[ETW AAR] För Kung och Fosterland! (Swedish AAR)

[Biggles]

Hi folks. My first AAR, please be gentle with me, I'll do my best to make it interesting.

Playing M/E. Hehehe, yeah, I'm pretty bad at this game (especially battles) so I'll do the easy way out. Hopefully it'll be interesting anyway. Also remember, english is my second language, might be some errors here and there.

So it begins...


PART 1. (as in one).

Karl XII was king with ideas and dreams that often included his own heroic and iconic victory against any and all that stood up against him. (Being a king, anyone who did stand up against him were often shuffled away on his orders).

This story starts in the year 1700. The beginning of a new century! New ideas are being mixed with old ones. New Empires will rise and old ones will fall. Where will Sweden be placed in the world order?

Sweden is, at the moment, not that much to look on. Forests, trees (sometimes bundled together to form forests) a town here and there and (strangely enough) huge flag carrying giants.

"Advisor!" Karl called out.
"Yessh m'lord?"
"What was that?"
"Me talking, m'lord..."
"Right...uh...Question: can we go to war?"
"Well why not indeed, m'lord? We have nothing to lose in this cold country."
"I agree, but I meant more like...can we go to war and win, in the current day?"
"Oh, no, m'lord, that would be hard. Our troopssh (the onessh we have) are poorly equipped, and sshtretched out over the baltic."
"Why are you talking like that?"
"Becaussh I like it, makessh me sshound sshmart, yessh?"
"No."
"Bummer..."
"Anyway, send word to our schoolars, make them invent some clever stuff to our boys!"
"Yessh m'lord!"
"Shut it, and get it done!"


"Sagt och gjort!" (swedish). "They're developing something neat they call "plug bayonets".
"Will it kill people?"
"Used correctly, yes..."
"And used wrong?"
"It will kill people. But maybe not the ones that is needed killing."
"I see...well I guess we have to wait for them thinking that one out properly. Meanwhile, I say we invest in the farms and roads of the country."
"Yessh m'lord!"
"..."


To be continued...

[tuore]

Interesting. Keep it up!

[Biggles]

Thank you! I will.

[Biggles]

PART 2. (right after 1, see?)

Time went on, and this brought changes to the world, including Sweden. Schoolars at Uppsala soon discovered that the pointy side of the so called "plug bayonet" was to be pointed in the opposite direction of the carrier. But it was still a hard nut to crack, since the man carrying the bayonet also had to carry a heavy rifle. Surely he couldn't carry both at the same time?

As time went on, someone suggested that they'd just "put the ruddy thing in the barrel of the rifle and sees what happen". So they did, and discovered that they now could use the rifle to poke the bayonet into a body (this was tested with the help of the now deceased Pehr Kalm). This seemed perfect, a rifle that could not only shoot, but also poke schoolars (and presumably other things) to death! But someone asked if they'd be able to use the firing mechanism while having the bayonet attached to the rifle. Further testing was required. The breakthrough came when (now deceased) Sten Carl Bielke pushed the trigger while the rifle still had the bayonet attached. The result was a blast-litterally. Still, the schoolars att Uppsala was happy with their work, and looked forward to future assignments from the King. So did the gravediggers.

More to come...

[uzi716]

Finally! A Swedish AAR, I would've made one myself but, I am too lazy and my computer sucks

Keep it up

[Biggles]

PART 3. (Tee hee hee...)

But it was not only in Sweden that things were happening. Europe was soon divided into two groups, the ones who was waging war and the ones who was too crummy to wage war. Religion had a great influence, and it was often the very basis of conflicts. Karl XII soon got word of a series of wars commencing through the continent.


"So...is this important to me?"
"Not really, m'lord."
"Oh well, it will be interesting to see what will come of it. Anything else?"
"Well..."

"Aha! Now this is interesting! The prussians are the right stuff, protestants and all. The Poles on the other hand..."
"Maybe an alliance with prussia will strengthen our position? Together we can wage war against the catholics?"
"Excellent idea! What am I paying you? Never mind, whatever it is, your salary is now doubled!"
"Thank you m'lord, it's still the same amount though..."
"Never mind that, see to it that we get this alliance thingy sorted!"
"Yes m'lord!"

"Bugger...they weren't interested."
"Oh well, we'll get to them someday. Any other news?"

"Even better! That's excellent! Poland will be busy elsewhere, and won't expect an attack from us!"
"That...is actually true m'lord, I'm impressed by your logic."
"Ofcourse you are, I am the smartest man on the planet, aren't I?"
"Well it's more to it than that...if I don't look impressed you'll throw me to the vulchers."
"True that, true that...But enough of this! Gather the strongest army possible, give them some of those "plug bayonets", we are going to war!"
"Yes m'lord! Where shall we strike first?"
"At the very place the poles will never expect us to strike...they will never now what'll hit them. Forward men! We're marching to Norway!"
".....Norway, m'lord?"
"Yes?"
"Eh....Norway is held by the danes..."
"Exactly! That's what so brilliant about it! The poles will never expect that!"
"No...but we will actually not attack the poles either..."
"Hey, I am King, yes? You obey me, yes?"
"Yes..."
"Then Norway it is! Framåt!"

