Great Northern War- New Units

 

A pack of Minifig Generals above painted for the Swedish Service.  These are very nice figures.  Note the cuirass the lad on the left is wearing.  The latest research shows that some Swedish cavalry were cuirassiers.  Good news for me.  I can now press some Dixon Cuirassiers into the Swedish Service.

Should you want to know more Sergey Shamenkov's latest book for Helion. Volume 2 "Charles XII's Karoliners".

The Grenadiers of the Swedish Life Guard above. Centre, with the flag, a lone CP model.  The rest are Dixon.

Two new Russian Battalions below representing the Ustyuzhski Regiment.  Figures from Minifigs.  You will note the regiment has two battalions.  

In Talon and Claw speak they are "Regulation" that means musket armed with supporting pikemen.  The "ideal" as it were.

The first battalion is rated "Drilled".  The second battalion is rated "Raw". I'm waiting for their pike men to arrive.

The flags are by Russian James, fine fellow that he is for making them freely available.

Here we see the Ustyuzhski Regiment manning a field redoubt.  The Russians liked to use these when fighting the Swedes.  To that end they were often willing to cart around ready made portable defences.  It was an old tradition.

I have two of these and may do a third.  These come from Alternative Armies.  They have lots of interesting bits and pieces.

The thinking being that the steppe often lacked trees for improvised barricades and the rolling plains were little better.  Digging was arduous and time consuming.

These ones wouldn't stand artillery bombardment but as the Swedes rarely deployed their guns it didn't much matter.

Two squadrons of Russian cavalry next.

Minifigs, representing the Kazanski Regiment.  Swords drawn, but these fellows liked to shoot from the saddle too.

I would like to say that is my Great Northern war collection done.  More probably it is nearly done.  You all know how it goes.

Next week we are back to the West.  Will it be Wild?  Yes, very wild.

Great Northern War-Russians and Swedes

 

 

Mainly Swedes this time, above the Swedish artillery guns.  Roundway guns, crews Dixon and Roundway.   Below Regiment Kronoberg.

 

Next,  Regiment Skaraborg.  At a distance only the flags seem to differentiate these units. In fact the uniforms are all slightly different.  Blue breeches or yellow ones in this case.

Regiment Bjornberg here.  My only grey coated Swedes. The artillery above wear green-grey coats as favoured by the League of Augsburg fellows.  The grey/yellow combination is striking.

 

Another battery of Russian guns.  My second, all Roundway save a solitary Essex and a Dixon.

My last but one Russian infantry unit.  Or, so I thought.  A hidden cache has been discovered.

 

Next GNW time, the Swedish Grenadiers and another battalion of the Russian Guards. Then the Brigadiers and Generals.  After that some redoubts and it is job done for the GNW. Bar the Ottoman and Poles of course.

After Poltava there was for a brief period a force of Swedes, Poles and Ottomans.  I always wanted to try that out on the table top. Hence I'm due to paint a unit of Polish winged hussars.

 

With Talon and Claw- New Great Northern War Units

 

A while back I put my Russian and and Sweedish Armies into good order.  Enough to play a game.  This left a fair few figures to do. 

My figures are a mix of Dixon and Roundway.  The latter just about fit with Irregular, the former with Essex.

I need more Russians than Swedes so it was there I began.  In With Talon and Claw Russian battalions are either Regulation or All Musket.  One of the latter below.  Great for fire power not so good in melee.

 

Russian uniform details can be elusive. Regiments also went through an alarming range of coat and facing colour changes.  I'm not naming the units you can see here.  Suffice to say, at some stage in the GNW a Russian regiment wore the uniform colours you can see.

 

The excellent flags are mostly from Russian James.  The others, equally fine, from the better known Tacitus.  Check out https://russianjames.weebly.com/uniforms-and-colours-standards.html

All Dixon figures for the 2 units above.

 

Mainly Roundway for these fellows. I really like these musketeers. A shame they are no longer available.  I expect I'll do aother 2 Russian battalions as I have the figures.  My latest Dragoon regiment here.  Two squadrons.

 

Also in the works another two squadron regiments of Dragoons.  Mortar's, Field Guns and Battalion Guns.

And the Swedes?  To come, three battalions and a Cavalry squadron, some artillery too.  Also, the Guard Grenadiers.  I need to buy the Grenadiers, shock!  I thought I'd done buying for the GNW.

