THE GREAT NORTHERN WAR 1700-1721 GAME – A VERY BRIEF (and full of massive generalisations)

OVERVIEW

The Great Northern War (GNW) lasted 21 years and ultimately led to the fall of the Swedish empire
around the Baltic and the rise of Russia. A quick search on Wikipedia will give a really good overview
of the war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Northern_War

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stora_nordiska_kriget (Google translate needed – unless you are a

Scandinavian.)

The sides:

The good guys

00 - Sweden – also includes Finland.
01 - Poland / pro-Swedish – bit of a Polish civil war going on around this time, which also included
the Lithuanians.
02 - Lithuanian Crown Army
03 - Turks – fought against the Russians and entertained Charles XII King of Sweden for a while after
his defeat at Poltava until he outstayed his welcome.

The bad guys

04 - Poland / pro-Russian
05 - Denmark – also includes Norway
06 - Prussia – took part only at the end of the war.
07 - Russia – main adversary of the Swedes and the main beneficiary of victory in 1721.
08 - Saxony – didn’t really have a great war
09 - Lithuanian Republican Army –

Some history about the GNW game.

The game was was started in 2005 and involved Atle and other contributors,
It also included input from some GNW experts. Then life got in the way and it was shelved until last
year when I got back in contact with Rich to finally finish the game. So it has taken a while to get to
this point.

Rationale behind the game design

We decided to split the game into the following campaigns:

1700 Campaign – The first battles of the war. The war started with a series of co-ordinated surprise
attacks by the Danes, Russians and Saxony, this campaign covers the battles in which the Swedish
army repulsed the attacks/knocked out opponents.

Polish Campaign – Seeking to crush his enemies Charles XII prioritised campaigning against Saxony
and the Poles as opposed to Russia. A strategic error as his contempt for the Russian army allowed
Peter I to rebuild his army and for it to gain valuable experience by slowly taking Swedish Baltic
territory,

Russian Campaign – Charles XII decided to deliver the final blow to Russia and marched on Moscow
(sounds familiar.) The Russians employed a scorched earth policy and drew the Swedes down to the
Ukraine where they were decisively defeated at Poltava in 1709 – generally seen as the turning point
of the war.

Finnish Campaign – Post Poltava, the Russians moved into Finland in force. The Finns resisted but
were eventually overwhelmed.

Norwegian Campaign – A futile attempt by Charles XII to begin the fightback to recover his lost
empire. It ended badly and saw Charles XII killed. Atle will tell you he was killed by a Norwegian
sniper, but more probably by Swedish officers who realised that the war was lost and that Sweden
stood on the brink of destruction unless he was stopped.

We had planned a German campaign but didn’t do anything more than that. The campaign covered
some large battles but didn’t “flow” well as a campaign. So instead some of the key battles are being
produced as standalone games.

Game Design Rationale

Since 2005 the Ren engine has moved on and I am not up to date with all of the changes. This
section explains the rationale behind decisions made in 2005.

Swedish Army

The main protagonist. The Swedish main army was generally well led, organised, trained and
equipped. Their provincial armies less so. As the war dragged on, the quality of the Swedish army
declined as the quality of their opponents improved.

There were two basic types of troops – regulars (Varvade) full time soldiers which included the
Guards, garrison troops and specialists. The other type were Indelningsverket. Each province was
assessed and, dependent on the population, wealth etc. provide a defined number of troops. Each
soldier was equipped by the state and given a house and plot of land (you can see these “Torps”
(wooden houses) throughout Sweden today.) The idea being that each soldier fed and looked after
themselves when they weren’t training. This gave the Swedes a pool of well-trained soldiers ready
to mobilise quickly and much cheaper than full time soldiers. A dead soldier had to be replaced by
the province thereby keeping the army re-supplied with troops. To expand the army temporary
“Manning” regiments were also raised – these raised additional troops on top of the existing
Indelningsverket system.

Units

Infantry Battalions were usually 600 men strong in 4 companies. Regiments had 1 to 4 battalions –
usually two battalions. They were equipped with pike and musket until almost the end of the war on
a 1/3 pike, 2/3 musket ratio – unless pikes weren’t available.
Cavalry and Dragoons were usually between 800 – 1000 men strong and usually operated in two
squadron groupings of about 250 men. They were equipped with swords, pistols and carbines for
self-defence. Dragoons did not dismount to fight and were in all senses the same as cavalry.

Infantry and cavalry units were also raised in Swedish occupied territory.

Leadership – The main Swedish army had an outstanding leader in Charles XII. For other Officers,
social status and rank were not always an impediment to progressing up the ranks. Many of the top
Swedish commanders started their careers as troopers or privates - so generally there is good
leadership with some promotions based on actual ability – those crazy Swedes. However there are
exceptions.

