"Battle of Viksborg, 1788 - Norwegians vs. Swedes" Topic

So, I've mentioned my 1788 armies on TMP before but this is the first time I've ever posted photos of them.

So, the history is as follows: In 1788, Sweden declared war on Russia and the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway invaded the Swedish province of Bahuslan in accordance with their alliance with Russia. Historically, the invasion and war was a minor affair – the Norwegian army consisted of around 12,000 men and there was only one battle.

However, I decided to expand both the Norwegians and Swedes into armies that would be substantial. Both armies have 30 battalions of infantry (24 minis each) and 10 battalions of cavalry (20 minis each), along with artillery and commanders.

Sorry for the messiness in the room – doing a bit of remodeling and sorry for not painting some of the Swedish guns and not basing the brigade commanders – not enough time.

Scenario: The Norwegian army is advancing southeast after crossing the Swedish border hoping to capture the city of Goteborg (Gothenburg). The Swedish army has hastily gathered and advanced northwest. The jaeger units of both sides encounter each other in the forest outside the sleepy hamlet of Viksborg.

The battlefield is fairly open with fields and fences; however, there is a forest on the far eastern edge of the battlefield, and two roads on the Norwegian side (left and center), with the main road dissecting the Swedish position. In the first 7 turns, the Swedish light infantry brigade (consisting of the Bahuslan jaeger battalion, von Erickson's Freikorps battalion, Taube's light dragoons and a 3pdr. cannon) managed to eject the Norwegian light infantry brigade (a 3 pdr. cannon, 1 battalion of Norwegian jaegers, 1/2 battalion Kongsvinger Light infantry, 1/2 battalion Fredriksten Light infantry) from the forest and the Swedish von Erickson's Freikorps captured the village of Viksborg after some very hard fighting. Basically, the Swedes destroyed the Norwegian light infantry brigade as a force and sent it routing in panic back to Norway!

However, the valiant Freikorps is currently surrounded in the village by Norwegian reinforcements and will have to surrender. On the western side of the battlefield, the Swedish cavalry and Norwegian cavalry are getting ready to square off and near Sven Tungrov's farm, the Swedish and Norwegian infantry are both advancing. The roads leading to the village are inundated with Swedes and Norwegians. East of Sven's farm, the Swedish and Norwegian infantry are heading for a showdown on the main road, while in the fields near Vikborg, the Swedes and Norwegians are advancing for a climactic slugfest involving cavalry, infantry and artillery. On the far eastern edge of the battlefield, the Norwegian 7th infantry brigade and the Swedish 5th infantry brigade will soon be involved in a no holds barred contest for the forest and the fields beyond.

link

Sorry that I didn't take any pics of the Norwegian Jaeger brigade. If anyone wants any pics of those guys, just send me an email.

jestarnes66@gmail.com

Hope y'all enjoy the pics.

Very impressive! Thanks for sharing

Very good and unusual armies.

Very nice. Interesting. I personally would like some closeups, as i think that these to armies are very colourful.

Oh yes, thank you very much for sharing!

That was incredible. Thanks for sharing that.

Eric

Impressive and colorful armies. Very well done.

Thanks!

I'll add some closeups of the individual (say, most colorful) units and post them in a separate Google photos file. I'll also take a few pics of my 1792 Poles/Lithuanians and Russians and post them in a folder as well.

Would that work?

Happy gaming!

The 1792 pictures would be of interest.

I have a huge 15mm Russian army in Potemkin uniforms which I painted up to fight the Ottomans but never painted the Ottomans.

Pics will be up later on today.

Also, if anyone wants an 8-page battle report (up to turn 8), you can send me an email:

jestarnes66@gmail.com

The battle report is too big to post on the '18th Century Battle Reports" and I don't have a blog (though I might start one).

Happy gaming!

All pics have been uploaded.

Link:
Swedish Army – link

Norwegian Army:
link

Russian Army, 1787-1794 (will be added to as I finish units off):
link

Hungarian 1848 (start of a new project):
link

Lithuanians/Poles,1792-1794 (will be added to over the next few months, as I finish some units off):
link

If I missed a unit from the Swedes and Norwegians, let me know and I'll post it later on today.

As always, if you have any questions about the minis used or anything regarding the pics, just drop me a line:

jestarnes66@gmail.com

Happy gaming!

Sorry that the links didn't come up – don't know what happened! Here they are again for those that are interested:

Norwegian Army:
link

Lithuanians/Poles:
link

Russians:
link

Swedes:
link

Hungarian 1848
link

I'll be adding more pics to the Russians, Poles/Lithuanians and Hungarian 1848 folders over the next few months as I get units completed. Sorry for the hiatus in posting.

Greetings Gents,

I just wanted to let y'all know that I've updated all the photos in the files with descriptions of the units. Like I stated previously, I'm working furiously on units to add to the folders.

Happy gaming!

Good gawd man that's a lot of units! What glorious armies!

Hey takeda333,

Thanks! Yeah – they don't look too good close-up and I noticed a few mistakes in the painting that the photos brought out but they do look very impressive on the table en masse and when you're playing a game, you don't notice the little mistakes in painting.

That's one of the great things about 15mm – they look so good in formation that each figure doesn't need to be a work of art.

It's such a shame that most of the minis I used for those armies are no longer available. The 'Theatre War' is such an overlooked war, as is the period of the late 18th century that I decided to concentrate my wargaming efforts on it (mostly). The armies are so colorful and with a bit of imagination, you can create some great scenarios for games.

I've finally posted close-ups of all the units and commanders for the Norwegian and Swedish armies.

This weekend (after a long hiatus from painting), I'm planning on knocking out a few more Polish/Lithuanian units, so I'll be uploading photos of those as well in the coming weeks. I've got the commanders of the Polish/Lithuanian armies done but I need to knock out some infantry units before applying the finish and basing.

Take a gander if you're interested. ;)

Happy gaming!

This is a cool post with lots of uniforms I had no clue. Thanks for sharing your collection!

Thanks!

Well, since I was the one that paid for the 1788 Russo-Swedish War to be manufactured by FFUK (back when the Quartermaster/FFUK was in Canada – 1990s), I figured I'd best know what kind of uniforms were worn. ;)

Of course, I've done a lot more research since then but I didn't do too badly – the Swedes did wear the 'theatre' uniform in the field during the 1788 Bahuslan campaign, although as Lars Rossle has pointed out, some of the Indelta (provincial) units were still in the uniform of the 7YW. Also, some of the units adapted the uniform over time in Finland replacing the stockings and pants with breeches. The Norwegians were an easy fit – basically any AWI Americans would do.

The Potemkin Russians (Hey, Wargamorium!) had such an easy uniform to paint – basic Christmas colors – red, green, yellow that it felt silly not to have them manufactured. Although my first Potemkin Russians (which I'm using as St. Petersburg grenadiers) were the Minifigs (Tom Dye's old company) Nap. Danish grenadiers with the backpacks taken off.

The uniform info for the Swedes was given to me by Dan Schorr, as were some of the flags (the Livfanas, in particular – Swedish regimental white flags). He also provided info on the uniforms and flag info for the Norwegians and helped fill in the blanks as to some of the quirkier items of the Norwegian kit. I had another friend, Lars Rossle, develop the Norwegian flags and he also gave me a set of Swedish flags. In essence, I could've have completed the project without the help of those two great guys!

All in all, these two armies are my favorites – probably because they are the first 2 armies that I've finished that are so big and yes, they are colorful as well.

Glad you liked them. :)