Skip to main content

News Release

Freshly gloss coated, in the very best 'Old School' traditinon, Freiherr Wilhelm's Pioneers drill in the town square.

For Immediate Release

Contact: Katrina Bettina von Heffelfinger, Political Editor

Die Krankenstadt Tageblat

73 Flickenhofferske Square, Krankenstadt, Grand Duchy of Stollen

Army of Zichenau on the Move Northward!

Previously Disgraced Stollenian General von Drosselmaier Recalled to Active Service

Zollamtstadt, the Grand Duchy of Stollen – 20 July, 1768-- Recent reports by Stollenian officers along the frontier indicate that the Army of the Electorate of Zichenau, under General de Latté and General von Kallweitschen, is on the move north along the post road from the small town of Zollamtstadt where it defeated a small Stollenian force under General von Drosselmaier in late December last year. Since that time, the army of Zichenau has trained diligently in the country around Zollamtstadt.

Army of Zichenau Augmented by Newly raised Battalion of Pioneers

Most recently, a battalion of pioneers has joined the army, which now consists of three units of infantry, a powerful body of horse grenadiers, and a battery of artillery. Under de Latté and von Kallweitschen, this force has been ordered by Pricess Antonia of Zichenau to penetrate into the Stollenian interior and seize the contested province of Schleiz before pressing on toward the Stollenian capital Krankenstadt.

Stollen’s Grand Duke Reverts to Playing the Fool

So far, there has been little sign of activity from within Stollen itself. The Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II was, for a while last winter, very engaged with the training and preparation of his army following its defeat at, and withdrawal from, Zollamtstadt. Since late June, however, he has reverted to the high jinks of last summer. Indeed, an anonymous source in the Stollenian ministry has suggested that it is really the Grand Duke’s English valet “Hives” who has run the affairs of state since the very public incident earlier this month, involving his charge, the top half of the Grand Duke’s lobster costume, three dancing girls from the local theater, 12 loaves of bread, and a pair of old boyscout shoes.

Stollenian Future on Political Stage of Apocryphal 18th Century Europe Questionable

Meanwhile, the Army of Stollen, under the recalled General von Drosselmaier, has been positioned along the frontier between the Grand Duchy and the southern Province of Schleiz with orders to hold the territory and block the advance of de Latté and von Kallweitschen. How matters will develop over the next few weeks remains to be seen, but the Prussian ambassador to Stollen, Heinz von dem Salat, mentioned, during an interview with Die Krankenstadt Tageblat, that the situation for Stollen looks grave unless the defeat of last winter can be reversed.

#####


Comments

Fitz-Badger said…
Great minis, as usual! You do capture that old-school gaming look very well!
Interesting news items, too...
The League sends best wishes for the future of Stollen! Looks like things might be heating up in the League. The Batrachian forces are building and training aggressively.
tradgardmastare said…
Interesting times - I look forward to further developments.
Alan
p.s
I am lookin for info re topological meanings of the ending of German places names - can you help?
Alan
Bluebear Jeff said…
I suspect that Furst Bruno von Ursa would be willing to send you some support (officers or troops) if asked.


-- Jeff
...it was the news about the boy scout shoes that truly alarmed me - things have taken a turn for the worse, haven't they?!

PS. :o)
old-tidders said…
A fine looking unit of pioneers

-- Allan

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...

Sunday Morning Coffee with AI. . .

    A rmed with a second cup of fresh, strong coffee, I messed around a bit this morning with artlist.io using its image to image function in an attempt to convert my hand-drawn map from September 2006 to something that more resembles an old map from the mid-18th century.  And just like my experiments with Ninja AI in June, the results are mixed.   The above map is pretty good, but Artlist keeps fouling up the place names and has trouble putting a faint overlay of hexes across the entire area.  Hexes, admittedly, are not likely to be found on any genuine maps from the era in question, but there we are.  Frankly, I prefer the appearance of the Ninja map, but there were problems getting it to correct its errors.  Grrrr.  As is the case with so much having to do with the various AI's out there now, the output generated is a direct result of the prompts entered.  For text alone, and when you develop a lengthy, highly detailed prompt, it is...

Continued Regional Map Revisions. . .

F ooled around a bit more with the revised map just before and after dinner this evening, using the Fotor app to reinsert missing text .  I also removed a few other things using the 'Magic Eraser' function, which works surprisingly well.  Now, we're getting somewhere.  I just have to figure out how to ensure that the text is all a uniform font style and maybe figure out a way to add a few bunches of trees to suggest forested areas,  Ninja AI is not always entirely cooperative to the tune of "I'm sorry Dave.  I can't do that." -- Stokes