GNW Bust up in Bury

I was invited over to chum Daves this Sunday for a game and he was keen for us to get the Great Northern War collections on table. He has a lovely Russian Army and we have only played it 2 or 3 times, so I loaded the car up with all my figures and bobbed over to Bury.

Dave has a lovely games room with a 14 by 6 feet table, the biscuits hardly made it to the table at all before being demolished. Cheers Dave. Shh dont tell his missis.

We supplemented Daves Russians with my Poles and Saxons giving Dave the following.

Brigade of 4 Cossack Cavalry
2 Brigades of 3 Russian Dragoons
3 Brigades of 2 Polish Cavalry
3 Brigades of Russian foot (2 x 5 and 1 x 4)
2 Brigades of 3 Saxon Foot
4 Russian guns in redoubts.

The Russians had mainly average commanders and the two poor units of foot cossacks were behind the fences and hedges of the two farms.

16 Regiments of Horse
20 Battalions of Foot
4 Guns

I had the Swedes with slightly fewer troops:

11 Regiments of Horse (2 Guards) in 4 brigades
14 Battalions of foot (4 Guards) also in 4 brigades
3 Guns

So whilst Dave has the edge in numbers quality is as usual in favour of the Swedes.

Both sides placed all their horse on the flanks, the Russians putting more onto their right, the Swedes a bit more even on both flanks. The strongest two brigades of foot would attack the centre left of the Swedish front with the weaker two brigades hoping to pin three of the Allied 5 Brigades in the centre and right.

Things go well initially for the Swedes, two brigades of foot in the centre fail to move but the Guard Cavalry see off two units of Poles in quick time and pounce straight onto two more 

The Russians Advance to form a line linking the two Villages and the gun positions, two lines of foot with a further line of Saxons bringing up the rear. A tried and tested tactic to wear down the attacking Swedes.

On the left the mass of Russian horse advance steadily with the Cossacks ont he extreme Allied right. These guys put up a surprisingly good fight frustratingly.

I throw my horse forward on the Left but they are not really getting forward as quickly as I would like and only one unit actually gets into contact with the Cossacks. The Cossacks are beaten but Daves morale dice are good and he simply withdraws behind the rest of the brigade whilst my unit is shaken and needs to stand where it is.

On the right my foot is starting to take casualties from the Guns, but on the left we are doing OK and advancing steadily.

Next move and the Guards charge the village on the left taking it at the point of the bayonet and pushing the mauled Cossack foot out the back. Unfortunately the next brigade in doesn't move at all so the attack has become a bit disjointed and the Russians can concentrate their fire on my Guards, the battalion outside the village holds its ground and it becomes a slogging match between these two units.

Further left the horse have finally got going and we hit the Russian horse, again Dave's morale dice see him retire rather than break and we pounce onto the next Russian horse with the same result.

Another unit of Cossacks tries its luck against my shaken unit that cannot charge in response. I get lucky and see them off. But really need to get the rest of this brigade In front of the exposed unit.

With lots of Sweeping charges we get a little confused with how many times you an use a sweeping charge. We decide (correctly I think) that just the once, if you break two units then the second sweeping advance is just that and you cant instigate another melee.

The Guard cavalry on the right have destroyed Four units of Poles but the last combat is a stretch for them and one of the two units breaks, a Brigade break test sees the other one taken off and things suddenly look a little different. Fortunately I have brought two units of the other Brigade up behind them to stop the remaining Poles taking any advantage from the situation.

The Russians now charge the Swedish horse again, but again are seen off and again Fave manages to hold their morale whilst the Cossacks charge the other Brigade with the same result.

On the right two regiments of remaining horse stare daggers at each other, but the Swedes wont be charging across the front of the supporting Infantry to be galled by their fire on the way in. the third regiment of horse is nearer the centre ready to pounce should the Russians try to envelope my first brigade of foot which is in a fair degree of trouble from the guns and musketry of Dave's front line of Russians.

Half the Swedish first Brigade is dis-ordered by the guns the other half charges the Russians, one Russian battalion is broken but the other stands and both Swedish units are badly mauled.

To the left the Swedes manage to see off two battalions of Russians, but the supporting fire from the Saxons brigade leaves one of the Guard units shaken.

Far left and the Russian horse are now all off table and both shaken and dis-ordered with just two damaged units of Cossacks remaining. , however the Russians have held us up long enough that the Cavalry wont be able to take advantage of their success.

In the centre the two lagging Swedish Brigades finally get going, one stalls in front of the right hand village but manages to break a Russian battalion, the other charges the guns, Dave's dice desert him at this critical moment and the guns are taken with the brigade almost untouched. The Russians now need a brigade break test which they fail and the rest of the Russian brigade routs from the table.

Things are starting to come to a head. With a number of units being at the end of their tether.

On the right now the Swedes have run out of steam, I manage a last charge by one unit and break another Russian unit but the foot are curling around my flank, the Guns are cutting swathes from my two stalled units and now the Russians are confident enough to charge the disordered Swedish foot, first one battalion break and then a second. The resulting Brigade test sees the whole damaged brigade flee the table.

My cavalry have relatively little left int he game and still have a few units of Allies to deal with. I have lost one brigade of foot and one of the others is in poor shape.

The Russians have lost the majority of their cavalry and whilst the Swedish horse has had casualties we definitely have the edge on both flanks. The first village is taken but the second his still held and there are three brigades of Allied foot available to dispute its possession with my three Brigades of Swedish foot.

The day is almost done and we agree its a marginal Swedish Victory.

