Last year i began a alt history about a victorious Swden during the great nordic war, before Poltava, but i lacked imagination to continue it. So i decided to post it all now for you to see.
Can i get comments?
Sweden victorious
July 9 1702: The great Nordic war has been running for 2 years and now the Swedish king Charles XII faces his polish enemy August the strong. Charles defeats the army August had assembled and most of the army August had before the battle was either dead or captured. August was among the dead
In August of 1702 Sweden and Poland signed a peacetreaty since the main force behind the war was dead. Charles managed to get Poland into an alliance against Russia since Poland wanted areas Russia had taken a few decades before
September 11 1702: Tsar Peter of Russia moved 25 000 men into Poland just to keep the Swedes busy while he continued reorganising the Russian army. Charles had 20,000 swedes spread out in Poland and took a gamble and moved 8000 swedes and 5000 poles toward the russian army, but instead of attacking a massed russian army they picked off detachements since the 25000 men was split into 2 corps consisting of about 13000 men each. Tsar Peter had choosen his two least capable commanders to lead the two armies, moreover, they didnt like eachoter.
So when Charles went to face one of the russian armies the other army didnt move wery fast to support the other. Count Larionov was the unlucky russian that faced Charles XII first.
October 1 1702: A rainy day Charles with 8000 battlehardent swedes, 5000 poles of warying quality faced 10,000 russian(3000 men were stragglers/deserters). Count Larionov didnt even realise that Charles was near him before the swedish cavallery charged his supplytrain in a hit and run action and before he could move his troops into a battleformation the allied army was upon him. The “battle” was more than a shooting range for the swedish troops. Count Larionov fled with 1500 men to the south to join up with General Menshelwik and his force. Charles lost 50 swedes and 250 poles.
October 10 1702: Somehow the russian force had managed to manouver to get near Warsaw but Charles had moved faster and that day a battle was joined between 15000 russians and 7500 swedes and 4200 poles. General Menshelwik saw that he had more troops, but untrained so he attacked the only way he could, head on. It was almost the same as the first battle, but here the polish troops were the target for the russians and it didnt take a long time for most of them to begin running away. But Charles cool as ever simply had the swedes stay their ground and have the cavallery attack. The russians were unexperienced and panicked and then the swedish infantry attacked. Count Larionov was captured by the swedes as were 3000 russians. Another 4000 russians were killed or wounded. The remaining 8000 men were broken and withdraw back towards Russia.
During the last months of 1702 and begining of 1703 Charles sent for more swedish troops and continued to train polish troops to be reliable allies for taking care of the last enemy that war Russia. General Lewenhaput was to march from Riga with 11,000 men towards Russia, a force was to move from Finland into the swedish Ingemarland and then towards Novgorod under the command of General Stenbock with 10,000 men. Charles wanted to have as many men as possible marching under him towards Moscoow for the kill and in december he had quite a big swedish army assembled outside Warsaw, around 25,000 infantry and 10,000 men cavallery that was to march with him. Another 11,000 swedes were going to stay behind in Poland. Charles was also hoping to recruit more Poles than the 5000 men infantry and 3000 men cavallery asembled.
Tsar Peter wasnt sitting idly by when this happened, but trained and reorganised the russian army, at Narva it had been more or less a armed mob. Now it was still better, but would it be enough to face the swedish troops in open battle. He pressganged pesants into the army and in January 1703 he had assembled 2 main armies. One near Novgorod led by general Menshelwik (Tsar Peter rather had him leading a army than killing him for loosing a battle) consisting of 40,000 men and one near Moscow that he was going to lead consisting of 100,000 men.
The Novgord army was to enter the swedish areas of Ingermanland and Livland and capture them while Peter defeated Charles. A smaller russian army consisting of 22,000 lead by general Sjeremetev men had in the fall 1702 taken the fortress of Noteborg, but loosing 6000 men in the process and had to stay in the area to avoid any swedish recapture. Peter ordered that the Novgorodarmy was to reinforce Sjeremetev since Menshelwik had fallen off a horse and died.
Because of the relativly mild winter Charles decided to move earlier than expected and April 1 1703 he began marching his army towards Russia. 35,000 swedes and 10000 poles marched towards bringing an end to the war. He hoped that Stenbock would be able to draw some attention to himself while he marched from Helsingfors with his 12,000 men towards Novogorod.
Charles decided to move the long route towards Moscow so he didnt have to march through the worst terrain. Tsar Peters plan was to stop Charles before he got to Moscow, but didnt know were.
