Super Gaming Week: Game 3.

FINALLY
The long waited
LAUNCH OF THE 

"Finnish War 1808-09" (Suomen Sota) 

CAMPAIGN!

It was in last September, when this fire was really ignited. I had been slowly collecting some minis for the Russo-Swedish War 1808-09 (where Finland was torn away from being part of Sweden and annexed to the Russian Tzardom), but visiting The Little Wars Club in Stockholm really kicked this project on. They introduced us to  the Pikeman's Lament rules system based on the successful Lion Rampant -system. Miniature painting (and buying more) started after the trip and then we just had to wait for the Pikeman's Lament ruleset to be published...

Now were finally all set and played the first battle as presented in the excellent gaming resource by Sword and Sabre -publishing : 16.4.1808 Battle of Yppäri (Pyhäjoki).

Preparations for the lunch were hectic; me and other players painted frantically painted troops for the game and the rest were ordering troops from Perry Miniatures ;-)

My painting work (WIP):

Juha's troops finished during the week of our launch:

And Marko's 3-2-1 based troops:

Role playing

Before the actual game we created our characters aka the young officers, who's career we would along the campaign. My young Finnish ensign is called Johan Gadd, he is the youngest son of a noble man. He is desperate to show what he's made off ... (has the wild charge -rule)

The Scenario

Finish objectives:

·       

Hold off the Russian attack long enough for the main force (not in the field) to retreat. Finish troops are allowed to retreat over Pyhäjoki 30 minutes before agreed game end OR if a unit has been wavering, it can start the retreat.
·       Minimize casualties – lose as little of your forces as possible
·       Avoid capture by retreating off the table via point F
Your units are considered captured if…
·       they lose a melee and their retreat is blocked by Russian troops (can’t move within 3”).
·       they are charged by Russians while wavering
 they haven’t retreated off the table via the road to exit point F OR don’t have a free route to it with a distance less than 12” at the end of the game

Russians objectives are

·       Destroy or capture as much of the Swedish (Finnish) rearguard before they can escape towards North-East

Troops

Finns

Player  1. Deploys on B-B and C (12 points)

Commander: Von Kujala (Döbeln)

·       1 company of Finish infantry (12 models, 4 points) Deployment on B-B

·       2 companies of Finish jägers (12 models, 4 points) Deployment on C

·       1 X  6 pdr cannon (4 points)

Player 2. Finish Reserves Deployment west from point E (8 points)

Commander Von Lund (Essen)

·       2 companies of Finish infantry (24 models, 8 points)

o   1 company ordered in at the start of the first Finnish turn

o   1 company ordered in after 30 minutes of gaming

Russians

Player

1. Right wing /Deployment RW (or A-A) 23 points

Commander: Colonel Markonenko (Karpenko)

·       3 companies of Russian infantry (36 models, 12 points)

·       3 Companies of Russian Jägers (18 models, 6 points)

·       1 X  6 pdr cannon (4 points)

·       1 unit of hussars, raw (6 models, 3 points )

Russian left wing / Deployment from point D - 12 points

Commander Major Nieminenko (Silin)

·       Company of Russian Jägers (6 models, 2 points)

·       1 X  6 pdr cannon (4 points)

·       1 unit of hussars, raw (6 models, 3 points )

·       1 unit of Cossacks with lances (6 models, 3 points )

Battlefield

Russian deployment - Finnish deployment

Deployed Finns (yes, the cannon should have been in the forest)

The Game

Russian commanders leading their troops to the battle field

First Finnish reserves arriving

Russian hussars take heavy fire from the infantry, but the cannon crew is busy loading...

Hussars charge in even with whittled down numbers...

but are repelled. The cannon crew also retreats from their gun.

More Finnish reserves marching in - just in time as the Russian cavalry arrives from a outflanking move along the river!

My vanguard infantry tries to move away from the vastly outnumbering enemy, but Russian jägers are hot on their tail...

And of course, the hot head that he is, ensign Gadd commands his unit to charge the Russian jägers lurking in the forest! Nooooooo!

They are repelled!

And the Russian infantry moves in to finish the job with a close range musket fire!

Wounded Johan is dragged away by his few remaining soldiers, cursing his 

crazy charge!

 Finish reinforcements form their defensive fire lines as Russians pour in from two directions... starting to look bad for the Finnish vanguard... can they hold on for an hour more?

 Surrounded!

The Finns find themselves surrounded as Major Nieminenko closes his 

outflanking move with cossacks

Firefight!

Finnish jägers find themselves in the crossfire!

Desperate retreat

Finally the order to retreat over the river (Pyhäjoki?) is given to the few remaining Finnish forces - the main army has gotten far enough and hence the mission is accomplished, but with a great sacrifice!

Oh no cossacks are blocking the retreat!

And the jägers keep harassing

Cavalry to the rescue!

But then the most unexpected happens: as Ludde rolls double 6 for a command test he gets to roll on an event -table AND A UNIT OF FINNISH DRAGOONS ARRIVE!¨

They immediately charge the cossacks and valiantly drive them away!

Hah! Take that you scavenging cossack scum!

 At this epic encounter the daylight turns into a dusk and the scattered remains of the Finnish vanguard vanishes into the night...

CONCLUSIONS

• We had a blast! Our jeers elevated the whole club house (where a 40K gaming day was also ongoing)
• The Pikenman's Lament ruleset worked very nice, as we expected
• 3 out of 4 officers were wounded in the battle!
• Russians won the day as Finns lost almost all of their forces
• Russian officer got 3-4 points of honor and Finns about 2 (honor was also granted for good roleplaying)

Another (Russian) perspective on the battle: http://mentor888.blogspot.fi/2017/03/pikemans-lament-finnish-war-battles-of.html?spref=fb