Charles XII's Karoliners, Volume 2: Swedish Cavalry of the Great Northern War 1700–1721

 

There was a time not very long ago when anyone wishing to research the Swedish army during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries would have struggled to find much, if anything, available in English. Over the last couple of years Helion has been hell bent on remedying this situation, to the point where we have been presented with a bumper series of titles, the latest being this one, Charles XII’s Karoliners, volume 2: The Swedish Cavalry of the Great Northern War 1701–1721 by Ukrainian author and artist Sergey Shamenkov.

I will avoid regurgitating the contents list, but the book covers, in great detail, the organisation, recruitment, arms and equipment, uniforms of the officers and men of the wide range of horse, dragoon and Drabant (guard) units in the army, as well as those of musicians and their instruments (a nice touch), and the horse furniture for all ranks.

There are 34 full colour plates, all by the author, and they are absolutely wonderful. They cover examples of the uniforms of some of the numerous Swedish cavalry and dragoon regiments, including some particularly nice ones of musicians, but my favourite is the one depicting a mounted dragoon complete with what looks like a rifle grenade or hand mortar for lobbing grenades at the enemy; not something to be attempted lightly from the back of a horse I imagine. There are also numerous black and white images, some contemporary, some previously unpublished, and others that are photos of surviving equipment and clothing items.

A perfect companion to volume 1, this is well presented and full of detail, and is a welcome addition to my collection of books covering this subject. Highly recommended.

ISBN 978-1-804513-51-4. 165 pages softback

Marshal Joachim Murat

Another personality for my growing French Napoleonic army for 1807-1808. I’m not the best of painters but I am rather pleased with the way he’s turned out. Mostly done with ‘speed’ paints but then gone over with the proper stuff so it wasn’t exactly a speedy job. The model is from Gringo 40s.

More Goodies from Helion - Light Troops in the Seven Years War.

Light Troops in the Seven Years War. Irregular Warfare in Europe and North America, 1755–1763 is another valuable addition to Helion’s ‘from Reason to Revolution’ series, tackling as it does an often overlooked aspect of eighteenth-century warfare. Be they Rangers, Grenzers, Jagers or Freikorps, the impact of their almost constant operations was not insignificant, especially when taken within the wider strategic context. Author James McIntyre has done an excellent job examining the operations of this eclectic mix of ‘irregular’ soldiers, across Europe and North America, who by their successful actions were to elbow themselves into the collective consciousness of the Great Powers, most of them anyway.

Beginning with an examination of the re-emergence of irregular, or partisan, warfare during the first half of the century the author then looks at the efforts of the great Marshal de Saxe and others to codify or regulate the conduct and experiences of the ‘small war’. I was struck by how seriously this was taken, especially by de Saxe, and the French ‘establishment’ in particular.

The heart of the book is the chapters covering light infantry operations in Europe, North America, illustrated with accounts of the actions of Gundersdorf and Domstadtl. North America is not forgotten, with an examination of the raid on Fort Bull in 1756. These successes in battle had significant consequences far out of proportion to the size of the actions themselves.

The stars of this book are, in my opinion, the eight gorgeous colour plates by Alexandr Chernushkin, depicting many different types of light troops, such as von Kleist’s Pandours (one of my favorites) and the Schaumburg-Lippe-Buckeburg Jager Corps. There are also several contemporary black and white images and several useful maps to support the narrative.

The author concludes with chapters on the emergence and development of light infantry in the British army and their role in the ongoing frontier warfare of North America, which rounds off a very informative and satisfyingly thorough examination of the subject matter. The author has had much to tell about this somewhat obscure aspect of eighteenth century warfare, and has done so very well and in an engaging way; as ever I enjoy reading the contemporary correspondence carefully threaded into the narrative as a way into getting into the heads of the people there on the ground.

So, this is in my view an outstanding book which I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone with an interest, no matter how fleeting, in eighteenth century warfare. For an insight into irregular warfare of the era this is the perfect answer.


ISBN 978-1-804513-43-9. 154 pages.

A few Napoleonic Additions.

 Not much been going on this week for various reasons, but I have finished a couple of command stands for the Russians and one for the French. You can never have too many commanders. They always look worse in the photos, so say I at any rate! They will do nicely.

New Pike and Shot Wargame Rules and Army Lists

 

 

I recently acquired copies of these two books from Helion and Co, part of their Helion Wargames series. Now, I have not played these rules, although I have used their sister set, Mortimer et Gloriam, so my opinion is mostly based on reading and understanding them rather than on how they play. As n experienced and somewhat set in his ways wargamer I find new ideas a struggle at times. Not in this case though.

The main rule set is a fully revised second edition of the rules, originally published elsewhere. The layout is really good, with lots of diagrams and examples of play to support each phase of the game. These are the stars of the book as, unlike many other rules sets where such things are often missing, they provide clear guidance in order to help players through their first games until they are more familiar with the mechanics.yes, the mechanics are interesting, look complicated but are not. They are different (unless you’ve played MeG), but easy to get to grips with in pretty short order. The Colour Based Command (CCC) system, using, if you wish, bespoke dice, is intuitive and quite a challenge, in a good gameplay way. It is NOT necessary to buy special dice, as any other method to activate troops can be adopted to fit into the CCC approach.

I think these rules are well worth trying out, and perhaps I will give them a go sometime in the near future.

