28mm Finnish War 1808-1809: Russians for Sharp Practice

I've had these around for a few years now without much progress but now that my son has been into Napoleonics and started painting some Perry French I decided to finally get a set finished for sharp practice. Figures are by Brigade Games and they match up with my Perry Savolax Brigade nicely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finnish War 1808: Battle of Ruona 1.9.1808, Battlefield visit and refight

Next up on our series of Finnish War 1808 games is the Battle of Ruona. The summer attack of the Swedish army has lost its steam and now the Russians are advancing again. At Ruona, the Swedish army of 6400 faced a Russian force of approximately 9000 troops. I'm sure you can find better accounts of the battle elsewhere, but in a nutshell: The Swedish army had a good defensive position overlooking a bridge between Kuortane and Ruona. They had also built some defensive works along the line north of that position. The Russians attempted to outflank the Swedish army from the north but were repulsed. Parts of the Swedish army counterattacked and some fierce fighting took place at the Heroja farm. Night fell and both armies retreated from the field. The Russians pursued the Swedish army and fought another battle close by in Salmi the next day. After this battle the war started to seem lost for the kingdom of Sweden and the army began to lose heart.

 

For this game we went to the location of the battle itself. I visited there a year ago to explore the place myself and decided lure some friends to play a game there this year. The field at Ruona is remarkably well preserved and most of the surroundings are pretty much the way they were 200 years ago. For our game we rented a local closed down school building which also housed a museum room dedicated to the battle. There we could set up our table, have some barbeque and beer and warm up the sauna for post-game discussions of military wisdom.

First we went to tour the battlefield with maps in hand. I'll include some of the pictures here for you, as well as some drone photos I took last year. I had problems with my cell phone so I couldn't fly my drone this year but the aerial photos are fresh enough.

The Ruona bridge and Swedish gun positions

 

 

 

 

Takala farm and surrounding fields

 

 

The position of the Savolax Brigade on the northern flank

 

Heroja farm and the Russian side of the field

Walking the battlefield we made many observations on how the terrain had influenced the decisions made on the day. The Swedish army, for example, must have been stretched very, very thin because the line was about 3 kilometers long and was held with only 6000 men. The visibility over the fields was good and it was unlikely that any great manoeuvers could go unnoticed. The area around Ruona bridge was very marshy and crossing the 600 meter wooden bridge under artillery fire and musketry would have been suicide for either army.

The game

After the battlefield tour and a break, we played the game itself. I'll let the picture commentary do the talking, but the big picture was that the Russians attempted to break through the northern flank of the Swedish army with a much larger force than they did historically. For a moment it looked like they would indeed break the Savonians guarding the road to Salmi, but the attack faltered to musket and grapeshot. In General de Brigade (the rules we use) units suffering losses get pinned down pretty easily and have a hard time getting moving again, and this worked against the attackers. The Russians managed to turn the Savonian line on the northernmost end, but the day came to a close and the road to Salmi remained in Savonian hands, so we judged the Russians having failed. Whilst the main battle was underway in the north, the men of the Åbo regiment attempted to move on Heroja farm to cut off the attackers from the main army, but having ample reserves, the Russians could easily reinforce that section and the Åbo men called off the attack, turning north instead. The Russians withdrew to their side of the field and the battle ended.

In our games, we estimate that about a third of the losses in the miniature game represent actual dead and wounded men. In this game, the Russians lost 486 men, with Yankovich wounded. The Swedish army lost 136 men, four guns were destroyed and Cedergren wounded. With these numbers, the day had been less bloody than historically, but the end result would be the same. The Swedish position on the extended line would be untenable so they'd have to retreat to Salmi as they did historically. The Russians would no doubt remain on the field as they would be under no illusion of a Swedish counterattack.

All in all, the day was a great success and the battlefield visit enriched the game greatly. Now our campaign will move on to the Autumn of 1808 and towards the melancholy end of the war.

Game details:

Figures by Heroics and Ros 6mm

Rules: General de Brigade by David Brown

Scenario combined from GemiGaBok and Sword and Saber publishing's Finnish war scenarios.

28mm Finnish war 1808 Savolax Brigade complete

With the addition of the Karelian dragoons, I believe I've now completed my 28mm Savolax brigade for now. There would be two additional demi-battalions of infantry and the Karelian jägers to add, but the brigade was broken up early in the war and the Savonian infantry battalions didn't fight together so this is more like a typical force. I've designed this set to be used using Sharp Practice, so the dragoons are a bit overrepresented (the unit size in SP is 8). All in all, I think they came out nice. Now, if I could just muster the will to start doing some Russians for them to fight...

