A Great Northern War Wargame

     The new Peter Laing Great Northern War armies finally met on the field of battle. The battlefield itself is gridded 9x9, with 2" squares. I decided to go with 9x9, as it would make using Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargame scenarios easier to set up, instead of a 8x8.
    The scenario is #4, "Take the High Ground", from OHW. It was a scenario not used before. The rules used were modified "See the Elephant" rules, from the great blog, "The Stronghold Rebuilt".

Two Russian units hold a hill; the Swedish army wants to take control of the hill.  The Swedish commander send two elite regiments of grenadiers to seize the hill, with an artillery battery to take up position on the road to support the attack, or fire down the road to slow any Russian reinforcements.

The Russian reinforcements are on their way.

The Russian artillery eliminates one Swedish stand. Meanwhile, Russian cavalry starts down the road with another battery in support.

The Swedish grenadiers hits the Russian infantry, costing the Russians one stand. The Swedish artillery pushes forward.

The Russian fire continues to do damage to the grenadiers; the cavalry tries to close with the artillery before they can get the gun into action.

The grenadiers fire drives the Russian infantry off of the hill. Meanwhile, the Swedish artillery fire starts causing casualties on the Russian cavalry.

The Russian infantry rallies and returns to the hill. Their fire continues to devastate the grenadiers. The Russian cavalry simply rides down the Swedish artillery! All three cavalry dice came up 6's!

One of the grenadier regiments gets up the hill and hits the Russian infantry in the flank.  Another Swedish infantry regiment tries to recapture the artillery.

The Russian infantry loses two bases, but drives the grenadiers off the hill. In StE rules, if a unit closes into "close combat" and doesn't eliminate or make the enemy retreat, the defenders get to roll one dice. The lone Russian stand got to roll, forcing the grenadiers to retreat. Meanwhile, the Swedish infantry takes out another cavalry stand.

The other Russian artillery battery comes forward to try to cover the road.

The Swedish army now sends forward all their infantry. The grenadiers once again storms the hill.

The grenadiers finally wipes out the Russian infantry on the hill, and the infantry on the road eliminates the last of the Russian cavalry and retakes the gun.

The Russian artillery fires point blank into the oncoming grenadiers...

....and wipes out 60% of them!

The grenadiers still press home the attack, and the Swedish regiment on the road attacks the deploying artillery.

The grenadiers overrun the battery. The other battery is forced to retreat.

While the Russians still have two fresh regiments on the road, the Swedish army have three regiments that have suffered no losses. To attempt to recapture the hill would prove too costly. The Russians withdraw.