A New Year Begins

Happy New Year to all! I'm having a quiet day today, recovering from all the pre-new year chocolate and now all the post-new year drinking. Things aren't exactly healthy here, and the queasy hangover isn't helping. Still, last night was a lot of fun! :-) Also, the holidays saw some presents for miniatures and painting, so I'll do an update on that too, before long.

For now though - time to pick up the reins on the story, as it's been neglected for the holidays. Aschenbach's army is over the river now, heading into the Luftberg army's rear. The Graf von Hentsch is now belatedly aware of the movement, and the two armies have to close the range.


Here's a map of the outcomes, which I rolled dice for and measured out on my scaled map. Luftberg headed south to the central and obvious feature of the terrain, the Grosser Hugel heights. Aschenbach managed to make good rime over the open plains and farmland between the crossing and the hills, so the Windmuhle Hugel was reached before Luftberg could make it there. As the bluecoats flanked the windmill as planned, the situation was as shown below:

Hm. Aschenbach, advancing for battle, is in a single compact force for striking. Luftberg however is a bit more disjointed. In four separate groups, each has headed for the best terrain nearby and wound up rather over-extended. Aschenbach's pre-battle plan by Von Krumper anticipated the whole enemy force to be on the Grosser Hugel, but the cavalry wing is actually separate on a small hillock near the Ost-Bauernhof. The hillock has woods to it's south, so a full outflanking would require yet more marching round the east. After a brief council-of-war, Von Krumper decided to use von Kleintrink's cavalry to screen the enemy horse and protect his rear, while his infantry fell as planned on the enemy flank to roll up their line.

So, the scene is set. The forces are arrayed for the tabletop, the plans are laid, and the battle may bring the campaign to a sudden conclusion. If Aschenbach win, Von Hentsch will be isolated and with his lines of supply cut; if Luftberg win, Von Krumper needs to retreat back over the river while pursued by the enemy. High stakes indeed, so let's have a fortifying pinch of snuff before crying "Marsch!"