Rule Testing Great Northern War Solo Game

 I have recently adapted mate Andrews AS9 20th century rules for the GNW! In truth, it didn't take a lot of doing - replace vehicles with cavalry in the movement section, remove MG's etc from the firing section, and add a couple of "period" Troop Quality factors e.g. Swedish infantry move 3 D6 rather than 2 D6 (so cavalry are 3 D6 +3 inches), Swedes are +1 for morale and +2 when attacking. Russians have +1 for their artillery fire. Anyone in close combat with a gun crew is +1. That's about all I changed, and yesterday, I thought I would give the rules a quick try.

I had to do some severe "bath tubbing" to fit even a small battle on a 29" square table - instead of 3 x 60mm x 60mm bases per unit, I just used one, and I reduced movement to cm rather than inches. I had a deck of cards with one "special" event per side - the Russians would get an extra round of artillery fire and the Swedes an extra round of close combat. The number of activation cards slightly favoured the Swedes; they had 12 while the Russians only had 10.

Let's see how it went.

Initial set up - Four units of Swedish infantry, two of cavalry, supported by one battery of guns (at the foot) will be attacking five units of Russians with three cavalry and two batteries of guns.

The figures are a mixture of Ebor metal and Warlord plastic

Not the best light in my garage, unfortunately!

Turn 1 went to the Russians - their guns opened fire - but at long range, to no effect

On turn 2, the Swedish advance commenced, but 3 of the 4 infantry units were strangely hesitant (for Swedes!) The cavalry, however, moved off at a good clip. The artillery fired but also did no damage

Turn 3 went back to the Russians; the artillery had some effect on the leading Swedish unit and the Russian cavalry advanced on both flanks

Turn 4 initiative stayed with the Russians and the artillery again caused casualties on the Swedes - the single cavalry unit on the Russian right bravely charged the Swedes (not as brave as in many rule sets, because they fight unit to unit only, so it makes no difference that there are two Swedish horse units)

The result was disappointing for the attackers - a non-scoring draw (a 9 is required for a hit) means the attacker falls back

Turn 5 was ANOTHER Russian one (and their last; after 3 turns in a row, initiative automatically switches to the other side for at least one turn). The guns thundered again, and now the leading Swedish infantry unit is in trouble - with 4 hits, if it does not rally next time, it will have to fall back....

Situation at the end of turn 5 - the Russian cavalry units on the right of the picture are nearly in position to charge the Swedish right flank infantry AND the Swedish artillery

Turn 6 went automatically to the Swedes. They fortuitously managed to rally off one of the hits, and the guns rolled a double 6 to put 2 hits on one of the cavalry units.

With only their second turn of the game so far, the Swedes implemented their "Gå på" policy - explained thus by my lovely AI assistant - 

The Swedish term "Gå på" (pronounced goh-poh) literally translates to "go on" or "walk on" in English, but it is historically and culturally famous as an idiomatic military command. The "Gå-På" Spirit is often used to describe the fierce, fearless attitude of the Swedish Caroleans.

Turn 7 reverted to the Russians. The cavalry drove off the Swedish gunner but in the other close combat, the Swedish infantry prevailed and forced the Russians back

The guns fired but did little to dampen the Swedish ardour, and the single cavalry unit was defeated by their Swedish counterparts and forced to give ground 

Turn 8 saw the Swedes with the initiative, and all along the line, their infantry smashed into the waiting Russians

With mixed results, it must be said. One of the Russian infantry units was driven back but the adjacent artillery battery held, and the Swedes recoiled to reform

A breach has been made in the Russian line by the unit carrying three hit markers

Turn 9 went to the Russians - the cavalry finished off the Swedish gunners, but their colleagues, carrying three hit markers, rolled very poorly and failed to reach the lone Swedish infantry unit defending the rear 

Turn 10 went back to the Swedes - I took the image below of the last movement roll - EVERY Swedish unit rolled this type of score for movement in turn 10 - and all the attacks went in as a result

The unit attacking the last battery were lucky - needing a 9, they rolled 6 - but added 2 for Swedes attacking plus another 1 for "anyone" attacking a gun crew. So, the crew were driven off.

The next attack, the luck was of a different kind, as the dice Gods smiled on the unit carrying 3 hits - they rolled double 6 and inflicted two hits on the Russian unit they were attacking

The Swedes in the right rear, not to be outdone, also prevailed in combat with the Russian cavalry!

The only failure was a hitless draw, which caused the Swedes, as the attacker, to fall back

The situation at the end of turn 10 

For the first time in the game, the Swedes retained the initiative in turn 11. Firstly, they rolled really well in the rally phase - the leading unit rolled double 6 to remove 2 of the 3 hits it had been carrying most of the game. The lone rearguard unit, having driven off one cavalry unit, now charged the second!

It may be hard to see this, but it is a Swedish close combat win 10 - 5

The rearguard from a different angle - winning the combat - by adding 2 to the roll of 7!

The Russians were certainly on the backfoot now, half their force teetering on the edge of the table as the reorganised and reinvigorated Swedes line up to finish the job!

And now the "Card Gods" came in on the side of Charles XII as well - the Swedes got a third initiative in a row.

More successful rallying by the Swedes - despite all the Russian artillery fire and numerous close combats, their units are almost as fresh as when they started!

Turn 13 went automatically to the Russians. The infantry unit on the left of the image prevailed against the Swedes and drove them back with an extra hit marker, and on the other flank, their compatriots did likewise!

But the cavalry unit lost the melee with the heroic men of the Swedish rearguard, and being almost touching the table edge, were removed from the game when they fell back

Turn 14 went again to the Russians - the infantry charged the Swedish horse, but failed to emulate the Swedish rearguard, losing the close combat and being forced to retire

In the centre, the other victorious infantry unit from the previous turn charged an adjacent Swedish infantry formation, but also lost the melee

And the Russian cavalry charged the rearguard - but were bounced back by being the attacking unit in a hitless draw!

I decided to call a halt to proceedings on turn 15 - it had been pretty obvious for the last few turns that the Swedes would prevail

The final shot is the butchers bill - the Russians lost 2 infantry and 2 cavalry units to 1 gun battery for the Swedes - and the remainder of the Russian force was parked along the table edge, very close to falling off "the edge of the world"!

The rules seemed to work well enough - I don't think the Swedes were too strong, they just rolled really well when they needed to, whether for rallying off hits or combat results. I will give the rules another try in a few days and see how things work out - maybe I will have a larger Russian force attacking the Swedes to see how that goes?

Finally, we have just been through an almost nationwide state of emergency due to tropical cyclone Vaianu side swiping New Zealand as it headed south out of the Pacific. It turned out not to be as bad as had been feared - but still plenty of rain and high winds.

I took a couple of pictures, just to prove it is not ALWAYS sunny in New Zealand!

Every cloud has a silver lining though (pun intended!) - with the terrible weather I was "forced" to stay home, in the garage almost all weekend, assembling and painting! 

Two of the three newly acquired Warlord 28mm T34/85's  - now, I just need some fine weather to get outside and spray paint them!

Next up in a few days will be the 18th Continental Regiment for the AWI, finally completed - till then, thanks for your visit!