantry at a time. Bernard’s scouts had confirmed that there were no other crossings nearby, and a crossing on a boat was hazardous due to the icy conditions on the river. In fact, the army’s supply situation was now tenuous, with large numbers of oxen and cattle being impressed to haul supplies from the ice free Rhine to the army itself, bypassing the now ice choked Elz. There was simply no alternative to throwing a large number of men across the river and praying for a success; no flanking maneuvers could be attempted, nor could any tactics short of charging and staying alive be implemented. By the time Bernard realized this, it was 8:45 AM.

By 9:00 AM Bernard had a first wave of 1,000 infantry and 200 cavalry ready. The cavalry would charge across and create a hole in the Baden-Sausenbergen lines large enough for the infantry to follow. Once both were on the other bank, it would be their task to expand the perimeter so that it could receive reinforcements. He left control of his reserves to his son-in-law, Count Emich VII von Leiningen-Hartenburg, who had accompanied him during the campaign along with his personal guard. As an afterthought, Bernard ordered nearly 1,000 of his cavalry to make a faint on the second crossing, just before he launched his own attack.

BattleofAltdorf.jpg

The initial assault went well; the majority of the opposing army was guarding against his faint on the other crossing. With his 1,200 men facing merely 600 infantry, it appeared that he could win. However, Herr Ludwig von Kulmbach, the commander of the Baden-Sausenbergen army was possessed of a brilliant mind for battle and nerves of steel. Leaving the barest of a rear guard, he rushed the remainder of his army to support his crumbling force. The fighting was heavy, and casualties quickly mounted on both sides. By 9:45 it became apparent to all commanders involved that the toehold that Barnard had established was not expanding and was, if anything, shrinking. Bernard was left with no choice but to abandon the bodies of the dead and all wounded who could not make it across the Elz and retreat. The failed assault had cost him 75 infantry and 20 cavalry dead, mortally wounded, or captured. Ludwig von Kulmbach had lost 40 men.

It took Bernard an hour and fifteen minutes to prepare a second wave to attempt the assault once again, in similar composition to the first one. Again, he would lead the forces personally. This time, however, they charged straight into the teeth of Ludwig’s defenses. After blunting the Baden-Baden charge, the Baden-Sausenbergen army counter-attacked, pushing Bernard’s forces into the middle of the river. Half an hour later, both sides disengaged, Bernard due to excessive casualties, and Ludwig due to a fear of being drawn onto the other bank and having the bulk of the Baden-Baden army defeat his own forces piecemeal. Bernard lost 225 infantry and 30 cavalry; Ludwig lost 60 infantry. It was at this time that Bernard requested a three hour truce to identify, collect, and bury the dead. Ludwig accepted.

While both sides used the truce for the said reason of burial of the dead (made difficult due to the frozen, ground) both also used it for the purpose of reorganizing their formations in preparation for the next round. Bernard still needed to break through Ludwig’s lines, and Ludwig still needed to hold out until the main Baden-Sausenbergen army arrived. More combat at the end of the truce was inevitable. Bernard had now tried twice to attain a beachhead on the opposite bank of the Elz and had failed both times. This time, he would try something new; he ordered 400 of his knights to dismount and act as shock infantry to spearhead the assault over the second ford. They would be followed by nearly 2000 infantry. And, of course, Bernard would fight at the front lines, dismounted like the rest of his knights.

At 3:00 PM, the Baden-Baden army once again assaulted Ludwig’s lines. To the amazement of all involved, Bernard’s dismounted knights actually succeeded in punching a hole through the Baden-Sausenbergen army over the course of the next hour and a half, inflicting upon them heavy casualties. Sensing disaster, Ludwig von Kulmbach ordered his 175 cavalrymen which he had held in reserve to charge through the flank of the Baden-Baden foot knights and encircle them. In an amazing bit of luck, they charged into not Bernard’s hardened knights, but rather hit the flank of his infantry, which had just moved up. The result was a slaughter; in the next 10 minutes, they tore a gaping hole in Bernard’s right flank, killing nearly 500 infantrymen. Facing the threat of imminent encirclement, Bernard had no choice but to hastily withdraw his forces, losing 75 foot knights while employing them as a rearguard. Bernard’s last assault of the day had gone from a dramatic impending victory to an absolute fiasco in the time it takes to brew a cup of coffee and make a sandwich. With the short winter day coming to a close, Bernard ordered his army to retire.
CavalryCharge1.jpg

Ludwig’s cavalry charge against Bernard’s flank.​
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Whoops! I cleverly forgot to add the comments.

Walter Model: thank you for the complements!

CatKnight: First I would like to say that I am thoroughly enjoying resurrection, and that a complement from a writer as good as you means a lot to me.

About my comments in the first post: “plausible” is really a matter of personal opinion. However, I would cap my number of provinces at about 5-10, including vassals. I will also be heavily role-playing, so if anything was impossible for a real nation in the HRE to do, you won’t see me doing it. Generally, this means very few military annexations/ land being transfer as part of a peace deal with other Catholic nations. After the reformation however…but I digress. Basically, I just want to stay small enough for the game to be challenging and interesting, even if that means intentionally losing wars.

By the way, does anyone know what the possessive form of Baden is? Badeneese? Badenish? Badenian?

Edit: And you’d be amazed how much effort went into making that laughably simplistic map with nothing but MS Paint.
 
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On Signatures

Are there certain rank/post-number/other requirements for getting a signature? Because as of right now, that option appears to simply not exist for me. If not, that probably means that I just missed the “make signature” button; if so, could someone tell me where that is?

Thank you very much.

