Houses

I'm really bad at making terrain. So when I saw 4ground's new houses I took a closer look. Nice ready painted houses sounded too good to be true. But after ordering a few from Warlords Games I can say that I love them.
So what is good? Good looking, cheap, light.
Bad? Takes an hour to build, smells bad at first.
Verdict? I love them!

The one in the middle and maybe the one on the left could be used for Swedish games. The one on the right is not correct for Sweden. Traditional Swedish houses in the middle of the country (where our campaign take place) are painted red. The paint is actually a by-product from the copper mines in Falun. You can se what they look like here.

And when I shoot the pictures my "assistant" (you can see paint in his face from when we earlier painted the walls in the living room) wanted to be in it too. The shirt is part of a traditional Swedish x-mas character called Pepparkaksgubbe. Why he got it now in the middle of the summer? Beats me, but he was happy.

The third part of Strängnäs Defenders

I10, Royal Södermanland's Regiment. Strängnäs is home to I10, an infantry regiment under the command of Bygg Per Bjällermalm. Even through the regiment have had problems with desertion since the outbreak of the civil war most of the soldiers are left with the regiment. Mostly they are 18 to 22 year olds from Strängnäs and they do actually believe that they defend the towns from enemies, like Dalmasar, that want to loot it and take their girlfriends. They have only had four months of basic training.

At this point in time bicycle troops belonged to the cavalry. This one is the first of a full bicycle squad. I converted a Warlord games British by cutting of his head and gave him a Swedish instead.

Part of the militia comes from the Fria Automobilsällskapet (Free Automobil Society). They are a volunteer group for helping the military with cars and motorcycles in war. Kind of Landstormen (Home Guard) but bikers!

What are they good for? Part 3 Fighting SA and SS

This is the third article about what you can do with your WW1 and Interwar Swedes. In part 1 we talked about fighting Russians, Germans and Finns 1918, part 2 was about VBCW and getting an excuse for fighting the English and now in part 3 we are going to fight the SA and SS in Germany 1935! If that doesn't sound fun then you don't know what fun is!

3 Peace keeping in Saar 1935 - Facing Evil!

Background: After World War One France took over Saar (in south-western Germany) and all their coal mines. In January 1935 the people in Saar voted if they wanted to belong to Germany, France or continue being ruled by the League of Nations (LN). Many anti-nazists had fled to Saar, because it was the only part of Germany not rule by Hitler, and they were for continued rule by LN. Hitler on the other hand saw it as a great propaganda opportunity and wanted the people to vote for merging with Germany. The situation before the voting was therefore tense. LN sent peace-keeping soldiers from United Kingdoms, Italy, Nederland and Sweden to help the local police.
At this point Sweden had no troops that were any good, so instead of sending a battalion they were forced to make a new battalion by recruited a lot of NCO, cadets and officers from all the other regiments. The battalion, known as the Saar- or sometimes Zarbattalion, had only 261 men organized in two companies and a battalion staff. 50 of the men were officers.
The battalion arrived in Saar the 22 of December and because of their inexperience they were placed in Merzig and Becking in northern Saar, which was considered to be quite. It was a correct assumption, the Swedish troops didn't need to deal with any unrest; instead they enjoyed their stay by playing a lot of table tennis with the locals. On the day of the voting some of the Swedes were out on patrol, while the others were ready if anything would happen. Nothing happened. They went home on 18 of February.

What-if: There is at least one possible scenario

There were irregular SA and SS troops in Saar, making trouble. What if they wanted to test the inexperienced Swedes? Then there could have been some skirmishing in the towns and hamlets between the soldiers from the NL-force and SA/SS militia. And what about the German police forces, would they just look on or take part in the skirmishing? Would anti-nazist take part in the fighting?
Then there could have been three-way fighting between LN (Sweden, UK, Italy or Nederland), anti-nazist militia and SA/SS militia.

Forces: 1500 from UK, 1300 Italians, 250 Dutch, 261 Swedes and unknown number from SA/SS.

