Shetland - at dawn

With the breaking dawn the Tradgardland engineers can see fully their handiwork. The camp is still being fortified with stout banks of earth but the first gun emplacements are ready.

All has gone well- the locals are taciturn but no worse. An officer's gathering is called for ten o'clock where the orders of the day will be given and received. So far things have gone to plan.

The Shetland Isles shortly after dawn....

The Fleet has arrived in Northern Waters.They anchor off Shetland and prepare.

With hastily faked uniforms the first wave of the Tradgardland Force sets foot upon Shetland. Their cunning plan succeeding they remove their false colours and proudly wear the uniform of the Duchy. Wave after wave of troops land successfully through the choppy surf.

Scouts ,moving ahead of the main body, come upon a farmstead. They enter the enclosure and suddenly come face to face with two men..........

Brief Encounter

After a furious and unexpected encounter the Tradgardland Ships Flundra and Blackfisk were sunk by the Brittanian Navy. Overwhelmed by odds of two to one they bravely fought until the Flundra magazine exploded. The crew of the Blackfisk struck their colours and successfully attempted to scuttle their ship. Survivors were taken prisoner upon the Brittanian ships and were taken to the port of Leith.

News from the Tradgardmastre

After much thought I decided not to continue with the Banat or Alteberg Blogs- I deleted them as they are no longer part of my wargaming plans. I hope however to continue with the Duchy of Tradgardland soon and hope to bring news of the Shetland Expedition and its ongoing adventures.

New Drums Beating in Ober-Schweinsberg

It is often thought that the chillier temperatures fall, the less men's blood will run hot for war. But this is not always the case. Rumors are spreading along the trade routes from traveler to traveler, rumors that the chilled war in Ober-Schweinsberg is about to heat up again. And why not, observe the grumpier amongst the lot. All the rest of Europe is filled with uphevals, great wars, and petty strifes, so why not Ober-Schweinsberg?

The Armies of Prince Asgar and Prince Arnold have abruptly left their winter quarters and are reported to be marching towards the town of Vergoldeten on Ober-Schweinsberg's northern trade routes. Up till now, the town has remained somewhat of a neutral territory, but that all appears ready to change, if the two armies do not divert from their present course.

In the town, rumors fly of a bar-room brawl involving off-duty Irish mercenaries and representatives variously claimed to be from the Bad Nachtschwein League, either of the two Princes, Stagonia, or even the Koronet Korpus or Hesse-Engelburg. Maybe all of the above. As near as can be pieced together from the varrying rumors, the brawl appears to have begun when one person accused another person of having stolen a set of solid silver pig statues from the first someone's luggage. Accusations and blows appear to have flown from there, and the fight is reported to have left at least three people dead, though no one can agree on the identity of the casualties.

Some speculate that the importance of the city for trade and its nearness to the Hesse-Engelburg border may even draw Engleburg forces into the conflict, and local residents have reported various bodies of mercenaries moving along the roads towards the town, perhaps in someone's employ or perhaps simply speculating upon the likelihood that they can pick up employment on arrival. It remains to be seen how many forces will find themselves embroiled and how events will play themselves out, but a number of residents and merchants are reportedly leaving for outlying villages until the matter is settled.

Mieczyslaw rides to the defence of Tipplebruder

In a hushed wooded area a small barn has a great host taking shelter around it.

The forces of The Duchy of Mieczyslaw are resting after another day of march, through progressively wetter and wetter days, thier lines have become somewhat slower in progress, though now that well maintained roads, some metalled, have been reached the speed by day has increased. The hours of light each day grow shorter, thus keeping the speed of march each day near the same.

Some delays were had in bypassing Burtzenia, now that they were revealed as a foe, and without diverting too far north, lest the Norden armies take action again it took some time and patience on the part of the column commander Hit Man Kasper Ksawerić of the veteran Wstrasowo Dragon to negotiate (even with letters of introduction) his way westwards. The column also contained an elite force, Wojskowo Piechota, though only recently fetted the pair of commands had served together before and a good comradeship existed between the countrymen; though at times recently the footsore Piechota had begun to lag behind more than the Hit Man liked.

