You seemingly misplaced a good chunk of Brandenburg in what was actually Mecklemburg.
The Great Deluge - An Alternate Second Northern War
- Thread starter Dangimill
- Start date
You seemingly misplaced a good chunk of Brandenburg in what was actually Mecklemburg.
Sorry, but yes. I'd suggest you to look for a basemap with borders somewhere in the forum: Brandenburg's borders at the time, and German states borders in general actually, are pretty much an irregular headache caused by long-time silly dynastic fragmentations/personal unions, bargains, and foreign meddling.
True, except for Brandenburg, Austria, Holstein-Gottorp and of course Danish and Swedish possessions within the ERE.
Billy the Bear
Donor
Billy the Bear is right about Halland, Ösel and Öland. Also, you seem to have placed Lösöse/Göteborg too far north - Bohuslän still belonged to Denmark-Norway at this time.
http://www.tacitus.nu/historical-atlas/scandinavia/sweden.htm
http://www.tacitus.nu/historical-atlas/scandinavia/sweden.htm
Valdemar II
Banned
Yes, Halland was pawned for a periode of 30 years after the peace treaty of 1645.
Svenska Armén Encampment
Greater Poland, Kingdom of Poland
August 14th, 1655
A royal parade marched King Charles X to the front of his rallied troops. Refreshing was the sight of their battle-hungry king, and the soldiers cheered. The king began to talk, addressing the state of the war and uninteresting logistics and politics. The crowd went wild, however, when he roared, “I Gud mitt öde!”[1]
The voices of the Swedes echoed the words of their king: “I Gud mitt öde! I Gud mitt öde! I Gud mitt öde!” For God was surely not with Poland.
* * * * * *
Wittenberg and Charles sat down to discuss logistics. The next battle would be the siege of Warsaw, the capital and site of the largest encampment of the shattered Polish army. Assaulting from the west like the Poles expected would be too predictable: Though they would likely win, the amount of damage it would do to the city and the predicted length of the conflict were too great for them to keep the city after taking it. The Swedes would have to be creative...
Capital City of Warsaw
Mazowiekie, Kingdom of Poland
August 23rd, 1655
The Polish nobles had mounted the last of their levy, a great army some twenty thousand strong. The men marched to the banks of the Vistula River and set up a parapet. A fortress of earth rose before the Swedes, manned by Poles armed to the teeth with guns and fury. The Council of Nobles was pleased: even fifty guns couldn't take out these defenses, and the winged hussars here were ready to chase down any rapier-armed Swedish horsemen. It was high noon by the time the Swedes and Germans arrived, and the Poles fired the first volleys. It seemed so effortless: The invaders had perhaps ten thousand men armed with possibly twenty cannons. This, if anything, would turn the tides of the war.
Of the tens of nobles present, but one man could actually grasp the situation. He was a general, a veteran, a legend, and thought by many to be Poland's finest officer. This man had looked Gustavus Adolphus in the eye, and was more than ready to do battle with the next generation of Swedish imperialists. He was aspiring, experienced, ever-wise and twice as cunning. Stefan Czarniecki was sure, as were his peers, that he was destined for greatness.
“Halt your fire!” The first order was unexpected and bold. The Poles noticed once they stopped shooting that they could not pin the Swedes to the river if their volleys continued. “Let the fools come! This day we will repel the Swedish menace and send those fiends routing back to Scandinavia. This war, this great deluge, cannot continue! We win here, we attack their garrisons in Torun, in Poznan, and in Vilnius, and we have won all ready! No tyrant can maintain a war on foreign soil, and yet we have allowed this!” Czarniecki pointed to the horde of Swedish cavalry. “We are God's will! We are Catholic! The pretenders, the heathens who would refute their true king in favor of that tyrant Charles, they will never rule our homeland! Now fight, men. Not for yourselves, not for your leader, not for your friends, but for king and country! Now let those fools come!”
The audience was impressed by Czarniecki's speech. The musketeers did as told, and allowed the Swedes to board their rowboats and begin to make it across the river. The Poles laughed at the foolish ploy: the Swedes would be at the bottom of the river in no time. On Czarniecki's mark, the Polish musketeers opened fire. The first volley came, sinking maybe twelve boats. The second came, sinking eight. With possibly two hundred rowboats out there and not a shot fired, the Swedes' ploy seemed nothing but idiotic. Had they not even tried to cut down Polish firepower? And why in the world were they coming from the east?
