Glory to the great northern war.

Well, 5 years after I started I've collected all my GNW painted forces and put them on the table. 

No game, as I'm waiting for appropriate dice, and I need more generals. 

I put my flayed teddybear on top of my old not very nice terrain tiles. The tiles weren't properly taken care of, so the flocking has disappeared on most of them. But the road parts are still working and so are the rivers. I cut the fur where it was needed, Some places the terrain tiles were exchanged for styrofoam so I could put trees into them. the trees are woodland scenics. I drilled holes in the bottom and glued two cut-up wire spears into the holes. So I just shove them through the mat into the styrofoam. I think the rivers need to be dazzled up a little, so I'll pour some woodland scenics water on them at a later date. 

 With some cutting my 5x7 feet teddy mat, it covered my 4x8 table.

 The Swedish being Swedish has decided to charge 8 enemy squadrons, 4 battalions and a cannon with 10 squadrons of cavalry.

 The Saxons have hidden themself behind a river crossing. 3 battalions are supported by two squadrons of Goltz dragoons and a big 16pdr cannon.

 Grendiers and cannon ready for the Swedes. 

Danish will have the "honour" of dealing with most of the Swedish infantry. Unlike the Saxons with their river and the russians with their stonewall. The Danes only have some woods.

 Russians have backup of both Saxon and Danish cavalry. It's not easy standing up to 3000+ Swedish cavalry. 

 The Swedish look ready to Gå på!

 The Danish have put their Livgarden til fods and grenadier korpset in their front line. Hoping their best battalions will stand up to the Swedish onslaught. 

Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg looking confidant. 

 To take on the Saxons hiding behind their river. You got the elites. The Drabants, followed by the liv garden til hest, and the liv dragonerna as reserves. Liv dragonerne is by har the most powerful unit on the table. With 2 squadrons, being veteran, elite blade and Swedish they are worth 7 points in BLB3.

For reference, the danish 2nd Sjælandske is 50% larger and still only has 6 points.  7 points is also more than all 4 Russian battalions combined. But if the 3 guard cavalry units can't handle the Saxons, they might get support from the Björnborg battalion, which was placed there as a lynchpin between the right flank cavalry and the centre infantry. 

 The Standards blowing in the wind, drums and cronets blowing...

It's time to GÅ PÅ!

I plan on running this game, once my dice have come and I get like at least 10 generals done.(and Maybe a squadron of Russian dragoons)

Livdragonerna

So a squadron of Swedish Life dragoons, I plan on doing 12 of these, but those were the figures available now.

I've done very little GNW the last 16 months. I've come to realise I have way too many of them for the size table I'll ever get to use. At minimum I need a 5x9 table. And that's if I don't add anything more. And I'll probably never get more than a 4x6 table. Maybe if I'm lucky I get a 5x6 or something.
So It seems kinda pointless to add any more. Also after reading the Talon and Claws supplement, I realised my Swedish are like way to powerful. So adding more to them is even more pointless. But I had started this one many months ago. And though I'd at least finish it. 

 The life dragoons are very plain in their uniform, all blue, only none blue is on the horse and hatband.
In Beneath the Lilly banners, I've given these Veteran, Elite, blade Swedish. For 3.5 points.
The same as I would give lifeguard horse, This was Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld's unit, he made it. He was the colonel. So these were superbly good troops.

Something is wrong with the printer, it claims it's only toner thing. But the pictures get really weird. So Instead of just printing a background I now have to digitally impose and photoshop stuff.
It's a pain in the ass, and it never looks as clean and nice as just using a background.

It will probably take some time before the next GNW unit for the reasons given above. Maybe I'll finish a Russian guard unit, just so it doesn't lay there half done. 

Last unit of 2019

I did the last half of the last 6 on New Year's Eve.

This is the Joyeuses grenadier battalion, made up of french POWs yet did some of the hardest fighting at Fraustadt.

