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De Latte and von Tschatschke complete their moves for Turn 6. . .

A general view of General de Latte's first and second lines, which seem to be suffering from bunching.  You'll note that much of his cavalry arm has formed up in support of his left flank, which is anchored on the small hill in the distance just to the left of an impassable swampy area. . .  unless one is infantry in open order.


Meanwhile, on de Latte's right flank, Colonel O'Malley's Irish Grenzers have pressed on along and through the wooded ridge on the northern edge of the Sittangtal Valley, to begin emerging from the trees and brush. . .  dangerously close to General von Tschatschke's own left flank.


For his part, von Tschatschke's curassiers have set off at the gallop toward a gap that has temporarily opened up in de Latte's line.  Will the armored horsemen reach it before enemy artillery has had time to arrive and deploy?


In this hastily rendered pen and ink, you'll see von Tschatchke's 2nd (von Laurenz) Musketeers are in the midst of an orderly retreat into and through Neu Sittangbad on their way toward the bridge just to the west of town.  We can only assume that the artist was in a hurry to vacate his position in the path of the approaching Zichenauer army, hence the blurred result of his sketchwork.


Seen from the spire of the town's Evangelische (Lutheran) church, the 4th Dragoons on von Tschatschke's right flank have withdrawn a full move as ordered, bringing with them the recaptured guns, one of which has been re-manned by its remaining crew.  Here again, we can only speculate, of course, but the poor quality of this sketch might lead one to conclude that the artist happened upon Pastor Krupke's secret cache of locally produced 'fire water' while recording the day's events.


Directly across the battlefield, de Latte's cavalry brigade approaches and takes up its position in close support of his infantry.


Though well and truly cut off from their cohorts in the Stollenian army, the remaining Jaeger zu Fuss have emerged from the buildings of Eispicke Village to harass General de Latte's Engineer Battalion as it marches past.


At the same time, the bulk of de Latte's artillery marches forward in a desperate bid to plug the gap in the front line before it can be exploited by the approaching enemy cavalry.


The remaining gaggle of Zichenauer generals and other assorted 'schlachtenbummler' moves forward behind its second line.


Here is a second general view of the Zichenauer position, from the rear this time, looking toward Neu Sittangbad and the river beyond.


Sadly, it does not appear that General de Latte's Red Battery of artillery will be able to do much this turn given its proximity to friendly troops, who block one of its guns as they move past.  Many other allied units too occupy the space between the guns and their intended target, the enemy 4th Dragoons, who have, you'll recall, withdrawn to a point even more distant on the battlefield.  "Oh, bad luck, old picnic basket!" cackles General von Tschatscke from across the table before he tops off his glass of single malt and reloads his clay pipe with another bowlful of Colonial Virginia's finest tobacco.


And finally, another panoramic view with General de Latte and his ADC Paolo di Biscotti, a scoundrel of the first order who reputedly lost his commission in the Neopolitan army, following a scandalous incident which involved a dancing girl, twelve loaves of bread, and a boy scout uniform.





NOTE -- The figures shown in these photographs are primarily by RSM95 along with others from the Minden, Huzzah, Spencer Smith, Holger Eriksson, Garrison, Miniature Figures, and Revell ranges.

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…
Wonderful eye-candy, Stokes.


-- Jeff

PS, get rid of the ridiculous "not a robot" verification . . . much of the time the "code" is unreadable and it generally takes several tries to actually get something posted.
Thanks Jeff! I'll see what I can do.

Stokes
Paul Liddle said…
A great looking battle, I reckon that the plastics fit in very well with their heftier brethren.

Like Jeff, I too have been stymied by that robot thing not only on your blog but on other blogs too.

Cheers,
Paul
Bluebear Jeff said…
You seem to have fixed the "robot thing" . . . THANK YOU!


-- Jeff
tidders2 said…
Lovely stuff,

-- Allan
M Dear Ulrich,
Outstanding reportage! It looks like the action will be coming to a critical point very soon. Most entertaining....keep up the excellent work.
Gerardus Magnus
Archbishop of Han-gover

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