End of the Pretender

Duke Czeslaw ewa Jerzy pressed his advantage for full effect.

With the Konrad Korpus now broken into smaller parts they were unable to properly protect their cannon.

Within three weeks all the guns and baggage train had been either captured or deliberately sabotaged by the retreating elements of Konrad Korpus.

Winter snows blocked the passage south, Cardinal Dobry had evaded the advance scouts; not so for 'Duke' Konrad.

In a last stand of defiance Konrad stood firm in a river valley. His mercenaries eventually deserted his cause, only a handful of stalwarts from the 30 Years War still stood by him. In the end they were not enough to prevent his capture.

The szlachta convened to determine the fate of the former Baron...

New Ally near the Empire

CAVENDERIA has elected to take up arms against the Ottomans.

The Khanate of Dobrudshiva, most hated foe of Mieczyslaw has responded and this action has many positive parts for Mieczyslaw.

So the Duke has decreed that a pact of association and potential alliance must be put forward.

Messengers have been sent to the commanders of the troops at Tipplebruder to prepare to march to Cavenderia's aid!

Three Days later...

Duke Czeslaw ewa Jerzy now had Duke Konrad, the pretender, in full retreat.

After a series of skirmishes along the woodlines drew in more of his line troops, the night was one of total confusion.

Fires were lit to illuminate the situation along the wood line, while continued harrassing attacks broke out from the woods and penetrated into Konrad's camps.

Twice before dawn Konrad was considering withdrawing to a more distant position so that these breakout attacks could not reach his powder stores, as they did on one occasion to the north, setting off a massive explosion.

The whole line became quiet shortly after dawn and Konrad used the break to re-form his lines and mass some cannon so that the next action from the woods would be the last for the Loyalists.

No sooner were these careful preparations made than the word came to Konrad, that the north end of the line was enveloped by 600 horsemen, and that more were pouring out from a defile to the north. His line was going to be rolled up.

His only hope to save the cannon was to retreat immediately.

This was done with great energy, considering the troops had all been fighting more or less the whole night. The cannon were escorted away and many of the more wounded troops were well away towards Flety before the mass of horses caught up with them, by then they were blown and had only 1/2 of the Usurper Konrad's troops taken prisoner to show for their efforts.

For this Duke Jerzy was pleased though, as his own horse was now coming into camp. The woods battle had gone well, next would have to come the final defeat of Konrad Korpus...

A forest battle...at night.

Duke Konrad was relentless in his push to reach Mieczyslaw.

Hounding the leading units, even after multiple encounters with local militias left many horses maimed by stakes and spikes driven into wooden piles and logs that were buried along the roads.

Ancient caltrops were also scattered around lightly wooded areas that the mysliwi would fire from, charging in the Italian mercenary cavalry would be repeatedly un-horsed from the wounded animals.

These actions served to buy the time needed for the Loyalist forces to re-deploy.

Once Konrad was able to bring up his foot columns then his forward progress could continue.

The Konrad usurpers came to a halt at the great woods north of Mieczyslaw. Their troops were not well suited to striking deep into the woods and cavalry patrols were reporting Loyalist troops massing only 15 kilometers away.

Duke Czeslaw ewa Jerzy had arrived only a few days before with the bulk of the Horse and veteran infantry. The greater weight of cannon was still far behind, indeed Ogólny Ludwik had already diverted most of the heavy guns into Mieczyslaw, so as to prepare the city for repelling a seige.

Duke Czeslaw ewa Jerzy had learned of the diversion and now was set upon drawing the usurper and his forces into battle. To that end he directed all mysliwi to commence harrasing hit-and-fade attacks along the woods line. At the same time all of the light horse had been dispatched to the north for a long, 4-6 days, ride around the wood and to encamp north of the mysliwi force. Once in position they were to inform the mysliwi pickets and wait one more day, then commence an advance on a broad front until contacting Konrad's Korpus.

Duke Czeslaw ewa Jerzy had heard of the light horse's positioning at sunset...therefore the time to strike had come. A night attack should discomfit the pretender and his forces just enough to leave them vulnerable to the coming horse charge!