The figures are Warfare Prussians.

 Except for the mitres, I'm very happy with them. Even just painting a yellow rectangle is beyond my freehand skills.

These are actually a gift from a good friend. I got 10 last Christmas and the rest this Christmas.
I had painted the first 6 a couple of months back. So I only had 12 to paint over Christmas.

Besides the grenadiers, I also got With Talons and Claws the much anticipated GNW/eastern Wars supplement for Beneath the Lilly Banners.  A great book very good inspiration.
The book comes with a simple point system, partly to just balance and partly to help to make the game feel like it should.
If you are playing the western wars, most units will be quite similar. But what makes the GNW so unique is the asymmetrical gameplay. And this point system makes it much easier just to keep track of how effective you force is.

I have been painting on my GNW project since late 2015, I had a plan and kinda just worked towards it.
But now I've gone through all my GNW forces and given the units points, based historic precedence and recommendation/balance in the book.

The results are


Danish 8 points for the infantry. 8 Points for the Cavalry, for a total of 16 points
Saxon 4.5 infantry 10 cavalry, 1 artillery, total 15.5 Points.  
Russian 5.5 infantry, 4 cavalry  0.5 artillery. 10 points.

The Danes have the best average score, as they are basically a well-drilled well supplied western-style army. Their Liv garden til fods are their best unit with 3 points.

The Saxons are in theory the same as the Danes but they had like 6 years of defeat after defeat.
But given the infantry, just fine stats and these grenadiers are drilled elite, same grading I gave the danish grenadiers. The Saxons are let down by the cavalry I've given one regiment raw grading to make the whole of the cavalry more brittle. But most of the cavalry too are drilled.

The Russians have one drilled elite infantry unit, this is Ingermanlandski which was kinda halfway a guard unit, they have a regular drilled battalion too and two raw infantry.
The cavalry are grenadiers, so is one of the better cavalry units the Russians can have.

Then came the swedes, Now I don't feel I've over rated them, The Swedish infantry even have a raw battalion, so in fact 1/5 of the Swedish force is raw, The Danes doesn't have any Raw units at all.
The Västerbotten battalion is rated veteran, elite, and with the bonuses for Swedish etc. It's 3.5 points. It will be very powerful.

Even so, the Swedish infantry is only 11.5 points. not that much more than the Danes and the Swedes have a battalion more than the Danes.

But then comes the cavalry, I might have gone overboard. A total of 30.5 points. 
Not only have I more Swedish cavalry than all the enemy cavalry combined, but I have 2 squadrons of liv garden til hest, and 1 squadron of liv dragoons(almost finished and I added them to the list) These are very powerful units. But I also have like 54 more regular Swedish cavalry, all quite good.
 So The Swedish are actually half a point stronger than all 3 others combined, now this is a good thing, as I always planned on having 3 vs 1. But my Swedish cavalry alone is almost twice as strong as the Danish or Saxon armies and is over 3 times as strong as the Russian army.


So yeah powerful Swedes.

I hope to do more than 2 units this year. I have like 4 or 5 unpainted Russian battalions. A Russian gun somewhere. I have a half-painted Danish battalion. I have 12 Danish cavalry somewhere to paint. and 6 Saxon Dragoons. I've now primed the first 3 of 12 Russian dragoons.

But I'm itching to do some 30YW stuff again, and my Barons' War figures are at the post office begging to be picked up and painted.

Micro Army.

Well, there's not going to be an end of year report this year, my production was simply not worth talking about last year, I bearly did anything the last 5  months of the year. 

Anyway, the first post of the year does have some eye candy.

I've finished some Swedes, I now actually only have 12 Swedish cavalry unpainted. I have tones of anti-Swedish stuff, but only 12 cavalry, if you ignore some random Swedish infantry I'm going to experiment with. Anyway, this let me do a Swedish photoshoot. 