I would have posted this in the OT forum, but I don’t have permission to access that. Does anyone know why that is? :confused:
 
My dog died some time last night. She was 11 weeks old. :( :( :( :( :(
 
EnemyGeneral1.jpg
A contemporary painting of Ludwig von Kulmbach, a brilliant Baden-Sausenbergen general.​

A History of Baden​
From the Reign of Bernard I to the Present Day​
​
Chapter 1-The acquisition of Baden-Sausenberg, Part 4​

The Battle of Altdorf, Day 2​
Bernard spent much f the night agonizing over the reasons for his defeat on the first day. While using dismounted knights as heavy infantry had nearly won the battle, he recognized that that alone would not be enough. By next morning, he had discovered the two errors which he believed to be critical on the first day. The first was only launching only one assault at any given time. His reasons for doing this stemmed mostly from his inability to command both simultaneously and still be in the front lines; and the day when Bernard I would not lead from the front lines was the day that hell would freeze over. However, he decided that, on the second day, both crossing points would be attacked at the same time, with one under the command of a trusted lieutenant (the other, of course, would be under his own command). His second mistake had been far more elementary: he had not utilized his archers at all.

Surprisingly, up until day 2 there had been no participation of archers or crossbowmen in the battle whatsoever. On the Baden-Sausenbergen side this was due to their complete lack of ranged units. Rudolf III had only partially converted his army to Hussite style wagon fort tactics, and those wagons had absolute priority for archers and crossbowmen. Von Kulmbach’s army, however, had not been converted to Wagon-forts and, therefore, had no ranged forces, merely pikes and swords. However, it was faster than the lumbering wagons, especially in bad weather conditions, providing the reason for it being deployed so far in advance of the main army. Yet, Bernard had no such excused; he had approximately 1,000 archers and crosbowmen, but had not yet used them, preferring surprise and shock to a long lasting barrage.

archers1.jpg

Bernard’s Archers on the second day of the battle of Altdorf​

However, archers could prove to be just the “silver bullet” that Bernard needed, because the Baden-Sausenbergen couldn’t use any of the standard medieval anti-archer tactics. They couldn’t fight fire with fire; they didn’t have any archers of their own. They couldn’t retreat out of the archer’s range; that would lose them their river defensive line. They could not cross the river and engage the archers in melee combat; that would be outright suicidal. Ludwig von Kulmbach would be left with no choice but to order his men to suck it up at point blank range.

Bernard’s strategy on the second day would be brutally simplistic. The archers would barrage the Baden-Sausenbergen lines until they ran out of arrows. After that, he was simply going to throw as many men as he possibly could across the river and intro the meat grinder, and hope for the best. On day one he had lost 800 infantry and 125 knights, 8.5% and 6.25% of their respective arms. Ludwig, meanwhile, had lost 250 infantry (13% of his total) and 20 cavalry (11%). Nobody had any doubt that the second day would be far bloodier.

After insuring that his men had eaten a large breakfast, the barrage started at 7:30 AM, and lasted until 7:50. Bernard’s 600 archers had each fired 5 arrows per minute for twenty minutes, a total of 60,000 arrows. His 400 crossbowmen had fired two bolts per minute, or 16,000 bolts.

Ludwig immediately responded to the threat by ordering his formations to retreat to extreme bow range. He reasoned that, by retreating several hundred yards, his forces could weather most of the barrage, then advance again when Bernard’s melee troops began their advance. By taking these measures, he insured that only half a percent of the arrows used against his army hit their mark; yet .5% of 76000 still meant 380 additional casualties. He now had 1220 infantry and 150 cavalry to hold off Bernard’s army. He was outnumbered nine to one, and was several hundred meters behind the Elz River when the main body of the army of Baden-Baden began its charge.

In the time that it took for the Baden-Sausenbergen army to cover the ground between their fallback positions and the army of Baden-Baden, Bernard had managed to move over a thousand foot knights on to the opposite bank, and there were thousands of infantry waiting behind them. Ludwig von Kulmbach simply threw everything at the opposing lines, in the vain hope that he could throw them back across the river, as he had on three previous occasions.

battle1.jpg

The armies collide.​

It was, however, hopeless. Ludwig’s men, disheartened after losing a third of their comrades over the last two days and despairing of their numerical inferiority, broke and ran after barley 10 minutes. Amazingly, Ludwig was able to rally his routing men and form a vaguely orderly retreat back to Freiburg. However, of the 2,000 men that had marched north to stop the Army of Baden-Baden, only 900 trickled back to Freiburg. Barnard’s casualties on the second day of the battle of Altdorf were negligible.

It was 8:00 AM, January 9th, 1420. The main Baden-Sausenbergen army had just arrived outside Freiburg.
 
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I really like this aar. I´m sure you´ll be succesful in creating a small empire.
 
As of this post, I have made 19 of the 33 posts in this AAR (58%). Furthermore, I have only received one reply to my last two updates (discounting Saulta’s condolences about my dog). I don't think that that is a healthy state for any AAR to be in; other than Saulta, I am beginning to doubt that there is much reader interest in this. :(
 
Yes, please continue, people will arrive sooner or later. Besides, many may read it, but not post. That´s common.
 
Okay, I'll continue this if I know that 2+ people are reading. I just got scared when only one person posted in reply to the “Battle of Altdorf” updates. I guess I’m just a little jumpy, that all.

Oh, and you can probably expect the quality on the updates to improve somewhat; I discovered an amazing thing called editing… ;)

And I need to reiterate this: does anyone know what the possessive form of Baden is? Badeneese? Badenish? Badenian?
 
While Google image searching for “Hussite War” this came up:

amuzingpicture.jpg
:D

I found it funny, anyway.
 
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