The battle of Noordhorn 1581

[JW Boots]

My friend Richard and I had another game of Pike and Shotte last night. Some time ago he pointed me to the battle of Noordhorn that was fought in 1581 as part of the 80 years’ war. To my shame I had to admit that I had never heard of it. It is not part of Dutch classroom 80 years’ war lessons, and one really has to look for it in order to find it. Strange because with around 5000 men per side it was a big thing by any standard of that period. More interestingly this size also makes it accessible to most wargame collections. Anyways, happy reading at my blog at: https://janwillembootsblog.wordpress.com/the-battle-of-noordhorn-1581/

[Rough Rider]

Great post JW. I look forward to your next battle. Will you change the Spanish Tercios?

[Charge The Guns]

Great battle report, JW. That tercio sounds very scary :-O

[JW Boots]

Well, I now have only one datapoint. This being the first. Being a trained scientist I need to say that. In addition, due to my Dutch infantry breaking on first notice the Tercio pike blocks weren’t really put through their paces. Having said this, however, I must say that I am pleased with this result. Looking those juggernaugts into the face was impressive. They pose a problem you need to solve… somehow. I will certainly continue to experiment and play around with this.

I also think of it like this. At the battle of Nieuwpoort the Spanish deployed with “only” four pike blocks. If we play these only as large units then the 16 pike blocks of Maurice will turn this into a very unbalanced game, for a battle that was a very close run thing.

[Corso]

Nice battle report 🙂

[Author]

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