The battle of Nyenschantz 1656

last Thursday (April 25th) I played with my friend Josh another scenario for Tercios. I really enjoy that game.

Pike and shot is one of my favorite time periods and tercios is simple enough to be enjoyable and well thought enough to provide a credible experience on field vis a vis the time period, it really is a lot of fun to play.

I put together a scenario for us to play based on the Nyenschantz battle of 1656, part of the Russo-Swedish war of 1656-58 in present day St. Petersburg, In what was then called Swedish Ingria.

It was very difficult to find the actual order of battle, but with a little research I found at least some of commanders that were likely to have been there (besides Potemkin which was definitely at the battle) and by the descriptions of the battle the main battalions involved. 

so for our tercios game I designed the armies  as follows:

Tsardom of Russia:

CinC Pyotr Potemkin

Infantry

Officer Khovanski, 1st Inf. Battalion, 2nd Inf Battalion, 4th Streltsi 

Cavalry

Officer Sheremetev, 3rd. Comp. Dragon Elite, 1st Reg Boyar, 2nd Reg. Boyar

Kingdom of Sweden

CinC: Horn

Relieving party, Cavalry

Officer: Lundqvist

1st. Cuirassier, 2nd. Cuirassier, 3rd. Cuirassier

Garrison force

Officer: Grundel , Battalion Nyen Inf. Veteran, Battalion Riga Inf. Veteran

The battle started with The swedish cavalry of table an coming in on turn 1. The Russians only could score points by attacking the fort, and the Swedish they got points by destroying Russian Units.

The game lasted 5 Turns, the game's card drive system is really good as the cards you choose may not be the right orders by the time the units get to be activated and creates enough uncertainty to make strategy and planning very important in the game.

The Russians outmaneuvered the Swedish cavalry and the Swedish infantry did a poo job in trying to dispatch the Russian pike and shot units, so the streltsi and the dragoons were able to assault the fort, even if the Swedes were able to destroy the Russian artillery battery in turn 2.

In the End it was a victory for the Russians, but it was a great time. Looking forward to playing again Tercios......