Arvid Wittenberg laughed. It had made him ten years younger to be at war again. The boats were a brilliant ploy: the Poles were far too preoccupied with sinking them to realize that the three or four unarmed soldiers in each were rugged Norsemen more than accustomed to swimming. The boats contained gunpowder and musket in airtight barrels that would be redistributed to the unarmed troops once they reached the walls. Astonishingly, the Poles totally ignored the Swedes who had begun to swim towards the walls, simply thinking them corpses pushed to the western bank by the wind.
The artillery began to fire on the earthenworks, all seventy-five demi-cannons, culverins, and sakers. The Swedish artillerymen prioritized their targets, synchronized barrages, and fired faster than the Poles thought possible. The onslaught was devastating: The Poles, prepared for dodging the occasional round, found themselves fleeing a collapsing structure being constantly pounded by hot iron. Czarniecki shouted above the crowd to retreat, but there was no need for that order.
And as if by magic, the corpses of the sunken boatmen rose to the surface, pried open their ballast, loaded muskets, and charged into the breach. The soldiers shot at everything they saw, causing a total rout by the Poles. Under normal circumstances, the small force of less than a thousand Swedes would have been slaughtered, but the precision artillery fire from the Swedish guns was too disorienting for the twenty thousand Poles to get withing a certain radius of the Swedish musketeers, who were showing no signs of running out of ammunition.
Czarniecki was distraught, but he knew that the Swedes could not sustain their offense. He general ordered all reserve artillery to fire at the musketeers, but that amounted to only two guns. They wheeled out and began to open fire. The swedes saw this and began to fire volleys at the gunners. It took only ten minutes and maybe fifty Swedish casualties to take out the last Polish artillery. The Polish general, cursing his bad luck, finally gave in.
“CHARGE!” ordered Czarniecki. Every Polish soldier did as told and charged through the artillery fire at the Swedes. It took less than thirty seconds before every one of the musketeers was dead. The Pole, still taking heavy casualties from the artillerymen, marched back up the banks of the Vistula to find a horde of Swedish dragoons waiting for them. They opened fire, and but a single Pole remained.
Charles himself had ordered his cavalrymen to forge the Vistula roughly a kilometer upstream. They had charged into Warsaw through the western gate, which was conveniently opened by hidden artillery. The dragoons had waited until the Poles received enough casualties, and had hoped to kill every resisting noble in the city. They had, but yet one general had survived, fleeing undetected in the last Swedish rowboat, slowly down the Vistula.
* * * * * *
With Warsaw somewhat under Swedish control, the armies looked to the last pocket of Polish resistance, Lwow[2], in the south. No doubt harboring Czarniecki and every able-bodied Pole willing to fight, it would be a true struggle to capture it. Perhaps then a peace treaty could be had, establishing the deluded Poles as a Swedish vassaldom. Wittenberg suggested this, arguing that the Swedish army was meant to sustain itself on profits of conquered territory.
Charles, however, had another idea.
[1] Translates as "in God my destiny." Motto of King Charles X.
[2] Also, Lviv, Lvov, et cetera. I couldn't figure out the common name for it.
Greater Poland, Kingdom of Poland
August 14th, 1655
A royal parade marched King Charles X to the front of his rallied troops. Refreshing was the sight of their battle-hungry king, and the soldiers cheered. The king began to talk, addressing the state of the war and uninteresting logistics and politics. The crowd went wild, however, when he roared, “I Gud mitt öde!”[1]
The voices of the Swedes echoed the words of their king: “I Gud mitt öde! I Gud mitt öde! I Gud mitt öde!” For God was surely not with Poland.
* * * * * *
Wittenberg and Charles sat down to discuss logistics. The next battle would be the siege of Warsaw, the capital and site of the largest encampment of the shattered Polish army. Assaulting from the west like the Poles expected would be too predictable: Though they would likely win, the amount of damage it would do to the city and the predicted length of the conflict were too great for them to keep the city after taking it. The Swedes would have to be creative...
