The Rebel Lands Campaign: End Notes

1.

In war, nothing is certain. The Bear was haughty after the forcing of the Carpathian passes and reducing the border garrisons. However, the Rebels put up a fierce resistance with their untried troops, and once the disciplined allied battalions reached the frontline, things began to change.

At the Peace of Soltvadkert, Medvetland agreed to retrieve all their troops from the Rebel provinces, and acknowledge them as a sovereign state once and for all. Land grabs based on (presumed) ancient rights are no longer possible past the frontier between the two nations.

What awaits the abashed Fyodor Bukolevich is uncertain: perhaps he will be demoted and lead a company of Cossacks in the coming Tekirdag-Medvetland war...

2.

While there were only four battles fought in about three months' time of campaigning, the Simple Card Game system worked well, producing varied results, being just nuisanced enough to provide a short narrative for each battle. It's easy to set up and calculate, requires very little paperwork, and a sequence of battles can be fought to a result in very little time.

3.

The overall consequences in the larger picture are the following: 

• Tekirdag is emboldened by the Medvet's failure and would initiate a border conflict (allowing me to field some Ottomans)
• Flosse, when considering their new plans of invading the Störkburg Valley, depended heavily on the S-B battalions tied down in the East; now they have to re-calculate.
• The Tsar Pavel V, although his armies were bloodied, is even more eager for challenging the current status quo, and this time he might avert his eyes to the North instead of the the West.

The Rebel Lands Campaign, Episode 7: The Last Ditch

It was already June and the Medvetland offensive stalled. Prince Bukolevich did expressly forbid his troops to bother the civilans of the occupied areas, but he could do nothing against the depredations of the Cossacks, which resulted in a civilian insurgency right behind his back. 

Many old Rebel villagers recalled the times of The Great Cat, Prince Ferencz Rákóczycza of Transsylvania, and retrieved their war axes and ancient flintlocks to fight the invader.

The Observation Corps had lost almost all their cavalry to Dietrich von Spülge, and were on the retreat to a fortified camp north-east of Ebugatta Crossroads, where they lingered for a while after their defeat, Spülge's detachment was growing day by day, after news of his victory reached the Rebel capitol. His objective of keeping the north road to Pesth safe was fulfilled, so he used the spare time to train the freshly formed regular Rebel battalions to an acceptable standard.

Having no chance but to strike forward, Bukolevich now attempted to encircle and surprise Herbert von Plischke's main Rebel army. Thus he would have driven a wedge between the two major Rebel armies, and in a while would force them to give battle separately. But as he was shadowed by enemy outriders all the time, he lost the initiative: the southern Allied forces countermarched and met his outside the small agrarian town of Kecskémet.