Hello all,
Well after several months of painting up Swedes, Russians and a few Saxons, I figure let give the GNW a go using BLB2. The battle I chose was Fraustadt 1706. This was a battle between the Swedes and a combined army of Russians and Saxons. While putting together the units I realized I was way short on Saxons and some Swede cavalry. To supplement the lack of troops, I had to inject some Danes, Dutch, French and Brits. I used a mixed source for the battle; Lace Wars Scenarios #3 and a Scenario I pulled from the web designed for Polemos- I think it came from the Forest Games Club.
I played the Swedes and my oldest son Dan, played the Russians/Saxons. The Swedes were set up in the standard infantry in the middle with cavalry on both wings. The first brigade of Saxons was set-up in the fortification/works with the second brigade right behind in line support and the Russian brigade on the left. Dan’s cavalry were set-up the same, supporting the flanks. As mentioned in the rule booklet, the Swedes move very fast – 6” in line. I did a quick shift and went to my left with the infantry to hit Dan’s weak side. The cavalry were fast in engaging on both flanks. The Swedes Guard Grenadiers fought very valiantly as they survived waves of musketry and some cannon fire and manage to make it over the works to engage the defenders and win. Shortly thereafter the rest of the infantry came though and slowly destroyed the infantry and artillery in the works. In the meantime, my left cavalry brigade swept up the Saxons and was in no time riding behind the works. Now, my right flank was held up and was eventually shot away by the Russian infantry. After two days of gaming, roughly 12 hours, we called it. I didn’t set-up any victory conditions as I thought they were already establish in both scenario guides I used – not! If we had continued to fight to the last man, the Swedes would be gone through attrition. Dan had a whole brigade of fresh Russians left... If you call Raw troops fresh.
The game ORBAT was the Swedes were outnumber 2-1 in infantry and slightly outnumbered in cavalry. Majority of the Saxon/Russian army was Raw. Only a few units like the Saxon Guard were Elite and all their cavalry were Drilled. The vast majority of the Swedes were Elite, with the exception of my three infantry and two cavalry guard units that were classed Guard.
Feedback on the rules for this game; Well we goofed right off the bat and did the combat results wrong. We were only 5 turns in, so we decided to reset and started over and it worked out well…more competitive for both sides. The Swedes definitely get a lot of +1 bonuses along with a hold your first fire before you melee, a +4 modifier. It wasn’t until the latter part of the game I remember to tell my son to take a -1 when checking for morale for any of his units that melee against the Swedes.
Scenario feedback; I would give the Swedes one or two stands of pioneers, add a few artillery pieces to the Russian brigade – they had none. Add in the Event cards and maybe the Artillery Optional rules. I didn’t do much research on this battle, but one of the scenario guides had a marshy stream in front of the works – that may have slowed the Swedes a half of a turn – again, they move fast! I didn’t place that down. I would have used from BLB2 the Army Morale rule; I think that would have ended the game sooner. After 5-6 hours, Dan had lost half of his army.
Here’s a link to the game pics - enjoy:
http://s208.photobucket.com/albums/bb13 ... =slideshow
And pretty photo's. Thanks for them 
