Armies on Parade: Swedes and Finns for the Great Northern War

Charles XII and his brave "Karoliner"

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... 

Re-run: 16.4.1808 Battle of Yppäri

A Fighting Retreat

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).

Pikeman's Lament @ Little Wars Club in Stockholm

Business and Pleasure

I had a business trip to Stockholm and used the opportunity to visit my gaming pals at Little Wars -club in Stockholm.

As Pikeman's Lament had just been published by Osprey, we played a Great Northern War battle. You can find battle report by the rules co-author Micke here. Once again I enjoyed a great game in a beautiful terrain!

Some further pics and some story telling below.

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

More Savolax Jaegers

New conversions for the Russo-Swedish War 1808-09

Check the pictures and how they were made,

Rearguard action 1812 - Eagle Rampant demo

After our visit to Little Wars in Stockholm, we set to work on creating our own resources for the Russo-Swedish War 1808-1809 or "Suomen Sota" (War for Finland). As it takes time to convert and paint the Finnish / Swedish troops we started playing Eagle Rampant (see WI April 2016) or "Pikeman's Lament" with Russians chasing after the retreating French in the cold winter of 1812...

This was a team game for 4 players, 2 of whom had never played any Rampant variant before.

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.

Visiting Stockholm's Historical Wargaming Club Little Wars - DAY 1 THE GAMES

The Long planned visit

Here are the 3 brave Finns (Marko, Ludde and myself), that eventually made it all the way to this far western country of Sweden and two of our most generous host: Jesper and Micke

During the day we managed 3 excellent games... see how they went and how we felt about it all...

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!