Savolax jäger regiment, 1808

"The Savonian sharpshooters who were the most dangerous of our enemies in this land were farmers. They lived in the wooded and swampy region called Savolax next to a vast lake called 'Kallavesi'. They wore grey trousers and a short jacket and had a round hat on their heads. Their equipment was of plain, black boot leather. In peacetime these riflemen lived in their homes, farming, fishing and hunting, and took part in military excercises for a few weeks once per year. They conserved their ammunition and rarely shot at random.. They all fought bravely and were sworn enemies of the Russians."
-Memoirs of Faddei Bulgarin, an uhlan who fought in the war.

Hot on the heels of the Savolax infantry regiment I finished my Savolax Jägers. They were established in 1770 after the lessons of the seven years' war had start to sunk in and the usefulness of light, independent troops became apparent. The Savo region was also an especially suitable home for a large number of jägers as they could act as sentries in the wilderness bordering Russia and were well suited to fighting in broken terrain.

The Savolax jägers were not part of the allotment system but were rather an enlisted unit in the Swedish army. They did not however spend their time in garrison but were also farmers in their spare time, so their level of professionalism didn't probably differ much from your average Finnish allotment soldier. They had a good reputation however and were in the thick of fighting throughout the war.

They were not just skirmishers screening the infantry battalions either. They were frequently used in raiding operations behind enemy lines (I used to live a stones' throw away from a site where the Savolax jägers ambushed a Russian supply column) as well as supporting and training civilian militias that rose up against the Russians (Especially in Karelia).

The figures took only minor conversion to look appropriate and painted up nicely. The camera shows brutally where I got sloppy with my painting, especially the faces but they look fine IRL so I'm happy :)
 

Savolax light infantry regiment, 1808

I already have a 6mm russo-swedish war project with the Savolax Brigade already complete, but since Perry Miniatures decided to do them in 28mm, I simply couldn't resist! I'll probably use these in Sharp practice or something else where I don't need so many figures. Big Battle Napoleonics in 28mm is a level of madness I'd rather avoid.

The army of Finland during the 1808 Russian invasion was an allotment system where farms and villages were required to equip and maintain soldiers for the Swedish army. This meant that every few houses would pool their resources together to recruit a soldier, offer him a small house and a patch of land to farm, pay for his equipment and give him a modest pay. The soldiers of the allotment system were basically farmers who also took part in army excercises and the occasional war.  As you might guess, your mileage would vary on the quality of these soldiers as the intensity of their training and the quality of the recruits would vary a lot.

The Savolax light infantry regiment was different to your average infantry regiment in a couple of ways. First, it was divided into four demi-battalions instead of the usual two (I made two demi-battalions for this project which should be enough since the regiment was dispersed around Finland for most of the war). Secondly, a lot of attention was put into training them to operate in open order in the broken terrain of Savolax. Working together with Savolax Jägers they were well suited for the Finnish woodlands.

Painting these seemed to take forever for such, basically pretty simple figures. Don't know why I took so long, maybe I'm out of shape with 28mm historicals. The Perry models are otherwise great, but the uniform on the figures is actually of a later model than the one worn by Finnish regiments during the war. Luckily the differences between the uniforms are mostly obscured by other gear or too minute to be noticed by all but the most dedicated uniform fetishists, so it took only a bit of conversion work and creative painting.

There is an excellent article on the evolution of the uniform on the Northern Wargaming blog, go check it out if you're interested!