The Conclusion of The Battle of Doltz. . .

De Latte made the tough call to order his remaining infantry to face about and make an orderly withdrawal.

By 3pm that afternoon, and after a long lull in the battle, General de Latte could see how things were headed across the field.  His Ermland Garde had been reduced to only a few men remaining with the colors thanks to Stollenian musketry and numerous prisoners taken during a short, but sharp period of hand to hand combat.  His cavalry had been rendered largely ineffective, and his flank attack on the Stollenian left never quite managed to get off the ground.  That's not even mentioning the heavy casualties sustained by the leading platoons of the Flickenhoffer Fusiliers.  It was time to sue for peace.

An aide de camp, whose name has been lost to history, was sent toward the Stollenian line with white flag in hand.

General von Bacushschmerzen and staff received him in the most gentlemanly of ways and agreed to permit the remaining Zichenauer army to retreat unmolested with the proviso that. . .

 

They leave behind, in the words of the nearby Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II (a man who embodied the very concept of a schlachtenbummler), their "rather spiffing" Minden Swedish four-pounder cannon as trophies of war.

 Thirty minutes later, word had been conveyed to the various units comprising General de Latte's defeated army.  Here, at the western edge of the field, his hussars and baggage train begin their withdrawal from the field.

While at the eastern end of the valley, de Latte's remaining infantry too begin an orderly retreat.  His immediate subordinate Major di Biscotti exclaimed as their tired troops marched past, "I say!  Who's for a few scoops of mango gelato back at my tent?"

 

The Stollenian center, while battered, had managed to hold, preventing further inroads into the Mark of Schleiz, and fending off the latest Zichenauer invasion of Stollenian territory.  At least for the moment.  As the sun neared the horizon early that evening -- and witnesses could never be entirely sure given how the local Low German patois was butchered by a heavy French accent -- the following threat was heard from across the valley, "You may have won this time von Bauchschmerzen, but we'll be back!" The hard fought Battle of Doltz was at an end.

Thank you everyone for your patience and interest during the last month or so.  I hope that you have enjoyed the tabletop events presented here as The Battle o Doltz.  Thanks as well to my generals from afar Greg Horne, who starred as General de Latte, and also Ross MacFarlane, who starred as General von Bauchschmerzen.  While there might have been another turn or two left in the game, it seemed fairly clear that the Zichenauer attack had run out of steam, in particular given the heavy casualties suffered by General de Latte's Ermland Garde and his artillery's general inability to find its range and do much damage to the Stollenian center during the seven turns.  

We have also had a couple of minor incidents here recently in which a few odd soldiers have been handled without permission and kind of roughly at that.  Suffice to say, someone needs to learn to handle others' possessions with greater care and wait until he is supervised by Dad.  It therefore makes good sense to clear away the game and replace the soldiers in their plastic tubs in the closet for the time being to remove any future temptations for idle young hands.  

Fear not however.  A solo affair will follow in a few weeks, continuing the misadventures of our good generals as General de Latte attempts to carry out his standing orders from the conniving Princess Antonia III, that is to invade and establish a toehold in the Grand Duchy of Stollen, so the long-contested, and resource-rich, Mark of Schleiz will fall once again under Zichenauer control.

-- Stokes