Fun on the River

Time to gear up for another fight, this time as the main Aschenbach army crosses a large river and the Luftberg army tries to fling them back. I'm currently on holiday this week, but as it's for my relatives visiting I am not getting much time for wargaming, frustratingly enough! Still, there's a fair bit of preparation to do, so I'm busying myself with that - making little pontoon bridges out of card, and such.

Let's take a look at the forces on hand for the fight:

Aschenbach Army (HRH Von Krumper commanding)

IR1 v. Zaub Garde Regiment (2 battalions)

IR2 v. Klink Infantry Regiment (2 battalions)

IR3 v. Grumble Infantry Regiment (2 battalions)

IR6 v. Rechnung Infantry Battalion (1 battalion)

CR2 v. Kurbitz Cuirassier Regiment (2 battalions)

HR1 v. Ritter Hussar Regiment (2 battalions)

Artillery Battery No. 3 (2 sections)

(Also various impedimenta, such as siege guns, baggage, etc.)

Luftberg Army (Graf Felix Von Hentsch commanding)

IR4 Negrelli Infantry Regiment (2 battalions)

IR6 Karlovic Croat Infantry Regiment (2 battalions)

IR8 Schrammel Infantry Regiment (2 battalions)

CR1 Haas Cuirassier Regiment (2 battalions)

DR1 Raab Dragoon Regiment (2 battalions)

Artillery Battery No. 3 (2 sections)

Overall, this gives two closely-matched opponents. Aschenbach has grenadiers, better infantry and good commanders, while Luftberg has the better cavalry force, skirmishing troops and is defending a river. Sounds like a decent fight, at least!

I decided to make this one a bit bigger than normal, and realised that I could field each unit at a battalion level instead of my usual 'unit=regiment' scale. As such I have been painting and basing my Aschenbach Grenadier HQ bases, plus digging around for a few extras. I have managed to cover everything with the exception of two things - I have only one unit of Aschenbach Hussars and Luftberg Croats, so fielding two battalions of them was something of a problem. I decided in the end to have one battalion/squadron of Hussars in play at one time for the Aschenbach player, considering that one battalion would need to remain off-board to guard the pontooneers, siege-gun artillery park, and so on. If the hussar squadron in the fight is destroyed I will allow another one to enter, it's role guarding the rear-areas doubtless now being taken over by disorganised bands of straggler hussars and demoralised troops which were routed off the field.

For the croats I have raided my spares-box for odd figures and found some old models of line troops in tricornes, advancing in skirmish-like poses. I've discarded them as I was unable to fit them in with the revised unit formations, but I can put them to use now - they will represent the citizen militia from the capital Brederdam, which Von Hentsch will have doubtless swept up in his force when he marched out of the city, to act as irregulars, local guides and scouts through the sandy flatlands at the mouth of the river. I'll give them a quick paint into 'civilian' coats and colours, and they should fill out the Croat bases to give me two skirmisher units.

As soon as I can get a few hours of quiet-time, I'll be battling away. Photos and report to follow!