The Grand Duchy of Stollen

  General de Latte's Ermland Garde was shot to pieces by the combined weight of the Stollenian msuketeers and artillery on General von Bauchschmerzen's front line.  His spirits picking up a bit at this most recent and unexpected development, von Bauchschmerzen shouted to his aides, "Gentlemen?  A tall glass of ice-cold chocolate milk if you please.  With plenty of syrup and a straw!" S hortly after 12:15pm that afternoon, the maneuvering by General de Latte during the opening moves ground to a halt in the face of repeated volleys of musketry and endless hard pounding by General von Bauchschmerzen's well-situated artillery.  Through the powder smoke, it seemed at that point as though the Army of Zichenau had received the vast bulk of casualties, and a turning point was close at hand.  As Gilbert O'Sullivan once lamented, what to do?  What to do? -- Stokes On his extreme left flank at the eastern end of the battlefield, von Bauchschmerzen's ...

  General de Latte's F l ickenhoffer F u siliers rounded the northern end of Hasenpfefferwald and came within musketry range of the Stollenian line.  General von Bauchschmerzen's Hanseatic Infantry unleashed a blistering first volley into the leading company of the enemy infantry, causing visible gaps to appear in their front ranks. F rom about 11:45am, the limited action  at the eastern end of the battlefield turned into a full-fledged battle as the rest of the front between the two armies came alive.  What might have seemed initially like an easy victory to General de Latte was thrown into question as his leading units began to suffer appreciable casualties at the hands of General von Bauchschmerzen's infantry and artillery along his front line. -- Stokes Close behind, de Latte's Provinces' Provisional Regiment slowed their pace once th e Flickenhoffer Fusiliers to their fore came to a halt when met with enemy fire. At the same time, de Latt...

  W hy, yes!  The Grand Duchy of Stollen blog is ten years old.  What a long, strange, and delightful trip it has been.   This time way back in 2006, I was busily painting up my first large regiment of infantry just before school started.  That unit of figures is still with me and is one of the regiments holding General von Bauchschmerzen's frontline, the 1st Musketeers, in the current Battle of Doltz.   Below, you can read the very first blog entry from August 19, 2006.  Oh, and that first regiment of plastic soldiers?  I am ashamed to say that they accompanied us on our camping honeymoon through the Dakotas and M innesota during late June and early July of that year.  My thinking when I packed the car for us to leave on the morning after our wedding in late June of '06 was that I could grab a few minutes here and there during the trip to prepare the 60+ figures for painting -- with the X-acto hobby knife I took along too -...

General de Latte ordered his Ermland Garde to advance and come to grips with the Stollenian enemy at this point in the battle.  Here are the Ermlanders emerging from behind the southern ridge in perfect order with their slow, measured step, as was their wont.  These are Revell 1/72 (plastic) Austrian grenadiers, by the way, painted during the summer of 2007.  They have held up remarkably well although the bases need retouching following removal from the original single bases two or three years ago.  Of course, the heavy card multiple-figure bases still need to be painted green too, darn it. B y about 11:30am on that fateful day now so many years ago, things began to happen all at once around the battlefield with a flurry of orders issued by both General de Latte and General von Bauchschmerzen as their respective plans became clearer.  The next few turns were crucial in the relatively minor military action that the more comprehensive books on European mil...

  An aerial view of six new Hotz Mats felt fields (available in packs of four 25mm fields or four 15mm fields), which disguise the edges my Woodland Scenics mats nicely. K ind of quiet around Stollen Central the last couple of days as far as our Battle of Doltz game goes.  School begins for everyone in two weeks during the week of the 29th, so we have been involved with several preparatory meetings with new teachers and related staff at his school for the Young Master as well as our own stuff on campus.  Summers are always relatively carefree, but then you come crashing down to earth like Icarus every mid-August!   Now, the uninitiated might say something like, "Quit your complaining!  It must be nice having 3.5 months off each summer and month at Christmas and New Years."  And that is true.  Yes, it is.  But things have a way of evening out.  We pay for those chunks of what seem like totally free time once a new semester starts ...

General de Latte's brigade of Flickenhoffer Fusiliers and Provinces' Provisional Regiment continues its flanking movement at the start of Turn Four. A t approximately 1 1:15am, t he start if Turn Four in the Battle of Doltz, a standoff of sorts develop ed over much of the battlefield along with the clearing off of General von Bauchschmerzen's few remaining jaegers on his left flank.  And it is there that events we re the most interesting so far during the battle.  But these artists' renderings provide a much clearer picture of the battle than can I.  Please have a look and, to appropriate one of Mr. Kinch's terms, click each picture to 'embiggen.' -- Stokes   The Flickenhoffer Fusiliers has just about cleared Hasenpfefferwald and should soon be in position to form a firing line opposition General von Bauchschmeren's own troops. A third photograph provides a good idea of how close the opposing bodies of troops are to one another. ...

The Ermland Garde, who earlier this turn moved onto the crest o the southern ridge and into the open with a loud "Huzzah!" have taken three more hits from the enemy artillery just across the valley.  Ouch!  General de Latte sees this and sends hasty orders for the the unit to pull back behind the ridge line once again.  A lthough still early in the game, The Battle of Doltz has thrown a few rather interesting wrenches (spanners) into the works of the respective commanders' plans.  These have taken the form of recalcitrant subordinate officers who have not always understood their superiors' orders, overly eager troops moving ahead without order to do so, and a combat on one flank that has taken on a life of it own.  Suffice to say, General von Bauchschmerzen and General de Latte have experienced a bit of (realistic) confusion and frustration so far. And then. . .  There was the veritable hell wrought on yours truly all day Saturday by a particularly n...