Roos at Poltava

Semi-historical scenario

Swedes vs. Russians

1 player

This is a small one-player scenario. It is mainly intended to give players experience in manoeuvring while also incorporating redoubt assaults. It is loosely based on the  events at the initial stages of the battle of Poltava, where a column under command of Roos didn’t get through the redoubt line together with the rest of the army.

The scenario needs further testing to tune victory conditions etc, so please send comments.

Objective

The main objective (for you – playing Roos) is to capture as many redoubts as possible and then to exit your battalions off the table edge on the far side, in as as short time as possible. (Rehnschiöld, the army commander, would probably put it slightly different, but he’s not here…)   

Forces at your disposal

You are Roos, Ld 3 and In 2. You have 6 battalions of Swedish infantry under your command. The battalions start deployed in a column of lines, with the front unit approximately 200 paces from redoubt 1.

Enemy Forces

Each Redoubt is manned by a Russian line battalion (green). Redoubt 3 and 4 also contain a light artillery battery (trained) each.

Game End

The game ends when no non-fleeing Swedish units are still on the table.

Wing break

Do not make any Wing Break rolls for either side during this scenario.

Victory conditions

Calculate the number of turns that the game took. Subtract the number of turns from 25 This is the base number of victory points.
Subtract 4 points for each battalion that did not make it to the exit edge.
Add 3 points for each redoubt taken, + 2 additional point if the redoubt contained an artillery battery.

0-7 points is a marginal failure
Less than 0 points is a disaster
8-15 points is a minor success
16-24 points is a major success
25 or more points is a major triumph.

Visibility

The Game starts with normal weather and light action. Thus the maximum visibility range at start is 800 paces.

Command

You are in command on turn one and two, thereafter Rehnschiöld has moved out of command range. So from turn 3 you’re on your own.

  The "easy" version,

Use the normal rules for command. This will make it rather easy to get through the redoubt line, although if you try to capture redoubts along the way you’ll run into some command problems.

  The tough version,

Use the “Commander in chief” optional rule. This will make getting to the other side a lot more difficult and challenging.

Balancing the scenario

If you want to make it a bit easier you can replace the two lead battalions with guard units.

If you want to make the game even more challenging you can add a few more batteries to the units defending the redoubts – e.g. a LA battery in redoubt 2 and a MA battery each in redoubt 6, 8 and 10.  

If you want to make it really difficult, try using e.g. Imperials vs French instead of Swedes vs. Russians. (E.g. a single grenadier battalions plus 5 Line battalions, vs trained LI). This would certainly make capturing redoubts very difficult.