Saxon forces of the GNW

During the holidays I finally finished my Saxony contingent for the Great Northern War for which two of the local boys independently started the same project.  They twisted my ‘rather rubber wargame arm’ to have me create some reinforcements for WillB’s Russians to face the fury of KevinA’s elite Swedish foe.

For the most part the other two have used Warlord’s (ex-Wargames Factory) plastic WSS figures and I have followed in that path and also altered my usual painting style to give them a very basic paint coat then cover the lot with Army Painters ‘Soft Tone’ (from the small bottle)  While it certainly darkens the tones, it provides a similar effect as the other collectors forces.

It might be noted that they were rebased from individual stands to square multiples (40mm) given the more formal lines of battle.   I have large enough force of line infantry and cavalry and contingents of dragoons and grenadiers along with artillery support to satisfy most of our scenario requirements.

Fun minor project and interesting to gather the campaign and indeed uniform information as it is one of the few major wars I was not really familiar with.  I like the colour red so this would be the army for me, it would appear!

Saxon cuirassier without their red overcoats!

newly painted dragoons

My red coated mass of the Electorate of Saxony c 1706

GaPa again!

Another Saxon/Russian GNW defeat!

Excited by each of us increasing our GNW forces, KevinA’s Swedes, WillB’s Russians, and my Electorate Saxons, another battle at the club was scheduled.

In many ways it had a similar theme as our previous battle, having the Swedish elite cavalry exploit the woods on the left of the Russian/Saxon line to outflank and roll up the allies line.

A bird's view from the Swedish left.  The Swedes are deployed to the right with the elite horse in three unit column in the far distance.  The Russian/Saxon alliance is holding the fortifications to the left with the Saxon horse moving around the woods to counter the Swedish advance on their flank. (photo by Kevin)  

The Russians on the right flank advanced without opposition hoping to attract attention from the Swedish in the centre but failed to do so, while the Russians of the centre were unwilling to abandon the defensive positions to attack to the left.   The battle concluded as the Saxons holding the left collapsed, but as the new Swedish Guards failed to advance further under artillery fire in their first time under fire in the field of battle after being proudly painted by Kevin, he was not able to attack the vacant middle of the Allies line allowing the Russian forces to escape intact.

My Saxons in position....

....however they are forced to reposition to the left.  Not done in my usual technique, these are painted in a style to compliment the others collections.

Saxon grenadiers.  These are from the old Wargames Factory sprues. These have a third of the figures having half torsos and lots of arm, weapon and head bits so allowing such fun options. The Warlord version does not give these options and is much the poorer for it (as well as your wallet!)

The 'left' woods, the scene of most of the action

KevinA's Swedes including his CharlesXII command stand which includes a poor Russian soldier getting his buttocks attacked by the dogs! 

And WillB's stoic Russians in the fore, Kevin's Russians holding the entrenchments.  Our collections are primarily Warlord/Wargames factory plastics along with some Old Glory and Warfare miniatures. 

Cheval de frise

A couple of wargaming buddies started their new c.1706 Great Northern War project and I finally could not resist joining in.  One of the few conflicts I have little knowledge, brief research had me going to collect forces of the Electorate of Saxony which allied itself with WillB’s Russians against KevinA’s Swedes.

Apparently not too confident about defending against the aggressive Swedes, it was common for these early 18th C Saxons to employ these spiky defences along their whole front.

my finished examples on the tabletop

While I have a few of these in metal, I felt I would need more.  Inspiration had me look at the used sprues of the cavalry and plastic toothpicks bought cheaply at the dollar store for a very inexpensive solution as the following photos illustrate.

Metal version (manufacturer unknown)

Pieces of the sprue cut off. The two will be then glued together to form a square post.

Plastic toothpicks. The ends are cut off to length.  I used only the red ones!

All glued together.  The model glue melted the plastic to allow the toothpick ends to remain upright with only a couple moments of being held in place to my surprise

Primered in black, now looking the part

Finished version.  The figure is a Warlord (nee Wargames Factory) plastic WSS era horseman.