The Great Northern War Round 2

 Colin and I had another go at using Midgard Heroic Battles for the early 18th century Great Northern War. This time we pitted the Swedes against a different enemy, the Danes! Unlike the Russians, the Danish army was very much a western style fire-power based army, more like the armies that were fighting in the War of Spanish Succession. As this engagement was set later in the GNW (around 1712/3) the Swedish foot were not of the same quality as our previous game, more that a decade of fighting and the loss of the army in Russia resulted in a reliance of conscripts to make up the numbers.

Again Colin took the Swedes, so I had the fun of coming to terms with a completely different army.

Just a few pictures this time.

Neither side's infantry seemed in a hurry to get into contact, so both armies advanced at a leisurely pace, bombarding their opposition with artillery. 

No so the cavalry, who charges and counter charged with relish! On paper the Danes had better quality horse that the Russian's dragoons, but the Dice Gods disagreed and 2 units of Danish cavalry disolved in the first turn of combat!

The Swedish gunners were far more accurate in this game than previously, meaning that two of my infantry units were at half strength by the time we came to blows.

A Swedish brigade faces up to a Danish brigade over the ownership of a hill on the flank of the action.

In the centre an over-enthusiastic Danish battalion charges the Swedish line and wonders where the rest of the brigade is!

Despite the cavalry losses, the Danes gained the upper hand in the infantry engagements and by the end of Turn Four the Swedish Reputation had dropped to just 1 point.

Just to show how things can change so fast with Midgard, Turn Five saw a collapse of the Danish army on all fronts, ending the turn with the Swedes on -2 Rep to the Dane -5! A very narrow victory to Sweden in the end.

Once again we had a lot of fun playing these rules. Because I was the attacker, I didn't get the opportunity to make the most of the Danish superior shooting. Instead, I needed to get some charges in first to boost my reputation. I think this period will benefit from using scenarios that involve battlefield objectives.