Tactics

Infantry – tactics were standardised, aggressive and based on shock – called Gå–På (literally - go on).
Basically the battalion would advance in silence towards the enemy enduring their fire. At about 70
paces, half of the musketeers would volley into the enemy and the march would continue. At about
20 paces the remaining musketeers would volley, the pikemen would level their pikes, the
musketeers draw their swords and charge at the enemy. A very effective tactic against poor quality
opponents who usually broke before contact - but one which could lead to high casualties against a
determined opponent. Should an attack fail – it would be repeated until you were successful or
defeated.

Game changes: these tactics are reflected by giving the Swedish and Finnish units the following:

 A melee bonus of 5 (6 for the Guards) – to reflect the impact of the Ga Pa tactics.

 An increased movement rate as the Swedes marched in step.

 A maximum musket range of 1 to reflect the tactic and encourage players to get units stuck
in to their opponents.

 Swedish units usually have higher morale.

Cavalry

Swedish cavalry tactics were also based on shock. Squadrons attacked in an “arrow” formation with
the squadron leader at the apex (this may also explain the excellent career opportunities for Officer
posts). The Squadron would manoeuvre “knee to knee and boot to boot” hitting the enemy at the
gallop. A more aggressive doctrine then their opponents.

Game changes: these tactics are reflected by giving the Swedish and Finnish units the following:

 For some reason back in 2005 I decided that all cavalry would be “L” category with the
Swedes getting a melee bonus of 5. I am struggling to remember the logic behind this –
probably to give more design control over cavalry effectiveness.

 Swedish cavalry and dragoons are treated the same. Swedish Dragoons do not dismount.
  Swedish units usually have higher morale. The Guards have the highest morale.

 Swedish leaders generally have higher ratings than opponents.

Artillery

When used, the artillery could be quite effective such as at Gadesbusch and Holowczyn. Generally
nothing different to most other armies.

No additional game changes have been made for Swedish artillery.

The GNW could be quite a vicious conflict and the Swedes were feared. As a background to the
main campaigns a counter-insurgency type war was often conducted with many what would now be
war crimes committed by all sides. The Swedes had a particular contempt for the Russians and
frequently massacred prisoners. For example at Fraustadt the Russians turned their coats inside out
to show the red lining to look like Saxon troops in the hope the Swedes wouldn’t pick on them.
Sadly for them this was seen as particularly unsporting and several hundred Russian prisoners were
killed after the battle.

Summary

As a generalisation, the Swedish army was very good - well trained, led with very effective tactics.
The fact that many of their opponents weren’t as good made them look even better – the classic
quality versus quantity. As the war dragged on – this advantage narrowed as their opponents
become more experienced and developed tactics to defeat the Swedes. Defeat at Poltava in 1709 –
saw the gradual decline of the Swedish military.

Danish/Norwegian Armies

The Danish army was somewhat unlucky in the GNW losing most of the key engagements with the
Swedes. The Danish infantry were considered to be solid while the cavalry were more average. The
Danes had some capable commanders.

Infantry – Musket equipped and developing more effective ways of volley firing.

Game changes: these tactics are reflected by giving Danish infantry the following:

 Muskets with a slightly higher fire factor at 1 hex – is this necessary?

 The Guards and Grenadier regiments have higher morale than other regiments.

 Danish leaders are generally classed as competent with some capable leaders.

Cavalry – more of a controlled charge than the Swedes.

Game changes: these tactics are reflected by giving Danish units the following:
  Danish cavalry are “L” and dragoons are “D” as they will dismount.

 Danish cavalry get melee bonus of 1 or 3 for elite units.

 Danish Dragoons get a melee bonus of 0, 1 for elite Dragoon units

Artillery – no special rules

The Norwegian Army fought the Swedes and played to their strengths behind fortifications and
harassing attacks.

Organised and equipped broadly in line with the Danes. Like the Swedes they had a mixture of
regular and reserves. Infantry are competent. The Norwegian cavalry had problems with insufficient
and rather scrawny mounts at times. Possibly because they sold a lot of their decent horses to the
Swedes prior to this campaign.

Infantry – not quite as solid as the Danes but capable nonetheless- see the Danish infantry.

Cavalry – generally capable troops that could suffer from poor mounts. Morale variations in the
same unit are due to poor horses and a mixture of regular and reserve companies.

Game changes: none

Artillery – no special rules

Special troops

Levy – locals turning up for a scrap – low morale - treated like skirmishers.

Skiloper – ski troops – excellent at recce and harassment

Russian Army

The other main protagonist. The Russian army under Czar Peter I started the war very poorly but
developed and grew in competency as the war went on - to eventually defeat the Swedes at Poltava.

