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Author Topic: Scanian Wars 1675-1679  (Read 4861 times)

Offline Erik

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Scanian Wars 1675-1679
« on: March 29, 2018, 10:13:17 AM »
Last night Dr. Zombie and I had our first go at Black Powder. I was inspired by a scenario presented in the newest issue of WSS by Steve Jones. It was originally written for the American War of Independence but could easily by used for other periods. The scenario pits a larger force attacking a smaller force defending a ridge. Reinforcements are on the way, but they are on the other side of a river that can only be crossed via a bridge at the top of the table. The attacher has to take the ridge before reinforcements arrive from behind them.

We decided to set the game in Scania during the Scanian Wars 1675-1679. Denmark attacked the Scania provinces that had be taken by the swedes 15 years earlier during the Karl Gustav Wars 1655-1660. Initially the Danes met only light opposition and sprede out to take as much land as possible before the Swedes could assemble an army. The Danes have found a smaller force of Swedish infantry holding a ridge and farm flanked by a deep river. At the other side of the river a larger force of Swedish cavalry is making its way through heavy forrest the help to comrades on the ridge. Will they make it in time?

The Danes deploy opposite the ridge with six infantry regiments, two cannons and two cavalry regiments.


The Swedish infantry brace themselves for the oncoming attack.Their commander rides out to encourage them.


The Swedish cavalry makes it way along a narrow road through thick forrest. Unknown to them peasant rebels known as Snaphaner have taken up position in the forrest to delay the cavalry column strung out along the road.


The battles gets underway and openness with an artilleri bombardment that causes disorder along the Swedish lines.


At the same time Snaphanes hits the cavalry relief column in the flank with precise musketfire.
 

On the ridge things are heating up as infantry regiments start exchanging closerange musketfire. The Swedes are giving as good as they can but the Danish numeral superiority allows them to bring up fresh regiments, where the Swedes are fighting in just one line.


Initially the cavalry decides to ignore the Snaphanes but this turns out to be a huge mistake. The Snaphaner are let by their most famous leader Svend Gønge who knows how to make to most of his small partisan force. The Snaphaner follow the cavalry all the way along the road and keep up a continuous closerange fire that causes many casualties (units in march column have reduced moral value in BP).     


On the ridge the Swedish infantry is still holding out but the regiments have taken huge casualties and are close to breaking. In the top right corner you can see the bridge still held by the Danes while the Swedes strugle with the Snaphaner


Encouraged by their succes the Snaphanes start to engage the cavalry in HtHC. This turns out to be a great succes as the cavalry is hit in the flanks and sometimes while still in column. The cavalry can't defend it self and after each successful charge the Snaphaner retire back into the safety of the forrest. The Swedish cavalry commandes have started regretting that he did not deal with this peasant menace right from the start.


The cavalry reinforcements finally makes it across the bridge but they have lost many of their comrades and they infantry regiments on the ridge are still fare away. The small danish cavalry brigade prepares the engage the Swedes further delaying them. 


As the Swedish cavalry is charged by the Danish horse the Swedish infantry on the ridge are finally broken. In a final act of bravery Svend Gønge leads his Snaphaner out of the safety of the forrest to engage the Swedish cavalry in the rear. Attached from two direction and with their infantry fleeing the cavalry also break. It is a total Danish victory!


This was truly a great game and definitely not our last Scania fight. As some of you might have noticed some older soldiers from the 30-years war have joined the fight. My collection of Scanian War miniatures is still not large enough to field an entire battle, but using early models works fine. I just need to give them some new standards (not that many Bavarians in the Scanian War). We used the unofficial supplement for BP written by Ian Hopping called the Blenhein Palace Rules. They can be downloaded for free. They give BP a great new twist to truly bring it into the 17th and early 18th century.


Cheers
Erik   
« Last Edit: March 30, 2018, 04:37:28 PM by Erik »

Offline ichwillauch

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Re: Somewhere i Scania 1676
« Reply #1 on: March 29, 2018, 10:34:16 AM »
A great game with an interesting setting. I especially like the flags, they are looking great.

Offline Hammers

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Re: Somewhere i Scania 1676
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2018, 11:05:36 AM »
Way cool! I have a ancient uncle, Lorenzo Hammarskjöld, who was shot by snapphanar in that conglict. They were aiming for the king...

Offline Dr. Zombie

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Re: Somewhere i Scania 1676
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2018, 11:43:15 AM »
Great write up. Although I think you have underplayed just how awesome Svend Poulsen and his Snaphaner were. They drove off four cavalry units and broke the entire cavalry division.

It was a good game and certainly not the last.

Offline Terry37

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Re: Somewhere i Scania 1676
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2018, 02:34:13 AM »
Very enjoyable report. Thanks for sharing!!!

