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When I last played the Battle of Tannenberg, it was on the occasion of the release of Field of Glory II. I was less than pleased with with the original Field of Glory‘s treatment of the battle and figured that the new game would soon deliver me a better version. More than four years have passed now and, while Field of Glory II continues to release new content, it is still several centuries out from addressing Tannenberg. Instead, my salvation comes by way of Pike and Shot.

I told you the other day that I glanced at the user-made scenario list currently available for Pike and Shot. After excitedly playing with a slightly-too-recent scenario I went back to look for content that fit the mid-to-late fifteenth century. I found a new Tannenberg.

For a long while, when playing Pike and Shot, I feared these pre-gun scenarios because of the awful sound associated with crossbows. The residual of that fear remained, even as I searched for battles to try. Once I began playing, though, I realized that my issue with pre-gunpowder scenarios had been resolved. My fear of the mid-15th century is no more.

It is a big scenario – befitting a simulation of one of Europe’s largest battles to its date.

If you read that earlier post, you’ll know that I wasn’t entirely happy with what Field of Glory had to offer for Grunwald/Tannenberg. Immediately, I had a much better feeling about this version. Gone are the “Lithuanian Negative Points” and the battlefield peppered with small ponds. It is a full representation of the day’s battle and the full order-of-battle. If anything, the number of troops modeled comes in along with the higher-end historian’s estimates.

Contrast with FoG, which covered not the entire battle but rather started you at a pivotal moment. Ahistorical issues with that scenario aside, the constrained starting conditions ensures that you get a taste of historical flavoring. The result in Pike and Shot is that the player and the AI (and the AI has the advantage and the initiative here) have a lot more options, making it less likely you’ll get a direct reflection of what is described in the history books.

The Teutonic Order sports handguns

Among the many deviations is that Pike and Shot has more emphasis on the shot. In the screen capture just above, you can see the emplaced cannons available to the Teutonic Order. In my experience, these are the critical factor from the player’s point of view. As the Teutonic Order, you are outnumbered, especially when counting the light troops/skirmishers that will wear down the heavy units before the final, battle-determining charge. Much of my inflicted damage seemed to be dealt by my cannon. Unfortunately, historical records suggest that the artillery was neutralized by the bad weather. The powder became damp and the Order only got a few shots off before giving up on their guns. Back in my world, as it turns out, those “handgunners” (above) also never managed to contribute – although it wasn’t weather related, just inopportune position on the field.

In the end, just like those Brothers of long ago, I got my *** handed to me. The scenario instructions suggest a path to victory lies in concentrating the Teutonic heavy cavalry into a well-timed counter attack. I probably let my knights charge a little too soon and far too haphazardly. Given that there are no real surprises here, this might be a scenario worth retrying a few times to see if it can be beat. It is obviously meant to be difficult. That’s a bad sign for someone who finds the entirety of Pike and Shot difficult – including many of the easy scenarios.

A greater Prussia

Part of me really hoped to change the course of history with this one. I came into this with my alternate-reality Europa Universalis IV game-start on my mind. In addition to the world-changes that I’ve already talked about, the situation in north-eastern Europe looks quite a bit different then the reality. Much of Poland is under the control of German lords and, instead of a Baltic-coast dominated by a united Poland-Lithuania, the major power on the map is an anachronistic Prussia. I didn’t pay much attention to how Crusader Kings got me here but maybe one explanation could be a historical reversal of the battle at Tannenberg.