Category: Khmelnytsky Uprising

The Polish Grand Hetman (the great Jeff Wasileski) arrived to review the performance of his troops at Fall In! Below the photo is a quick video showing all of the deployed troops before the start of the battle.

Last weekend we carried out a play-test of the Battle of Bila Tserkva 1651 at the Wargaming Association of Metropolitan Philadelphia. The game will be played at Fall In! at 9am next Saturday. Bila Tserkva is a town in modern day Ukraine, located about 50 miles south of Kyiv. I believe that Bila Tserkva is the Ukrainian spelling and Biala Cerkiew is Polish. In English the literal translation is White Church, which of course required me to build the white Church.

The Battle was between the forces of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Cossacks of Khmelnystsky.

In this post I will discuss the research, give the orders of battle, show the initial deployments, and discuss key features. I don’t want to discuss the play-test itself too much as I don’t want to give things away prior to Fall In!. I will do an after action report following the convention.

Research.

I have used a Polish book by Marcin Domagala titled “Biala Cerkiew 23-25 IX 1651” as the main text to research the battle. There is very little information in English on this battle, so I have spent many hours with Google Translate.

The other main information used to recreate the battle were two period pictures. I really wanted to capture the feel of the pictures while staying true to the account of the battle in the book.

The main item that I wanted to capture from this first image is the double wagon tabor camp of the Poles. This required a huge amount of work in preparing a load of wagons, but I think that it was worth it. The other item of note is the defenses of the cossacks on the right. These were old, poorly maintained defenses of the Bila Tserkva fort. I also wanted to make sure these were represented.

The second photo show the Polish checkered deployment which was typical of their battle tactics of the time. The other item of note from the photo is the mass of cossacks on the right. It was important for me to recreate both of these items. This photo required me to paint a mass of cossacks for this battle over and above the ones I already had.

Order of Battle.

The following is the order of battle that I plan to use. I make no claims as to the accuracy of this order of battle, but I feel that it gives a good representation of the forces used and makes for an interesting game:

Polish and Lithuanian

• Overall Command Base
• One unit of 8 German Reiter Style cavalry

Center

• Heavy Cavalry Command Base
• One unit of 8 Winged Hussars
• Three units of 8 Pancerni

• Infantry Command Base
• Two units of 12 German style pike
• Four units of 12 German style shot
• Three units of 12 Haiduks
• Two medium cannons
• Forty two wagons, some with small cannons

LEFT FLANK

• Noble levy cavalry command base
• Five units of 8 Noble levy cavalry

RIGHT FLANK

• Polish cossack cavalry command base
• Four units of 8 Polish cossack cavalry

• Polish cossack cavalry command base
• Four units of 8 Polish cossack cavalry.

Cossacks and Tatar

• Tatar Overall Command base
• Cossack Overall Command base

LEFT FLANK

• Tatar command base
• Four units of 8 Tatar cavalry
• Cossack command base
• Four units of 8 Cossack cavalry

CEnter

• Infantry command base
• Three units of 12 Register cossacks
• Four units of 12 Moloitsy cossack
• Three units of 30 Cossack Peasants
• Infantry command base
• Three units of 12 Register cossacks
• Four units of 12 Moloitsy cossack
• Three units of 30 Cossack Peasants
• Three medium cannons

Right Flank

• Cavalry command base
• Four units of 8 Tatar cavalry

Reserves

• Tatar Command base
• Four units of 8 Tatar Cavalry
• Cossack cavalry command base
• Four units of 8 Cossack Cavalry

Deployments for Bila Tserkva 1651

Photos of the Polish initial positions

Here are some photos of the Polish initial deployments going from right, through center to the left.

Photos of the cossack initial positions

Here are some photos of the cossack initial positions:

Key features of the battle Bila Tserkva 1651.

The Battle of Bila Tserkva 1651 took place between two rivers which join behind the Cossack defenses at Bila Tserkva. These rivers are off table. Adjacent to the Ros river on the cossack left were some marshes, burial mounds and apiaries. I felt that it was important to represent these as they had a role in the battle.

