Historicon 2021 – Berestechko after action report.

I arrived at the hotel at around 2pm on Friday, having arranged an early check-in. I had made sure that my room was on the same side of the hotel as my games and I was lucky to be on the second floor. This made transporting my figures both from the car to the room, and from the room to the table, easy. I was settled into my room by 3pm and I had sorted out my figures and terrain into two piles, one for each of the two games I was running. I then explored the hotel and spoke to a few friends before enjoying a modern naval game at 6pm. At the end of the game I had a quick beer before getting an early night so that I could get up at 5am to start setting up the Battle of Berestechko for a 9am start. What follows is the Berestechko after action report.

Initial deployments.

The table was ready to go thirty minutes early which felt good. In the above picture in the foreground is the cossack peasant and non-register cossack wagon tabor. Above them on the left is the register cossack wagon tabor with some dismounted cossack cavalry between the two. On the upper left side of the table are the massed ranks of Tatar cavalry.

I deployed the Polish on the right with the infantry and artillery in the foreground. The Polish cavalry were then deployed starting heavy Pancerni and Winged Hussars. Above them are the Polish style cossacks and finally the noble levy.

Here are some pictures from the Cossack side:

Opening moves

We had places for eight players which were all sold-out. Seven of the eight showed up, which I was more than happy with for a 9am game on the first full day of the convention. Even more importantly, the guys that showed up were a fantastic bunch of people. All of the players got stuck in to the game, were friendly and made the game a joy to run. Now on to the Battle of Berestechko after action report.

The Polish objective was to destroy the two cossack wagon tabors. If they destroyed one the game would be considered a draw, if they destroyed none then it would be a cossack victory and if they destroyed two it would be a decisive victory.

The Poles started boldly with an advance all across the line.

The cavalry battle on the cossack left would go back and forth for many turns of the battle. Although the Tatar theoretically outmatched the flamboyant Polish Nobel Levy, some great dice work by the Polish gave the Tatars some initial set backs and even destroyed a few units.

I made some rule modifications to reflect the style of Battle in Eastern Europe. I added a cavalry formation called “open order”. This formation does not exist in the rules; it is essentially skirmish order, except that the cavalry can charge.

The Cossack right.

On the cossack right, the Polish infantry started their advance against the two wagon tabors. They seemed undeterred by the defenses ahead of them.

Moves in the Center.

In the centre the Polish heavy cavalry charged forward to engage the Tatars. The Tatars thought better of getting into hand to hand combat with these formidable units and chose to keep firing their bows and running backs. This tactic worked for a while and inflicted some serious casualties. However, it would not work for ever, and the Polish cavalry eventually caught up with their foes and inflicted terrible casualties.

As a result of the Winged Hussars routing some Tatars, they came face to face with some register cossacks that had come out of their wagon tabor hoping to take on the Polish infantry. Facing the mighty Hussars they decided to quickly retreat back to the wagon tabor in search of safety.

Back on the cossack right

The Polish infantry continued their advance on the cossacks even in the face of musket and cannon fire.

The Cavalry Battle turns

Although on the Cossack far left, the Tatars had routed the Polish Nobel Levy, in the centre the Polish Cossacks, Pancerni and Winged Hussars had cleared the Tatars in front of them. However, despite fighting valiantly, the Winged Hussars had taken too much damage and had to withdraw from the field. Their retreat gave a short lived moral boost to the cossack side.

With command of the center the Polish Cavalry split into two, one unit went to engage the remaining Tatars on the edge of the battlefield and the other moved aggressively against the flank of the Register cossack wagon Tabor.

The endgame

With Haiduks attacking the front and the Polish heavy cavalry attacking from the flank, the Register Cossack was the first Wagon Tabor to fall. As the peasant cossacks were taking casualties from the Polish infantry, the remaining cossack wagon tabor could see the writing on the wall and decided to concede.

With 650 troops on the table we finished this fast paced battle in just three hours. Although this was an hour quicker than we had planned, everyone seemed very happy to have played an exciting fast paced game. There was also the added bonus that they had an extra hour to race around the dealer hall before their next scheduled game. Hopefully this Berestechko after action report gives you a flavor of the game. Within the next week, I plan to do a report on the other battle that I put on – Bicocca 1522.