Capital City of Warsaw
Mazowiekie, Kingdom of Poland
August 23rd, 1655
The Polish nobles had mounted the last of their levy, a great army some twenty thousand strong. The men marched to the banks of the Vistula River and set up a parapet. A fortress of earth rose before the Swedes, manned by Poles armed to the teeth with guns and fury. The Council of Nobles was pleased: even fifty guns couldn't take out these defenses, and the winged hussars here were ready to chase down any rapier-armed Swedish horsemen. It was high noon by the time the Swedes and Germans arrived, and the Poles fired the first volleys. It seemed so effortless: The invaders had perhaps ten thousand men armed with possibly twenty cannons. This, if anything, would turn the tides of the war.
Of the tens of nobles present, but one man could actually grasp the situation. He was a general, a veteran, a legend, and thought by many to be Poland's finest officer. This man had looked Gustavus Adolphus in the eye, and was more than ready to do battle with the next generation of Swedish imperialists. He was aspiring, experienced, ever-wise and twice as cunning. Stefan Czarniecki was sure, as were his peers, that he was destined for greatness.
“Halt your fire!” The first order was unexpected and bold. The Poles noticed once they stopped shooting that they could not pin the Swedes to the river if their volleys continued. “Let the fools come! This day we will repel the Swedish menace and send those fiends routing back to Scandinavia. This war, this great deluge, cannot continue! We win here, we attack their garrisons in Torun, in Poznan, and in Vilnius, and we have won all ready! No tyrant can maintain a war on foreign soil, and yet we have allowed this!” Czarniecki pointed to the horde of Swedish cavalry. “We are God's will! We are Catholic! The pretenders, the heathens who would refute their true king in favor of that tyrant Charles, they will never rule our homeland! Now fight, men. Not for yourselves, not for your leader, not for your friends, but for king and country! Now let those fools come!”
The audience was impressed by Czarniecki's speech. The musketeers did as told, and allowed the Swedes to board their rowboats and begin to make it across the river. The Poles laughed at the foolish ploy: the Swedes would be at the bottom of the river in no time. On Czarniecki's mark, the Polish musketeers opened fire. The first volley came, sinking maybe twelve boats. The second came, sinking eight. With possibly two hundred rowboats out there and not a shot fired, the Swedes' ploy seemed nothing but idiotic. Had they not even tried to cut down Polish firepower? And why in the world were they coming from the east?
Arvid Wittenberg laughed. It had made him ten years younger to be at war again. The boats were a brilliant ploy: the Poles were far too preoccupied with sinking them to realize that the three or four unarmed soldiers in each were rugged Norsemen more than accustomed to swimming. The boats contained gunpowder and musket in airtight barrels that would be redistributed to the unarmed troops once they reached the walls. Astonishingly, the Poles totally ignored the Swedes who had begun to swim towards the walls, simply thinking them corpses pushed to the western bank by the wind.
The artillery began to fire on the earthenworks, all seventy-five demi-cannons, culverins, and sakers. The Swedish artillerymen prioritized their targets, synchronized barrages, and fired faster than the Poles thought possible. The onslaught was devastating: The Poles, prepared for dodging the occasional round, found themselves fleeing a collapsing structure being constantly pounded by hot iron. Czarniecki shouted above the crowd to retreat, but there was no need for that order.
And as if by magic, the corpses of the sunken boatmen rose to the surface, pried open their ballast, loaded muskets, and charged into the breach. The soldiers shot at everything they saw, causing a total rout by the Poles. Under normal circumstances, the small force of less than a thousand Swedes would have been slaughtered, but the precision artillery fire from the Swedish guns was too disorienting for the twenty thousand Poles to get withing a certain radius of the Swedish musketeers, who were showing no signs of running out of ammunition.
Czarniecki was distraught, but he knew that the Swedes could not sustain their offense. He general ordered all reserve artillery to fire at the musketeers, but that amounted to only two guns. They wheeled out and began to open fire. The swedes saw this and began to fire volleys at the gunners. It took only ten minutes and maybe fifty Swedish casualties to take out the last Polish artillery. The Polish general, cursing his bad luck, finally gave in.
