Saturday, November 3, 2007

Battle of Tippelbruder Looms

(well, not really . . . but we are getting it set up and the forces are closed).

NEWSFLASH . . . A Stagonian field army has been sighted in the close vicinity of the town of Tippelbruder. This appears to be in response to certain "insults" that Koenig Maurice perceived to come from the shop of David, Tippelbruder's uniform designer.

While no one else perceived anything that could have been an insult, several nations mustered troops to the defense of the town. They are:

from Hesse-Engelburg -- under the command of Captain Wilhelm Streicker:
-- Garde du Corps Prinzessin Gertrude -- 2 musketeer companies -- 2 x 120 = 240 men
-- Jäger Regiment Von Behler -- 1 company = 120 men
-- Hussars -- 1 Squadron = 120 mounted men
-- Corporal Sontag (to teach marksmanship to Tippelbruder militia)

from Soweiter League -- (no commander mentioned):
-- Saxe-Urquhart 86th Highlanders -- 1 battalion = c.560 men

from Prince Maurice Duke of Fenwick (vice King Leopold IV of Wittenburg):
-- 1 battalion of infantry (under Colonel Von Feldmouse) -- 4 companies = 600 men
-- 1 battery of artillery (under Lt. Colonel Von Schweeky) -- 120 men and 6 light guns

from Saxe-Bearstein -- under command of Brigadier Ernst von Bruin
-- Regiment von Lowenbrau -- 1 battalion = c.750 men
-- Regiment von Carling -- 1 company of grenadiers = 123 men
-- Regiment von Coors -- 1 company of grenadiers = 122 men
-- Karlsberg Jagers -- 1 small company of jagers = 62 men
-- Artillery -- 1 medium (9#) gun and crew
-- Regiment Von Urquell -- 1 battalion -- c.750 men (reserve -- still in Saxe-Bearstein)

from The Freikorps of Count Hans Trunkenbold von Misthaufen:
-- 1 Musketeer Battalion = c.500 men
-- 1 Jäger Corps = c.400 men
-- Croats -- 3 companies = c.300 men
-- Hussars -- 3 squadrons = c.300 mounted men
-- Artillery -- 6 light (3#) guns

from Town of Tipplebruder:
-- Town Militia -- 1 company = 100 c. men
-- Artillery -- 3 light (3#) guns

from Mieczyslaw -- (in Reserve -- still in Mieczyslaw):
-- Wstrasowo Dragoons -- 4 squadrons -- 150 each = 600 mounted men (not yet arrived)
-- elite Wojskowo Piechota -- 5 companies = 460 men (not yet arrived)


As can be seen, these forces are heavy in infantry, with lots of skirmish power. They also have an abundance of light artillery.

The Tippelbruder forces are, however, light in mounted troops; and definitely lacking in command officers. Indeed, it is likely that each of the above commands will remain under their own commanders with no recognized overall commander.

The Stagonian forces are as yet unknown (meaning we have to figure out a reasonably comparable force).

Please clarify any names, etc. for the above troops. Other troops may not be added . . . and a die roll will be needed by the proxy player (probably Arthur) to see if they arrive in time.


-- Jeff

19 comments:

abdul666 said...

Wow!
Very *great* news!

Things are accelerating on 'EvE!

Cheers,
Jean-Louis

Frankfurter said...

Jeff.
Don't forget that some very good cavalry formations from Frankfurter should still be sort of shadowing your force and could show up in time for the fight (a late arrival die perhaps?)
The Porcelain Dragoons and Hussar group ...
Now to go count figures and figure on the "scale"
:)
Arthur

David Morfitt said...

Hurrah! So things are moving on the Tippelbruder front. :-)

I must get my map of the environs of Tippelbruder and of the town itself finished ASAP. Any ideas of a timetable for this? Thanks.

David.

David Morfitt said...

And some late-arrival cavalry to obliterate the routing Stagonians would be excellent, Arthur! :-)

David.

Frankfurter said...

apologies for violating list rules with these details, but needed to get the info out before taking the wife shopping ... (I'm trying to beg off on basis of my bad leg, no joke -- but then she'll insist I lie down)

If I have to play this out at home, my limited space means that
formations:
figs = 50 men, guns = 4/6 guns
This is quite approximate and rather adjusted ....
If I get to play at my mother in laws or elsewhere, the number of figures will be doubled ....

