Great Northern War
1700-1721

Introduction

By Cory Ring


I have long had an interest in the Great Northern War (GNW), but it wasn't until about a year and a half ago that I began to consider it as a viable wargaming period. It was at this time that time I met my Swedish friend, Gustav Bergman, on one of the Internet wargaming pages and began to discuss the prospects of gaming in the GNW. Gustav was able to research and unlock a lot of valuable information on the period, and was naturally able to provide a unique Swedish perspective on the war and Charles the XII.

In our excitement for the new project we began to collect books, rules, painting guides and figures for the new period. We thought at one time that we might like to assemble some sort of "Wargamer's Guide to the GNW", but eventually dropped that project due to lack of time and other "real world" responsibilities. The GNW project really never got of the ground however, as other, more accessible periods entered our wargaming lives. Gustav went in the direction of building DBA armies, while I found myself painting battalions of 15mm Napoleonic Austrian figures. We were able to able to assemble quite a collection of GNW material however, and thought that other gamers interested in the GNW might be interested in our efforts. We have also come to see that within the pages of MWAN we are not alone in our fascination with the GNW, as David Bonk's "Fanion" articles have shown. (And a few others too I believe)!

Hal has graciously given us the space to print several articles on the GNW within the pages of MWAN. Following this brief introduction, Gustav will provide a short historical account of the GNW, which will then be followed by a run down of figures, rules and accessories available for the period. Then finally, in order to bring all of this together, Gustav will provide a historical GNW scenario, "The Battle of Kliszow", which the gamer can perhaps build troops towards and eventually game. At any rate, anyone interested in gaming the GNW can hopefully use these articles as a starting point for the period.

Have fun and good gaming!

Great Northern War Section

Related Articles

Back to MWAN #85 Table of Contents
© Copyright 1997 Hal Thinglum

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com