Battle of Berestechko 1651

This weekend was the first opportunity that I had to put my 1651 Cossack Uprising project on the table. The project was started in April 2020 and finished in April 2021. The first battle that we tried was the 1651 Battle of Berestechko. We played the first two days of the battle before the Tatars left.

We had four players per side and used the Pike and Shotte Rules. There were a total of 600 figures in 28mm. The video below shows the initial set up.

The orders of Battle were:

Polish army for the Battle of Berestechko

Heavy cavalry Battalia:

  • 3 Units of Pancerni each of 8 figures
  • 1 Unit of Winged Hussars of 8 figures
  • 1 Unit of Reiters of 8 figures
Winged Hussars in the foreground with Pancerni and Reiters behind

Infantry Battlalia

  • 1 Unit of German Style Pike of 12 figures
  • 2 Units of German Style Shot each of 12 figures
  • 1 Unit of German Mercenary Pike of 12 figures
  • 2 Units of German Mercenary Shot each of 12 figures
  • 3 Units of Medium Artillery
  • 4 Tabor Wagons
Polish infantry and artillery in the Tabor

Noble Levy Battalia

  • 5 Units of Noble Levy cavalry each of 8 figures

Polish Cossack Battalia

  • 4 Units of Polish Cossack cavalry each of 8 figures
Polish cossacks in the foreground (4 units) with Polish Noble Levy in the background (5 units)

Tatar army

Cavalry Battalia

  • 4 Units of Tatar cavalry each of 8 figures

Cavalry Battalia

  • 4 Units of Tatar cavalry each of 8 figures

Cavalry Battalia

  • 4 Units of Tatar cavalry each of 8 figures
The mass of Tatar cavalry (over 100 figures)

Cossack army

Cossack mounted Battalia

  • 4 Units of Mounted cossacks each of 8 figures
  • (Horse holders and dismounted figures for the above units)
  • 8 Chevaux de Frise field defenses
  • 4 Gulay Gorad mobile defenses
The dismounted cossacks behind defenses

Cossack Infantry Battalia

  • 2 Units of Cossack Peasants each of 30 figures
  • 2 Units of Medium Artillery
  • 4 Units of Register Cossacks each of 12 figures
  • 4 Units of Cossacks each of 12 figures
  • 10 Cossack war wagons each with light artillery piece
The main cossack army in their Tabor with the two war drums commanding the situation.

Over 90% of the figures in the project are from the Assault Group. The Tatars do have Aventine miniature riders on Assault Group horses. Wagons and defenses are from various manufacturers and the larger artillery pieces are from Steel Fist.

Over the next week or two I hope to do an after action report of the Battle of Berestechko and post some more photos showing how the battle developed.

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