Of course the Battle of Bila Tserkva (“white church”) needs a white church and other buildings.

The Polish wagon tabor is an essential element of the game and took a lot of time to build. They are two rows deep rather than the three in the period picture but that is a compromise I was prepared to make for the sake of my wallet and sanity.

The Polish wagon tabors

The final feature that I wanted to recreate was the Cossack defenses and the massed cossacks behind them. I think that I managed to achieve an accurate representation of the images.

Summary

This blog post is intended to give some of the background of the Bila Tserkva 1651 game and information on orders of battle and deployments. I feel that I have captured the spectacle that I was trying to achieve. The book and pictures of the battle really helped me design this game.

I will give details of how the battle played out in an after action report in a few weeks.

Last Saturday the Wargaming Association of Metropolitan Philadelphia ran the final play test of Trylisy 1651 for Fall In! The By Fire and Sword rules are reasonably new to us. We felt that we needed this additional game to practice and to get the balance right.

Changes.

The Trylisy 1651 game differed from the last time we play tested in a few ways:

• I added a number of new buildings that I have recently painted to make the village more substantial. I really liked the new blacksmiths shed and the well.
• I increased the table size from 5′ x 7′ to 5′ x 14′ to give more room for maneuver. This created more space, especially on the flanks
• I reduced the number of walls, tree lines and field defenses to give the cossacks less of an advantage.
• I added two units of Polish Noble Levy, one on each flank, to boost the Polish forces. These units are both insubordinate, which puts a drain on the Polish command points if not carefully managed. Because of this limitation, even though they look like a lot of figures, they don’t make the Polish too strong.
• I slightly increased the size of the cossack infantry units as I had some more bases arrive from Litko.

How the Trylisy 1651 game played.

The Polish Pancerni and Winged Hussars, supported by a unit of Polish style cossacks attacked one side of the village. This attack overpowered the defenders. These cossack used pikes to defend themselves as there was no wall on that side of the village.

On each flank the units of Noble Levy attacked opposing mounted cossacks, which were small units. After some initial success, the Nobel Levy found themselves struggling to get new orders. The commanders were in the center controlling the attack on the village. The combination of distance and the insubordinate rule meant that they would need three command points to receive new orders. There just weren’t enough command points available at the time. It is the first time that I have seen the command point issue take prominent place in a game. I liked the way it worked.

As a result of the massed Polish cavalry and the lack of walls, the cossack center gradually crumbled. The only unit that really managed to hold was a unit of Register cossacks behind a wall. The lack of impetus modifier for the cavalry, and cavalry attacking infantry in defendable terrain, gave the infantry an advantage. Eventually the cavalry managed to break into the village in other areas and even the Register cossack’s position became untenable.

Changes in Trylisy 1651 for Fall In!

In the last play test of Trylisy 1651 the cossacks completely destroyed the Poles. The changes that I made for this game gave an advantage to the Poles which I now need to address. With a new set of rules it is sometime difficult to understand how to get the balance right. The combination of adding two units of Noble Levy and removing the walls around the village was just too much. I need to make a few modifications to get the balance right. However, I need to be careful not to go too much the other way.

I plan to make the following changes for Fall In! to even the balance:

• The heavy cavalry consisting of the Pancerni and Winged Hussars will not appear on the table until Turn 3. The initial assault of the Poles will therefore need to be done with the lighter cavalry. This change should prevent the cossacks being completely overwhelmed by cavalry early in the game.
• I will give the village a few more walls to make it more defendable.
• With the initial absence of Polish heavy cavalry in the centre, I will move the Noble Levy in a bit.
• I will have a couple of defendable positions on the flanks. The will allow the mounted cossacks to advance into and dismount. This change will make the mounted cossacks a bit more effective and interesting. It will also give the Poles something to be concerned about on the flank.

Summary

With these small changes I think that the Trylisy 1651 scenario will be balanced. These games showed the importance of play testing before a convention, particularly with a new set of rules. Being a new set of rules to us, and probably most convention goers, I will limit the players to four. This limit will allow me to teach the rules effectively.