Some of these formations obviously mean that small companies are being brigaded with larger formations .... and with a double figure game (one fig = 20 / 30 men), they may split off again ...
Infantry:
Grenadiers = 1 battalion @ 16 or 2 @ 8
Line = 1 Highlander, 2 line @ 12 figs
Light = 1 battalion, 16 figs

Cavalry:
6 figs croats, 9 figs Hussars

Guns:
3 ½ @ 1 = 4 to 6 guns ...
(due to my slowness in painting, this stat may remain constant)

Late arrival die:
1 bat line / 16 figs
1 bat line / 9 figs
1 regt. Dragoons / 12 figs

This does not include the Frankszonian cavalry contingent at all ... as win or lose, Frankszonia and Stagonia are going to go at it again soon, and I suspect that absent a total rout, the Hurtshog will order his Obersts to keep a safe distance until the whole army concentrates ....
(and that keeps the force limit imposed by our real gamers!)

My wife is buying film and looking over her tripods now ... (the last one didn't work right for her)
:)
Arthur

Frankfurter said...

At the moment, I envision Tipple-Bruder as being south of the Main and East of the Rhine ... so that the force recently active at Offenbach could viably descend upon you. ...
Perhaps somewhere between Darmstadt and the Rhine ....
:)
Arthur

Frankfurter said...

Examining "Multi-Map" which gives both a map and an aerial view which can be zoomed ... I found a town "Trebur" in a nice spot on the Rhine flood plain, I think. It's a couple of miles from the Rhine on a small river whose name I didn't find. "Trebur" also looks like a plausible modern corruption of "Tipple-Bruder" ....
so

Stagonian March route:

Offenbach
Langen-Hessen
Moerfelden
Falltorhaus
Gross-Gerau
Nauheim
to
Trebur (Tipple-Bruder)

Sound okay??
Once again, my email is ahawk@centurytel.net
Now to go lie down ....

oh yes, tentatively schedule the game either next weekend, or Thanksgiving, or the weekend after.

David Morfitt said...

Hi Arthur,

The troop organisation sounds good, although the Croats are light infantry rather than cavalry.

I envisage Tippelbruder as somewhat south-east of Trebur, between Mannheim and Wurzburg, in the heavily wooded Odenwald - in my imagination it is in a small hollow with a river running through and surrounded by wooded hills, something like Ebenheid (but that doesn't have the river). I should be able to get the plan of the town and the environs of Tippelbruder done in the next few days, I hope.

Thanks for doing this.

All the best,

David.

Fitz-Badger said...

I read the title "Battle of Tippelbruder Looms" as pertaining to weaving looms at first. LOL Somewhat appropriate for unifrom manufacturers.

The commander of the Saxe-Urquhart 86th Highlanders is Stanley McLaurel of that ilk. :-)

Stagonian Jeff said...

Art,

Actually, my thought (suggested by someone else) was that we of Stagonia had sent out two columns.

One that devastated the vile Frankzonians and a separate column to burn out the Town of Tippelbruder.

For my rules, we dice to see which officers and units are available for battle . . . which I will do once we figure out how much I should have.

While I'll re-roll if an officer is duplicated, if any of the other units come up, they will simply be a second battalion or further squadrons of a unit that took part in the defense of Offenbach.

All of my units will be rated either "elite", "veteran" or "raw" . . . which should (in KK) relate to different morale numbers. We also have two other grades (Guard and Conscript), but they will not be involved in this battle.


-- Stagonian Jeff

Stagonian Jeff said...

Art,

The Stagonian C-in-C is . . . Major General Karl von Drednoz.

His personality type is "Careful"; his Initiative is "2" (mid-range under our rules); but his Inertia rating is "1" (lowest -- he doesn't change course easily).

Subordinates will be:

-- Brigadier Yves d'Amours (Aggressive, initiative 2, inertia 3)

-- Brigadier Lothar Oppenkopf (Careful, initiative 1, inertia 1)

-- Brigadier Heinrich von Kroll (Steady, initiative 2, inertia 2)

Under our rules, the initiative and inertia ratings have 3 as the best and 1 as the worst . . . so you can equate it how you will for your rules.

As for particular units, I'll await your suggestion as to the size of the force. I want to generate a good battle; but I don't really care if the Town is defeated or not.

The really interesting thing that I forsee is that the lack of any sort of unified command structure (due to all of the different allied forces).

The important thing will be that each force really only cares about themselves . . . so each nation's force will care only about it's own casualties . . . with thus a half-dozen different forces rolling for their "break points".


-- Jeff

Bluebear Jeff said...

I would guess that there would be an excellent chance of the Mieczyslaw Dragoons making it to the battle -- say 4 or 5 out of 6.

The slower Mieczyslaw battalion would probably only have a 1/3rd chance (due to the distances involved).

As for the second Saxe-Bearstein battalion, it probably would have no better than a 50% chance of showing up.

