Again the forces of the North have advanced towards the lands of Mieczyslaw, again led by Count Wrede of the North.
Duzy Uderzyc Klarnowo, still in command of the army of observation in the west again responded, this time the armies came to blows near Debnića. Klarnowo was a bit more cautious and allowed the offending army to cross into Mieczyslaw, until a battle site could be managed due to Wrede having an allied force...those of the Empress and her erstwhile ally Burtzenia! It took some time to confirm the size of the allied force and know of their commander, Brig. Prinz Robert Axe; an aggressive young man of lesser noble birth (at least three other older 'princes' exist in his clan...).
With clouds of skirmishers available the two armies lined up on the field. For some reason (unknown to Klarnowo) the North artillery was not able to make it to the field.
Early on, both armies spent some time digesting the gravity of their positions, permitting Cavalry under Kierownik szlachta Mosiadzowski to form up on the far right of the Mieczyslaw lines.
Inexplicably the North Cavalry rushed headlong into the center of the field, an area swept by all three batteries of guns available to Klarnowo. These guns signalled the start of the action by massacring half of the advancing horse regiments and wounding the other...
The North Dragoons pressed on to their target...Korona Korpus, recently fetted for Saint Argard and now bolstered by two companies of Grenadiers! The dragoons fired their pistols, to no effect. Then charged...
Into the freshly loaded and ready Korona Korpus, whom fired a truly leathal blast from their muskets...killing all of the charging dragoons to a man, taking their colours and capturing Brigadier Torke Fisk after he had fallen from his wounded horse!
Over on the right, two brigades of North Infantry had first to do battle with a heavy dense woods, then more scrub on their way towards clouds of the Janowski Mysliwi, whom were to perform a minor miracle in holding off more than twice their numbers in other skirmishers and 8 times as many formed battalions behind them at the barrier of the woods!
Once breaking out along the right flank the Wojskowo Klusak were again shot to pieces while progressively falling back...all the while holding up the North advance more and more...
Back over on the left wing the Burtzenians made a critical error! Their skirmishers had been shot-up and told to hold off the Mieczyslaw Mysliwi, while the lead formation of infantry turned to the far flank and marched to take command of the nearby hill (the destination of the Burtzenians artillery - as ordered), the rear formation of Burtzenians turn to face the center and marched out in column, presumably to begin forming a wide line formation.
Into this brigade changing formation CHARGED the Mieczyslaw Mysliwi and a column of the Wojskowo Piechota. While the Wojskowo Piechota did not quite reach their target (1/2" out!!!) the Mysliwi were more than up to the task of sending the Burtzenians skirmishers fleeing right through the packed ranks of massed Burtzenians! Then following up that charge directly into the, now turned, flank of the column of infantry that had just turned to the flank and began marching up the hill!
The butchery that this chaos caused was immense, for it took some time to get their infantry back into order, and while the chaos ensued the Burtzenians artillery was forced back off the hill by the Mysliwi and the Wojskowo Piechota had time to form a firing line.
Inexplicably again the Burtzenians chose to charge now.
They did not reach either the Wojskowo Piechota or the Mieczyslaw artillery moving up to begin really lethal point blank firing...
The Wojskowo Piechota did not miss their chance and blasted fully one-third of the charging Burtzenians into oblivion, this action broke the resolve of the Burtzenian Infantry which was now running headlong towards the rear.
The column that had tried to charge, balked and was left in confusion, when the Mieczyslaw artillery now fired a volley of grapeshot and at the same time Korona Korpus advanced and fired at them as well. They lost fully one-quarter of their strength in the single moment, this shattered their morale and also sent them running!
It was at this moment that the Mieczyslaw Cavalry, now massed near the center rear, was unleashed, initially only the Wiesniak Ulans charged, but they were soon followed by Trabki Huzarzy and Mosiadz Cuirassiers under the command of Uderzyc Janowski. Once again the Ulans had something to prove and they did it by facing two volleys from the North medium battery then charged into the battery slaughtering the gunners to a man and pressing onwards, very nearly reaching the flank of Wrede's escourting cavalry force!
In a moment the battle had deteriorated into a re-enactment of Austerlitz, with the North infantry bogged down on the right, now finally having eliminated the Mieczyslaw Janowski Mysliwi, whom had held them off for better than half of the battle! In the center of the North lines there was only Mieczyslaw cavalry, with two untouched formations just preparing to hit the flank and rear of the far end of the North Infantry (Pete's newly finished unit - just before it was blasted to bits by Zaklad Wstrasowo Muszkieterowie and Mieczyslaw artillery).
Amazingly Ugodzic Wojskowski decided that now was the time to start the withdrawl! He interpreted his orders in an unexpected, yet beneficial way. All day he steadfastly refused to budge from the HOLD order he started with, then at the moment of testing from the North infantry, he chose to start a withdrawl, an action that in most situations would be insane, yet here it was of some benefit as now there would be more room to let the cavalry race through and there would be an incentive for the North infantry to continue to press their attack and leave their rear entirely unprotected from the advancing Trabki Huzarzy and Mosiadz Cuirassiers.
The final acts on the left were an amazing feat of leadership, where three battalions of infantry on the verge of total collapse and flight from the field were man-handled back into a ragged semblance of a line(Pete rolled three '1's in a row!)...enough of a line to stagger the Veterans of Korona Korpus and soon to be Veteran Wojskowo Piechota, as both refused to charge into the battered Burtzenians! (I rolled two '6's in a row)
Withdrawing in some confusion from the field Wrede would have to lick his wounds and re-think his tactics.
Prinz Robert Axe of Burtzenia would report back to the courts of the Empress that the arms of the Duchy of the North are not as well prepared as previously suspected and that now Mieczyslaw knew that Burtzenia had become a foe again!
Feted on the field with new battle honours were the command of Pulkownik Koronowski: Korona Korpus and Wojskowo Piechota along with the amazing, though badly wounded Janowski Mysliwi!
