PINYL: #4 - "A Crazy Kind of Genius" (Patreon)

[PATRONS]

This is a good one! In the latter half of 1700, the time had come for the anti-Swedish league to attack. On paper, the triple onslaught of Russia, Denmark and Saxony against the Swedes appeared the nail in the coffin of Charles XII's fledgling reign. But you know what they say about the best laid plans! One by one, the dominoes began to fall. In cooperation with an anxious British and Dutch navy, the Swedish King landed outside Copenhagen and forced Denmark out of the war. Outside Riga, where the Polish King was attempting to mount a siege, a combination of factors forced Augustus II to admit temporary defeat, and withdraw into winter quarters. Yet it was for the Russians that King Charles reserved the bulk of his ire.

Landing a week's march away from the Tsar's forces, Charles marched his army through horrendous conditions, to appear at the town of Narva on 20 November. The Tsar had slinked away a few days before, unaware that the King of Sweden was so close at hand, but this didn't matter - Charles didn't need to capture the Tsar to make a statement. All he needed was to set his experienced but exhausted soldiers to work against the inexperienced but plentiful Russians. It was the ultimate test of wills, and the most significant encounter between the two empires in decades. Narva was nothing less than a Swedish triumph, a legend-making event for Charles XII, and a bitter pill for the wounded Tsar. What happened next was a terrifying question for what remained of the anti-Swedish league, but for the newly installed King of Poland, the answer to this question appeared at once eerily familiar and completely unstoppable. 

Now that the King of Sweden had trounced two out of the three anti-Swedish powers, it was Poland's turn to face the music, whether its Saxon King or its people liked it or not...