 The lastest unit, Glydenstierna dragoons, I had planed on doing this unit back in 2015 when  I started this project. And now I've started on them, they'll be 24 by the end. 

 The flag is badly made by me, I've found no conclusive source for the flag used by this regiment. There were earlier Gyldenstierna regiments back during the Scanian war. but I don't know if it would use the same heraldry. 

 Army shoot.

 On this flank 6 squadrons of Småland cavalry regiment Björnborg battalion, Kalmar battalion and in the back a 5mening battalion.

And On this flank, we still have Kalmar and 5mening on the right side. But to the left, we have Jönkjöping and the quite new Västerbotten battalion. This cavalry flank is made up of 2 more squadrons of Småland, the new Gyldenstierna dragoons, two squadrons of Livregimentet til hest and a single squadron of Drabantene. 

A total of  78 cavalry or 13 BLB squadrons, and 112 infantry in 5 battalions, and 3 generals.
All figures except the Björnborg battalion and the 3 generals are Warfare miniatures. All flags except that single badly made Gyldenstierna standard are warfare too.

AAAAANNNNDDD, it's done.

Well, I started on this battalion about a year ago, I started it after I had read a book on Fraustadt, it describes an unorthodox formation, all the battalions deployed in 6 ranks, not 4, and the pike was placed along the entire frontage in the 3rd rank, and not in the center. I assume this was done since the Saxon-Russian army had deployed entirely behind chevaux de frise and so with pikes along the entire frontage the pikes could easily poke and prod at the Saxons and Russians behind their defenses if that was needed.  It might also have been done, by the size of the battlefield, the battalions had close support of cavalry and the size of the field between the two villages the Saxons had anchored their infantry flanks simply meant that if they deployed in 4 ranks, then the flanks of the Swedish infantry would hit the villages and break up their attack.

I wanted to show this in a regiment, and I choose Väserbotten, I had planned on doing this regiment for some time, as I wanted Karpus clad swedes and Västerbotten used the karpus the entire war.
As it turns out, this regiment saw some of the toughest fights during the battle of Fraustadt, While the Swedish right flank just cut and shot the Saxons and Russians to pieces. Vasterbotten and other regiments on the left flank met heavy resistance from the Saxon Guards and Grenadiers. Even the Swedish dragoons on the left met far stiffer resistance than their friends on the right did, as on the left you had the Saxon gard du corps what actually showed they were worthy of their title, as they fought harder and longer than any other Saxon cavalry unit did during the war.

Anyway, I decided to represent this formation by having the unit in 3 ranks instead of the regular 2 ranks, and with all the pike in the middle rank. I think it looks good, I'll probably only do this again for the second battalion of Västerbotten. So the regiment is in the same formation, while I use the regular style for all my other Swedish units. 

The unit has 9 pikemen, 4 more than in the regular style units I use. 

I managed to squeeze  9 figures on the 60x60 bases, so the unit has the exact same depth and frontage as the regular units.

Livregimentet

So I've expanded this unit by six, I did it mostly to get a new blog post as it was so silent for well over a month, I cracked this out in two days, one day to do the horses and one to do the riders. 

I have of late decided to do a different painting technique, the last few years I've been block painting, doing the first layer on all things then the second on all things etc etc.

But it's a fast way to do things, but it often leads to some sloppy work, like when I do the last few details I just want to finish up, meaning hair, and all black things often just get done quick and dirty. 

But I've now tried out finishing each thing before moving on to others. So I finish all layers on the coat and do the buttons etc, then I move on to trousers, then straps etc. This means I can concentrate on each part. I feel it does get better, especially the faces, sitting down and doing all 6 layers on the face in one go, makes it easier to work on them and see what you're doing.  But it does go slower. not a lot slower, maybe an extra hour on 6 figures, so I spend 7 hours on 6 figures instead of 6 hours. 

 Figures are Warfare Swedish cavalry and warfare flags

 The new cav is great, I like the broader heftier swords, but the biggest improvement is in the command, they are really, really good! The trumpeter is fantastic, and the officers that just have to show his cuirass!