[Biggles]

PART 4. (Nothing else to add...oh wait...)

Well the king has made his decision, so there was nothing to it than to march towards Norway, to take the poles by surprise. You might say it worked in some sense, since the poles never even noticed this brilliant tactical move, they were busy kicking around their enemies elsewhere. The danes, at the time the owners of Norway, weren't too impressed of this strategy though.

-Hey hey hey....what's this? Russia?
-Our great (as in huge) neighbour in the east.
-So...we're at war with them too now?
-So it would seem.
-Ah well, we'll get to them later...First we must deal with Poland.
-Denmark...as it is them we're at war with now.
-We're not at war with Poland yet?
-No...not really.
-Hm...I guess that's good, might be difficult to fight the danes, poles and russians at the same time. Oh well, time to take this worthless (no offense norweigans, just a joke) piece of land!

-Demand them to surrender!

-They won't...
-So......we fight now I guess?
-That or wait...
-Wait is dull...we fight!

A warm sunny day, the first major battle of the Swedish-Danish War commenced with the swedish forces marching towards the danish combatants.
Uppsalas Första Fotregemente marches in the sunlight.

The rest of the army. In the foreground, Linköpings Första Fotregemente.

A general overview of the battlefield. The danish forces remained near and around the village.

Soldiers from Uppsala opens fire on mounted danish troops.

A charge from the danish horsemen, brave, and resulted in surprisingly high losses for the swedes. Alas, it was not enough to win the day.

The men from Uppsala had to improvise their defence, when there was no time to put on their bayonets, and no real method for fighting cavalry had been a part of their training. But their numbers would eventually make them victorious.

Overall situation abit later. Danish troops moved out into the open, and were fired upon by swedish regiments (Linköping, Närke and Göteborg).


The end result was a swedish victory, and Norway was now a part of Sweden. But some issues arose from this battle that would need the king's attention...

(what's the deal with having a pop up block my ability to post pictures? Anytime I pressed the image button I got a link to some freeware internet game instead, bloody annoying!)

[Carl von Döbeln]

Very nice pics

[Biggles]

Very nice pics

Thank you very much!

[BubbleBoy]

Nice AAR, I think I'll follow this one

[Biggles]

PART....5
So the battle of Norway was over.


"Looks good, not some bad stats there...but what is that?"
"What, m'lord?"
"That."
"Oooooh that, just something added to make the white more interesting."
"Well I don't like it, don't do it again."
"Fine..."
"And how the hell did we kill 683 danes when there were only 680?"
"Good aiming?"
"Fair enough...Now you mentioned some sort of problem?"
"Yes m'lord. Our troops at the frontline said that while we won a clear victory, it wasn't without some issues."
"What kind of issues?"
"Well for one thing, those plug bayonets they used seemed to be rather unpractical. The soldiers also said that for some unknown reason, they couldn't simply take them out of the barrel once it was there, so they couldn't shoot anything anymore."
"Well that's.....odd....and annoying. What can we do about it?"
"Try to invent a new bayonet that doesn't have to be showed into the barrel of the rifle?"
"Meh, it works for me...what else?"
"Well, we don't have any real anti-cavalry strategy yet, and we got a higher number of death from the danish cavalry than the danish infantry."
"Hum...well what can we do about that?"
"Other countries apparently make use of a sort of "Square formation" tactic."
"Sounds rather stupid, but if it works for them...okay, send word to those Uppsala chaps to get it done!"
"Yes m'lord!"
"Also, send word to our troops, they are to march towards Köpenhamn, the danish capital!"
"Yes, m'lord!"

"They're on the march, m'lord!"


(was gonna be longer, but my internet started to act strangely, didn't wanna re-write the ruddy thing...)

[Harðurāðaz]

Me love

[Biggles]

PART 6.

"Mwahahaha, our soldiers are marching towards the danish capital. I think this would be time to put on my galoshes of doooooom....."
"M'lord, we just recieved word! One of your generals is dead!"
"Say what?!"

"Who was the guy, anyway?"
"Took care of our provinces in the east, m'lord."
"Hm...it sure looks suspicious this picture here...with that cloaked bloke and all...guess we should all be careful eh?"
"Think so, m'lord. Probably a russian assassin behind this."
"Meh, we'll deal with them..."
...
"M'lord, our troops has reached Köpenhamn, they're besieging it as we speak!"
"Wonderful!"

"Also, a new nation has claimed it's independence!"

"The United States, eh?" How many "states do they got?"
"One, m'lord..."
"Well done US....ah hell, let them have some fun, as long as they stay out of european affairs we have no reason to curse them..."
...
"We just got word that Köpenhamn has fallen to out troops!"
"Yeeee-haaaaa!"
"Eh?"

