Great Northen War, Trondheim 1718, The First Game

So we finally made it! The first game with the winter terrain and the miniatures painted up for the Trondheim 1718 Campaign was staged......

First a few picture before all hell broke loose....your average 18th century Scandinavian village. A nice place in all it´s snowy tranquillity. Who could suspect that the big bad from beyond the mountains are closing in.....

The Village before the battle

The local farmer doing ...uh....what  farmer usally does...

The Road into the village

The main objective is the powder cart

Nasty people are sneaking towards the village...the Swedes and their Swedish minions are about to do bad things to the brave Norweigans.

The situation at the start of the game. The main objective is the cart in the centre of the village.

The Norweigan army is on it´s way led by the brave Colonel Marve Castrullenfjord

The 1st National Trondheim Regiment is on it´s way....

Akerhuis Grenadiers- these guys were quite tough

How we got started with this Project

Roughly a year ago we started to work on our very own rule set called Musket Mayhem. We begun it all with a setting in the North Americas during the French-Indian war. Then we moved on, mainly due to practical reason to the American Revolution. However we wanted something more close to home and settled for the Great Northen War. Still we wanted something even more diffrent so finally it was decided to stage possiblyone of the least known campaign of this war( at least outside Sweden and Norway) - the short winter campaign of 1718 around the city of Trondheim.

The Rough Story behind the Campagin 

The Swedes tried to cut off Norway in the middle by talking the then significant city of Trondheim. It all failed due to the sudden and unexpected death of Charles XII in southern Norway (November 30th). Due to bad communication the war lingered on until almost a month later until the news reach the Swedish Comander General Armfeldt. The infighting in the remains of the Swedish court led to the withdrawal of all Swedish troops in Norway. The retreat ended in a disaster since the units retreating from the Trondheim region ended up in a major blizzard in the Scandian mountains.

Our first Game Session

By now the village is surrounded by forces from both side...the race for the objectives is on...

Colonel Castrullenfjord ordered his men to advance  in one file through the streest of the village- big mistake that costed him dearly.

Skirmishers in front of the infantry secures the Norweigan left flank...kind of pointless if one consider the outcome. The guys should have been more to the centre in order to play a significant role

The Norweigan second in command  Lt Col Vincent Fleksnaes is forming a firing line towards the incomming threat of pike armed Finns

Same situation as above, but from an other view....

Stacking troops and blocking the artillery....bad move!

In our first game a small unit of Swedes are trying to capture a Norweigan village.  The objectives plays an important part in this game. The aim is to capture at least two objectives. The game ends when all objectives are captured. The winner the player that holds at least two of these objectives. The basic idea is to force he players to play aggressive. 

The game can be set at a company or a regimental level. In this game one can consider each unit to be a company sized unit.

The Swedes

The Swedish unit consisted of four units of musket infantry and one unit of pike. The pike has no shooting ability, but has a bonus in close combat.

1x Jämtland Dragoons(infantry despite name) 12 figures, muskets, ability "brave" and "Gå på!"

1x Åbo län Regiment muskets 10 figures, ability "Gå på!"

1x Åbo län Regiment, pike, ability "pike" and "Gå på!"

2x Hälsingland Regiment, musket, ability "Gå på!"

Brave gives a bonus when talking a break test. Gå På and Pike gives a bonus in the first impact when entering close combat. 

Brave Col Castrullenfjord trying to correct a pear shaped situation...

Norweigans closing in on the objective...the Swedes are nearby...

Hot lead served to the Finns...while the very same Finns grabbs the first objective. 

The Norweigans 

1x 1 st National Trondheim Regiment,10 figures, muskets, no special ability

1x 2nd National Trodheim Regiment,10 figures, muskets, no special ability

1 x 3rd National Trondheim Regiment,10 figures, muskets, no special ability

1x Akershuis Regiment Grenadiers, 10 figures, muskets, ability hard fighters 

1x Norden Fjell Dragoons, dismounted cavalry 6 figures, ability skirmishers

1 x Artillery, medium cannon, special artillery rules

The hard fighters ability is quite powerful. It gives a bonus each Round of close combat. The artillery goes by rules that are unique for he artillery and no artillery have any special abilities. Skirmishes do have an extra save when shot at.

First clash by the main objective- the Norweigans manage to stop the first Swedish wave...

Only to be mauled by the men from Hälsningland...Hälsinge Regiment enters the fight..."GÅ PÅ!" has been ordered...

The Swedes are about to secure the final objective...but the Norweigans have a nasty surprise for them....a loaded cannon....

Oh Yes! here it is and soon abot to be fired straight into the blue and yellow horde!

Lt Col Fleksnaes men are closing in as well...unfortunatly the final clash was a major loss for the Norweigan side. The cannon was stormed by the Swedes before being able to fire effectively and the Swedes manged to fight off the Norweigans that remained...a Swedish victory this time....

How it all went

The game was from the very start a race to capture the objectives. The Swedes moved at first swiftly towards the objective, while the Norweigans due to the poor logistical skills of the commander( your truely) got stacked. However the Norweigans soon got going and a major brawl started around the objectives. It was more close combat that actual shooting. Neither side manged to get the upper hand at first, Both sides manged to secure one objective each(there were three on the table marked by tow wooden cradles and a powder cart).

The whole thing was a close call until the final round. The units reached the objectives first hot wiped out quite soon. The Swedes also managed to capture the Norweigan gun. The Norweigan grenadiers did their best to chop up the Swedes first reaching the central objective. However in these kind of games the one with most units nearby usually wins. The initial logistical mess on the Norweigan side led to their eventual defeat this time.