Skip to main content

The Battle for Teodorstal Valley Commences. . .

Managing finally to lure the bruised Major von Topfsange back to the drawing room, Colonal von Adalnowski and his hapless guest begin Move One of The Battle for Teodorstal Valley. Here is a quick pencil sketch by the Colonel, showing the positions of the troops at the end of Move One. It seems Major von Topfsange and the Stollenians are on the offensive. Could this be a vain attempt by the Major to regain his battered honor?


No dueling yet, but von Adalnowski has rushed his remaining Irish Grenzers toward Crampas farm at the eastern end of the valley. You'll recall that the farm is currently occupied by an understrength company of Stollenian Jaeger zu Fuss.


Meanwhile, in the center of the valley, Major von Topfsange has sent a company of his 2nd (von Laurenz) Musketeers to reinforce the Jaeger zu Fuss and one gun, currently holding the village of Effibriest. The musketeers will occupy the two buildings to their front during Move Two.


Major von Topfsange has also raced the two remaining squadrons of his 3rd Cuirassiers, on his left flank, in the direction of Crampas Farm. Are their orders to ride down O'Malley's Irish Grenzers, or, perhaps, to charge the Zichenauer gun line from the flank?


And at the western end of Teodorstal Valley, it appears a sharp cavalry combat is shaping up. Major von Topfsange's 4th Dragoons were shown a shortcut through the woods by a local farmer (a random event), effectively doubling their normal 24" move distance, sending the brave horsemen crashing into Colonel von Adalnowski's Grenadiere zu Pferd just to the west of Instetten (held by a company of O'Malley's Irish Grenzers don't forget). Whichever cavalry regiment wins could, ultimately, determine the outcome of the battle in this sector of the field. Two salvos of mutual artillery fire at the tail-end of Move One resulted in 2-3 casualties on each side, but no further combat took place. From across the table, a brooding Major von Topfsange produced a new clay pipe filled with Turkish tobacco from his ornate sabretache and glowered at the beaming Colonal von Adalnowski, who jovially toasted the younger man with a recently freshened tumbler of Gin & Tonic.

Comments

Stryker said…
Hi Stokes - great to the forces of Stollen back in action again!

Ian
Bluebear Jeff said…
Wonderful images . . . your table, terrain and troops all look great!


-- Jeff
Der Alte Fritz said…
I see some new units on the table. The Huzzahs look nice.

Popular posts from this blog

It's Early Days Yet. . .

M aking some early progress with Batch A of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment over the last several days/evenings.  Nothing terribly exciting just yet, but the basic black, brown, and flesh areas are done as are the green bases, and gray undercoat.   The latter two areas needed some careful retouching early in the week.  Next up, the neck stocks.   I might just do these in red for the enlisted men although some of my source material suggest they were black, but I always look for an excuse to shake things up a bit.  Any errant splotches of red (or black) can be covered with another application of light gray before I move onto the next step.   "Giddy up!" as one Cosmo Kramer might have said. -- Stokes

And We're Off!!!

  Arrrgh!  Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus.  Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown.  More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart.   I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands.  In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands.   As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff.  Depending on ...

The Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

  The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks  Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week.  But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases.  Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat.   I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak.  Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix.   -- Sto...