Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Raid on a Supply Depot II


As the second half of the battle unfolds, the Bleiherzen infantry assault has pressed the Grolsteiners back but had yet to break their lines.


The Bleherzen combined grenadier battalion advances to the charge.


The Colonel of the Grand Duchess's Liebguard encourages his boys to hold their ground by reminding them of their performance in the last battle...they have something to prove!



The Bleiherzen combined grenadiers charge the left of the Grolstein line and the Duchess's Liebguard deliver a stout volley in concert with the cannister fire of the "Red Battery" of the Grolstein artillery posted on the corners of the supply depot.


A tough fight but the grenadiers still win the melee and the Lieb Guard is forced to fall back loosing their Liebfahne in the fight.


Here a burly Bleiherzen NCO escorts the captured Grolsteiner ensign to the rear with the point of his spontoon for "encouragement".


Meanwhile on the left of the Bleherzen attack the cavalry is having a rough time of it...and are thrown back by the outnumbered but inspired Grolstein horse. It seems the Grolsteiners are intent on avenging their recent defeat at the Battle of Vier Arme


Even a full battalion of Bleiherzen infantry fails to break in to the monastery defended by a tenacious contingent of "White Croats".


Despite being pushed back twice by the advancing enemy, the Grand Duchess' Liebguard rallys and retuns to the fray delivering a volley that finally breaks the assault of the Bleiherzen grenadiers. In the distance Konrad Jahde's regiment of musketeers delivers a crushing volley.


In the closing moments of the battle the men of the Konigreich loose heart and are forced back, giving a win to the Grand Duchess! ...and as the sun set a party of the Duchess' Uhlanen come upon a young ensign carrying the white Liebfahne of the Duchess' Lifeguard who escaped in the confusion of the Bleiherzen retreat...a promotion is in store for that young lad!

11 comments:

Capt Bill said...

A near run thing, but congraduations to the Grand Duchess...

Bluebear Jeff said...

Excellent, as usual, sir.

What are the disks that the infantry are mounted on? And what diameter are they?


-- Jeff

abdul666 said...

A very enjoyable report for an exciting encounter, and what an eye-candy!
Thanks for sharing.

littlejohn said...

Jeff, the the infantry are mounted on 3/4" metal "fender" washers. They stick well on the magnetic trays I use. The cav are based on 20mmx40mm masonite precut from "Gale Force Nine" (cheap fast service from those guys!) here in the States...BTW the trays are from GF nine as well and are 60x40mm with sheet magnet applied to the top. It sounds time consuming but its actually pretty easy to make a set of 5 trays for a unit in short order...and now since I decided to go "old school" with the basing, I've got no "flocking" step to worry about. Some of my older units are flocked and I just left them that way because I have yet to figure out how to remove the stuff.

Pjotr said...

Superb postings, very inspiring indeed. May I ask as how you photograph your table to get such beautiful and crisp, almost shadow free pictures? This is a step in the process of blogging I haven't quite mastered yet.

Pjotr

Doc Smith said...

Great battle report - well done that young ensign! I like your colourfully ferocious uhlans too! I think your trad 'old school' presentation of shiny colourful figures and plain green basing (i.e. no flocking or terrain) takes me back to when I were but a lad... and 'real' wargaming! Well done!

Cheers,
Doc

littlejohn said...

Peter,
I'm still figuring out picture taking, but that being said, I seem to have some decent success with just a simple small point and shoot digital (Canon Powershot SD850) that I bought for my recent trip to Europe as a pocket camera. Its resolution is 12 MP and it does seem to have some sort of motion stabilization so I don't seem to need a tripod. I do try to steady myself against the roofs of buildings and such but most of the shots are just snapped as I go. The light in my game space is just industrial flourescent tubes in the ceiling...it is a very even light..(I game in a back storage room of my wife's knitting shop!?)

I have less success at home where the natural light from windows and such is really variable.

Still, I do get a few blurry images, but if I slow down and pay attention they seem to come out ok, and the tripod comes in handy for those really close shots.

In general though, I prefer to concentrate on the game rather than the photography so simple is the key!

"CinC Leadgardens" is threatening to get a Canon G11, so if she does, it will probably ramp things up pic-wise here....IF she lets me use it ;)

Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.com said...

Great stuff! I like the look and enjoyed the report (the troops all look good but I love the Uhlans!).

How did the Wargame feel after Black Powder?

tidders2 said...

Hoorah for the army of the Grand Duchess

-- Allan

Archduke Piccolo said...

What a battle! Just the thing: tenacious defence, holding on by the fingernails against determined attack, facing long odds, barely surviving to fight another day. Stirring stuff! And the pictures...!!

littlejohn said...

Ross,

Playing "The Wargame" after several outings with Black Powder was actually pretty refreshing...there is something great about those old rules that give the feel of 18th century combat is a really fun way. I found myself re-reading "The Wargame" and "Charge", just to get back in to the spirit of things. I also read that the idea in The Wargame was to keep the game balanced such that no one side got an advantage solely from a lucky die roll (like the treble moves in Black Powder)...I found in our Black Powder game (the Battle of Vier Arme), that my string of poor command rolls pretty much doomed the battle for Grolstein as they were never able to deploy effectively...using The Wargame this would have been less of a factor,...though given my usual generalship, I probably would have blown it anyway ;)