The army lists cover the Thirty Years’ War and the British Civil Wars, all 60 of them. The lists need to be read in conjunction with the main rules, but are presented in such a way as to make it possible to adapt them to any other preferred rules. I’m pretty confident that the lists of those armies about which I have more than a passing knowledge are ‘accurate’, although that term can be rather subjective knowing the psyche of most (all) wargamers. Whatever your thought on army lists, these are really handy, especially someone new to the period and the rules.

The last section of the army list book is devoted to a campaign or pre-battle system which I quite like as it can help provide an appropriate context for a game.

Both volumes are well set out and I like the large print in the rule book, are easy to follow, and the unique game mechanics are actually quite simple. The rules are beautifully illustrated throughout with photographs of troops (as I’ve said earlier these provide a good guide to interpretating the rules) and a good number of lovely colour images drawn from other Helion books from the Century of the Soldier series.

ISBN 978-1-804514-56-6 for the rules, soft back,  238 pages, A4 format

ISBN 978-1-804514-45-0 for the lists, soft back, 140 pages, A4 format.

The Generosity of Others

A long-standing friend of some 50 years called in this week for our annual catch up, bringing with him these delightful and unexpected gifts as he is culling his book collection. Apart from the Featherstone book, which is of course a classic, there is a complete set of the pictured Time Life History of the American Civil War, in pristine condition. I look forward to reading them all.

The Battle of Mohrungen, 25 January 1807

 This week’s game was based on the battle of Mohrungen, between the Russians and a French corps under Bernadotte. I used the scenario laid out in Age Of Eagles as the basis for the game. A description of the real events is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mohrungen. The Russians started with an advantage of around 2:1 in infantry and 3:1 in artillery, but French reinforcements  would, when they arrived, balance the numbers (more or less). The Russians had to hold and defeat the French and keep their lines of communication open. The French needed to occupy the areas marked ‘V’ on the map, and while doing so destroy the Russians. The French reinforcements would be arriving at Blue Star 1 on the map, while the main French body started in the south west corner. The Russians could deploy  anywhere north of (and inside) the enclosed farm. The Russian CinC GL Roman Anrep (classed as a 9) was not on the table until T6 before which they were commanded by a very mediocre GM Markov (7). 

The view from the southern table edge. 

The Russians placed jägers in the farm, the mill and the village of Georgenthal, with their main body situated around the hill in the centre and linking the garrisons at each end of the line. Interestingly the chose to keep.their horse artillery battery limbered up well back in reserve, which I thought was a refreshing change from the wall-to-wall cannon tactics often used by Russian players, and definitely playing the period and not the rules. They suspected that some French would appear on their flank, and were correct of course.

Dave and Shaun took the Russians, while Paul, Nigel and John the Red (in charge of the reinforcements), were the French, under overall command of Marshall Bernadotte.

So without further ado, here’s what happened. The French moved first and arrived on the table at the southwestern corner and faced 15 or 16 battalions with eight of their own.

The centre of the Russian deployment zone, literally full of troops, largely held in reserve, but their were three battalions supporting the artillery in the centre..

The main body of the French army advancing on the Russians. They looked splendid, before the Russian cannon opened fire!

To counter the Russian artillery, the French had just this one small battery of 8-pdrs plus another similar-sized horse battery with the cavalry. I’ve still not finished my actual 1807 French artillery so these chaps from the Revolutionary era were standing in.

The French main body was slow to engage the enemy which meant that the Russians were not fully preoccupied when John brought his reinforcements onto the table, as can been above. The Russian reserves were ordered to face this new threat and drive it off.

The Cossacks tried to delay the French but were unable to stop them crossing the stream.

The large mass of Russian infantry seen in the middle ground was about to descend upon the newly-arrived French.

Fierce fighting around the farm.

Paul’s attack on the farm was prolonged and bloody. The first assault was repulsed. The second saw two battalions break and it was only the third assault that finally forced its way into the farmyard enclosure. 

Nigel’s cavalry caught a Russian battalion who were unable to form square., throwing a double 1. Remarkably the disordered infantry held and the cavalry had to pull back. More to do with extreme dice rolling than anything else.

One of the broken French battalions.

The French advanced on the village of Georgenthal.

The village was defended by jäger and supported by a half battery of horse artillery and a musketeer battalion.

Nigel’s cavalry had ridden 108” in two turns thanks to some low scores,and were now in the centre. They had been about to pounce of the Russian flank but Shaun moved his hussars forward to distract the French.

The French were loosing ground on the left wing.

The Russians were thrown out of half of Georgenthal but were facing three battalions of grenadiers with artillsupport.

 

Johns reinforcements had been halted by stubborn Russian resistance..

The Russian hussars charged across the stream. The one facing the artillery was destroyed and the othe one was defeated by French dragoons. This meant the Russian cavalry, including the Cossacks, were out of the game shattered.

By now we had played 12 out of maximum of 14 turns. It was too close to call.  The Russians had lost all their cavalry and some infantry but still had more than a dozen battalions and two full artillery batteries in play, and were in no way weakened significantly by the fighting to date. The French were well placed to  isolate and destroy the enemy right wing near the mil, and could have occupied the Russian lines of communication off the table, but dislodging the enemy from their central position would be tough. I decided we had a minor Russian victory to celebrate. Hurrah!

I have really gone off Black Powder. We were all very rusty but compared with Valour and Fortitude they seemed quite slow and clunky. I enjoyed the game as did the players, but not the rules, which disappointed me.