"Minor Battles of the Thirty Years War" Topic

Can anyone suggest a book on minor battles of the TYW, preferably in English, but German gratefully accepted?

Breitenfeld is suitably fascinating, but the number involved mean such actions require and eye-watering number of figures, even at a ratio of 100:1!

Thanks in advance.

Guthrie's much maligned books have outlines of many of the lesser battles as well as the big ones.

No such works in English i'm afraid and only some in German if you are looking for an actual "collection" of battles. Most of the information is hidden away in histories of campaigns or biographies of commanders.

A start is link
Unfortuneately only the 1618-1629 volume is online, the 1632-1636 one is not.
Basicly it's a collection of descriptions based on such works as Theatrum Europeum and similar works so must be taken with a pinch of salt. Good for inspiration though.

Of course the answer depends on how you define a "minor battle" as well. In German usage a engagement migh be labled
a "action" rather than a battle despite numerous troops being present. (I.e Treffen bei Höchst).
In general it can be rather hard to find the details of the various "actions" fought during a campaign, at best oen can find the number of troops invovled and a short description of the action. Even when VIP's like Gustavus is present the details are often sparse. But then even some major battles such as Lutter are poorly described in the sources.

Breitenfeld is of course an extreme as it is the largest battle of the war with a bit over 73000 combatants on the field of battle. Most major battles were considerably smaller , with most having less than 45000 men present, indeed in the later part of the war armies of over 20000 were rare unless two or more armies joined together. (Indeed two or more joined armies were often needed to get more than 15000 in one place)
Compared to many battles of the WSS, SYW and Napoleonic periods even the larger TYW battles are at best medium sized. That of course does not change the fact that one needs a lot of figures for 1st or 2nd Breitenfeld, and of course the cavalry heavy armies of the later half of the war will reuire even more space and cash to field.

Finding a detailed account of the battle in order to do a scenario would be the difficult task. there are many general 'dictionary of battles' type books which have a lot of different levels of battles listed. But as I said they are very general.

Check some old Miniature Wargames and Wargames Illustrated. i found a number of battle in the pre-100 issues. A number for the 1690s as well.

All very fair points – thanks to you all. Daniel, a book in blackletter script is just what I need to keep me out of mischief! It'll probably take me as long to translate it as the original author took to write it!

Rudy, a good excuse there to buy some of the MW and WI CD back numbers.

Thanks once again and happy christmas,

Mitch

Found time for a slightly longer reply!

My definition of a "minor action" is:

One that I can game at a ratio of better than 50:1 in 15mm or larger, not need a tennis court to play it on, and do so without bankrupting myself! A "major action" is one that I couldn't run without another mortgage. Crude, inexact and completely subjective I realise, but there you go!

It also depends whether i'm after accuracy or "feel", which brings me neatly to:

The issue of "accurate" numbers and descriptions – to some extent I will feel "good enough is good enough". Whilst it's fantastic to have ultra-accurate and very precise data such as Daniel generously posted for Breitenfeld, sometimes a "feel" for a battle is enough. If I get information whereby I know that Gustav Aldolf brought X cavalry, Y infantry, Z dragoons and N guns, and deployed on higher ground parellel to a road, I can use a more stylised rule set like DBA-RRR, use the data to fix the ratios of troop types, and be perfectly happy. But sometimes, one wants to portray an action accurately, and examine the nuances. In other words, I'll take what I'm given, and I'll like it!