Battle of Helsingborg - 1710

For our bank holiday game over the Coronation weekend we once again returned to the18th Century and for the first time V3 of Beneath the Lilly Banners. We opted for a Great North War battle with British sub'ing for the Danes.  

To quote a well known site - The Battle of Helsingborg was the last major engagement of the Great Northern War to take place on Swedish soil, and resulted in a decisive victory of a Swedish force of 14,000 men under the command of Magnus Stenbock against a Danish force of equal strength under the command of Jørgen Rantzau, ensuring that Denmark's final effort to regain the Scanian territories that it had lost to Sweden in 1658 failed. The battle was fought on March 10, 1710, in the province of Scania, just outside the city of Helsingborg, and directly on the Ringstorp heights just north-east of the city.

The battle field was pretty simple with a major hill anchoring the Danish left and the higher quality Swedish force needing to navigate some frozen ponds and streams to attack the Danes. The deployment was traditional with both sides having large cavalry wings and two ranks of infantry in the centre.  

The Swedish attack opened with a cavalry advance against the Danish left where a large hill was occupied by heavy artillery. The larger Swedish force enjoyed success and was able to push the Danes back towards the hill.  Eventually they would go on to capture the hill and one of the guns. 

Swedish advance on the Danish left

On the Danish right the Swedish advance was slower as they tried to manoeuvre into position before attacking. Things were more even here with the Danes still able to mount a defence for the full game.     

In the centre the Swedish foot toiled forwards through the frozen ponds. Once in range they exchanged a few volleys before charging into the Danes and routing them after a short struggle.  

Swedes storm the centre

The final few moves

Danes still holding their right

So the game completed after about 4 hours play with the Swedes claiming victory here as they did historically. V3 of BLB seems much better IMHO as the various mechanics are simpler and more consistent.