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Book Review: Charles XII's Karoliners Volume 2 The Swedish Cavalry of the GNW

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I was delighted to see Helion's second volume on the Karoliner by Sergey Shamenkov drop through the door yesterday. It follows the familiar style and weighs in at 165 pages. The book is most definitely a uniform guide and not a history of the cavalry or its exploits. Its sections deal with organization, recruitment, tactics, uniforms of troopers, NCOs and officers of Horse, Dragoons and the Drabant corps, musicians, musical instruments and horse furniture. 

From a wargaming perspective it gives just the granular level of detail required to avoid sleepless nights worrying about the FB troll backlash regarding whether the horse furniture on your wee models has been painted the right colour. I avoid those kinds of discussion like the plague. The most vociferous commentators are those who 'read it in a book' and never paint anything themselves, but talk with the authority of a PhD gained after seven years research in the bowels of  The Hermitage. The victims of such troll-batter should know better as placing anything in the public domain is likely to turn into a re-run of the stoning scene in Life of Brian. 

To date, I have not seen a more thorough study of the much admired Swedish cavalry of the period. The book has 36 colour plates painted by the author. What may surprise some readers is the variation in uniform not just evolving through the war but used concurrently at any given time between 1700 and 1721. Troopers and officers are shown in collared and collarless coats, double breasted coats and other over garments. 

A noticeable trend in the illos is the use of armour. All ranks are shown wearing back and breastplates, in fact one third of the illustrations of combatant ranks have the subjects in armour. This may have some folks reaching for other source material to either validate or challenge. The prevailing trend (and I am definitely NOT saying that trend is correct) is to portray the Swedish cavalry without armour. Let's see who comes scuttling out to throw rocks at the breastplates! Mr Shamenkov's reference list is to my mind at least, rock solid. I certainly wouldn't go reaching for a lightweight Osprey to counter argue any points contained in this volume.

 Following a train of thought which I often find myself meandering down, Mr Shamenkov has one dragoon wearing a captured Saxon infantryman's red coat! I definitely subscribe to the view that in days when wages and supply were aspirational and not a given, your average man would pick up whatever would feed him, arm him or keep him warm regardless of where it was sourced. Well done Sergey!

The illos are engaging. The men are definitely no oil paintings! Lots of weathered noses, ice blasted faces, sunken countenances and pink and puffy officer types. Moustaches seem to be really in vogue too.

I enthusiastically recommend this book as it provides plenty of scope for a variety of activities associated with our hobby - it offers excellent inspiration, it provides lots of painting and conversion options, it will educate and, should entice more people toward the Great Northern War which is a good thing. It will stimulate discussion, debate and no doubt the production of handbags at dawn by the usual suspects.

Some further comments, I was heartened to see the reference list. Not a single English language author on there. Most names are Swedish, Russian, Ukrainian or Baltic States based. I would have liked a little more reference to source material in the plate notes as some of the most interesting illos left me wondering where the inspiration for particular items came from. Lastly, maybe not an omission as perhaps another volume is in the pipe but, the standards for infantry, cavalry and dragoons would be a welcome inclusion particularly because they are so interesting. Is something else coming?

Buy it, you won't be sorry.




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