Our after game chat leaves us with plenty of food for thought on making the games less one dimensional and ensuring that the Allies enjoy the games as much as the Swedes.

Thanks for the hospitality Dave, I look forward to our next game.

Back to GNW

Steve was keen to run another Great Northern War game, he wanted to see if the Allies could stand up to the Swedes without all the field fortifications. To balance things the Allies would have almost double the amount of cavalry and an increased number of guns.

We also fielded a formation of cookies which was quickly overwhelmed.

I made a rookie error and left a box of 6 battalions of Swedes at home, we had to substitute 3 of the Swedish battalions with Saxons for the purposes of the game. Doh!

The Swedes had 5 regiments of horses on their right in two brigades, 8 battalions of foot in the centre in 2 brigades each with a gun and a brigade of 4 battalions of Guard on the left giving them a total of:

12 Foot
5 horse
2 guns

All Swedish commanders were good.

The Dano-Prussian army had a brigade of 2 horse on its extreme right with two brigades of 5 foot and 2 guns in the centre then a further brigade of 5 foot with a gun on the left supported by a battalion in the village and 7 regiments of horse on the extreme left giving a total of :

16 battalions of foot
9 regiments of horse
4 guns

All commanders were average. Most of the Allies were average troops with a small smattering of superior and inferior troops added.

The Swedes opened proceedings and the 5 units of cavalry immediately rolled a 9 and belted forward 36 inches to end within a move of the Allied cavalry. The foot managed a more sedate single move of 8 inches for each brigade.

The Allies responded with an ineffective long range bombardment and marched forward to start forming their defensive line running from the village either side.

I should also just say that for large parts of the game I got caught up and forgot to take lots of pictures. Sorry!

Next move and the Danish Horse under Steve charged my Swedes who counter charged, The Swedes with their ferocious charge re-rolls quickly destroyed the Danes and followed up with a sweeping charge into the next Danish Cavalry unit who, unable to counter charge were also immediately broken. great news except that now the three casualties inflicted on the Swedes meant they were stuck in the midst of the Danish cavalry and shaken leaving them unable to counter charge next move. The second melee was almost a carbon copy of the first with the first Danish horse destroyed and the second forced to retreat disordered but the Swedes were again shaken. 4-0 to the Swedes.

Seeing how things were going Mark started moving his 2 units of cavalry across the rear to support the Allied left. Meanwhile the Allied foot continued to deploy and more ineffective long range gunnery crossed over no mans land.

On the right the next lot of Saxon horse charged the Swedes, I had manoeuvred one unit to cover the damaged ones so Steve couldn't charge the shaken unit, with no other obvious targets the remaining Swedish horse found itself lined up against a battalion of Saxon foot, so in the spirit of play testing I thought I would have a go at charging it.

This time the Allies held and the Allied foot dis ordered my horse on the way in, the melee passed to another round as the Allies held.

My foot started to get moving at last, as did Marks and we closed on each other with the centre brigade marching through an orchard to deny the big Allied guns a target and forcing the artillery for both sides to engage in a futile long range anti battery duel. Please ignore that three of these are actually Saxons in reality!

A fierce melle ensued on the right with more of the Allies being forced back eventually.

But the Allied foot saw off the first unit of Swedish cavalry and the Swedes now had something to worry about.

The mellee finally went the way of the Swedes, however three out of four remaining cavalry units were now shaken and useless in terms of go forward,

Steve now marched his heroic Allied foot unit forward to fire into the paralysed horse and I charged my remaining un-shaken unit at him. I forced him to retreat but the last unit of Swedes was now shaken and unable to move forward. I was forced to pull the whole lot back out of charge range of the Allies to try and re-order them.

On the left the Guard were now in a position to charge, Mark managed to dis-order them but the guards ability to roll dis-order off on a 4,5 or 6 saw them charge home and destroy the first two units of Allied foot, two more dis-orders saw the Swedes forced to stand off and trade unequal volleys, only having 2 dice due to one third pike vs the Allies 3.

In the centre the Swedes had finally come into charge range and seen off two battalions of Allies, however 3 out of 4 foot units were now badly mauled and being shaken were again forced into fire fights with the second line of Allies. The whole of the centre and right of the Swedish line was in trouble.

However on the right the quality of the guards looked set to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, charging the second line of Allies another battalion broke and the fourth was pushed back, a brigade break test sees the whole brigade break

The rest of the Swedes push forward despite galling fire from the Prussians and the heavy guns. They take heavy casualties but destroy another unit of Allied foot and with nothing to stop them the Guards now start to turn in and prepare to roll  the allied flank.

8 battalions of Swedes now start to grind remorselessly forward and the Allied left is pretty much doomed.

The Swedish horse and right hand brigade have been stopped but the Allies facing them must remain in place to stop them recovering. The Allied left might manage to inflict enough damage to stop the central brigade of Swedish foot, but the guards have nothing to stop them pushing through the remaining Allies and taking the day. The Allies accept defeat at this point.

Mark in particular found the challenge of being unable to stop the Swedes with all their multiple advantages in attack demoralising, the numbers and artillery do address the imbalance to a point but its still less fun to game the Allies unless you have got your head around losing your first line to sap their strength.

A couple of tweaks suggest themselves, such as a dis-order from closing fire stopping the cavalry closing on foot. The alternative is to ensure the Swedes don't always have their best troops available. The Guard only really fought with the King in the main field army and although their commanders were usually a lot better there were occasions where a less able Swedish commander was out generaled by an Allied opponent. so removing the Guard and downgrading some generals to average may address some of the imbalance.

A good game non  the less, thank you Steve for the hospitality.