By Fred Manzo
For those of us a little vague on the particulars of the “Great Northern War,” Steve Kling of The Historical Game Company has helpfully put together a compendium of articles on the subject. This is a great companion piece for anyone getting his “Fields of Battle: Volume I – The Great Northern War game, which has a “double quad” of games on the subject. That’s right, it covers 8 battles of the Great Northern War: Narva, Kliszow, Fraustadt, Holowczyn, Lesnaya, Poltava, Helsingborg and Gadebusch.
In my opinion, any game that includes both Charles XII of Sweden, the boy genius of military leaders, AND Peter the Great can’t be all bad. So I’ll be working up an article on it shortly.
In the meantime here’s something from Amazon: “The Great Northern War was a profound event in European history and has had far too little attention in the English speaking world. This publication is intended to open up this history in a way previously not available in English. An international team of academics, authors, and other experts have written articles on the armies, battles, campaigns, events and major personalities of the war. Over 70 articles are included, all fully illustrated in color. As the authors are from a number of different countries, a unique international perspective is provided in the articles. Rich historic detail is included which will be of interest to both those new to and well acquainted with this history.”
Game Resources:
The Historical Game Company Home page
Fields of Battle: Volume I: The Great Northern War BGG page
Great Northern War Compendium Amazon page
Great Northern War Compendium Video Page
– Fred
