"FRAN KARL KNUTSSON TIL KRISTINA - Any Good?" Topic

Before I buy… FRAN KARL KNUTSSON TIL KRISTINA has anyone seen this book? And do you recommend it as a Wargaming source? Or is there a better book for building a 30YW Swedish army.
Thanks in advance

I own it and it is a very usefull resource if you can read the Swedish text. The artwork is fairly average at best and a bit crude in places with a few errors such as a couple of flags being turned the wrong way on the pole. But the author is the only one to have done a real indepth research off the subject using the Swedish archives.

Do note that despite the title it pretty much ends it's coverage around 1632,probably because the huge gaps in the post-1632 archives due to the majority of records beloning to the army in Germany being destroyed by fire in 1697.

So an excellent investment for anyone interested in Swedish uniforms and flags from around 1500 to 1632 with the armies of Erik XIV and Gustavus getting the most focus due to being the best documented in surviving archives. But you need to good at reading Swedish to make use of the book, it requires more than google translate.

Howdy Daniel S. As always you give excellent info and present a real service to all us "English" speaking individuals (although as a Texan, all my friends from the UK say I do not speak "English"! The version of the book I plan to buy is suppose to have an English translation, which might still be a challenge. I own several uniform guides from Hungary, Russia, and Germany that have English translations which are still difficult at best.
Thanks again

Hi Texan,
With a Swedish translation you should be able to make sense of most of the uniform and flag references even if the translation is of rather average quality. The longer texts require more skill to translate properly.

As for the books usefulness when building a Swedish 30YW army that depends on what you are aiming for, if you have Richard Brzezinski's Ospreys about the army of Gustavus then you will get as complete a coverage as is currently possible to get from published sources for the army of Gustavus Adolphus with FRAN KARL KNUTSSON TIL KRISTINA and it corrects some of the errors in the Ospreys.

However because of the haphazard way in which documents have survived the information is very uneven. The last years of the 1610-1617 Ingrian war with Muscovy have better coverage than the TYW period as far as uniforms are concerned. 30YW has the best flag data but lots of gaps even for famous and popular regiments. Basicly if you build an army based on a historical orbat then you will need to use many conjectural flags. Or you could build a conjectural order of battle using the regiments for which the flags have been recorded.

Daniel, you provide amazing help!
We base our 30YW armies on the historical records, but then execute our campaigns as if we were the actual leaders. More difficult than just refighting the historical battles, and requires a lot of book keeping. Turns out that logistics, forming alliances and "acquiring" finances is a lot harder than fighting!.

P.S.
I also like your website.
Cheers!