Peter had initially sought Western Europe military expertise. The Russians eventually stopped trying
to copy Western European tactics and adapted their tactics to play to their strengths. The Russians
exploited their superiority in numbers – “quantity has a quality all of its own” – and used the Russian
weather, raids and vast spaces to grind the Swedes down. The Russians were able to counter
Swedish tactics quite effectively by the end of the war.

Infantry
At the start of the war the Russian army was a mish-mash of medieval type levies, Streltsi and new
regiments being formed by the Czar. Poor morale, inadequate training, lack of experience,
poor/inadequate leadership led to a very poor performances early, for example at Narva.

Gradually the reforms took hold and new regiments were formed, equipped and trained. Now there
is a lot of Russian research starting to be accessible in English – Boris Megorsky is a good example.
Even Russian research on the army for most of the war can be patchy due to limited or no records.
The Russians also hold a lot of information on captured Swedish uniforms/flags etc which is useful.

Russian units were equipped primarily with muskets but the front row was supposed to have every
other soldier armed with a pike. Like the Swedes it wasn’t always possible to equip every soldier
with a pike or they were abandoned for practical reasons for a campaign.

The two Guard regiments and the Ingermanlandski regiments were the more experienced and better
units. Most other Russian infantry will have a D grade but compensate for this with superior
numbers.

Game changes: these tactics are reflected by giving Russian infantry the following:

 The two Guards and Ingermanlandski regiments get +1 in melee

 The two Guards and Ingermanlandski regiments have higher morale. Most infantry are
graded “D”

 Most leaders are average or below.

Cavalry

Peter raised mainly Dragoon regiments which could fight mounted and dismounted. The Dragoons
gave the Russian mobility and flexibility. Peter made use of “Korvolans” – rapidly moving columns of
Dragoons, artillery and mounted infantry to surprise, isolate and overwhelm Swedes – like at
Lesnaya.

Game changes: these tactics are reflected by giving Russian cavalry the following:

 Most units are Dragoons, a few units are classed as “L” and don’t dismount – mainly horse
Grenadiers and Personal Squadrons.

 Dragoons can dismount to fight

 There are no melee bonuses for Russian cavalry/Dragoons and most are rated “D”.

Artillery

Reforms of Russian artillery were made in his period. Russian artillery is very competent – no
additional rules.

Leaders
Initially Peter I obtained the service of foreign leaders for regiments. This caused problems i.e.
language issues, mistrust of the “foreigner” in charge - for example. Recognising the issues with
leadership, Peter looked to Russians for Officers to provide Russian solutions to deal with the
Swedes. By the end of the war the Russian army had enough experienced and sufficiently
competent Officers who understood their troops and how to defeat the enemy.

Other

Russians utilised Cossacks and similar to harass and wear down opponents. See Polish/Lithuanian
section.

Polish/Lithuanian Armies

The participation of Poland- Lithuania in the Great Northern War was not planned or desired by the
Poles and Lithuanians. This though did not stop it from being a disaster for them. At this time the
country was an elective monarch but the monarch had relatively weak powers. The King in 1700 was
Augustus of Saxony and it was this that led to this nations involvement in the war.

Initially when the war started Augustus of Saxony determined to just participate in the war as head
of Saxony only. He did not enjoy the support of the Poles and Lithuanians for his war. So during the
1700 the Saxon army was based and operated in neutral Poland in its campaign against the Swedes.
Understandably a situation that could cause some problems which indeed it proved so to do. For
following the successful elimination of Denmark from the war and the battle of Narva in 1700 the
Swedes turned to knocking Saxony out of the war. Unfortunately this meant invading Poland as that
was where the Saxon army was.

The Swedish invasion came at a very bad time for the Poles. The army was in disarray and had been
reduced as the Poles and Lithuanians had not expected a war. In addition there were many divisions
within society, a situation which only increases as some factions turned to the invading Swedes for
support. Initially it was hoped that the opposing armies could just be left to fight it out. But of course
now they were doing so on Polish and Lithuanian territory! The turning point was Sweden·s decision
to replace Augustus as king by their own candidate.

This forced everyone to choose sides and led to what was in effect a civil war in Poland and
Lithuania. The first major action the Poles were engaged in was in 1702 at Kliszow. In which the
unilateral retirement from the battle led to the allied defeat. The following years saw a Long
campaign by the Swedes and their Polish allies to force Saxony out of the war. This they finally
managed in 1706 but this did not improve the situation as the civil war continued unabated.

The turning point was in 1708 and 1709. As the main Swedish army moved east to launch there
Russian campaign the turned against them. In November 1708 the decisive battle of the civil war
happened at Koniecpol. The defeat of the pro Swedish forces at this battle hardened the anti Swedes
and convinced many neutrals and wavers that there cause was doomed. In 1709 this was reinforced
by the news of the disastrous, for the Swedes, battle of Poltava. There was still plenty of fighting left
to be done but the Swedish army left in Poland to support the pro Swedes withdrew and Russian
forces moved to support the anti Swedes.
Peace was concluded between Sweden and Poland-Lithuania on December 27th 1719. But it was not
with the same nation that had existed before the war. Before the war Poland · Lithuania had been a
strong nation but events during the Great Northern War had fatally weakened her. It was to be a
long time before the end finally came but after this experience Poland · Lithuania was never the
same again.