Grand Mappe Version 7

A cartographic project has come to completion in Mieczyslaw, Professor Marcin Odlianicki-Poczobut has signed off on his contribution and the Grand Mappe of Urope is now ready for the tiles to be laid on the floor of the Grand Hall of Szlachta.

Battle lines forming

Duke Konrad's advance scouts have had a number of skirmishes a few leagues from Flety. The woods are fairly filled with Loyalist militias and mysliwi sniping and fouling the roads with all manner of traps and diabolical horse-maiming devices.

This has brought the 'Duke' to a standstill until enough of the cannon has caught up and a fighting spearhead can be formed.

The slow movement and relative location of the Konrad Korpus now makes the work of Duke Czeslaw ewa Jerzy easier, yet also hurried. The newly formed troops must now stand while the moving cavalry arm gets to the battle site.

Map projekt

Here is version 1 of the new section of The Duchy of Mieczyslaw from my current Empires in Arms mappe edit project for Emperor vs. Elector.



Not all 'imagi'-nations have been added into the new mappe, as I progress slowly with a few minutes here and there into the mappe.

I am also planning to enter as much data as I can from the information about the other 'imagi'-nations flags for use as counters in a Cyberboard game box for future use by EvE narrators etc...

March of Konrad Korpus

The defeat of the advance forces at Wojslawice left Konrad with two options:

* - try the pass again with the main body, something that would see his forces badly outnumbered by Loyalist horse.

** - move around the flank of the Loyalist forces holding the pass at Wojslawice, retrace part of his march route and march on a different pass.

Konrad, set upon the flank march task, but left a 'covering' force to both mask his line of march and to ensure that the Loyalist horse could not easily pursue his moving force.

Cardinal Dobry had also managed to bring up more mercenary horse from the south...these troops joined the columns and now Konrad could field very nearly equal numbers of foot and horse that were present in the lowlands to the east of the Brass River Valley.

Konrad planned a fast move north this time from the mountains and this time the marshes would not interfere with the advance, since there were more high-roads in the region.

Bitva Wojslawice

Hitman Czcibor led his forces to the headwaters of the Brass River.

The Konrad Korpus was known to be advancing in this area, Ogólny Ludwik had dispatched his best troops to counter this advance, so as to gain time to finish training the new levvies.

The two forces met near the small town of Wojslawice along the broad road which is little more than a dry flat space along the swampy headwaters.



The Loyalist force centered their foot on the road while the horse was deployed to the right, ready to charge towards any guns deployed by the Absolutists, should they try to defend the road area.

The Absolutists chose to center their deployment on a hillock overlooking the marshy, swampy ground on the north side of the road.


Loyalists stand ready to slowly advance, permitting time for their horse to re-deploy to face the Absolutists forces and to have much needed re-enforcements arrive.


The Absolutists started with their grand ordinnance standing ready to fire, sweeping the area of the wet, marshy ground.
(the gun is from my own collection and matched up well with the troops from Jeff's collection, by Blood Axe minis painted by a gamer known to Jeff)



The early battle moves consisted of gaining position on one another as the two armies had not started 'lined-up'.


During these manuevers, the Absolutists were re-enforced by more foot and ordinnance.



The battle scene around turn 7 while the forces were still positioning...
(this image is a 'panoramic' view and could be rather large, so if you clik it allow a few seconds for the image to load; I also have this image as a self-extracting program that permits you to 'see it' as though you were standing on the table. If you want this image just send me an e-mail and I will forward it to you.)



There were a few more moves (including an amazing turn 5 where the 'turn' ended on the first card 'turned' over!), until the Loyalist horse were in re-deployment, when the two extra squadrons of lancers arrive to re-enforce the massive cavalry rush moving north to the Loyalist left wing...



Only a short while later the rest of the Absolutist forces had arrived, thier extra pistols horsemen. The entire Absolutist line then became more animated, with all three guns coming into action, raking great holes in the Loyalist lines, yet not destroying any units.