“CHARGE!” ordered Czarniecki. Every Polish soldier did as told and charged through the artillery fire at the Swedes. It took less than thirty seconds before every one of the musketeers was dead. The Pole, still taking heavy casualties from the artillerymen, marched back up the banks of the Vistula to find a horde of Swedish dragoons waiting for them. They opened fire, and but a single Pole remained.
Charles himself had ordered his cavalrymen to forge the Vistula roughly a kilometer upstream. They had charged into Warsaw through the western gate, which was conveniently opened by hidden artillery. The dragoons had waited until the Poles received enough casualties, and had hoped to kill every resisting noble in the city. They had, but yet one general had survived, fleeing undetected in the last Swedish rowboat, slowly down the Vistula.
* * * * * *
With Warsaw somewhat under Swedish control, the armies looked to the last pocket of Polish resistance, Lwow[2], in the south. No doubt harboring Czarniecki and every able-bodied Pole willing to fight, it would be a true struggle to capture it. Perhaps then a peace treaty could be had, establishing the deluded Poles as a Swedish vassaldom. Wittenberg suggested this, arguing that the Swedish army was meant to sustain itself on profits of conquered territory.
Charles, however, had another idea.
[1] Translates as "in God my destiny." Motto of King Charles X.
[2] Also, Lviv, Lvov, et cetera. I couldn't figure out the common name for it.
Don't worry, Czarniecki's still alive. I had some amount of writer's block, so I decided to focus on the battle: please forgive me if it's ASB.
Any comments? I really appreciate feedback; I want to know if this is too confusing or if there's not enough detail.
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This has been an interesting read so far. I'm not very well versed in the art of war of the 17th century, so I wouldn't know what would count as ASB or not, but it seems plausible enough to me.
By the way, this takes place relatively soon after the Thirty Years War, right? Assuming there's not a PoD somewhere in there as well, I seriously doubt the citizens of Brandenburg would welcome the Swedish army the way they did. Brandenburg was caught in the middle of it all, and was subjected to quite a lot of pain by the Swedes; even by the standards of the day. Brandenburg allying with Sweden is perfectly plausible, but the Swedish army probably wouldn't be very popular among the people.
As for your writing; it's generally very good, but it sometimes gets a little bit confusing when you swap from one point of view to another.
For instance:
Perhaps you could make it more clear when a change of paragraphs mean a change of PoV? Like this, maybe:
I look forward to reading more of this!
By the way, this takes place relatively soon after the Thirty Years War, right? Assuming there's not a PoD somewhere in there as well, I seriously doubt the citizens of Brandenburg would welcome the Swedish army the way they did. Brandenburg was caught in the middle of it all, and was subjected to quite a lot of pain by the Swedes; even by the standards of the day. Brandenburg allying with Sweden is perfectly plausible, but the Swedish army probably wouldn't be very popular among the people.
As for your writing; it's generally very good, but it sometimes gets a little bit confusing when you swap from one point of view to another.
For instance:
Perhaps you could make it more clear when a change of paragraphs mean a change of PoV? Like this, maybe:
I look forward to reading more of this!
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If memory serves*, Brandenburg was thrown back and forth between the Empire and the Swedes quite a lot in the Thirty Years War. Brandenburg wasn't in a very strong position at the time, and being in the middle of it all didn't help matters. It was forced into an alliance with the Swedes on at least one occasion, and that alliance wasn't exactly very beneficial to Brandenburg.
Point being; the Thirty Years War was extra horrible for Brandenburg and other countries in similar positions, and the Swedes were responsible for a lot of the pain they suffered, regardless of whether Sweden and Brandenburg were allies. To quote Wikipedia. "A major impact of the Thirty Years' War was the extensive destruction of entire regions, denuded by the foraging armies (bellum se ipsum alet)."
*It often doesn't. Been a while since I read The Iron Kingdom.
Point being; the Thirty Years War was extra horrible for Brandenburg and other countries in similar positions, and the Swedes were responsible for a lot of the pain they suffered, regardless of whether Sweden and Brandenburg were allies. To quote Wikipedia. "A major impact of the Thirty Years' War was the extensive destruction of entire regions, denuded by the foraging armies (bellum se ipsum alet)."
*It often doesn't. Been a while since I read The Iron Kingdom.
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