French Invasion of Sweden 1808 (as it might have happened): Two Battles for Skane#1

Two games this week. John came over mid week to play a game trying out Valour and Fortitude for a change instead of Gen d’Armee 2. The latter are my preferred set but sometimes I need simplicity.

As I’ve no doubt mentioned on numerous occasions, the French had plans to invade Sweden, the  Britain’s only ally on the Continent. The French Army of Denmark contained two divisions of French, two of Spanish, one from the Kingdom of Holland and most of the Danish army. The Swedes were busy defending Finland from the Russians but still had a reasonably-sized army to defend Sweden, in theory aided by a British expeditionary force under Sir John Moore that the mad Swedish king refused permission to disembark. The practical issues around staging an invasion were stacked against any real invasion taking place but the chance to field such an eclectic mix of troops overrides any such considerations. So here we go. I plan to run a series of linked games in a sort of snakes and ladders approach, each game dependent on the outcome of the previous one, with a few random events. More of those mechanics in another post.

The French have crossed the narrow stretch of water and put ashore a division of Spanish and a division of French. The Swedes, supported by a small brigade of British/KGL are drawn up across the road inland poised to throw the defenders into the sea. Here are a few photos of the game.

The battlefield. 

The Spanish in the French centre. 

Two brigades of French on their left.

Spanish cavalry on the extreme right.

The Swedes attack.

One of the two Swedish cavalry brigades, facing the Spanish cavalry.

Romana’s Spanish on the French right.

Swedish amd Spanish cavalry in combat.

The Spanish Villavicosa Dragoons are about to be defeated.

More Swedish cavalry in the centre.

The main French thrust was up the road

Meanwhile the Spanish infantry quite liked staying where they were.

The French cavalry brigade attacked the Swedish dragoons in the centre.

It didn’t go well for the French. Their Chasseurs were defeated.

With no cavalry left the Spanish were left exposed. One battalion was caught in line and destroyed while the others were able to form square.

Spanish musketry was ineffective, as the dice above show!

Over on the left the French hit the English brigade, who failed to stop their charge.

One battalion of French were defeated in melee.

But next turn one English battalion was broken.

Followed next turn by another. The English brigade passed all their Fortitude tests.

The aNow rallied French hussars caught a Swedish battalion in line and destroyed them. They then had to stand for a full turn while the Swedes shot them to pieces causing them to rout. This is an issue I have with the rules as there is no provision for rallying back or indeed carrying on forward. 

The French advance down the road is a slow one.

The centre, with Swedish infantry threatening the flank of the French attack up the road.

The French hussars have had enough…..

…as indeed have the French infantry on the extreme left.

This was clearly a Swedish victory, but not a decisive one. V and F worked ok; they’re very brutal and bloody and not necessarily well thought out, not particularly well written, and the main driver seems to have been to get them onto four sides of A4 paper. (More precise use of English could have saved them some space). That said, they do what it says on the tin, and they can, and in this case certainly did, provide the basis for a good game where the end result was up in the air until the last turn. A fun game, not wholly satisfying from a historical point of view perhaps, but we got to push lots of colourful soldiers around the tabletop and got a result in just over three hours. 

Next time, more players and more soldiers.