Speaking of the Saxe-Bearstein forces . . .

von Lowenbrau -- Raw
von Urquell (if there) -- Raw
Jagers are Raw
Artillery is Veteran
Grenadiers -- I presume that the two companies would be converged (along with those of those S-B battalions present) and would be rated Veteran (not Elite).

Brigadier Ernst von Bruin is rated STEADY, initiative 1, inertia 2 in our rules.

-- Jeff of Saxe-Bearstein

Frankfurter said...

Woosh,
A ton of stuff to copy and to incorporate ...
I just bought a stack of index cards so I could make those labels which you all used in the Offenham Game.
Two armies for Stagonia, huh?
Must be a lot bigger than Frankszonia then :) We've got to hire mercs ....
And I did such a good bit of research for that march route too! (grin)

Now, a question for the group, which I'm going to repeat as a regular post, but do we want all this detail on THIS "diplomatic" blog, or rather handle it primarily as group emails as was done for Offenbach?
For the record, my email is:
ahawk@centurytel.net.
If you want your address "hidden" on the replies, I'll send your responses as a "back copy" .....
And, in one week, another great big conflict for Gallia and Hesse Seewald! Looking forward to the after action posts!

Arthur

Frankfurter said...

Okay,
Composite forces for Tipple Bruder will be adjusted to 2 battalions of lights / One being rifle armed,

I'm going to need an excuse to get their on table cavalry up to over 600 men somehow.

As I've noted in my latest post (as opposed to comment) the alliance needs to scramble to select a C-in-C, and to let me know how their own officers feel about the character selected ....
ahawk@centurytel.net ....

After I take a gander at the OdenWald, I'll have some more thoughts on the nature of the scenario to run by you all ...

:)
Arthur

Frankfurter said...

Another Stagonian Itinerary
Looking for River Town with near by hills in Odenwald ....

How about?

Oberschnorhof,
Dammbach ,
Himmelthal,
Moenchburg, Schmachtenberg, to
Klingenburg am Main (nee Tippel-Bruder);

or
Moencheburg, Roellbach to
Roellfeld, (nee Tippel-Bruder) which is on the Main ....

In both cases, the battle would probably occur about 5 kilometers away from town in order to defend the forest defiles leading to the town .... and thus giving the Stagonian forces room to deploy .... and the defenders, “fall back” routes and positions .....

look at:
http://www.multimap.com/maps/#t=l&map=49.75838,9.20722|11|4&loc=DE:49.71588:9.36103:14|Ebenheid|Ebenheid,%20Freudenberg

and click on the aerial option ...

David Morfitt said...

Thanks for all that, Arthur. I shall set to work tomorrow to finish the Tippelbruder map, examine the potential Odenwald settings and also sketch out the commanders of the indvidual battalions etc. that make up the Trunkenbold Freikorps. I should also point out that the commander of the Freikorps would be happy to work under the command of a good general - but of course it all depends on who we can choose!

Must dash as lots to do tonight (not wargaming related, sadly!)

All the best,

David.

old-tidders said...

Since the Duchy of Fenwick contingent are 'mercenaries' provided to Tippelbruder, they are under instructions to take orders from the C in C appointed.

-- Allan (Wittenberg and Fenwick)

David Morfitt said...

Hi Arthur and all,

I've done the map of the immediate environs of Tippelbruder, which I'll send to Arthur and also post up on the Tippelbruder blog. It's quite a large file converted from a vector file as it has bitmap fills (for the forest texture).

Plonking it down anywhere near, say, Dammbach would be fine, I think! :-)

David.

Snickering Corpses said...

Troop quality:

Jäger Regiment Von Behler are drawn from reliable men with strong backgrounds in the woods. They've experienced small infantry combat, both in minor tangles with thieves and vagabonds and in small-scale engagements with forces from Bad Nachtschwein. They aren't, however, used to a regular field battle with cannons and so forth. I see them as similar to American frontiersmen. They'll fight fiercely given cover but run for the nearest cover if caught in the open. They wear green coats, waistcoats, and trousers with orange facings.

Both the Hussars and the Musketeers are from the Garde du Corps Prinzessin Gertrude, and are well trained but unbloodied. The musketeers wear pink coats with purple facings, gray trousers and waistcoats. The Hussars wear pink coats with gray trousers, a purple pelisse with azure trim, and a busby with a pink bag.

Uniforms are of course pictured on my blog still.

Captain Wilhelm Streicker is a very competent officer, steady, and experienced from his service in past conflicts. He's drawn from the general staff, not from the Garde du Corps, both for his expereince and to avoid any conflict of command between the Garde du Corps and the Jagers. As a staff officer, he wears a gray coat with azure facings, gray trousers and an azure waistcoat.

So, you have a small body of infantry and cavalry with a high opinion of themselves that has yet to be tested in open battle.