Terry
"My heart has joined the thousand for a friend stopped running today." - Richard Adams

Offline Erik

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Scanian War 1675-1679
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2018, 04:35:33 PM »
Inspired by our game the previous night I set about transforming my old 30-Year War regiments to a more "modern" Scanian War style. This involved new standards and painting regimental color lining. Actually not that big a job. Most work involved standard bearers, as all the old regiments only had one on each base and I now needed two, so a bit of miniature swopping and rebasing. My regiments are all either red or green as that was the Army Painter sprays I had t the time they were painted. Luckily many of the Danish regiments had red coats and Fynske National Regiment had green coats with yellow lining. The guys from Fyn had to be well represented.       

Here is one of the regiments before transformation


And here they are again now as Sjællandske National Regiment with red coats and yellow lining.


An easy and effective job that works well. The BIG standards also bring a lot to the overall appearance of the regiment. Of course they are no way near as uniformed as the miniatures from Warfare Miniatures (my company of choice for this particular period) but as this was in the early day of uniformed armies I can easily see this guys as bringing as mix of old and new equipment. When the army is lined up and the six foot rule kicks in they look especially good.

I will post more fotos as work continuous.

Cheers
Erik 

Offline fred

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Re: Scanian Wars 1675-1679
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2018, 05:12:16 PM »
That works really well to update the unit.

There is nothing like a good game to get the painting / modelling juices flowing.

Offline Dr. Zombie

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Re: Scanian Wars 1675-1679
« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2018, 06:41:13 PM »
That is a very effective upgrade. The yellow cufs give a really good contrast. And I just love great big banners. You are making it hard for me not to stray from my own painting plans.

Offline traveller

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Re: Scanian Wars 1675-1679
« Reply #8 on: March 30, 2018, 06:48:34 PM »
Interesting game! Thanks for the report!

Offline Erik

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Re: Scanian Wars 1675-1679
« Reply #9 on: March 30, 2018, 07:17:39 PM »
Thanks. Big banners do go a long way and credits must be given when due. They are all from Warfare Miniatures Great Northern War range. A bit latter than the Scanian War but only 20 years and look great and does most of the work for you.

Two more regiments are ready so the whole Danish army from our game is now upgraded "Scanian War style". Pictures tomorrow when the light is back.

Dr. Zombie; You might consider painting some Snaphaner on account of your great preformence with Svend Gønge and his boyz. Miniatures for the Monmouth Rebellion would work great as peasant partisans. Somali militia is also fine though.

Erik

Offline Erik

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Re: Scanian Wars 1675-1679
« Reply #10 on: March 31, 2018, 09:52:28 AM »
Here are two more Danish regiments ready for battle

First up Fynske Nationale Regiment in their characteristic green coats. As mentioned earlier I already have three regiments painted with green coats, so the guys from Fyn are going to be well represented in my Danish army when I finish upgrading all my regiments.



Second Jyske National Regiment in red coat with blue lining.



These BIG Warfare banners work best when both standard bearers are deployed in the front rank, but as these regiments are upgrades of already based regiments its not possible. 

I have run out of flags now, so the upgrading will have to wait a bit. I ordered some Wargames Factory artillery and cavalry for support using Warlords great Easter 33% discount offers.

I will keep you posted as the building continuous.

Erik 



Offline Plynkes

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Re: Scanian Wars 1675-1679
« Reply #11 on: March 31, 2018, 10:24:06 AM »
Way cool! I have a ancient uncle, Lorenzo Hammarskjöld, who was shot by snapphanar in that conglict. They were aiming for the king...

Lorenzo? Nice traditional Swedish name.  :)



Lovely battle shots, Erik. Those shots of the guns firing in the fading light are very atmospheric.

With Cat-Like Tread
Upon our prey we steal...

Offline Erik

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Re: Scanian Wars 1675-1679
« Reply #12 on: March 31, 2018, 11:24:17 AM »
Thanks Plynkes. In all fairness I think the poor lighting in my basement did most of the work lol.

Cheers
Erik

Offline Erik

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Re: Scanian Wars 1675-1679
« Reply #13 on: April 29, 2018, 06:04:34 PM »
Being a huge fan of the Polish game By Fire and Sword I have strugled to get Dr. Zombie to join in. Unfortunately the good doctor thinks the game is riged in favour of the Polish. At Tactica he proclaimed that he would join if I got the Danish Snaphaner skirmish force. At a place like that it is'nt fare from thought to action. With the Danish partisan force painted they had their first taste of blood yesterday and won a very convincing tactical victory over the Swedes.

So now we can play our Scanian Wars in both 28 mm and 15 mm using different rulesystems.

Here are the Snaphaner skirmish force. The elite partisans (the Snaphaner can be seen in the back in the treeline).


Cheers
Erik

Offline Hu Rhu

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Re: Scanian Wars 1675-1679
« Reply #14 on: April 29, 2018, 08:48:11 PM »
Nice write up of the battle and some good ideas about converting regiments with standards.