After reading about some wars Sweden was involved and one thing caught my attention. Often the Swedish army was able to defeat a larger enemy. At Fraustadt the 20000 man strong army of Saxons and Russians was broken by a Swedish army half its size. At Narva something similar happened (although weather and bad positioning had some influence there). And at Poltava the cut off Swedish army charged the Russian ranks without ammunition against three times as many enemies.

Although they were utterly defeated it raises the question why the Swedish forces were so much braver than their enemies. Even at Breitenfeld the situation did not look that good but they still managed to win that battle. What was the secret of the Swedish morale? Or what were their enemies lacking?