A bare meal had finished that night and while enjoying some music about the bivouac fires there was a sudden hush over all...one of the outlieing piquets had brought in a strange pair of riders.

They were both heavily cloaked in plain riding clothes, a simple fact of life in the cold rainy weather, but there was something about their bearing and purposeful stride into the barn that said something more was about to happen.

The men of Wojskowo Piechota tried to ignore the obvious agitiation of the Dragons once their Wojskowo Piechota colonel was called into the meeting. Runners were sent to the Dragon formations, prepare the horse for rapid ride on the first light was to be the order of the day; nothing much in surprise save for one item, NO BAGGAGE. All troopers were to bed down immediately and farriers were to have travel kits ready to maintain the horses, there were to be no carts. These orders shifted the focus of the horsemen.

A while later the Wojskowo Piechota got thier own new orders, the column was to take on the supervision of all baggage for themselves and the Dragon, also half of all rations were to be gathered and distributed to the horsemen before dawn, there was to be a rush on ahead for the Dragon, for it appears that Stagonia had begun their advance...some place called Offenbach had been attacked by Stagonia and now the allied forces needed screening or battle cavalry urgently.

Just before dawn the strange becloaked riders at the head of the four Squadrons of the veteran Wstrasowo Dragon, commanded by Hit Man Kasper Ksawerić, broke camp and rode into the morning mists leaving their foot soldiery behind.

Uniform Mix in Tippelbruder

(note -- battle participants are urged to leave comments as well as directions to their own blogs)

The pending Battle of Tippelbruder should be a colorful one. While the good guys (Stagonia, of course) are dressed in white (like the good guys are supposed to be), those defending the timorous tailor will sport a variety of colorful coats.

Pink, blue, red and green are amongst the hues to be worn by the various forces currently assembling around the doomed town. To wit . . .

• Hesse-Engelburg's infantry uniform coats are pink (yes, putrid pink).
• Saxe-Bearstein's infantry coats are red
• Fenwick's coats are also red
• Mieczyslaw's infantry are dressed in blue
• the Count's Freikorps are also dressed in blue
• various jagers wear green coats
• and the Saxe-Urquhart's coat color is unknown -- but they wear skirts

And remember, Stagonia (the good guys) wear white.


-- Stagonian Jeff

Diplomatic Shock Rocks the Empire

November 5, 1757 - Vienna The citizens of the Empire were shocked today when they heard the news that Germania and The Imperium had reached a peace settlement today. Count von Kaunitz, the foreign minister of The Imperium and Count Doppleganger, his counterpart with the Germanian foreign ministry, issued a joint proclamation of an armistice between their respective countries. By the terms of the armistice, borders will revert to their status quo ante bellum. As a result, all Germanians armed forces will withdraw from Bohemia and return to Germania while Imperium troops attached to the Gallian and Saxon armies will retire to Imperium territory.

The armistace has no bearing on the current conflict between Germania and its allies from Hesse Seewald, Hanover, Hesse Kassel and Britannia versus the Gallian-Saxon league of allies. As a result, Friedrich II's Germanian army will continue to occupy Dresden as a negotiating tool to get the Gallians to reach an agreement to end their occupation of western Germany.

The Courts of Saxe-Raschstein and Versailles were understandably shocked at this sudden turn of events, and they elected to defer making public comment until they had time to assess the impact of this diplomatic revolution. The armistice will free up the Germanian armies to concentrate on the Gallian-Saxon armies that are currently operating in western Germany, although there is strong speculation that King Friedrich II would rather go into winter quarters and refit his army rather than campaign in western Germany against the Gallians.

