Showing posts with label The Battle of Lesnaya 1708. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Battle of Lesnaya 1708. Show all posts

Thursday 25 March 2021

Battle of Lesnaya; Belarus Sept 28th, 1708 ( julian calender).

 This was a bit of an awkward battle to start with. The Russian Army approached the Swedish army via two roads, which came together in a small clearing prior to heading for Lesnaya.

The right hand Russian column, led by Golitzyn ( with the Czar as "assistant" ) had the hardest march even on a track.  The left hand column under General Menshikov also approached in a road column, but they had the easier march.

I did not want the armies moving long ways because that could cause problems for player access. Therefore I used the " around the houses" approach in that stands cannot be moved through the woods. 

The battle came about when a Swedish relief column under General Lewenhaupt, containing waggonloads of supplies along with livestock was spotted by Czar Peters army. Peter realised that if he could destroy these supplies  Charles the 12th’s army would be in dire straits.

Russian Army = 19,000 = 19 points x 3 = 57 points;

Right Hand column;

1 stand of Pikemen @ 3 points.

4 stands of Line Muskets @ 2 points = 8 points.

1 General ( Czar Peter ) @ 1 point.

1 General ( Golitzyn) @ 1 point.

1 stand of Guard Infantry @ 3 points.

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Cossack Cavalry;

4 stands of Light Cavalry @ 2 points = 8 points.

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Dragoon Cavalry;

1 General  ( Christian Bauer ) @ 1 point.

7 stands of Line Dragoon Cavalry @ 2 points = 14 points.

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Left Flank Column;

2 stands of Pikemen @ 3 points = 6 points.

5 stands of Line Infantry Muskets @ 2 points = 10 points.

1 stand of  Artillery @ 1 point.

1 General ( Menshikov) @ 1 point.

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Swedish Army = 11,300 = 11.3 x 3 = 34 points r/u.

Right Flank;

1 General and C-in-C ( Lewenhaupt) @ 2 points.

4 stands of Dragoon Cavalry @ 2 points = 8 points.

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Left Flank;

2 stands of Pikemen @ 3 points = 6 points.

3 stands of Line Infantry Muskets @ 2 points = 6 points.

1 stand of Dragoon Cavalry @ 2 points.

3 stands of Waggon Guard @ 1 point = 3 points.

1 General ( Stackelberg) @ 1 point.

1 stand of  Artillery @ 1 point.

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Forward Post;

3 stands of Dispersed  Infantry muskets @ 1 point = 3 points.

1 " General" ( Lieutenant ) Freijbourg @ 2 points.

4 stands of Line Muskets @ 2 points = 8 points.

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● Russian Army stands cannot be moved into or through the wooded areas. Neither can any Swedish stands move through the woods.

● The streams can only be crossed via the bridges. Any stands forced into the streams are lost.

●  Any stands forced into the wooded areas will be lost for the length of the battle. ( It seems that any units suffering a retreat into the trees lost their enthusiasm pretty quickly!). 

● The battle will be played for 8 Game-Turns. The Swedish Army must stop any Russian stands from reaching the bridge over the Lesnjanka stream.

● The log counts as a trench.

Here are the armies laid out;



Notes;

The real battle finished on the first day at the Swedish outpost in a stalemate and went into a disjointed second day of battle.  General Lewenhaupt burnt the wagons in order to move faster hoping to reach the King with the wagons that had already crossed the Lesnjanka. However, the Swedish column ,with morale collapsing, lost its cohesion. With many men getting drunk and being captured by the Cossacks, the majority of  waggons were lost.

There are two ways you can fight this battle depending on which result you want. Either;

1) On the First Game-Turn, the Russian Army moves first. For the next 7 Game- Turns, a die is thrown for each side. The higher score moves first, and also has the Initiative Point for that Game-Turn.

After movement, a die is thrown for each side. The higher score fires first. Combat is simultaneous.

Or;

2) For the 8 Game-Turns, the Russians move first and fire first. Combat is simultaneous.

If at the end of 8 Game-Turns, if it is decided to carry on then the Night Move rule can be used and the battle played for another 8  Game-Turns,

Here is the map;


Notes on the use of Pikemen.

There is a current school of thought that is suggesting that during the English Civil War, the Pikemen were kept together as a block rather than being distributed through the muskets. I have gone along with that in my Northern War armies.

Therefore, the same rule applies. Any musket stand in close combat with an enemy stand that has a friendly stand of pikes in an adjacent square,behind can add the points of the pikes to their combat total.


As you can see in the above photo,  the Swedish muskets about to go into close combat with the Russian stands. The 3 points of the Swedish Pike are added to the points of the muskets.

3 points may seem excessive for an unarmoured pike block in this era, however I figure that if a group of aggressive pikemen got that close to an enemy musketeer, that gentlemen would be more concerned about getting out of the way of the large metal spike rather than shooting straight!!


Well, that's my version of events. The table is 3 feet x 2 feet ( 90cm x 60cm). The figures are mostly Miniature Figurines with some Peter Pig figures. The cavalry are Miniature Figurine Cavalry with Peter Pig heads.

The houses are by Total Battle Miniatures. The bridges are from Kallistra ( cut down a bit). The bases the trees are sitting on are from S and A  Scenics. The trees are from various manufacturers.The small wagons are from Tumbling Dice Miniatures.

The square bases are cut from picture framing cardboard. The round stands are 3mm mdf from Minibits.

The river and track way are cut from thin card. The standards are made from masking tape and hand painted.