The further adventures of Gerdt von Krumper

Following his defeat, the Prinzregent von Krumper has been responding like any sensible general - locking himself away in the nearest requisitioned mansion, proclaiming the entire house of Krumper to be doomed, and passing listless days stretched out on a chaise-longue reading over-wrought French poetry. Still, after such necessary self-indulgence, it's time to pull himself together and look at the damage...

How does the campaign map shape up now? Well, there's no denying that the campaign has been (perhaps through inexperience) running at a rather ahistorical intensity (or perhaps not, and I'm just being naive.) Anyway, the fact is that after two months in this of the five-month campaign season, each side has been spectacularly depleted. From attrition, supply losses, desertion and battle casualties, the Aschenbach army has lost about half it's strength while the Luftberg army has lost about a third of it's.

After Vogelhof, the Luftberg army moved back onto the main road to Flussburg, and began closing on the capital. Von Krumper had regained his equilibrium by this point, and marched back to Flussburg, initially intending to fight it out for the city in a defensive battle. The Aschenbach army was a sorry sight for the residents of Flussburg - it had marched out in top condition barely two months earlier, now returned by the same road at half strength and with the enemy hot on it's heels. However, a further look at the army's dwindling strength decided Gerdt von Krumper against a heroic stand and he evaded the Luftberg army, swinging south. The army was too depleted to leave any units behind, so the local militias and garrison troops will have to stand the siege.

Von Krumper pondered letting von Kleintrink ride off with the cavalry to rout the enemy Hussar detatchment under general Van Der Dijk, but decided against it for the time being as they were already operating too far from their depots to last. The Aschenbach army headed southeast, occupying a central-southern position and re-establishing it's supply lines. The Luftberg army may be besieging the capital, but the Aschenbach army was now in striking range of both their supply lines over the river and their raiding detatchment in the west.

It's a clear sign of von Krumper's intention to keep the fight going, and presents the Elector von Luftberg with a few problems for his own response - of which more later...