Up in Finland Stenbock had gotten the order to move, but unlike Poland Finland was still covered in snow and Stenbock had gotten reports that around 55,000 russians were waiting for him around the ruins of Noteborg. Stenbock sent messages to Lewenhaput that he would begin marching in May and Lewenhaput agreed that timing would be crucial for them to be able to join up and defeat Sjeremetv.
When Tsar Peter had heard that Charles was on the way he began marching his 100,000 strong army south from Moscow. He had high hopes that he had enough men to finally crush the swedes and become the new nordic superpower.
As the main armies moved towards eachother the main events happened up north. The russian army outside Noteborg moved towards Dorpat with 40,000 men and 10,000 moved towards Viborg to keep the finnish defenders busy. In early May Sjeremetev reached Dorpat and began a siege. Lewenhaupt had stationed his troops outside Riga and had began moving north already and brought 12,000 men with him. Sjeremetev´s spies soon told him that Lewenhaupt was coming and Sjeremetev left 10,000 men entrenched outside Dorpat while he moved the remaining 30,000 to face Lewenhaupt
The armies met at Valmiera in the northern part of Livonia may 18th. Lewenhaupt had put his troops in a defensive mode and Sjeremetev had to attack him. The battle lasted all day and when it was over Lewenhaupt had lost 1100 men total and Sjeremetev around 10,000 men. Sjeremetev didnt want to admit defeat and some say he was going to attack himself the next day if Lewenhaupt hadnt surprised him and struck first. At the first light the swedes struck the russians that were still reorganising. In the chaos Sjeremetev was wounded and forced to leave the field. With noone to lead them the russians wery easy prey and the army disintegrated. 2400 men and Sjeremetev was able to reach the troops outside Dorpat. 6000 men were captured, 2000 men deserted and the rest was killed. The swedes lost 4000 men over the course of the two days. Lewenhaupt had saved the swedish possessions but his army was almost cut in half.
Stenbock had during this time struck against Noteborg. A few miles south of Viborg his army came face to face with the russian army. The swedes had better organisation and tactics and won the day loosing 1100 men to 7000 men on the russian side.
The main army continued its march towards Russia and the route they took had good roads and they could marsch fast. The russian tried schorched earth tactics during the first month, but seeing that the swedish troops moved faster than they burned they ended this, especially when they heard that Charles ordered that suffering pesants should be helped by the swedish own rations. These rumors made Charles popular among the russian pessants and tsar Peter less Popular and the swedes didnt face much resistance from farmers, but the russians hade trouble down in Ukraine. In late June Charles arrived outside Vilno were he decided to rest his troops for a while before moving to his next target, Minsk. Tsar Peter and his army was outside Vitebsk when Charles reached Vilno and heard rumors that Charles wanted Minsk. Peter began moving his troops towards Minsk.
Charles got news about Peters actions soon and moved his troops towards Minsk. August 1st both armies reached Minsk from different directions, but no action took place on that day. For the next days both sides skirmished and looked for weak spots on the other side. Charles was eager for battle, but Peter wanted to buy time for his entire army to reach the field. August 4th the Russian army counted 66,000 men and the swedish/polish army counted 42,000 men. Tsar Peter struck that day. Tsar Peter had 15,000 men attack the polish camp and the 9,500 poles guarding the left wing.
The poles broke and retreated and Peter knew that victory was in sight and the 15,000 men attacking the poles forgott all about tactics as they stormed after the poles. Peter sent another 5,000 men to aid them and then moved 20,000 men to the now open gap in the swedish lines. But it was not to be. The poles werent panicked,it was a trap. As the russians rushed after the poles into the woods the sound hooves were heard and the swedish cavalery showed up cuting the russians down like sheep. And the reinforcements Peter sent to the open line was caught in a storm of gunfire from the massed allied cannons. In two hours Russia lost 8000 men dead or wounded and 4000 captured. The allied army lost 3200 men, most poles. Charles now moved his troops and four hours later Tsar Peter had enough. He began the day with 66,000 men, he ended it with 20,000 man capable of fighting, 6000 men wounded and the rest captured or killed. Charles had lost 4000 poles, 2000 swedes and 8 guns, but captured 20.
Tsar Peter moved north again towards Vitebsk hoping to gather his remaining forces, but Charles was quicker and sent the cavalery after him and a week later Tsar Peter was killed in battle as the last of his army disintegrated under constant swedish attacks.
Does this sound plausible and not ASBish?