From KristoferD: Dragooned Musketeers and a Distraction (68 points)

I hope 2026 is already turning out great for all of you! I've had a hectic few days since the last update but still managed to put something together thanks to a few days off from work. I even managed to squeeze in a game yesterday, but more about that later. First I present to you a medium unit of dragooned musketeers for By Fire and Sword by Wargamer Poland.

What's a dragooned musketeer, you say? Well, according to the By Fire and Sword Armies (I) book Sweden struggled to provide enough dragoons to the cavalry dominated fighting in Poland during the Deluge (or Charles X Gustavus's Polish war as it's called in Sweden). One solution was to provide horses to musketeers drawn from regiments of foot so they could keep up with the cavalry. Essentially dragoons in all but name. Given the fact that Sweden never really was a strong cavalry nation one can imagine the poor beasts they would have used as mounts. I assume any decent horses captured were sent to the actual cavalry, but that is admittedly idle speculation.

In any case, dragooned musketeers are potentially a very useful unit in By Fire and Sword. They have the aptly named special rule Proxy Dragoons that lets them move like cavalry during their first activation in a game. They also have rules for Salvo and Countermarch, the latter of which essentially allows them to fire by intro-/extroduction i.e. 17th century drill for moving forward or backwards while firing. This makes them a nice, flexible unit that can put out a lot of fire power, but one that you definitely don't want to have caught unprepared in the open by cavalry.

I painted most of the men in red coats (Army Painter Pure Red mixed with a little black) and blue trousers (AP Wolf Grey). It felt a bit weird to paint Swedes in red coats, but that was actually regulation for several regiments back then. It's only during the reforms by Charles XI that we get the bluecoat Swedish army that would remain well into the 19th century. Red coats and blue trousers will work for both the Älvsborg and Jönköping regiments during the Deluge. I have not researched when, where, or even whether they partook in the Polish campaigns though. Also, the banner is fictional. It looks like the chaps at Wargamer took the crossed bolts of the coat of arms of Dalarna and put it on a red field. I'm not bothered at all, given that a lot of the records from this era most certainly did not have us 21st century wargamers in mind. A certain level of artistic license is simply necessary. I guess it's technically possible that records pertaining to the dress and colours of the army of this era was lost when the Royal Palace in Stockholm burnt down in 1697, but it's very unlikely even those would have satisfied the modern button counter in any case.

I mentioned above that I managed to play a game yesterday, and that is where my experience of musketeers was refreshed quite brutally. Obviously, my Swedish force is not ready for action yet so I brought my Poles and was reminded why one should never attempt to charge prepared infantry frontally. To be honest I also tried the flank of another unit, but they had pikes and managed to reform into a defensive formation with predictable result. However, I didn't have a commander for the Polish (my old one is on the wrong base for a CinC these days). So I painted up a new one. The commander is Khurasan Miniatures' Sobieski himself with a supporting standard bearer by the same manufacturer. I mounted them on Wargamer horses.

The flag is another fictional one by Wargamer. The musician is also by Wargamer as is the bloke waving his musket about, the partisan commander I believe.

I struggled to get a good angle on these, mostly due to the big flag dominating the field of view.

Tallying up the points for this week we're at:
27 + 1 = 28 15mm foot @2 pts = 56 pts
3 15mm mounted @4 pts = 12 pts
For a total of 68 points.

I'm almost halfways to a playable Swedish force at the smaller Skirmish level now. But plenty more to do as we're aiming for next level (known as task force in BFaS) and some swappable options. I hope you found something interesting in the update and look forward to bringing you more.

Wow Kristofer, these do look awesome! Not only is the paintjob fantastic, the basing is top notch too! I can't wait to see how your finished Swedish force will look like, hope to see more from you next week!

Cheers Sander