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.

 

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!

Time to try out the Russians and Swedes with BLB3

Sometime soon this year Barry Hilton will release his Great Northern War supplement for Beneath the Lily Banners War of Three Kings.  I look forward to it, meantime there has been some talk about it on Fighting Talk at the League of Augsburg site.

From this it seems the Swedish infantry will be fast moving fellows and ‘Veterans’ too.  They will move six inches in line and 8 in column.  Their capabilities then, all subject to the official publication, seem to me to be like this:

‘Veteran’ ‘Pike and Shot’ Infantry 'Flintlock' armed.

Their many pikes (1 in 3) will up their melee abilities while their ‘Veteran’ status will provide for a deadly point blank ‘First Fire’. For the Foot Guards we can add 'Elite' to their profile. That all works for me.

The Swedish cavalry are a straight forward proposition.  They will mainly be ‘Veteran’ ‘Blade’ Horse except for the Guard who will be ‘Guard’ ‘Blade’ Horse.  There is one thing, the Swedes invented a knee to knee drill that made the impact of their charge particularly formidable.  Given their already, deserved, high rating I'm not sure how to model that, perhaps there's no need to.

The gunners will simply be ‘Drilled’.  The Swedes had a first rate artillery train but very often simply out marched it so the heavier pieces were often not available for battle.

There we are, the Swedes are a highly disciplined, fast moving and formidable bunch of lads. The infantry fought in the old style while the cavalry had invented a new, and soon to be, widely emulated formation .

The Russians need some thought, let’s do the cavalry first.

Russian cavalry liked to use fire power so it is definitely ‘Bullet’ Horse for them.  There’s more though, turning to page 173 of War of Three Kings we find advice on gaming beyond  the Williamite War in Britain and Ireland:

"the use of Musketoons or Carbines before contact."  That will suit Russian Horse very nicely giving us the following ‘Raw’ ‘Drilled’ or ‘Veteran’ Bullet’ Horse using ‘Bullet volley’. 

This means that when being charged the Russian cavalry will give their opponents a volley at a range of 3 inches.  Each stand will throw 2 'Signature dice' the casualties inflicted will then be added to the casualties caused by the Russians in the melee.  Significantly the Swedish chargers in this case will continue to charge home regardless of the effects of the ‘Bullet volley’.  The combat will be decided by who inflicts the most hits including those produced by the 'Bullet volley'.  Very elegant,  I like this and cannot wait to try it out on the table top.

The Russian infantry can be ‘Regulation’ or ‘All Musket’ and might be ‘Veteran’ ‘Drilled’ or ‘Raw’.  They liked to brigade their Grenadiers. Where ever possible they used field defences, I have a load of them to make up.

Russian gunners were good and guns plentiful. I’ll try making 1 battery ‘Veteran’ to see how that goes.

That’s my thinking on gaming the Great Northern War using Beneath the Lily Banners. Once Barry Hilton’s GNW supplement appears I’ll be guided by it. For the moment the above means I can host a GNW game with period flavour.

The toys are mainly Dixon and Roundway.