"Polish Armies of the Great Northern War" Topic

Is there a good source for these? Army lists, outfits etc.

Seems the hussars are well covered but what about other mounted troops?

Wondering where the cossacks who fought for them came from?

Uniforms and standards for the Polish dragoons and light horse?

I used to have a really nice rule set called Tercio, my copy is gone and it is sadly out of print, but it did give some nice organizational detail on the pancerni, rajtar, cossacks, and tatars as well as the beautiful winged hussars and infantry. The references I used for uniforms was wide and varied from Gunther Rothenberg to Osprey. In addition, Wargames Research Group used to produce a rule set with some nice army lists, DBM, complied by Richard Bodley Scott and, at the time anyway, a local boy by the name of Phil Barker. These came out back in the olden days, 1984, and I believe the period you are interested in would be Book 5 or possibly Book 6.

Maybe look at the "By Fire and Sword" website (and the film!). fireandsword.wargamer.pl

There is a basic guide here – link

You can get more information if you ask via the contact address if you want – wyreforestgamers@yahoo.co.uk .

On your specific questions there aren't any Cossacks in the army at this time, or at least not many or as such. The Poles and Lithuanians had light horse that was similar. Also they often fought with Russian armies which had Cossacks with them.

On uniforms and standards you will find nothing on any troops in this period. But most likely they were similar to those of the earlier period covered by 'By Fire and Sword' and other sources on this period.

Polish lighter cavalry were called "Cossack style" cavalry by the mid-17th century. The armored Cossack style cavalry eventually became more commonly called Pancerni.

If you speak/read Polish, the best work is one of the oldest, Jan Wimmer – WOJSKO POLSKIE W DOBIE WOJNY PÓŁNOCNEJ [The Polish Army in the Great Northern War]. It was published back in 1956.

In current Polish historiography – this time period (or, indeed, any non-WW2 military subject) is not very popular. From time to time, articles or (very rarely) monographs appear. If you can get a hold of it, "Bitwa w Koniecpolem 21 listopada 1708" [The Battle at Konicepol 21 November 1708] published by Inforteditions, 2014 contains a wealth of information on the armies that fought in the Polish Civil War (the same armies that supported Augustus the Strong and Stanislaw Leczynski). Since I live in Poland and have tried to collect info on this subject, I've been just as frustrated as most researchers when it comes to the GNW Poles. It's just not that popular and most historians are busy focusing on WW2 or the medieval period to the siege of Vienna. The GNW is considered the start of the 'rot' that led to the downfall of the Polish nation and the partitions.

For miniatures – I'd use any Renaissance Polish army – winged hussars were used by most of the powerful families, as were pancerni and a ton of light horse [called by various names in the sources]. Infantry and artillery would be a minor part of the armies.

As far as recruitment goes, you've got to remember that Poland's current borders are not what they once were. In the period of the GNW – the borders were 100 kilometers or more to the east. Recruitment was normally conducted by the powerful magnates and not by the state, as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the time of the GNW was controlled by the most powerful families of the realm.

You can also look at the artilce on the battle of Koniecpol in the "Great Northern War Compdendium" by Lukasz Pabich. From what I remember, one of the sources he consulted was Wimmer and a few other sources that are from very specialist journals available in Poland.

If you've got any more questions, feel free to email me at: jestarnes66@gmail.com and I'll try to help.