 

Herman Berglund in front of the building where the Swedish soldiers were stationed

 

More of Strängnäs' defenders

Now when we have met the leaders of the military and militia forces in Strängnäs we will meet the troops. First the militia:




Strängnäs Militia (miniatures by Musketeer Miniatures)

Chief Designer Mjältbring (miniature by Musketeer Miniatures)

Strängnäs Militia. They were mostly recruited through the masonic lodge. Most of the members in the lodge did send their sons or servants instead of joining themself. The leader of the militia is Gunnar Bladmyr and his second in command is Olof Mjältbring, the chief designer at "Bladmyr Textilier". Mjältbring is very loyal to Gunnar Bladmyr, but not long ago they fought over the colour of the militia's uniform. Mjältbring thinks that black is threating and instead wanted a light blue uniform. Since Bladmyr is the boss he got it as he wanted it, but Mjältbring got the permission to make his uniform as he wanted it.

I'm back!

Now I'm back from holiday!
I have been in Turkey, on the south coast, with the family. Just sun, bath and no internet. Since my biggest interest is the Hellenistic time (from Alexander the Great and his dad to the late Seleukids and Baktro-Greeks) you would think that I have been looking at old ruin cities. No. I have not. Only bathing, eating and reading books about Alexander stuff. The book Alexander's Veterans is really really good. It's about the soldiers' perspective and  not the generals.

Anything new on the Swedish front? Well, when I got home I got 4 packages from different parts of the world! Among them are a lot of ww1 russians for gaming the Åland conflict and some interesting stuff from Warlord that will be converted into Swedes and BUFs (more about it later).

The stout defenders of Strängnäs

As I have told you about earlier our club is running a small campaign called A Moderate Swedish Conflict. It is about a civil war in Sweden during the early 30s.

Today I want to show you my gang: AfSS (Alliansen för Strängnäs Skydd), the proud defenders of Strängnäs, a middle sized town (middle size in a Swedish context, mind you) near the frontline.

M ayor Fjätterbom (miniature by Dan Binsack Memorial Fund)

The town's defense is led by Mayor Peter "Patte" Fjätterbom, who is also the Worshipful Master of the local masonic lodge. He has united three different factions in the town and believes that without him AfSS will fall apart and the communists will loot and destroy the city.

Since the outbreak of the civil war he has started to feel paranoid and have recruited a small bodyguard to protect him from would-be assassins. As most sees him as a dork that is more dangerous to himself than anyone else, he is in no danger of being assassinated.



Colonel Bjällermalm (miniature by Ådalen Miniatures)

The leaders of the AfSS factions:

Colonel Bygg Per Bjällermalm is the commander of I10, the local infantry regiment. When the civil war broke out he sided with the Whites and smashed a small uprising Eskilstuna, a town very close to Strängnäs. After this he was contacted by a family member (the family is from Dalarna, which is controlled by the Reds) and he started to doubt the righteousness of the Whites. This has led to the point that he has started to sympathize with the Reds and has started to share secret information with them. He tries his best not be put in a position where he openly must choose side.

Schoolmaster Fjätterbom (miniature by Ådalen Miniatures)

Schoolmaster Anders "Ankan" Fjätterbom is the commander of the Landstormen units (Home Guard) in Strängnäs. He is a younger brother of Mayor Peter Fjätterbom, which he idolizes. Before the war he was a teacher at Thomasgymnasiet, the local upper secondary school. He believes he is popular with both pupils and his privates, but because he threats his privates as if they were his pupils they despise him. Most of them are after all older than him and can’t stand his inept leadership. Anders popularity doesn’t improve by the fact that he has his ruler with him on the battlefield, so he can punish disobedient privates.

Senior Warden Bladmyr (miniature by Musketeer Miniatures)

Chairman Gunnar Bladmyr is the leader of the local militia, number two in the town's masonic lodge and the chairman of a local cloth factory. But that is not enough because he sees himself as the rightful leader of both the masonic lodge and the town itself. He has recently started to demand that people address him as "The Great Leader". He has, for his own expenses, let his factory make uniforms for his militia. The reason is that he believes it is very important that you look sharp when you defend your Country against the Communist Hordes. Since Colonel Bjällermalm has denied him military equipment and arms for his militia, he has instead bought it from his business partner in Manchester.

What are they then good for? Part 1: The Åland crisis

What are these Swedes good for? What conflicts did they fight?

Well, almost none actually.

So what good are they then?

