Skip to main content

The Final Moves of the Day. . .

The last few moves of The Action of Teodorstal Valley between Major von Topfsange and Colonel von Adalnowski saw little movement on a grand scale, except at the eastern end of the valley and few casualties, except in one dramatic instance. Moves Ten and Eleven saw von Topfsange's Jaeger zu Fuss occupy two of the buildings in Effibriest. The Major also moved his single gun and crew closer in to the village, taking both out of reach of von Adalnowski's pesky Irish Grenzers, lurking atop the wooded ridge to the south of Effibriest. But let's return now to the Colonel's drawing room for a more complete picture of the final events of the day. . .


A fierce clash took place during Moves 12 and 13 between Colonel von Adalnowski's Grenadiere zu Pferd and Major von Topfsange's remaining 3rd Kuirassiere when the former finally caught up with the latter, who got bogged down in deep mud just west of Crampas Farm. In the four separate combats that ensued, von Adalnowski out-rolled the good Major in each case, effectively wiping out von Topfsange's squadron of cuirassiers. "Confound it!" exclaimed the Major in exasperation, furiously trying to relight his pipe several times before succeeding.


Meanwhile, Colonel von Adalnowski produced a fat cigar from a chest pocket inside his pearly white coat, which he proceeded to light and puff with obvious relish. "Ah, nothing like a good Cuban! Too bad about your cuirassiers, eh, von Topfsange? But maybe your jaegers and gun can hold onto Effibriest for a while longer." The Colonel then rallied his last five Grenadiere zu Pferd , whose intrepid captain, one R.S. Schmidt, led his troopers back toward Zichenauer lines.


As Move Fourteen began, von Topfsange remarked casually to his opponent, "I believe a few of your Irish Grenzers holding Instettin might be within range of my gun, my dear von Adalnowski." He measured the distance to confirm his suspicion, adding, "Here, hand me those dice." The Major threw well enough to bring down two men in the nearer house, one of which was an officer. "At last!" he exclaimed. "Lady Luck is a fickle love indeed, but she always returns to me in the end. . . Blast! We're out of Gin and Tonic!"


Not to be outdone, Colonel von Adalnowski fired his own cannon at one of the houses in Effibriest at the end of Move 14, making two hits of his own in the process. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander, old man!" he observed and took another long puff on his cigar, which glowed red in agreement.


"Stuff and nonsense" retorted Major von Topfsange peevishly, "My Jaeger zu Fuss are also in possession of Crampas Farm now, meaning my troops hold two of the three built up areas in the valley. Technically, I've won the battle before the main armies arrive tomorrow!" he crowed. Colonel von Adalnowski blew a long plume of cigar smoke toward the drawing room ceiling through pursed lips, smiled at his opponent, and rattled the remaining ice at the bottom of his glass in the Major's direction, adding "A detail, my dear von Topsange, a mere detail!"


At this point, evening fell across Teodorstal Valley with Major von Topfsange and Colonel von Adalnowski retiring to their respective chambers on the second floor to dress for dinner. Stollenian troops have managed to gain control of both Crampas Farm and Effibriest through no particular display of tactical skill while the Zichenauer advance guard is firmly ensconced within the village of Instettin and also has troops stationed along the wooded ridge directly south of Effibriest. And so ends the Action at Teodorstal on a warm, muggy summer evening, 7 July 1770. Both von Topfsange and von Adalnowski expect the arrival of their main armies and commanding generals sometime in the night or early tomorrow.

Comments

Capt Bill said…
A rousing encounter indeed!!!
A J said…
A pity the Kurassiers were destroyed after such a promising beginning. Still, at least the Stollenian army will begin the main battle with an advantage.
Thank you, men! Yep, Stollen appears to be be in the game still. . . for now.

Best Regards,

Stokes
After such a rousing preliminary skirmish for the posession of the town, I'm looking forward to the account of the mai action...
Cheers,
Ion
Bluebear Jeff said…
Beware of some Stagonian trick. Hints have come from that vile kingdom that Koenig Ludwig is scheming again.


-- Jeff of Saxe-Bearstein
The Principality of Hesse-Engelburg is most cheered by the news of Stollenian preliminary victories, and wishes them a successful ousting of the Zichenau forces.

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...