For a comparison, here is the same force in 6mm: http://mazikainen.blogspot.com/2015/08/savolax-brigade-1808.html

Perry Miniatures to produce a Napoleonic Swedish range

Great news! I've been waiting for someone to do a 28mm Napoleonic Swedish range for over fifteen years and now I'll get one sculpted by the Perry twins! There simply haven't been any available in 28mm before. I do believe I'm "chuffed to bits" now, as the Englishmen say! Of course I have the Finnish war in 6mm but I'm sure there's room in the figure vault for a sharp practice project or something!

Here's a link to the Facebook announcement: https://www.facebook.com/perryminiatures/posts/1323202574468512

Additional units for the 6mm Russo-Swedish war project

Here's the last batch of figures for the battle of Siikajoki I was preparing to. The battle has already been played but I have some work to do on the materials before I'll post them. Meanwhile, let's log what I finished. The pics are worse than usual as I couldn't find the eos utility for my new computer in a hurry.

Uusimaa (Nyland) dragoons

Uusimaa dragoon

The Uusimaa (Nyland) infantry regiment.

Uusimaa infantryman. Note the lighter shade of blue. I opted to use the same shade on all the "blue battalions" as the difference can't really be seen in 6mm anyway.

Some artillery (Most of the guns used by the Finns were 3- and 6-pounders.)

A Finnish artilleryman.

Generals. I had trouble sourcing information on their uniforms so I looked at their portaits and worked from those.

Georg Carl Von Döbeln. One of the more successful Swedish commanders and overall badass. The black headband is to cover the wound he got in the battle of Porrassalmi in the previous war. He got shot in the head with a musket but was too stubborn to die.

Ok, I think I should paint something in a bigger scale next :)

Savolax Brigade 1808

On the 25th of February 1808, a couple of weeks before the battle of Leppävirta, the Savolax Brigade stood in formation on the parade ground in Mikkeli in the middle of the night. It was freezing cold (-36 Celsius according to some sources) and the men were not allowed to light fires to warm themselves up, so as to keep them hidden from the enemy. In reality, the Russians were still far off from Mikkeli, but a rumour spread into town by a traveler claiming the Russians had cut off the Swedish route of retreat at Juva had spooked Cronstedt, their commander, into putting the brigade into full alert. A hundred men would be hospitalized after the long night, all of whom would be left behind when the brigade began it's march north on the 29th. This false alarm cost Cronstedt more than ten times the men than those who would become casualties at Leppävirta.

The composition of the Savolax Brigade when departing from Mikkeli was as follows:
- Savolax infantry regiment, 1000 men, four half-battalions
- Savolax jaeger regiment, 1170 men, two battalions
- Karelian dragoons, 210 men, two squadrons
- Savolax brigade artillery company, 158 men
- Plus assorted hangarounds not present at battles or incorporated into the existing units in our games.

The Brigade also included the Karelian jaeger regiment, but they didn't link up with the main force until later in the winter so I have some more time to paint them. The models are 6mm figures from Heroics & Ros. The models are noticeably smaller than Baccus and do not fit together very well. I think you can use them in opposing armies if you're not too picky however.

1. Savolax Infantry

2. Savolax Infantry

3. Savolax Infantry

4. Savolax Infantry

An officer of the Savolax infantry regiment

1. Savolax Jaegers. It was uncommon for jaeger regiments to have their own flag, but I've read from a couple of sources that the Savolax jaegers had one, so of course I had to give them one!

2. Savolax Jaegers. These jaegers are also sporting different headwear than "normal" jaegers in the Swedish army. Using French Voltigeurs from the Heroics&Ros line works well.

Savolax Jaegers.

Karelian Dragoons, lower Savolax squadron. These men did not have the new hats that were issued to the dragoons unlike the upper Savolax squadron. The owner of Heroics and Ros suggested I use Spanish Dragoons for the figures and they fit the description just fine.

The upper Savolax squadron with their brand new hats.

Karelian lower Savolax squadron on the left. On the right, a Nyland dragoon but his hat is identical to what the Upper Savolax squadron would have had.

The Savolax artillery company. I ended up doing too many gun models that's appropriate for the figure:man ratio. Three or four guns is more appropriate for the single battery they could field.

Another angle.

And just so you remember, the pictures you saw were magnified. Here are the same figures next to a coin.

I was kind of worried about the Heroics & Ros line of figures as there really is a lot less detail on the models than on Baccus ones. They paint up nicely though and I'm happy with them as units.

At the moment we use a figure-to-man ratio of 1:10 and a two guns per model ratio for artillery. We "round up" any stands so that if a line infantry unit is 22 models strong, I will have three stands on the table but still count the actual models used. The figures are based on 20mm squares and the artillery on 25mm squares. We use General de Brigade rules because they offer a good skirmishing system which is necessary for the skirmisher-heavy Finnish war.

I also have a nice set of uniform plates to go with these, but I first have to find  a way to convert pdf scans to images properly.