General Orders and Victory Conditions. . .

Funny what a fully charged battery in the camera, and the right lens, will do!  Here's a much sharper view of the table before I set out the troops in a little while.

General Orders

Electorate of Zichenau (General de Latte) 
The attacking general, de Latte has been ordered to invade the Grand Duchy of Stollen and establish a base of operations at the small market town of Kaunitz, several miles to the north of the River Elbow.  He has the larger army with more guns and cavalry at his disposal, but de Latte's men must cross a river that has not been thoroughly reconnoitered.  What were they thinking?  Moreover, the river has only a small single bridge spanning it.  Last, the Army of Zichenau must assault a heavily defended ridge.  

Grand Duchy of Stollen (General von Tschatschke)
Von Tschatschke has been charged by the Stollenian War Ministry with defending the Grand Duchy and preventing its invasion. While he commands a numerically inferior scratch force, with its units still somewhat scattered, von Tschatschke's  army occupies the high ground on the north side of the River Elbow.  His engineers have also been able to prepare two strongpoints along his front.  Both flanks of the Stollenian Army are, in addition, anchored firmly in the small villages of Clauswitz (in the far distance) and Seydlitz (at the right).  Finally, there is thick wood just to the south of the latter.  


Victory Conditions

* General de Latte wins the battle if he is able to get two thirds of his forces across the river by nightfall and drive the Stollenian Army back in the direction of Kaunitz.  

* For General von Tschatschke to win the battle, on the other hand, he must resist the Zichenauer onslaught and prevent de Latte from getting most of his army safely across the River Elbow into Stollenian territory.


Special Points

1) Initiative -- I will draw from a pack of cards for two kinds of initiative at the start of each turn: Movement Initiative and Firing Initiative.  If a black card is drawn, movement and/or firing may occur that turn.  If a red card (there will be fewer of these) is drawn, there is no movement/firing for that army during that turn.  This is an attempt to reflect that, despite orders, things don't always happen according to commanders' plans.

2) The River Elbow -- The river consists of six sections, none of which have (amazingly) been scouted too well by de Latte's men.  If and when any attempt to ford the river is made, a six-sided die will be rolled for the river section in question with the following results: 

1-2 = chest high on a man, any troops may wade across, but it takes a turn to do so. 
3-4 = knee high, any troops may cross at half normal movement rate.
5-6 = deep, rushing, and unfordable, any troops attempting to cross are swept away.

 
3) The Bridge -- I'll throw a six-sided die at the start of the game to determine if von Tschatschke's engineers have been able to lay a demolition charge beneath the bridge.  A roll of 4-6 means they have.  I haven't yet decided how to determine in which of the turns the engineers might try to blow the bridge.  Maybe I'll dig out my old D&D dice and find the D10?

4) Turns -- I'll use the old Featherstone convention here and just assume that a turn accounts for 30 minutes of time regardless of how long it actually takes to move figures and determine any combat results.

5) Time -- I'll throw an 8-sided die and a six-sided die to determine the precise time at which the battle begins between 10am and 6pm.  We'll assume nightfall comes just before 9:30pm (21:30), give or take, since we are talking about somewhere in the vicinity of Riga, Latvia in August (I checked the sunset times online).  Remember, General de Latte must get at least two thirds of his units across the river and onto Stollenian territory by nightfall to win the game.