A Swedish Army for the Great Northern War- Infantry Part 1

I opted to use Roundway and Dixon15mm for this project.  As you can see they match nicely.   Roundway come with cast on flags which I removed in no time at all with a pair of  snips. 

I'm aiming for 8 units of foot in all. They are based for Beneath the Lily Banners, six figures to a stand, 3 stands per unit.  When I want to use them for Piquet I'll simply add a battalion gun to bring the unit up to the requisite four. Or, I could just field them below strength, hard campaigning and all that.

Here are my first six starting with the Lifgad til Fot (Life Guard of Foot).   All of this first unit are Dixon GNW 15mm figures all baring the Roundway officer and NCO.

Lifgad til Fot in karpus from Dixon above and in hat from Roundway below.  A Battalion Gun is in support.

 

 These boys are going to be rated as Veteran Elite or Guards.

A mix of Roundway and Dixon above for the Vasterbotton Regiment.

The Narke Varmland Regiment above all from Roundway.

The Dal Regiment above all from Roundway.  Lastly, the Vastermanland Regiment with a mixture of Dixon and Roundway.

 The aim is to have 3 brigades of foot with supporting battalion guns. Two regiments to go.

The flags used for these regiments are either from Fabrizio Davi you can find them at his blog

  http://torgauproject.blogspot.com/2011/09/swedish-flags-gnw.html      or from Wayne Turner who blogs at  http://www.khanage.net.nz/wargaming/great-northern-war/gnw-standards/

My thanks to both of these gentlemen for making their splendid flags freely available..


More soon.

The Great Northern War-A Reading list

It was Barry Hilton’s Beneath the Lily Banners-War of Three Kings that lead me to The Great Northern War.  Previously I’d barely been aware of it.  Once bitten though and I thought I’d better improve my education. I made four fortuitous purchases:

The Russian Army of the Great Northern War 1700-21 by Boris Megorsky.  

 

  It's packed full of information, uniforms, flags, organisation and tactics, the key battles and the historical background to the GNW.  The reader quickly appreciates the breadth of Tsar Peter's task and the scale of his achievement. Actually it reminded me of what I have read about Russia in the Second World War.  The Russian army continually improved during the GNW

The Russian army liked field defences and fire power-the latter even for cavalry.  We are told of the amount of lead (of all calibres) thrown by  the Russian army at Poltava.  It's breathtaking.  As an example the Moskovsky Dragoons who fought mounted fired 13,337 fusil rounds and 3,700 pistol rounds - roughly 21 rounds per man.

As a new comer to the period this was just what I wanted and I note that long term students of the GNW are very impressed too. Not one to miss if you are at all interested in the GNW.


Peter the Great Humbled by Nicholas Dorrell- a translation from the Russian I think.  

It covers the doomed Russian Ottoman campaign which ended in a Turkish triumph.  If you ever wanted an army of Cossacks, Polish winged Hussars, Swedish infantry, Turkish Janissaries and Tatars (then still a power to be reckoned) this book is for you.  I felt this book improved my perspective on the GNW.  As with other Helion publications lots of good information and nice pictures.

The Swedish Army in the Great Northern War 1700-21 by Lars Erickson Wolke.  The Swedish army was highly motivated and very effective and the author tells us just how that achieved. The terms and conditions of the Swedish soldier and his social status compare well to those in any other European country I can think of.  He had, relatively, a lot more to fight for and was also systematically indoctrinated by means of religious precept.  The system also meant that unit cohesion and drill were also better than that the norm.  There was also innovation in cavalry tactics that enabled greater shock value on the battlefield.

In battle the often heavily outnumbered Swedes liked to identify weak points in the enemy line and strive to achieve local superiority there. Then to swiftly press an attack while their cavalry looked after the vulnerable flanks and exploited any breakthroughs.  Wolke does not see this as a uniquely Swedish approach to battle-correctly in my view.  He does remark that their high discipline and training enabled them enabled them to swiftly carry out battlefield choreography in a way that was simply beyond their opponents capabilities.  I'd add that the constant ability of the Swedes to reserve their crucial first fire until optimum range must have shaken most opponents.