Over the last few weeks we have been play testing the 1651 Battle of Trylisy in 28mm using the By Fire and Sword rules.

At Historicon in 2021, I ran the 1651 Battle of Berestechko using Pike and Shotte early on the Thursday morning. This Battle took place between the 28th and 30th June, 1651. The cossacks lost the battle and retreated. Eventually the Poles and Lithuanians caught up with the cossacks at Bila Tserkva (white church) on the 24th September 1651. On the Saturday morning at Fall In! 2022 I plan to run the Battle of Bila Tserkva again using Pike and Shotte rules. This game will be reasonably large and will be for 8-10 players.

Before the engagement at Bila Tserkva, the Poles fought a small engagement against some cossack units at village Trylisy on 23rd August. The village was defended by a small garrison of about 600 cossacks. At Fall In! 2022 I also plan to run the Battle of Trylisy on the Friday. As it is a smaller engagement I plan to use the By Fire and Sword rules. As the rules are more complex and detailed, I plan to limit the number of players to four. This smaller game will allow me to tech the rules to anyone who has not played them before and wants to try them out.

At our last club games day we tried the rules for a second time. We caught most of the errors that we made during a first outing of the rules, but made a few new errors. As a result of the game I believe that we now have a good understanding of the system.

Most of the errors that we made the first time involved not understanding the cossack infantry special rules, which give them some defensive options against cavalry. As a result the cossacks got massacred. Because of this game, we overcompensated by giving the cossacks too many defenses, which made it extremely hard going for the Poles. I believe we now have a good understanding of how to achieve a balanced game.

I am hoping that I will get a few players that want to get to learn the By Fire and Sword rules sign up for the game. In my opinion it is a set of rules that really captures the flavor of the period. Due to the size of the rule book they can seem a little overwhelming. But a convention should allow people to try them out.

I plan to have a relatively small number of units. The Poles will have a unit of Winged Hussars, a unit of Pancerni, two units of Polish cossack style cavalry and two units of Noble Levy. The cossacks will have two unit of register cossacks, two unit of moloitsy and two units of mounted cossacks. Each player will have three units to control.

We should easily be able to finish the game of the Battle of Trylisy within the four hours.

For players preferring the larger game, I will be running the battle of Bila Tserkva on the Saturday with way more troops. This game will use the Pike and Shotte rules.

This weekend we had our first game with the by Fire and Sword rules. The rule set is designed to use the writers range of 15mm figures. However, I have a large collection (600 figures) of Poles, Cossacks and Tatars in 28mm. I also have about 300 Ottoman figures to paint in 28mm. I wanted to see if I could use By Fire and Sword with 28mm figures.

Changes for 28mm

We normally use Pike and Shotte rules for large games using my figures. For example, I ran the Battle of Berestechko at Historicon in 2021. I see the Pike and Shotte as more suited to large games with multiple players. However, I see that By Fire and Sword could be a very nice alternative for smaller scale skirmish games.

The only real changes that we made to the rules were that we doubled up all distances, including the movement and ranges. I then purchased custom bases from Litko that were double the frontage of the 15mm bases that By Fire and Sword sell. litho are excellent with custom orders.

Table size

The only real concern that I had was if my 5′ x 6′ table in my house would be large enough considering that the distances had been doubled. We played with 4 units per side – 13 Force Points for the Poles and 11 Force Points for the Cossacks. The table was sufficient for this sized game, but if I went any larger I would need a larger table at a club game’s day.

Data sheets and Quick Reference sheets.

I found that the rules take some getting used to. I had prepared unit data sheets in advance, which really helped. However, we kept needing to refer to 3 or 4 tables in the main rule book and I need to make a quick reference sheet for our next game. The quick reference sheet included in the book is just too complex.

How the rules worked out.

The main issues that we had were understanding some of the movement rules and understanding some of the details of using cossacks. This lack of understanding really put the cossacks at a disadvantage. We did not fully understand the rules advantage that the cossack pikes/spears had against cavalry. We also did not understand that cossack shot could fire (at a reduce effect) from the second row.

