Douglas Division

8/13/2019 Douglas Division

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In October 1658 a Swedish force under field marshal Ro-bert Douglas entered the territory of Courland. Until thattime the duchy was able to keep instable neutrality andduke Jakub Kettler allowed the Swedes to march acrosshis state. Officially Douglas soldiers were marching inorder to attack the Lithuanian forces, but the truth wascompletely different. They launched a surprise attack onMitau and with almost no struggle managed to disarmthe small Courland forces as well as take the duke andhis family prisoner. The town and the castle were thoro-ughly sacked with Douglas leading the pillaging alongwith his officers. The field marshal quickly took over thewhole territory of the Duchy and garrisoned all the im-portant castles.

For a long time the Lithuanian forces were unable totake any action against Douglas. This enabled the Swe-des to move reinforcements from Livonia. The forcesled by the field marshal included 8 mercenary reiter re-giments, 1 Finnish reiter regiment, Estonian noble levysquadron and a company of Courland volunteers. Mostof infantry was spread out in garrisons; however 3 Fin-nish, 1 English and 1 Scottish regiments were included in

the field division. Numerical strength of those units wasvery low, companies often numbered only 20-30 men.However the officers were of good quality includingfield marshal Douglas the regiments included alsomany veterans of previous fights. In early 1659 the Swedes focused on harassing the Li-thuanian forces with small raids, especially at edasai,besieged by the Lithuanians. At the beginning of May,according to orders from Charles X Gustav himself, Do-uglas commenced an offensive from Courland towardsSamogitia. However his march was stopped on 18 May

1659 at Zydylia. During a fierce struggle the Swedish re-iters were repulsed with a Lithuanian attack. Douglassupported his cavalry with infantry and artillery, andmanaged to force the Lithuanian division led by SamuelKomorowski to withdraw under heavy fire. The Lithu-anian resistance stopped the Swedish offensive for sometime. In June, when Lithuanian forces were engaged inthe siege of Kuldiga, Douglas once more tried to launchan offensive into Samogitia. It was supposed to lead theLithuanians away from the besieged Kuldiga, howevertheir commanders Komorowski and Poubiski didnot fall for this trick. As a result the field marshal movedto Kuldiga, trying to defeat the Lithuanian forces in a de-cisive battle. On 10 September 1659, after a hard battle,with heavy losses on both sides the Douglas forces wererepulsed from under the town. 9 days later Kuldiga capi-tulated.Only skirmishes and raids took place over the follo-wing month, the Swedes tried to harass Lithuanianand Brandenburg forces besieging the Courland ca-stles. On 21 October there was another larger fight, thistime against a Lithuanian cavalry force led by Micha

Pac, who took command after Komorowskis death.The Zydylia scenario was repeated Swedish cavalrywas repulsed however the Lithuanians were unableto punch through the massed fire of Swedish infantryand artillery. Still Douglas was forced to retreat to Rigaand completely lost control over West Courland. Thefield marshal did not have sufficient forces to coun-ter the siege (and capture in January 1660) of Mitau,however he was still sending raids that harassed theLithuanian forces.

Division of Field Marshal Douglas Courland 1658-1659

Micha Kadrinazi Paradowski, Rafa Szwelicki

Formation Move Armor Morale Skill Close Combat Shooting Weapons Effectiveness Range Special Rules

Commander

Field Marshal /+ Hand weapons CC Commander

Pistols Scarce ammunition

Shooting in Charge- pistols

Douglas

. Command: . Cost:

Field Marshal Douglas


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Robert Douglas (1611-1662) descendant of a Scottish family resi-ding in Sweden, veteran of the Thirty Years War, general from 1647,field marshal from 1657, well known as a cavalry commander of veryimpetuous nature (this can be seen in many of his military opera-tions), he was often given command of independent units. In 1658he fell into disfavor of the king (and not only) after he disgracefullycaptured Courland and mistreated its duke. He successfully fought

against the Lithuanian forces of hetman Gosiewski and regimentarz(substitute hetman) Komorowski in Livonia. Two years after the pe-ace of Oliva he died of a stroke in Stockholm.

Special rules:Excellent Commander [reiters]

Every turn he receives an additional Command Point that may be used for giving orders to the units ofreiters or to be transferred to commanders of such units.

Initiative [+1]He receives a +1 modifier to Initiative rolls

GreedyHis greed blinds him sometimes he may attack carelessly seeking plunder, sometimes he will defendthem fiercely, finally he may make enemies while sharing them. Roll a die:

1-4: No effect.

5-6: Impetuous you may not give the Defense Order/Instruction in the 1st turn, all units from Do-uglas division (regiments, independent companies and artillery) cannot start the battle with DefenseOrder/Instruction. He uses 2 Command Points to issue a Defense Order/Instruction. The CommandPoints transferred by him may only be used by subordinate Commanders to issue an Charge order or toincrease the Units Morale.7-8: Cautious All the units in Douglas division (regiments, independent companies and artillery)start with the Defense Order/Instruction in the 1st turn (if the scenario allows it). Issuing a Defense Or-der/Instruction costs him 1 Command Point less (not less than 1). Basic cost of issuing an Charge Order/Instruction is 2 Command Point.9-0: Disliked Randomly choose one regiment. Treat units from this regiment as Insubordinate. Do-uglas must spend 1 additional Command Point in order to transfer points to the Commander of suchRegiment.

Divisional Special Rules:Bellum se ipsum alet

(Rulebook, p. 291)

Disciplined(Rulebook, p. 291)

On their own landSwedish forces in Courland knew the area of the conflict very well, they also were able to use localguides. Division receives 2 additional Reconnaissance Points.

Weve fought in Poland, Prussia, LivoniaMany of Douglas officers were veterans of previous campaigns. Colonels in mercenary reiter regimentscan upgrade to Command for free (in veteran regiments they will automatically receive 1-basecompany of reiters, as per regiments rules)

LivregementeOne of cavalry regiment under Douglas command was his own livregemente (life-guard regiment),composed of enlisted Swedes and Germans. You can (but its not mandatory) add additional (fourth)regiment as base of division. Its veteran mercenary reiter regiment, it cannot be though the strongest(in FSP) regiment in division. It cannot also strength its companies with additional (grey) bases, butyou can still add additional officers and companies.


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Division of Field Marshal Douglas Courland 1658-1659

* Medium gun- this must be a pdr octave

Available only if national reiter regiment is nottaken as part of additional regiments

NOTES:

Special rules:"B i ", Diii, O i ,

W i P, Pi, Lii , Li

Formation Move Armor Morale Skill Close Combat Shooting Weapons Effectiveness Range Special Rules

ESTONIAN NOBLE LEVYCavalry

Estonian levy /+ Hand weapon CC Poor Tactical

Pistols

Carbine / /

Discipline

Insubordinate

Scarce ammunition

Unwilling to Fight levy does not generate Reconnaissance Po-

ints. While fleeing they make an Additional Move of cm instead

of cm.

As Estonian noble levy you can use mix of models from Swedish

reiters range and mounted militia of Royal City of Gdask.

Documents

Douglas Division