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The Battles of Lutzen and Liberec
Before I start this is my first TL, so please take that into consideration as I butcher history, I know only a small portion of the history of the area I am writing about (Although I am researching and will continue to research as I write) so constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

Also, the first three posts are simply background posts. If you don’t want to read on the Point of Divergence and the massive wall of text, just jump to the fourth threadmark

Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, had been at the throat of the Habsburgs for half a decade. The consistent pounding of Habsburg forces under the cunning Austrian Wallenstein had weakened the Swedish army, and Sweden needed a decisive victory to save its ally, Saxony, from an eminent Austrian invasion. And so the battle of Lutzen was fought and changed the course of the war.
After driving away Austrian commander Papenstein's counterattack against his line, Gustav launched a large cavalry charge against Papenstein's weak line. Before he did so, he had his artillery moved to support the charge, destroying a contingent of Papenstein's cuirassiers, which had gotten close to killing Gustav earlier.
Slamming into Papenstein's line, the Imperial army collapsed. A well-placed shot had injured Gustav's arm and another killed his horse, but luckily a nearby soldier had managed to grab Gustav and pull him to safety, and some of Papenstein's cuirassiers, in the midst of battle, tried to kill him, but their lackluster forces after Gustav's artillery barrage had made their attempts to seize the King's life futile.
Gustav would be ridden off by a Saxon lieutenant, where Gustav would remain for most of the battle, as surgeons tended to his wound.
Despite his injuries, and the insistence on Swedish doctors to have Gustav stay and rest, the Lion of the North would go back to his command post, ordering the now commander of the Protestant forces, Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, to maintain an offensive in the center following the success of Gustav's assault on Papenstein's line.
The assault that was conducted was only shortly after the cavalry charge, and Wallenstein's center, still reeling from the loss at the flanks, crumbled under the depth of Swedish arm and artillery. Wallenstein's army was in full retreat as he attempted to reassemble his line on the present field, determined to hold the forward positions to Leipzig.
Wallenstein would learn of Pappenheim's demise, weakening his usually solid demeanor. As Wallenstein's position was struggling to hold, Gustav and Bernhard agreed to launch a cavalry charge to take Wallenstein's heavy artillery, which resulted in heavy casualties but ended with almost all of Wallenstein's batteries overrun.
Upon losing his battery, Wallenstein would fall back, hoping to pick up reserves in Pappenheim's infantry to reorganize and continue the fight at a later date.
All in all, the Swedes managed to smash the Imperial army, losing only 3,500 to Wallenstein's 12,000, and his heavy artillery. Gustav survived his wounds, and the Imperial army was in retreat towards Leipzig.

After arriving in Leipzig, Wallenstein quickly realized the Swedish army, in hot pursuit, would make any defense of Leipzig impossible. Wallenstein then moved his army south towards Bohemia, to regroup and relink with Imperial forces there to muster a defense and possibly counterattack into the North.
But the Swedes had predicted Wallenstein's retreat. Moving his army south, managing to keep Saxony in the war by sending a token force to reoccupy Leipzig and later Dresden, Gustav secured Saxony, while giving his army rest in south Saxony, replenishing his army with tens of thousands of extra forces, preparing a massive invasion of Bohemia
Meanwhile, news of the victory at Lutzen convinced France that Austria was on its legs. Gustav assured Louis XIII that an invasion of Habsburg Bohemia would bring the Imperial forces out of the Spanish Netherlands, with only Spanish forces in the Netherlands, the French could easily overrun the region. While Gustav, along with Prince of Orange, Frederick, knew the dangers of the French army in the Spanish Netherlands, the Swedes had been worn down by the war and the entry of Poland-Lithuania into the war would make the war stretch on for longer, so both monarchs took the risk of letting the Spanish Netherlands come into contact with France in order to divert Habsburg forces west.
The French, already at war with Austria for years now, decided to take upon Gustavus's suggestion by raising an army of 50,000 to invade the Spanish Netherlands, something the Habsburg couldn't afford to lose. The Imperial armies, it was decided, would be split up. 55,000 Imperial forces would hold Bohemia under the command of Ferdinand II, while a combination of 36,000 Spanish and Imperial forces would move under the command of Ottavio Piccolomini to hold off the French and Dutch army until reinforcements could arrive.

Ferdinand II knew the odds he was facing. Gustav was gathering a massive army of 67,000 Swedes, Brandenburgians, Saxons and Pomeranians to descend upon the Austrian outlet. Both sides felt that Wallenstein's loss had set back any gains in the North, while the French decision to go on the offensive had jeopardized any attempts at reeling in the upstart Dutch. However, despite this, the current situation gave the Imperialists a keen advantage that both Ferdinand and Ottavio realized. The French invasion into the Benelux had angered many princes along the Rhine, who now tossed in their hat with the Imperialists. These duchies, although small, could provide easy troops for Ottavio to hold the Netherlands with.
The Poles, fearing a Swedish dominated North Germany, while they were at war with Sweden at the same time, decided to send a mix of 3,500 Hussars and 10,000 infantry. The Spanish tercios, the Imperialists figured, could sufficiently hold the heavily fortified positions in the Benelux, while the Polish reinforcements could deter the Swedish numerical superiority they had found.