Hussars: These are armoured (heavily armoured) heavy cavalry armed with lance, pistols, carbines
and swords! They charge at the gallop and should generally be Veteran’s. Hussars were always in
regiments with Pancerni banners.

Pancerni: These are also supposed to be armoured but not as much as the Hussars. They would have
pistols, carbines and swords, plus possibly bows and spears. Pancerni would be Trained with possibly
some veterans – bodyguard, Hetman’s own banner, etc.

Hussars were always in mixed units with Pancerni, but some regiments could be all Pancerni.

Cossacks (Kozack): These are unarmoured light skirmishing horse. They could have bows, carbines,
spears, swords or pretty much anything. But they fought in open order and skirmished.

Dragoons: These, and ‘Rajtar’s’, were ‘foreign’ regiments, i.e. they were Poles/Lithuanians but using
foreign tactics. So these are basically standard dragoon units from the time. Polish/Lithuanian
dragoons frequently dismounted and fought on foot.

Rajtar is the Lithuanian name for standard western style heavy cavalry. Again these were
Poles/Lithuanians but using foreign tactics but these are similar to western ‘Horse’, ‘Cavalry’ or
‘Cuirassier’ regiments. Both dragoons and Rajtar would ‘charge’ at the trot, and possible fire pistols
as they did this, when mounted.

Noble Levy: These are a kind of mounted feudal levy armed with whatever they happened to have.
These units are strong contenders for the ‘worst troops existing’ at this time.

Infantry: These would be Trained. There tactics are completely unknown. They almost certainly use
rank firing but may still have had some pikes as well. But no one really knows anything about Polish/
Lithuanian infantry.

Game changes:

 Hussars – Armour 2 – Melee 2 - the armour bonus is probably too generous.

 Pancerni – Armour 1 – Melee 1 – should they have an armour bonus?

 Cossacks (Kozacks) – 36 movement rate – probably too high

 Dragoons – can dismount

 Rajtar – melee 1

 Noble levy (inc Russian Noble Levy) F grade – no additional changes or redeeming qualities.
  Artillery – no additional changes

 Infantry – no changes

The Army of Saxony

The Saxons proved to be one of the most persistent of Sweden's enemies. They were one of the
original members of the anti Swedish coalition. At this time the Elector of Saxony was also the king
of Poland, so some of the troops were recruited in Poland, also at times the Polish army operated
with the Saxon army. In the first phase of the war, up to 1707 they campaigned mostly in Poland and
suffered a string of defeats. In 1707 they were forced out of the war as Charles the 12th of Sweden
launched an invasion of Saxony. Following the catastrophic Swedish defeat at Poltava in 1709 they
re-entered the war, but with not so much vigour as before. At first they just sent mounted
contingents, from 1713 they also committed infantry but not on the previous scale. In addition to
this they sent contingents to fight in the Malburian war which was being fought at the same time

Under Augustus the Strong (“Strong” due to his large numbers of illegitimate children). The army of
Saxony was quite capable but was going through a bad patch during the GNW. Recruitment issues,
poor morale, tended to be understrength etc generally led to average or underwhelming
performances. Saxony had their moments – at Punitz for example, the Saxony infantry beat off the
Swedish cavalry and forced a draw on the Swedish infantry.

Infantry – armed with muskets, generally a C grade, Guards etc can be rated higher. No additional
rules.

Cavalry – Cavalry and dragoons who dismount. C or d grades, guards etc have higher grades.

Game changes:

 Elite cavalry – Melee 1

Artillery – capable - No additional rules.

Leaders – generally average.

Play testing issues for consideration (others will emerge)

 Supply – I have single 600 unit strong supply units. This may need changing to more, smaller
supply units

 Heavy artillery – move very slowly. Probably too slowly.

 Artillery ammunition – outrageous amounts of ammunition.

  Victory points – need review.

 Casualty rates – it will be interesting to compare game and historical casualty rates.

 Language – please feel free to correct and standardise spellings.

Known GNW Graphics issues:

3d unit bases – there is an issue around the GNW game engine not matching the correct 3d base to
the correct 3d unit file – this is being worked on. The full range of 3d bases can be added when the
issue is sorted.

Leader Faces – this file is still being compiled and will be added in later. We are having difficulty
locating images. This can be due to the spelling of the name, obscurity etc.

UNIT file – the artwork is being produced at the moment and will be added in later.