Captain of Horse

 This is the second book in Griff Hosker's English mercenary series. The first book covered the opening campaigns of the Thirty Years' War. In this book, our hero, Captain James Bretherton, is recruited by Gustavus Adolphus to lead a unit of light horse during the initial actions of the Swedish phase of the wars. 

The unit is ill-disciplined because it has been abandoned by its original commander. The soldiers are mainly from England, although there were also Scottish, Danish, and Swedish troops. He organises them because they are used as scouts for the army's advance into Germany. 

Gustavus landed in Pomerania in June 1630 with nearly 18,000 Swedish troops, supplemented by mercenaries. However, very few of the German princes rallied to the Protestant cause, and he was heavily outnumbered by Tilly's Imperial forces. French funding enabled him to recruit additional mercenaries and properly equip his army. Gustavus used this army to win a couple of defensive victories and then a significant victory at Breitenfeld in September 1631. 

This battle forms the core of this book, and Bretherton's horse plays a key role. There are plenty of subplots involving espionage, sieges and skirmishes with Imperial troops. I won't spoil the plot, but this is all written in Hosker's fast-paced style, with plenty of action. The unit is fictitious, although not untypical of the army, and otherwise he keeps pretty close to the history. 

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to the next one in the series, which has just been published. I must dust down my armies of the period for some tabletop action.

Imperial Cuirassiers play a big part in the story. They should have red sashes, but I use mine for ECW as well.