 They really do look like they are in the process of chopping down some feeling Saxons/Russians/Danes.

It's cavarly time

So I got an order from Warfare miniatures last week, and got to work right away.
The order included a whopping 54 cavalry, 36 Swedish and 18 Danes.
So far I've done 12 Swedish and 6 Danish.

So let's get to the units.

 A squadron of Gyllenstierna dragoons. This one had 8 squadrons at Poltava, that would be 24 figures, I have enough to make 18, so I might stop there or I might order more to do all 24.

 I also did a squadron of livregimentet til häst.

This one will be 24 strong by the end.

Both these units were planed back in 2015 when I started my GNW project, I wanted the Gyllenstierna for the red colour just to be different. And I wanted livregimentet because I've only really planned 1 guard unit for my swedes and this would be it.(now I might add liv dragonene and mabye a guard battalion too.

I've later found out that Gyllenstierna mainly consisted of POWs from the battles in Poland so that works well to add some variation in grading of my swedes. This one could be rated lower then the other Swedish units. 

 And finally, a squadron of Danes, since the Danes only fielded 2 squadrons for their cuirassiers, this unit is done(except for missing flag.

 1st Jutland(Jylland) was the only Danish cavalry regiment to keep the lobster helmet. 

The would fit right into late 30 years war with their buff coats and armour. 

The Danes are from the tried and true warfare range, while the Swedish are the completely new cavalry codes we have been waiting for for over a year now. This means I've now painted 156 warfare cavalry. I still got 24 more Swedish and 12 more Danes to paint, I also have 6 Saxon dragoons to do. 

BUT I've run out of 60x60mm bases, I got just enough left to do some Danish grenadiers(also completely new from warfare) And finish my Russian guard battalion, but after that, it's full stop, as I use 60x60 for almost everything in my GNW project. 

Queens Regiment(and lots of cavarly.

So I finished another 12 Saxon cavalry, this time from Queens Regiment.

 I decided to do them with red hat tape, as one source says the had it, just because it's almost always white, yellow or black. So red makes them unique.

This means the Saxon cavalry force is now 48 strong,  and Anti-Swedish cavalry force is 78.

To fight them I got 54 Swedish cavalry.

And here it is, 132 Warfare miniature cavalry. 

Soo it will be expanded with 24 new Swedish and probably 12 or 18 more Danes too, and probably some Russians.

We're at 50% strength

So some 15 months after starting the project, I'm half done!

This was my first goal when I started, I rarely do I get this far in my project, It's not a great force, 54 cavalry in 9 squadrons, 66 infantry in 3 battalions and 3 generals.

All the cavalry are Warfare, two of the battalions are also warfare, one of the battalions are Footsore/Musketeer miniatures. The generals are Ebor. All flags are warfare too.

At full strength, this would be 1800 infantry and 2250 cavalry.

The units are Småland cavalry regiment and a single squadron of Drabants.

Infantry are Jönkjöping, Björnborg and Kalmar.

The next half will be an almost mirror of this, with maybe an extra infantry battalion.

I know Gylldenstierna dragoons and lifeguard cavalry regiment will be most of the cavalry, while lifeguard infantry will have one battalion represented. I also think Västerbottens regiment will show up.

It looks  like quite a few figures, but really it's only 123.

3 brigades, one of 24 cavalry, one of 30 cavalry and an infantry brigade of 66 figures.

The big flags does help with the look!

Left flank cavalry brigadier

Infantry brigadier

Right flank cavalry brigadier.

I'm now working on some footsore/musketeer miniature Russians, I'm not a fan of the figures, but I have 2 battalions worth of them, and that's like £60+ worth of miniatures, and I'm too poor to waste that money. Also, I have a battalion of Russians on the way from warfare, And so that will give me a brigade of Russians.

So half way there.