Skip to main content

The Action at Federstein: The Game Played. . .

The Stollenian forces deploy and position themselves along a low ridge at the northern edge of a shallow valley.  General von Fußinmund decides to place his squadron of hussars ahead of his right flank to threaten the approaching Zichenauers whose left flank will soon be exposed.


Several hundred yards to the south, across the valley, The invading Zichenauers begin their advance on the Stollenian line.  General von Arschrückwärts orders his grenadier battalion and dragoons to wheel right, march around the copse to their front, and attack the Stollenian left flank beyond.  His provisional line regiment and gun will pound away at the enemy center.


The Zichenauer dragoon squadron wheels to the right and begins its long advance toward the Stollenian left flank across the valley.


Just before Noon on the morning of 4. August 1769, advance elements of the Army of Zichenau crossed the frontier and moved into the long contested Mark of Schleiz, sandwiched between The Electorate of Zichenau to the south and The Grand Duchy of Stollen to the north.   

General von Arschrückwärts commanded the ragtag force, which consisted of drafts of men from various regiments.  His orders were to gain control of and hold the main road into Stollenian territory until the rest of the army two day's march behind could join him.  

Caught off guard during the summer holidays, the Stollenian commander General von Fußinmund threw together a scratch force to meet the threat and rushed southwards to ward off the Zichenauers before the bulk of their army arrived. 

All troops concerned were of average morale -- C Class -- with the notable exception of Stollen's Leib (Grand Duchess Sonja's Own) Grenadiers, who had veteran -- B Class -- status. 

Let's see how the action plays out. . .

-- Stokes


Move Two saw little action save for the respective forces maneuvering further into position and some early ranging  shots from the artillery on either side.  Here is the Stollenian line along its shallow ridge line at the start of Move Three.  The respective artillery contingents began inflicting light casualties at this point in the game.


 But the Zichenauer menace is never far off!  And enemy dragoons moved into view during the same move.



Inexplicably, when ordered to charge the exposed flank of the Zichenaur line at the western end of the valley during Move Four, the Stollenian hussar squadron checked its morale and instead retreated in the opposite direction to the table's edge!  Unexpected is something of an understatement.


Move Five did not go much better for the Stollenian General von Fußinmund.  The veteran Leib (Grand Duchess Sonja's Own) Grenadiers at the center of his line took heavy casualties from enemy musketry and failed a related morale test, halting any activity for the forthcoming Move Six.


On his left flank, enemy dragoons charged home, causing von Fußinmund's resplendently clad Hanseatic Regiment to retreat from its position along the ridge line.  With his flanks in disarray, and his center battered, General von Fußinmund quit the field at the end of Move Five and withdrew his remaining troops from the fray.




 Zichenauer grenadiers allow the defeated Stollenians to retire unmolested.


The victorious general, von Arschrückwärts and staff hear from an aide de camp that Stollenian forces have turned tail and withdrawn.  Zichenauer forces, despite the odds against them, have managed to prevail and now control the road into the contested Mark of Schleiz.  "I wonder what that silly Grand Duke of theirs will have to say now!" he guffaws to his officers.  


P.S.
For his part, General von Fußinmund moved his remaining but now widely scattered troops roughly another day's march north to a more readily defensible position, where they camped outside a small settlement called Blasthoff.
 


Comments

Steve J. said…
Nice background fluff and love the old school simplicity of the terrain. The figures look lovely.
Looking forward to seeing more of this action . Do you have a link to the rules you are using ?
Argh! Blogger has decided not to cooperate again with regard to font size and style. Blast!

Stokes
Old Nick said…
Well done! After all that painting what fun to set up and play a entertaining game. That you for posting this.
Wellington Man said…
Absolutely gorgeous, Stokes!
Best regards
WM
warpaintjj said…
Good to see you gaming again, even a tiddler can scratch the itch!
Best wishes,
Jeremy
Good to see the lads in action.
Anonymous said…
Great to see you're back playing a game Stokes. I'm looking forward to the remaining battles.
Simon

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...