The Loyalists formed a pike square to defend their extreme right flank against the marauding Absolutist horse nearby...



Loyalist ordinnace finally started to have an effect when some Absolutist foot were sent running away due to losses to morale.



Then there followed two consecutive periods of extreme activity from both armies (we drew through ALL the cards of the entire deck - with the turn end card at the last for both turns 10 and 11)



Through this time, the Absolutists and Loyalists exchanged fire, though not always with fully loaded volleys.

Then a great rainstorm raged over the valley, cutting off all firelock and cannon fire...sadly the Absolutist commander took no heed of the weather and called for the cannon to fire many times!
(Jeff forgot the event card had been pulled and got very excited when the opportunity to fire artillery came up soon after!)



The Abolutists carried full fire from their three guns, though in the end it was the last shot for one of the guns, as the gun Captain collapsed due to inebriation from overindulgence the night before.
(we had Pete there drawing the cards by this point and he drew the second of three 'event' cards, this one came up "100 bottles of beer on the wall...")



The Loyalists had managed to come out better than their opponents in a couple of fire exchanges (we played using a 'house rule' for Victory Without Quarter that allowed any unit fired upon to return fire) then the Absolutist support cavalry charged into the weakened line. They loyalists fled from the horse, but the pike square held firm.



Then when the Absolutist cause seemed most dire, the entire line was rejuvinated by a series of successful rallies. Including a foot unit that was twice on the verge of collapse, which was now turned about and charging back into the swampy morass determined to break into at least the dry ground of the road.



Just before the Loyalist lines faltered the final re-enforcement arrived, a force of foot with cannon.




Jeff surveys the scene of battle, looking for that opening where victory could be found...

At this point the Loyalist horse on the far left of the line had finally deployed into battle formations. The massed charges had begun.



While in the center a desperate collection of badly wounded men had cobbled together to hold the line long enough for the arriving Loyalist foot to come up...



During the advance of the Absolutists their Ordinance had been left behind to continue to fire from a hillock. However the Loyalist horse was now too close to the Absolutist line to permit the safe firing of the guns.
(gun from the St Valentine's Seige Train by MurdocK, crew from Jeff's collection of Blood Axe minis)



The ragged lines were not restricted to the Loyalist side only, as this formation of Absolutist foot was also reduced and tired from many volleys fired and taken.



The massed charges of the Loyalist horse now took their toll. All of the Absolutist horse was either dead or routed from the field. The Absolutist one main battery was in danger of becoming surrounded by Loyalist horse, given the circumstances the Absolutist command was ordering a withdrawl even as the Loyalist horse were preparing to bear down on them again.




Hitman Czcibor was to be the victory this day, though not without casualties of his own...some that the Loyalist cause could ill afford.

The war was not won that day either, as "Duke" Konrad, enraged with the loss of the advance horse was not willing to surrender his crown so easily. He and the Kardynalny would take the main body of their Korpus via a more easterly pass, deeper into Owijać-Drewna territory and along more covered roads into the north lands above Mieczyslaw, where they would seek a way to strike at Duke Jerzy yet again...


A final 'panoramic' view of the battlefield from behind the Loyalist positions.
(again this view is available as a 'self-extracting' program with zoom and other functions which give a better view of the field in a 'stereoscopic' type of view, simply email me with your request and an email to send the image to and I will get you a copy)

Battle of Wojslawice

Forces loyal to Duke Jerzy were assembled from the many veteran mercenaries having returned from the 30 Years War.

Baron Konrad pressed on from the Percussion Hills into the headwaters of the Brass River.

A first encounter between the Loyalists and the Absolutists was about to take place at the sleepy cross-road of Wojslawice.

Approaching was the vanguard of the Absolutionist Army, paid for by the Kardinaly.