Insiders to the Court in Vienna believe that the Empress Marie Therese was shocked at the severe losses that her army suffered at the Battle of Preiserstadt on October 13, 1757. The losses, combined with a depleted treasury, has put a severe strain on the Imperium economy and its abilty to bring its army up to a full war footing. The same insiders also indicate, off the record, that the armistice will buy time for the Empress to rebuild her armies and adequately defend her domains from future incursions from beligerent nations. We do not rule out the possibility that hostilities between the two nations could resume in the Spring of 1758, should conditions change.

Weaving the Looming Battle

For those of you who are watching the developments around Tipple Bruder, I've thought of a question which, frankly, should be of interest to the entire group.

As you can already see, there's actually quite a bit of fun research, consideration, designations, and debates surrounding any battle.
The "comments" after the current TippleBruder post show quite a bit of the sort of interaction that goes on among the many players involved ... in this case, at least four or five players are contributing troops to the battle which I hope to resolve.
Now, with the Offenbach situation, we posted an awful lot as the diplomatic exchanges were a lot of fun, but the same kind of detail background wasn't posted (too much like battle reports etc.)

BUT

I begin to see this as a nice example with which to demonstrate how such proxy battles can be done. In consequence, I'm suggestion that we continue to violate the blog rules and continue to carry on the minutia of the game set up in the comments rather than resort to all the emailing for the Offenbach battle.

Furthermore, there is actually a very fertile source for diplomatic exchange and faux pas in this scenario.
As has been noted, the Tipel-Bruder defense is composed of a number of differing units from widely separated points (btw: all the late arriving forces will arrive ... game dynamics kind of require it ... but like those "reinforcement" troops in the old Avalon Hill games). Now it's obvious that the alliance will have to hold "councils of war" and designate a C - in - C. Whom will they select? How will the other generals respond? Thus I can set up some as "unreliable" and others as quite co-operative ... and there exist several real nice mechanisms to handle this.

Ah yes, the most important point ... who is on the right flank???

Now let the skull duggery begin (while I go count figures, if it weren't for the cavalry and guns, my new plastics could handle what we've got so far ... but Edie likes those nice 24 man battalions on that green cloth ...
btw, most of the trees in my games are scratch builts ... if you've looked at them on my site, how did you like them?
A

PS: notice another advantage of proxy battles. If your own collection isn't big enough to fight the battle, no problems, you'll still be able to generate officer and unit stats for your imagi-nation and let the volunteer gamer use as appropriate as plausible figures for the fight!
PPS: Just a thought, you all might post pictures on your own blogs or here what each unit is "supposed to look like" as so many of us like quite unique and individual uniform designs!
having fun ....
A

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

Current Currents

I'm way behind in reposting stuff to my own blog ... following all the action here was too much fun! But I'll be trying to do it next week.

Meanwhile, I've also been thinking about the recent proxy game, and all the fun it generated, and trying to write a nice "how-to" note, as I honestly feel that our Empire-Elector blog is the ideal and best environment to spark these kinds of thing.
A key element is finding another person on the blog whose "country" is close enough to justify a direct confrontation, yet the gamers can't meet face to face.

Why? How? Come on! We're all running hysterical imagi-nations here ... it's like asking why Stagonian girls don't shave their lower lips too ... Or why Tipple-Bruder cavalry all ride like Mongols, squatting cross legged on their mounts ...
Then, when the potential fight is started, we can recruit volunteers to play with their toys for us ... and given the justified pride several of the other folks here (yours truly completely excepted, alas) have in their figures and their natural desire to show them off ...

Now, I was going to suggest some conflicts based on these maps:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/allan.tidmarsh/Wargames/EvE/

http://emperor-elector.blogspot.com/2007/05/bubbles-tighten-up.html

Alas, I also noticed that they are very out of date!
I don't have the skills to upgrade them ... does anybody else ... perhaps including the brave folks who started them???


sincerely out of character:
Arthur
(after all, the Hurtshog is in a very disturbed state right now! *v*)

UK Big Game Web Site?

Could we post a link to the UK Old School Big Battalion Game blog site? I have been trying to find it by searching for links through the various Imaginations sites, but have yet to find anything.

regards,

Der Alte Fritz