I don't know if many of you have discovered my design notes text documents, buried within my Scenario folders, if not here are the Narva Design Notes;
I used the Great Northern War Compendium, Lars Hoglund's two volumes on the GNW and Tacitus.nu's website as the basis for this scenario.
1) I have chosen to ignore the Russian Infantry's Regimental Guns in this battle. They fought so ineffectively I did not want to give them this bonus.
2) The Swedish Drabant Cavalry Regiment does not have flags. This may seem strange, but there are no historical references to
a flag at all and you would think that as a guard unit there would be some record as every other detail of their uniform has been recorded. The Swedish Livgardet grenadier unit also does not have flags.
3) I have reduced all infantry units (except Swedes) using less sophisticated firing techniques to 80% Musket. As the Swedes have the Salvo capability, they are already reduced at short range and if I reduce their Salvo percentage that would affect their impact capability. So I withdrawn their Regimental gun capability instead, although I have kept the LG graphic.
4) Tacitus.nu states that there were 6 battalions of the Livgardet at the battle, and he seems to be very knowledgeable and reliable. But this is strange as other sources state that there were only 3 or 4 battlions of the Livgardet at that time. I do not know from what source Tacitus.nu gets this info, maybe these 6 battalions are temporary formations?
5) Both the Russian and Swedish armies were still wearing old style uniforms at this stage in the war, and neither army was yet wearing the tricorne. The Swedish Livgardet grenadiers wore hats, not mitre caps.
6) I have used a reduced visibility script to simulate the effects of the blizzard that was blowing at the time of the battle (and the later inevitable gunsmoke).
7) The 64 units per side limit is a slight problem for this scenario. I have had to limit the size of the battlefield to exclude Narva fortress and the Russian troops that were guarding against sorties from it. Also I could not represent the right wing Russian cavalry, although they seem to have fled immediately and took no part in the battle.
I have given bombs and swordsmen capability to the Swedish Livgardet grenadiers, and to a percentage of each Swedish battalion that had grenadier platoons leading the assault.9) Also due to the reduced visibilty I have reduced the range of muskets to 2 squares.
10) I have used Adebar's Winter Snow Terrain tiles for this scenario.
11) Be careful with using many of the Swedish battalions, they are very small and cannot take many casualties before breaking.
13) This scenario uses the RBS socket bayonet mod, which also allows Swedish salvo infantry to charge cavalry.
14) I have given these early war Swedish infantry an increased movement rate, equivalent to Determined Foot.
15) I did not want the Russian Dragoons evading charges, as they are supposed to be defending the earthworks, so I have made them Medium Foot (instead of dragoons). They still move at the normal dragoon rate.
16) Difficulty Rating; Hard. The original battle was a very easy victory for the Swedes, despite the vast numerical superiority of the Russian army and the earthworks they were defending. Obviously that would not make for an exciting scenario. Luckily, despite downgrading most of the Russian units to Untrained (which is a lot worse than Raw) and giving them Light Fortifications instead of Medium, they are still a tough nut to crack.
17) Sideicons are as follows;
Swedish; King Charles XII, commanded the Swedish army at the battle.
Russian; Peter I, Tsar of Russia, he had been in command of the army at Narva, but left and handed command to Marshal Du Croy before the battle. I have been unable to find a portrait of Du Croy
Uniforms and flags; I have given all units their historical uniforms and flags where possible.
Cheers!
Paul
) and I'm happy to see that there's still new content in the making for my favourite game; it's a good diversion for me ATM.
