Battle of Oravais - Part 1.- blast from the past

First go with Black Powder 2nd Edition

Two brave volunteers joined in to give the 2nd edition a go.

See the pictures of the game in this blog post.

This is another un-finished battle report, that I'm now putting out, because why not. 

Celebrating the launch of Rebels and Patriots by Osprley Wargames

AWI AND BATTLE OF VAASA 1808

Several of us had had the opportunity to do play testing for this new set of rules coming from Osprey Wargames tomorrow! So we clearly had invented a way to travel to future!
Besides us play testers three more mates from club joined in to learn about the game.
Juha and Kalle hosted an AWI battle with and The Lament Ridge scenario from the book.
Me and Marko hosted a Russo-Swedish War 1808-1809 battle of Vaasa, that took place 25th of June 1808. This was also the next battle in our related campaign, which has been on hold for a while.

We started the event by distributing recently arrived rulebooks for play testers and then having a video call with Michael Leck (aka Dalauppror), co-author of the rules. He was at their club in Stockholm. We showed our tables and club and expressed our congrats on the publishing of the game.

Armies on Parade: Swedes and Finns of Napoleonic Wars

Army that lost Finland

Battle of Nykarleby 24.6.1808 - Report completed!

The Finnish (Swedish) push continues!

Finally the snow has melted in northern Finland and the Finns are encouraged after the victory in Revonlahti. Now Adlercreutz, Von Öttern and Von Döbeln were marching and circling the small town of Nykarleby in order to take out the Russian forces there...

Read on to find out if the Russian managed to escape from the clutches of the attacking Finnish forces... 

Battle of Revonlahti 27.4.1808 - Report ready

Finnish attack continues

First, of course, in the words of Johan Ludvig Runeberg:

(for Gregori Tigerstedtille on the 50th anniversary of the Revonlahti  battle )

"Tunsitko joskus, joukoss' ihmisten

kulkeissas täällä elon tanterella,

kuink' outo voima, pakko sisäinen

toist' ihmistä voi toiseen taivutella?

Näet muodon, äänen kuulet, riemastut,

vaan et voit virkkaa, miks niin ihastut.

Mies oli Cronstedtilla väessään,

ilolla häntä vielä muistelenki;

ma vanhus olin, nuorukainen hän,

mut kummassakin meiss' ol' yksi henki.

Ma helposti ja paljon unhoitan,

mut Tigerstedtin muistan ainian.

Four warriors gathered again to pay our respects for the old glory of those soldiers and heroes, who fought to keep the archenemy at bay... Some of the pics are courtesy from Juha, thanks!

REPORT IS COMPLETED

Battle of Siikajoki 16.4.1808

Finns to the offensive!

All set for the next episode in our "Finnish War 1808-09" or Suomen  Sota -Campaign...

Ken joen rannall' on tuo miesi ylhäinen,

jok' yli vetten, maiden katsahtaapi?

Jo ryhti, huulten uhka, säihke silmien,

kädessä miehekkäässä miekka tulinen

urosta, sotilasta muistuttaapi.

Hän yksinään on, ilman seuraajaa,

mies nuori tullen mennen herrallensa

vain aika ajoin sanaa kuljettaa;

mut takan ja eessä kaksi armeijaa

veristä surmaa uhkaa toisillensa.

Hän tuosa näkee Siikajoen maiseman

niin kolkkona kuin ruumiin laudoillansa,

hän Suomen sodan muistaa vielä kolkomman,

häpeän, paon, hylyks jääneen kunnian

ja ryssäin pilkkanaurun takanansa.

Se syynä, miks niin synkkä otsa on,

miks varjo musta huolihunnun vetää

peitteeksi urhon jaloon muotohon;

hän näkee, kuinka Suomi, äiti turvaton,

nyt alttiiks jää, kun poikain miehuus pettää.

- Part of the poem "Adlercreutz" by Johan Ludvig Runeberg,

WIP: pictures added, report will follow...

Re-run: 16.4.1808 Battle of Yppäri

A Fighting Retreat

Finishing miniatures

1808 Reinforcements: Jaegers for Finns and Russians

As my painting goal for this year is to FINISH  (including varnish) miniatures, that I'm painting, I sticked to completing these Russian jaegers in a one go (= not leaving them almost finished). I also did the final touches for some Savolax jaegers, that had been "almost finished" since November 2016.

So here they are ready for the game tomorrow:

Some WIP pictures from the painting process:

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).

Eagle Rampant: Battle of Virta bridges 27.10.1808

Babtism of fire for my Finns

Battle of Koljonvirta

For the last 6 weeks I've mainly been painting miniatures for the Russo-Swedish war 1808-1809 (after it Finland was ceded to Russia). So it was high time to get them onto battlefield, even if their painting is still mostly WIP. We played the so called "Koljonvirta battle", which is epitomized in Finnish national history as part of Ensign Ståls (Steel) poems by our national poet  Johan Ludvig Runeberg. 

Some info in English on the battle here

Warning: this AAR includes poetry in Finnish. You have been warned!

Mut toista tuli, törmältä kun täyttä vauhtia

riens' adjutantti Sandelsin, hevonen vaahdossa:

"Jumalan tähden, portaallen, aseihin", huusi hän,

"vihollisjoukon tiedetään täst' yli pyrkivän."

Päämiehelle hän lisäsi: "Te silta purkakaa,

jos voitte, muuten viimeiseen verehen taistelkaa!

Hukassa kaikk' on, taaksemme jo ryssät ennättää;

apua saatte, kenraali jo tulla lennättää."

Sven Tuuva

UPDATED: Russo-Swedish War 1808-1809 proggres report

I've Been busy building My Finnish troops for 1808-1809.

I've used both metal and plastic miniatures.

Read more on how and what.

Russo-Swedish War 1808-1809 - first Finns WIP

These Savolax Jägers are made from French Dragoons on foot (Perry). Heads are from some other plastic napoleonic set. I had them in my bitsbox. See the others and learn how they were made.

UPDTED: Day 2. Visiting Little Wars in Stockholm - The Army Museum

The second day of Nopat-Club's "class trip" to Stockholm contained a visit to Sweden's Army Museum. An excellent museum and an obvious choice for a wargamer. After several hours in the museum we settled down to "fika" with our host for the day Micke aka Dalauppror and played a demo game of "La Belle Alliance aka Waterloo 1815" we have brought as a gift for The Little Wars.

Read on to see pictures from the museum and some comments on them.

Finnish war 1808-09 -project REBOOTED!

Visiting Little Wars in Stockholm this weekend really got me and my friends fired up on both playing the excellent Pikemans Lament (or Eagle Rampant, see Wargames Illustrated April 2016 issue) AND on getting the armies for it, that is Russians and Fins & Swedes.

I had had a slowly growing Russian army for the Napoleonic  era in my cupboard for a few years and had so far painted only few of them for Retreat from Moscow 1812 games. So off I went to rummage my dash and the pile of lead and plastic came up quite impressive...

Tonite I then went on to kitbash different Napoleonic miniatures to create plastic troopers for 1808 Finns... see the pics on how it turned out!