Baron's (pretender) Royalist (most colorful!) Forces:

Adv Guard Commander = General
Field (that cannot move) Gun

Brigadier with 4 Foot Bn
Italian Bn = Veteran
Galician Bn = Trained
Absolutist Bn = Raw
Owijac-Drewna Bn = Raw

Brigadier with 2 Pistols Horse Troop (this would be the 'bigger' single force troop?) = Raw

then arriving after battle start
One Brigadier Commands:
2 Light (movable) guns
2 Foot Bn
Italian Impressed Bn = Raw
Galician Impressed Bn = Raw
2 Pistols Horse Troop = Trained

Facing these somewhat raw forces were the Veterans of Ogólny Ludwik:

Duke's Forces
Commanding General
Light (movable) Gun

Brigadier : 4 Foot Bn
Mieczyslaw Bn = Veteran
Brass River Bn = Veteran
Duke Jerzy Bn = Trained
Duchess Loyalist Bn = Raw

Horse Brigadier:
Wstrasowo 2 Lancer Horse Troop = Veteran
Trabki 2 Pistols Horse Troop = Trained

arriving:
Brigadier
Light Gun
2 Foot Bn
Bn = Trained
Bn = Raw

Horse Brigadier
Mosiadz 2 Lancer Horse = Veteran


These troops then will do battle on the morrow!

Konrad Korpus

"Duke" Konrad began his play for power in late March as the fields were dry enough to bring the 'holy cannon' across to reach the banks of the mighty Brass River and its metalled road.

Huzarzy loyal to Duke Jerzy, spread the news that the Konrad Korpus was on the move, leaving the Owijac-Drewna region; the columns of Konrad had reached the good road along the river by the time Duke Jerzy learned of these developments.

Ogólny Ludwik doubted that the infantry levvies were ready to march, however large numbers of Cavalry, much of it armored and some Dragoons were already battle hardened from thier participation in the recent wars in central Urope. This combined with his own Koronet Korpus, now fully recovered with only a few recruits could easily move on this column, possibly halting Konrad in the marshy regions making it difficult for him to perform any flanking actions.

Thus Ogólny Ludwik led out 500 armored horse, 300 Dragoons and 1200 Infantry along with 2 light field pieces. Duke Jerzy was prepared to follow with some 800 more mixed light horsemen, once they had all assembled from their detached search duties, and 1200 more foot troops along with another light field piece and a medium gun.

The head of the Konrad Korpus marching along the road consisted of 300 mixed light horse, 300 Dragoons and 800 or so infantry and a light field piece; under the command of a very steady mercenary commander from Northern Italy, known to be very loyal to the holy see.

Absolutism in Mieczyslaw finds a leader

Baron Konrad was the leader that Cardinal Dobry found ready and willing to take on the task of open conflict with the young Duke and his aged Ogólny.

While Duke Jerzy cajoled the szlachta into supporting his muster and levvies Ogólny Ludwik made haste with the veterans that had remained loyal to the Duke. Some 6000 men of all arms, though mostly of cavalry were ready to take the field that spring.

Cardinal Dobry had brought 3000 mercenaries from Imperial holdings in the Hertzogh of Burtzenia and a further 4000 men were raised by the efforts of Baron Konrad, most of these forces were foot troops, with a slight advantage in artillery as the cash brought in by the Cardinal had been able to purchase a great number of pieces at reduced value from the disbanding formations of western and central Urope.

Duke Jerzy was unable to get more than two fifths of the szlachta to agree to the levvies and while certainly no more than a single fifth of the szlachta had clearly intentions of supporting Baron Konrad the remaining szlachta were unwilling to enter into what was clearly becoming a civil war...

Victory at Freistadt Tippelbruder

The Wstrasowo Dragoons and Wojskowo Piechota have participated in a great Allied Force defence of the Freistadt Tippelbruder.

All coffee-rooms and taverns on the west roads along the Percussion Hills have been a buzz with the news of this great victory over the vile Stagonians.

While the riders continue to spread the news and expand upon the effect that the Mieczyslaw forces had you may read of the more detailed account of the battle from the scene at Frankzonia (whom ran the proxy battle).

Слуга Государев

A very good DUEL



This time from a Russian film from 2007 called:

The Sovereign's Servant

Yet another good film that I shall have to find and see!