Wolke takes the view that this superb military machine was intended only for defensive wars and ultimately would not survive protracted campaigns and continuous engagements abroad.  Half way through Poltava they, despite showing incredible discipline and courage, had had enough and at every level the army came apart.  It's fascinating stuff.  You also get uniforms (sadly including a wrong one for the life guard), flags and everything else on the label.


Finally, Peter Englund’s The Battle of Poltava. Very much from a Swedish perspective but not I felt overly partisan. Well written and illuminating.

The quality of information of all four books is high, relying on original sources rather than regurgitating secondary ones.  I note in passing that the first three are published by Helion and if the can maintain this standard I think they'll do very well indeed.  

I am now equipped to take a view about the Great Northern War which was the point of the exercise.  If you fancy doing the GNW from a standing start the books above will set you up.

For the gaming aspect I now eagerly await Barry Hilton's Great Northern War supplement for The War of Three Kings.

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Beneath The Lily Banners-War Of The Three Kings- A Review

I'm new to the Beneath The Lily Banners (BLB) school.  I missed the first two editions so I cannot comment on changes to what went before.  I am though very interested in the Williamite War and naturally enough have read the League of Augsburg website for years.

So, when the War of Three Kings came along, I thought now's the time and I'm pleased and impressed with what I got for my money.  

First of all the production values are excellent, it's what we used to call a coffee table book.   Lovely pictures and an easy to read informative style.  It's also the complete package, as well as the rules you get uniform and flag information.  Should you know nothing of the Williamite War buy a copy on The War of Three Kings and you are good to go.

You also get an illustrated walk through a game which is very useful.  You can see a sample page below.

There is a strong sense of Piquet about these rules but it's deceptive.  BLB goes it's own way and achieves its aims by different means, no card deck for one thing. 

There are different troop types for both horse and foot and a separate one for dragoons. each has advantages and disadvantages.

Blade Horse:  Charge straight into contact.

 Bullet Horse:  Fire before contact. 

Dragoons: Not as good as cavalry when mounted or infantry when on foot, but they can nip about.

Loose Order:  Used by the Irish on both sides in the Williamite War, skirmishers pretty much.

All Pike:  The local worthy has called out his tenants sort of thing.

Pike and Shot: Pretty much as it was in earlier days.

Regulation:  Pikes are just about still in vogue.

All Musket:  The future has arrived but only for some.

To this you add troop quality, formation and circumstances. The all important first fire is well represented and Flintlocks do more damage than Matchlocks.  It's an elegant and flexible system.  The latter is nicely demonstrated in the special rules for Highlanders, you need to get these fellows quickly into the enemy for maximum effect.

Movement, firing and close combat work on the principle that the player has worked out what he wants to do and knows how best to do it.  Do so and you'll probably be lucky, neglect it and you might well fail.  For example put your troops in line too soon and they'll advance at a snail's pace, leave it too late and cavalry will route them. The solution?  Get your cavalry up there to protect your marching infantry until they form a firing line.  This makes for a thoughtful level of engagement throughout the game.  You are not going to be bored.


The dice system is familiar -the better the troops and circumstances the higher value dice you get and more of them too.  Units will often fail to immediately do what you want, a good thing in my book, so plan for it. 

Both sides place their orders at the same time using counters.  You flip them over and get on with it. Thus a world of whining and attempted backsliding evaporates before your very eyes.  This is a very good thing.

The rules are simple to learn especially if, like me, you come from a Piquet Field of Battle background. It's no longer the fashion to say rules are historically accurate but with all the caveats that come with the phrase that's what immediately came to mind in my first game.

I made a card for each unit as a player aid the front showing the unit and the stat's on the back. Not strictly necessary but helpful especially for new players.

I should add that the rules will also suit continental theatres in this period and there is a chapter on how to rate such troops.  Soon there will be a Great northern War supplement too.