Monday, May 25, 2015

Guerrillas on the painting table...

At my painting table I at the moment have some Scanian Guerrillas year 1676 more common known as Snapphanar...

I hade them from a box of Warlord Dragoons and Horese holders, they will be fielded in groups of 6 minis and also be used as Dragoons in TYW gaming.

Back to the Snapphane´s; A snapphane was a member of a 17th-century pro-Danish guerrilla organization that fought against the Swedes in the Second Northern and Scanian Wars, primarily in the former eastern Danish provinces which in the course of these wars became southern Sweden. Many pro-Danish guerrilla fighters referred to themselves as friskyttar, ei volunteer militiamen.


The term snapphane, which was used as a pejorative term by the Swedes to describe the pro-Danish rebels, was originally a word for gangs of bandits that lived in the woods. When Scanian exiled peasants were organized by the Danish king into bands that fought the Swedes with guerrilla methods, they were called Snapphane too.

Due to the movement's support of the Danish invasion during the Scanian War, Swedish authorities fought the snapphanes brutally, and if one was captured, he was usually executed and the corpse was impaled and shown where the locals could see it and be intimidated to obedience. Another common method was execution by having them broken on the wheel. The Snapphanes were initially rather successful, but as the war turned against Denmark the Snapphane war became more devastating.


The Snapphanes were defeated mostly by a Swedish campaign of compelling Scanian peasants swear allegiance to the Swedish king, effectively driving a wedge between Snapphane and most of the population. Instructed by the Danish king to kill loyalists the Snapphane bands turned on the local population undermining support for the Danish king.

A ruthless Swedification policy was reportedly so effective that when a Danish invasion army landed in 1709, in the wake of the Battle of Poltava, the local population was raised in a militia to fight against them. The last suspected snapphane, Nils Tuasen‚ was executed in 1700 for slaying a Swedish soldier in 1677. He had allegedly spent 22 years in exile in Denmark but ultimately returned, upon which he was arrested and put to death.

Just some painting left to do...
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10 comments:

  1. Traditional Swedish Smörgåstårta is worth dying for, and Nils Tuasen probably realized that after 22 years of bacon with eggs in Dennmark ;0) Great that you're reopening this project, especially love the bigger bases!

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    1. :)

      Glad you like the re-opening of our Skirmish Scanina War, it was kind of hijacked by your greate multibased Scanian War project that we run in Copenhagen...
      Appreciated the reinforcements I got from you, now the Danes soon will be fielded...rebased ;)
      Best regards Michael

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  2. Nice piece of history and looking forward to seeing the painted models:)

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  3. Thanks Michael more fascinating history. As you say just the painting now !

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  4. Very nice indeed Michael! Looking forward to seeing them all painted up.

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  5. Very interesting Michael! I too look forward to the painted goodies!

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  6. I really like the mix of mounted and foot miniatures for this kind of irregular unit. And your basing system with 1-3 figures work just as fine with horses thrown into the mix. They will be spectacular when painted.
    /Mattias

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  7. Very interesting piece of information. This force sounds very interesting too.

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  8. I've got a feeling these are going to look great.
    Cheers
    Stu

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