Siege of Heidelberg, 1622
A Mapless Mini-Campaign of the Thirty Years' War for Siege!
Bohemia has been lost at the battle of White Mountain, and the focus of the war has shifted to the Palatinate. By mid-June of 1622, the Spanish and Imperial forces of Count Tilly and Cordoba had joined, forcing the Protestants to abandon the Eastern bank of the Rhine. Frederick V has been forced out of Mannheim, and what is left of the field army is soon to march north, to attempt to relieve the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom. Only a few Protestant cities are left in the Palatinate - among these is Heidelberg. Defended by the Englishman Sir Gerard Herbert, it is soon besieged by the Spanish and Imperial forces.
The garrison of the city numbers about 20,000 men - many English, but others the remnants of the Protestant League forces. Against them are arrayed 30,000 Imperialists, Spaniards, and Catholic Leaguers, many of them veterans. Count Tilly and (until he is called away to chase Mansfield) Cordoba are in command.
(An account of the historical siege can be found in Wikipedia. After 11 weeks, the city was taken by storm, and the castle surrendered shortly thereafter. Sir Gerard Herbert was killed in the action.)
The app used to drive the campaign can be found at the Application of Force site.
While the Siege! game app will determine what types of scenarios are played out, the battles will be set in the context of the actual area surrounding Heidelberg. The images below should be helpful in designing scenarios:
The castle and part of the fortifications in 1622. The bottom of the map is roughly north, where the Neckar River runs.
A view over the river from the north, showing the protected bridgehead and what appears to be a fordable area in the Neckar downstream of it (to the right).
View from the north, from the perspective of the besieging troops. Downstream of the bridge is what appears to be a fordable position, as in the illustration above.
Full city plan from 1619.
There is a virtual recreation of the city during the siege created by the Kurpfälzisches Museum here. (This is really pretty cool!)
A screen shot of the virtual siege (link above).
It is high summer in the year 1622. The siege has begun. The Imperialists and Spanish are overrunning the Pfalz, and what is left of the Protestant army on the west bank of the Rhine has found refuge in a handful of cities, chief among them the Elector's seat at Heidelberg. The city is now encircled - the northern bank has fortifications which protect the bridge, but between these and the surrounding hills and woods are the Catholic entrenchments and redoubts. On the south bank of the river, overlooking the city and castle, are lines which run in a huge semi-circle, from the Neckar up and over the hills, to come back to the river on the far side.
Both sides are well-armed and well-supplied, and both seem confident that they can energe victorious.
The lines are only just finished when word comes down that there is to be an assault against the western walls of the town, along the banks of the Neckar. Tilly and Cordoba have agreed that the political impact of taking Frederick's capitol city by storm are worth the risk. The force they send against the defenders is made up of their most-experienced troops: three full tercios, supported by artillery both heavy and light, with a body of commanded shot and another armed with sword and buckler to lead the first assault on the outworks before the walls.
The demi-lune is held by Protestant musketeers, and they slaughter the leading elements, but this buys time for the tercios to engage, and it is not long before the Protestant shot are overwhelmed. What follows is a direct assault on the main walls. For a time, it looks as though the Imperialists will fail, but when Sir Gerald Herbert, the commander of the garrison, is killed repelling an assault on the walls, the defenders panic, and it is not long before the city is taken:
The siege is over almost before it has begun!
(You can find the scenario write-up here, or as a PDF for download.)