The Polish cavalry were a lot more forgiving of not understanding the rules. The Winged Hussars were dominant throughout the game, despite only being a unit of three bases.

Overall, the Poles easily won the game. Playing the game gave me many questions that I had to clarify in the rules the evening after the game. I think that we all have a better understanding of the rules now and the cossacks will be much more effective next time.

I liked the rule set, but I think that using them for small skirmish style games is the way forward for me. I just don’t see them replacing Pike and Shotte for large club games.

To conclude, there were no major issue in playing By Fire and Sword in 28mm.

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.

The battle of Berestechko 1651

The game was based on the first two days of the Battle of Berestechko 1651. This was the period before the Tatars left the field of battle. After the Tatars left, the Poles essentially surrounded the cossack tabor and the battle was almost siege warfare. Before the Tatars left, the battle was a huge cavalry engagement. I wanted to recreate a large cavalry battle typical of the period.

We had four players for the Polish side, two for the Tatars and two for the Cossacks. The starting positions for Berestechko 1651 were shown in the last blog post.

Opening moves

The first decisive move was that the entire Polish right flank, consisting of the Polish Cossacks and Nobel Levy rode out towards the mass of Tatars. The Tatars, rather than stand back and engage at long distance with their bows, decided to charge out to meet the Poles in the center of the battlefield.

The cavalry battle was a tussle for many turns, with units from each side taking casualties, being pushed back and regrouping, only to re-engage. One rule change that I made to Pike and Shotte to represent the open cavalry battles of Eastern Europe was to have an “Open Order” formation. This formation is like the skirmish formation, but unlike the skirmish formation, it allows units to charge. Also when a unit has to retire it can pass through other Open Order formations to the rear. I felt like this rule change allowed the looser cavalry battles and formations to be represented. All of the cavalry, with the exception of the Pancerni and Winged Hussars were in Open Order. This rule change worked very well and really captured the feel that I was looking for.

Strategic move of the Winged Hussars and Pancerni

The Polish Pancerni and Winged Hussars on their left flank decided that supporting the infantry against the cossack foot troops and tabor was not their best course of action. They started a strategic move to deploy against the now engaged Tatars on the other flank. This was a risky move because it moved them across the front of the cossack artillery, even though it was at long range.

The photo above shows the back and forth nature of the Polish cavalry fight with the Tatars. Both sides suffered continuous casualties and many units became shaken. The Tatars, with superior numbers, managed flank the Nobel Levy in the center and wear them down.

One additional rule change that I adopted was to the broken battalia rule. This rules says that: When more than half the units in a battalia are lost or shaken, then the battalia becomes broken. For this battle, we did not count shaken units towards the total. I found that this slight rule change worked well for this period with large cavalry battles. If I had not changed it, the battle would have been over in a few turns. Instead we had about 6 or 7 turns of to and fro cavalry engagement.

Cossacks and Peasants on the move

With the Pancerni and Winged Hussars moving over to the other flank, the cossack infantry felt emboldened. They decided to come out from behind their Tabor and defenses. Some of the dismounted cossack horse decided to mount up so that they could move quickly to engage the Polish infantry.

The Winged Hussars and Pancerni arrive.

The Polish Heavy Cavalry arrived on the Tatar right flank at the center of the table. They had taken a few casualties from the cossack artillery en-route. They immediately decided to charge the Tatars. The Tatars then successfully used “Fire and Evade” to avoid what would have been a devastating charge. In the process they inflicted a few more casualties on the Poles.

Even though the Tatars had been rolling well with their Fire and Evades, the cossack infantry could not repeat their success. They had about ten fire dice on the Reiters and missed with everything, despite re-rolls due to their sharp-shooter skills.

