Friday, June 14, 2024

The Rebel Lands Campaign, Episode 5: A Slow Change in Circumstances

By now, the Medvetland army is deep within Rebel territory. They defeated the garrisons at the high Carpathian passes, remained masters of the field at the Battle of Kocsonya Hill, and suffered a minor setback by Schultze-Böhnstadt arms at the Battle of Bodros Hill, yet remained a complete fighting force.

Prince Fieldmarshal Fyodor Bukolevich, after receiving a healthy number of supporting (albeit raw) Cossack cavalry, had decided to split his army in two: the Observation Corps, along with the Cossacks and the necessary amount of siege train (mostly lightweight mortars) now marches on the Rebel capitol on an indirect route, avoiding the enemy, while his own troops keep doggedly at the heels of the retreating Rebels. 

His plan is to wear the main enemy force down while cutting off their line of retreat. If successful, it cancels the advantage offered by moving on interior lines, and does away with the chance that the enemy might re-form the same way they did after Kocsonya Hill.

What he does not know are the following:

1) Dietrich von Spülge has finally arrived at the theatre with the rest of the Schultze-Böhnstadt forces.

2) Bukolevich's message to the Observation Corps was intercepted, studied, then sent on its way intact (carefully sealed again), by the famous Rebel outrider Buga Jakab III, who immediately noticed the Rebel high command of the folly. 
Von Spülge then received orders to scrape together as many Rebel depot battalions as he could, and countermarch against the Observation Corps. He does not have to decisively beat them, jut protect the main army's line of retreat.

3) Removing five thousand Medvetland Cossacks from the Tekirdag border alerted Ibrahim Pasha (nicknamed The Pillager) of the Northern Vilayet to some opportunities...

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