 

Great Northern War in 15mm– Russians

 

We have already seen the Swedes. Today, we are looking at the complete Russian ensemble.  The Swedes demonstrated the virtue of drill and discipline and the continued efficacy of aggressive pike men.  The Russians majored in modernity.

The Russian military was all about mobility and fire power. The artillery was good and plentiful and muskets were modern Flintlocks.   

The cavalry could fairly be described as a mobile fire platform.They could and would charge in the right circumstances.

The Russian cavalry were all dragoons and yet they seldom dismounted.  Instead, they shot from the saddle.  I’d say this indicates an Eastern military influence.  No more than that, for Russian dragoons did not hit and run or attack in waves.  Rather they stood and discharged breath taking amounts of lead.  More Sassanian than Mongol then should you wish for an ancient analogy.  For the best result you needed lots of them in the same place, shooting at the same target.

Consider the Battle of Poltava.  The amount of lead shot from the saddle was devastating.

The Russian Army was still a work in progress.  Some regiments still fielded pike men others were all musket armed. The best troops in BLB speak were Drilled Elite.

The Army is best seen as an innovation to replace the old amalgam of noble cavalry and the military caste of the Streltsi infantry.  

As such most of the soldiers were at best trained men with some experience of combat.  Others were raw recruits newly raised if well equipped.

Russian Commanders sought to mitigate the Swedish edge in quality by deploying in depth, using field defences and exploiting opportunities on the flank.

Cossacks and other light horse were helpful in the latter. Mine are based following Barry Hilton's suggestion.  It's a visual clue that they fought in a different fashion.

Ultimately, success lay in killing or disabling as many Swedes as possible before they came into contact. If that didn’t work the Russians mostly lost.  They did, of course, win the War and so decisively as to change the direction of the Swedish Kingdom for ever.

That's my Russian Army so far for With Talon and Claw. I can add more from my stock of figures but what you see here is sufficient for gaming.  I do want to make a couple of redoubts for them and I have more field defences to complete in the form of gabions.

 

Back to the Great Northern War

 

My Great Northern War armies have long languished in the ranks of the uncompleted.  No more.  This is my Swedish Army for With Talon and Claw.

There’s a recorded remark by one of the Swedish cavalry commanders. He said he had thought his charging regiment was going to pass under the bellies of the horses of the Saxon cavalry they had targeted.  It was an exaggeration, though not by much.  Saxon horses were big and Swedish horses were ponies.  Sometimes even quite small ponies.  It is one of those things that makes you think.  The Swedes won the engagement should you have wondered.

My Swedes are mainly from Dixon.  The horses are appropriately small, certainly compared to other 15mm offerings.  A happy chance, just luck.  I didn’t know when I bought them. Another thing I didn’t know was just how large Swedish cavalry units were. Three or four squadrons was fairly standard even under campaign conditions.   

 

As a result, my Swedish cavalry units are a bit too small.  I only have one and two squadron units.  On the plus side it really doesn’t matter in game terms.  Also there is slightly more visual variety.  I say slightly because it's mainly blue for the Swedes.

The balance of Swedish forces is also noteworthy. A Swedish Amy might well be half Horse and half Foot.  Or even more Horse than Foot.  Their artillery, although perfectly competent, was often left behind.  Swedish commanders favoured swift moving attacks, artillery couldn't keep up.

Putting four infantry battalions into good order was easily accomplished. The Swedish infantry were very good soldiers in every respect.  In other armies an elite or veteran regiment might stand out.  For the Swedes it is those who are merely well trained that are the exceptions. All are pike and shot formations and use Flintlocks.

The Dal Regiment.

Narka - Varmlands Regiment.

Above, and the Vasterbotten Regiment. Below, the Vastermanland Regiment.  The figures are from Dixon and Roundway Miniatures.

  I also have two battalions of Swedish Guards.

Veritable terrors on the table top.

 

Subsequently the Swedes will get at least one field gun.  They did use them now and then.

What you can see here is a perfectly viable Swedish Army for With Talon and Claw.  I have more, of course, but they can wait for their moment.  

As an aside, I've just received an delivery of 15mm Gabions from Irregular Miniatures.  They are very well done indeed.

Next week the Russians also completed!