Despite the initial success of the Tatar, they were always going to be in trouble against the Pancerni and Hussars. The Winged Hussars charged again and smashed some Tatar units. The Pancerni rode into the flank of other Tater units and repeated the results. Only this decisive move prevented the Polish Nobel Levy being completely wiped out. Most of the Tatar units left the table, even though the had acquitted themselves well and destroyed a large percentage of the Polish cavalry.

A lucky artillery shot

With the Polish infantry and peasants now in full advance against the Polish infantry, things were looking bad on the Polish left. The only hope for salvation was that the victorious Pancerni and Winged Hussars would ride back and reinforce the infantry after having routed the Tatars. However, the Hussars and Pancerni had taken a slow trickle of casualties all day long, first from the cossack artillery, then from the Tatar fire and evade and finally from the close combat with the Tatars.

Before the Polish Heavy Cavalry could regroup, the cossack artillery (shown in the photo above) decided to try a long range shot at the Winged Hussars. The result was a lucky direct hit. The already shaken Hussars took an excess casualty. The resulting morale test caused the Hussars to rout off the table. The Hussars had done some devastating damage to the Tatars, but when they routed off the table, the morale of the Polish players took a hit.

With the loss of the Winged Hussars, the possibility of the Polish infantry getting cavalry support from the center disappeared, as the rest of the units were shaken or disordered. This meant that the cossacks could continue their advance on the Polish tabor.

With no hope of victory the Polish decided to withdraw. The Battle of Berestechko 1651 had been a close run affair with many sweeping cavalry advances. I think that the the rules, with a few minor changes, had really captured the feel of the period. As the Polish Levy commander Lou always says, a rule set should have the 3 Fs – Fast, Fun and a Flavor of the Period. I think that this game passed that test.

In the next few weeks I plan to have a debrief with a few of the players to see if we should make any changes for the next time we play the Battle of Berestechko 1651 – which I plan to do at Historicon later this year – for those who are interested.

This weekend was the first opportunity that I had to put my 1651 Cossack Uprising project on the table. The project was started in April 2020 and finished in April 2021. The first battle that we tried was the 1651 Battle of Berestechko. We played the first two days of the battle before the Tatars left.

We had four players per side and used the Pike and Shotte Rules. There were a total of 600 figures in 28mm. The video below shows the initial set up.

The orders of Battle were:

Polish army for the Battle of Berestechko

Heavy cavalry Battalia:

• 3 Units of Pancerni each of 8 figures
• 1 Unit of Winged Hussars of 8 figures
• 1 Unit of Reiters of 8 figures

Infantry Battlalia

• 1 Unit of German Style Pike of 12 figures
• 2 Units of German Style Shot each of 12 figures
• 1 Unit of German Mercenary Pike of 12 figures
• 2 Units of German Mercenary Shot each of 12 figures
• 3 Units of Medium Artillery
• 4 Tabor Wagons

Noble Levy Battalia

• 5 Units of Noble Levy cavalry each of 8 figures

Polish Cossack Battalia

• 4 Units of Polish Cossack cavalry each of 8 figures

Tatar army

Cavalry Battalia

• 4 Units of Tatar cavalry each of 8 figures

Cavalry Battalia

• 4 Units of Tatar cavalry each of 8 figures

Cavalry Battalia

• 4 Units of Tatar cavalry each of 8 figures

Cossack army

Cossack mounted Battalia

• 4 Units of Mounted cossacks each of 8 figures
• (Horse holders and dismounted figures for the above units)
• 8 Chevaux de Frise field defenses
• 4 Gulay Gorad mobile defenses

Cossack Infantry Battalia

• 2 Units of Cossack Peasants each of 30 figures
• 2 Units of Medium Artillery
• 4 Units of Register Cossacks each of 12 figures
• 4 Units of Cossacks each of 12 figures
• 10 Cossack war wagons each with light artillery piece

Over 90% of the figures in the project are from the Assault Group. The Tatars do have Aventine miniature riders on Assault Group horses. Wagons and defenses are from various manufacturers and the larger artillery pieces are from Steel Fist.

Over the next week or two I hope to do an after action report of the Battle of Berestechko and post some more photos showing how the battle developed.