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.