"Looks good, looks good...."
"What now, m'lord?"
"Let me think..."
"While you think, you might want to take a look at this:

"Savoy? Where is that?"
"No idea really..."
"Then why would I care?!"
"Well...never mind, here is something better..."

"Hum...Prussia...I really don't know...we're still at war with Russia...I say we move our army eastwards. We'll get to the prussians later on..."
"And Austria?"
"Well what about them? Big damn country, strong armies etc. I don't wanna pick a fight with them just now. Give order to our men in Denmark, board the ships, they're heading eastwards!"
"Yes m'lord! Nice boots by the way."
"Thank you^^"

[BubbleBoy]

still really good aar, + rep!

[Biggles]

PART 6.5

While the soldiers boarded their ships and got themselves ready for new adventures, news reached them that the schoolars from Uppsala has learned the basis of a new tactic that would certainly help the infantry in their skirmishes against horsemen. The Square formation was now taught to each and every soldier in the swedish army.

The progress for learning this new tactic hadn't been all easy. The schoolars had little or none experience of the common calvalry charge, and therefor decided it'd be prudent to put themselves to the test, to see what the soldiers at the frontline need to do to survive. They started of in the normal regiment formation, and hired a group of officers on leave to show them how a real proper cavalry charge would look like. The officers knew their stuff, and soon almost every schoolar att Uppsala was unable to continue their research; death usually is a great object for completing an assignment (still not often used as an excuse by schoolchildren, who for some reason find it more plausible that their dogs ate their homework).
The amount of healthy schoolars now sank to 5%. This was a problem, but one easily solved.
They sent letters to schools around the country and asked for assistance, and soon Uppsala was filled with fresh young men that would help in the research. They soon learned the basis (if you see a man on a horse that's rushing towards you, you'd better have a pointy stick to defend yourself) and after a year or two, the schoolars at Uppsala could proudly present the square formation, now the fear and death for any enemy cavalry!

The gravediggers at Uppsala could also proudly present a whole new graveyard, where most subjects passed away almost at the same time, which they claimed "must be some kind of a record".

[Biggles]

PART 7.

Sweden became stronger and bigger, still some of it's new inhabitants weren't too happy...

"Ah, they'll get by. Is there anything we can do besides fighting, by the way?"
"Yes m'lord."
"What?"
"Trading."
"Ah yes, I remember that. Well why not? Why not indeed? Let's see if we can fix some new trading partners..."

It didn't take long before the swedes found some nations willing to trade goods and money.



And finally, the newly formed United States.

"How's it going for them internationally?"
"Let us see..."

"Wow...it looks like they're hated by the entire world..."
"Why don't we hate them, m'lord?"
"We're swedes, we simply don't care..."
"Right."

New wars were also started, and it looked like Europe would be a place of war and despair for many years.


An intelligence report brought some surprising news. It looked like the minor state Courland had managed to force the prussians out of Eastern Prussia.

"Aha! Courland are weak(ish), start the landings, we shall finish them before we take on Poland and Russia!"
"It shall be done, m'lord."

[ActaNonVerba]

Nice AAR sir!

i'll be following this one!

[Biggles]

PART 8. (Let's go on a date! Tee he hee....)

It didn't take long before the swedish troops had overcome the soldiers of Courland. Eastern Prussia was now a part of the Swedish Empire.

It was decided that marching to their capital would be to risky, with expected resistance from militia on the way. So again, the soldiers boarded the fleet and it sailed northwards, towards swedish controlled Riga, which was not far from the border.

It was noted that the forces of Courland was of a significant scale, and the swedish army was strengthened with soldiers from nearby provinces.

The swedes marched over the border and commenced the siege. After a year, the army of Courland decided to sally out to break the enemies back. The swedes expected an easy victory...

[Biggles]

PART 8.5: The Battle of Courland.

The battle would be harder than the swedes thought. They had a greater number of men and artillery pieces, but the soldiers of Courland were stiffer than expected.

Swedish artillery firing upon the advancing enemy.

The battlefield at the time of the battle. The forces of Courland can be spotted at the left side of the picture, in the distance.

Courland Militia marching, or running, towards the swedish lines.

Courland cavalry charge. This charge was a huge defeat for Courland: they routed before they could do any damage, due to catastrophical losses from swedish artillery.

Courland line infantry clash with swedish. Due to heavy pressure on the right flank, huge losses were taken by both sides. Linköpings Första Fotregemente, sent there to provide support to the less capable militia, were utterly slaughtered, with only 5 men of 160 surviving the battle.

Soldiers of Courland firing in the woods on the right flank. They fought well, but were eventually overwhelmed by the discipline and numbers of the swedish army. The day ended with a swedish victory, but not without a cost, when most notably Linköpings regiment were broken and routed, leaving few survivors. The remaining soldiers of the regiment were honorably discharged from the army.

[Jaketh]

following this, its good stuff