Although news reached both Moscow and Konstantiniyye. The Poles were committing deeper into the war in Germany, but their Eastern frontiers lay open: A Russian attack could devastate the PLC while a contingent of their forces was moving into Germany and the Ottomans looked incredibly closely at the Imperial army, now on the backfoot. The Imperial forces understood their frontiers wouldn't be quiet for long.

1633 would be the decisive year of the war. The Imperialists failed to gather as many forces as promised for the defense of the Spanish Netherlands, only gathering 34,000 out of the 36,000 promised for Ottavio to hold the area with. It was believed the Rhenish armies would supplement the failed conscription efforts. In Bohemia, the Poles arrived, agreeing to place their forces under the command of Ferdinand II. The Swedes were reportedly crossing the Bohemian Alps, where an army of 40,000 under the command of Gustavus himself was moving towards to town of Liberec. Ferdinand knew he had to shove this army back across the Alps before the rest of the army, under the command of Bernhard, crossed, and pushed into Bohemia. And so Ferdinand rode off with 47,000, 8,000 of which were Poles, and had much of his own cavalry replaced by the Polish hussars, believing the Polish shock cavalry to be sufficient to defeating the Swedes or at least dealing significant casualties. Gustav got reports of Ferdinand's army and immediately began setting entrenchments, wishing to wane the Imperial army against a stagnant Protestant line. Ferdinand tried to assault the flanks of Gustavus's army, but the Protestant forces held. Gustav used his superiority in artillery to bombard the Imperial Forces, forcing Ferdinand to launch an assault to try to move Gustav's artillery. the Protestants held in what would become a thick man-to-man fight, as Imperial forces were slaughtered against the Swedish entrenchments. However, Gustav did not anticipate a move by Ferdinand to send his cavalry to perform a rear flanking maneuver, forcing him to withdraw his artillery, which in turn weakened the Protestant line. However Gustav assembled his cavalry, and gave an assault against the Polish shock cavalry, in a brutal fight, Gustav would spearhead a bloody drive to force the hussars back, and regaining control of the position. Despite this, the protestant forces were losing their entrenched positions. Gustav would have his reservists deployed in order to hold the line. Eventually, Ferdinand canceled the assault after heavy casualties from both sides. Ferdinand used his forces to engage in probing maneuvers, to weaken the already tenuous line the Protestants held themselves at. Eventually, Ferdinand had managed to bring in artillery reinforcements, pounding the Swedish line, as an intense exchange of artillery barrages left the battlefield of Liberec smoldering and covered in thick smog. Hours passed of constant barrages, as Ferdinand decided to withdraw temporarily, deciding to try to move and siege Gustav's army. But an early contingent of 5,000 forces under Bernhard's command managed to fight off the Imperial maneuvers, reinforcing most losses the Swedes took and extending the line. Ferdinand himself had gotten 1,600 reinforcements, that he used to replace losses, and then ordered a full assault, launching a massive cavalry charge of over 1,000 horses to unhinge the Swedish line and take the artillery batteries. However, Pomeranian entrenchments managed to make the Imperial cavalry bleed, as forces used bayonets to deter cavalry.
The fighting in the center resulted in a Protestant counterattack being repelled after large Imperial casualties, and swords and guns were thrown and slashed about in the midst of the battle. Eventually, Ferdinand realized the Polish cavalry, although they had beaten back the Pomeranians, was unable to capture the Batteries on the hills Gustav had laid them in and pulled back. The Imperial army decided to withdraw to more favorable terrain, hoping to catch the infamous Swedish artillery off guard in another battle. The Swedes had taken large casualties, but the Imperial army walked away feeling defeated: The Protestants marched from Liberec and reports of nearly another 10,000 had crossed the Alps, and Gustav vowed to march on Prague.

The situation in the Benelux was much worse. Fearful of the Rhenish armies and not wanting the French to take control of most of the Spanish Netherlands, the Dutch went on an all-out offensive, hoping to prove to the Rhenish duchies that they could not beat the Dutch in combat. the French easily crushed the initial Spanish defenses at Ypres and Ottavia feared he could not hold Luxembourg with his current forces. The Rhenish armies had given him an extra 8,000, but it was not enough to stop a decisive defeat at Bastogne, and the French forces stormed Luxembourg after fierce fighting at the outskirts, causing Ottavia to retreat his mean towards Liege and Ghent, hoping to hold out long enough for the Imperial forces to win in Bohemia then relieve him.

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