 |
| During Turn Four, General Paul von Stollen effectively set the stage for an eventual flanking movement. The speed with which this occurred took the underhanded General Phillipe de Latte by surprise. None of his troops had yet managed to reach their planned positions on the field or deploy into formation with the notable exception of his battalion of combined grenadiers just southwest of Maddening. With an almost undetectable twitch at the left corner of his mouth, de Latte fumbled in a waistcoat pocket for his snuffbox. |
 | ||
| By Turn Five, both commanders had managed to form the bulk of their infantry into lines that more or less ran parallel along either side of the road bisecting the battlefield from southwest to northeast. De Latte's Batthyanyi Dragoons emerged from the village of Maddening where they were immediately enfiladed by wicked skirmish and artillery fire at close range from von Stollens cannon and corps of jaegers. Numerous horses and men fell in the ensuing carnage and chaos, and the errant Frenchman's younger opponent reveled in his mounting tactical successes. Part of von Stollen's Schaumburg-Lippe-Buekeburg Infantry now occupied Hasenpfeffer Farm on his right flank while the village of Maddening itself was within easy reach of his squadron of Bosniaken, company of jaegers, and battery of Schlusselburg Artillery on his left. | |
Turn Six, for which there is mercifully no photographic evidence, played out in much the same way as the previous turn, with young von Stollen's artillery and jaegers whittling away at de Latte's Bathyanyi Dragoons, who failed a morale check and paused, holding their position but battered and fatigued. Amazingly, de Latte's own infantry and artillery had yet to fire a shot, so consumed were they with reaching their previously assigned points of deployment between Maddening and Bretzel Farm to the northeast.
Inexplicably, de Latte's Ernestine Sachsen Regiment of Infantry, which had initially been ordered to form a second line behind the allied Flickenhoffer Fusiliers and battalion of combined grenadiers, had not yet managed to do so. It continued to blunder about his extreme left flank in column of march, never quite reaching the point where its companies could wheel left into line and close up to support its fellows to the regiment's fore.
North of Maddening, General Paul von Stollen was too busy commanding his own troops, who were considerably more effective, to notice the chaos across the field. He asked a nearby aide for the time at one point however. The officer in question reported that his pocket watch had just gone half past three.
From his position
on a heights across the field, de Latte dealt with his mounting frustration in a predictable way. He produced and inhaled an extra large pinch of
snuff, sneezing thunderously a few seconds later.
"Gunzundheit m'Lord!" responded Major di Biscotti with obsequious and cathartic pleasure. Later reports suggested the eruption Parisian was heard as far away as Vienna.
"Says you!" answered de Latte in a haughty tone. Chastened, di Biscotti asked a passing subordinate to retrieve his hat from a low tree branch nearby
-- Stokes and Young Master Paul
Comments
Kind Regards,
Stokes