You can game a lot of different what-if scenarios! Here are the first of many ideas:

1 The Åland Crisis 1918 - part of the Finnish Civil War and part of World War One.

Background: Åland is a archipelago in the middle of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. The population is Swedish speaking, but belongs to Finland since the war in 1808-09. During the Finnish civil war the islands had a Russian garrison of 2000 men. White Guards (Sydvästra Finlands Skyddskår/Nystadskåren) from Turku/Åbo decided to go over the frozen Baltic Sea to confront the Russians. Soon after they arrived, Red Guards, also from Turku/Åbo, arrived too. The two groups started shooting at each other. At this point the Swedish government sent a few warships to help mediate between the Finnish forces and protect the civilians. They all agreed on a peace agreement. A little later the Swedes sent over a battalion (from Göta Livgarde) to help the Finnish and Russian troops to evacuate the islands. At this point the Germans arrived with a reinforced battalion! They were here to help the Finnish government (white) in the civil war. Everyone went home (except for the Germans who went first to Finland and then to the west front). Crisis over.

What-if: There are at least two different scenarios

1 What had happened if the Finnish forces had continued to fight each other? Then there could have been fighting between an alliance of Sweden, White Finland and Germany against Red Finland and Russia.

2 There was at this point a strong opinion in Sweden in favour of making Åland a part of Sweden. The population on Åland was not considered, by Sweden, to be Swedish speaking Finns (like those on mainland Finland) but "real" Swedes. Finland, including Swedish speaking Finns, saw the islands as a part of Finland, and was very suspicious about the Swedish forces on Åland and why they were there. They suspected that they were there to “take back” the islands. So the second scenario is a Swedish invasion of Åland against White Finland supported by Germany and Red Finland supported by Russia. We could here have a nice threesome!

Forces: 1000 Germans, 2000 Russians, 200 Red Guards, 600 White Guards (Nystadskåren), a few hundreds civilians from Åland and 600 Swedes. Both the White and Red Guards were from Turku/Åbo, which by the way has many Swedish speaking Finns.

Nystadskåren was badly equipped; they had only 115 rifles and a machine gun when they left Nystad for Åland. The whole reason why they went to Åland was to try to take guns from the Russians.

The 200 Red Guards were only a vanguard; 400 more arrived after the peace agreement.

The Russian garrison had plenty of good and modern weapons, but their motivation is low, the war is over they just want to go home.

The German battalion is the Prussian Jägerbattalion no 14.

The Swedish forces are three infantry companies from Göta Livgarde and a company of coast gunners.

Swedish artillerymen and Russian cannons in Haraldsbyn, Åland

Prussian Jägerbattalion no 14, the German battalions at Åland

 

Anatoli's Game Room: A review of the range!

Have you seen the review on Anatoli's Game Room?
If you have not seen the miniatures and want to know some ones (that is Anatoli's) impression you can read it here: http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.se/2013/07/1910-39-swedish-28mm-infantry-review.html
And if you have any question don't hesitate to send me a mail: bjorn_floderus@yahoo.se

A real Colonel doesn't walk!

Dalaupproret has converted one of the officers from this range so he became mounted. Really nice work, you should take a look. A real colonel is of course not walking, he is looking over his men from the back of his noble steed.
http://dalauppror.blogspot.se/2013/07/mounted-swedish-officer-1932.html

I found his picture of, what I belive is, a monted officer in m/10 uniform.

Another game played and an important book

It has been quite here for the last few days. I have not forgotten the password again; just have been busy with work, family, work and a fantastic Pet Shop Boys concert (and after the concert I went clubbing, which is not recommended in my age).

Yesterday we played another game of our Moderate Swedish Conflict. We continued were we finished last time. We were something like 8 people trying to run a unit each, and Dalaupproret was the umpire. It was a very nice and pleasant game!

In the last game the White had a tank. It was a little to brave and drove to far away from the infantry. The tank got stuck in the strawberry patch and the driver was taken prisoner by the socialistic Young Eagles. The army brought forward reserves to take back the tank.

 

Here you can see the soldiers in front and the Young Eagles in the woods at the tank. What happened? Well that is a story I think Dalaupproret want to tell you at his blog. It is the story called: "Gruvettan and A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict #2".

But I have totally forgotten to show you this book! It is the most important book about the Swedish army 1910-1936. Simon Olsson "Svenska arméns uniformer 1875-2000". It lacks details about equipment, helmets and weapons. It is not so detailed about shoes and trousers, but it knows everything, and I mean exactly everything about the jackets, hats and insignia.
Highly recommended!