A small town in Quattri Formaggi...

Brigadier Charmant mustered his troops at the Formaggian shore after a series of successful raids against the seaports. He's had three galloper guns, five battalions of skirmisher infantry and three large hussar squadrons, the famous Hussards Bleus included.

He had good reconnaisance - despite his old age, he was a cunning light infantry officer, just the man the Glambrian court needed for the job. Therefore he knew well that Condottiere Lasciato was marching against him with five battalions of line foot, four guns, three dragoon and one cuirassier units - whether they were oversized squadrons or small regiments, he could not tell.

Suillen Shelf

It was the beginning days of the invasion of Île-de-Suillen. A large number of Glambrian troops embarked on all sorts of vessels, mainly Glambrian East India Company frigates hired by the crown, to retake that small spot of land in the middle of the sea. 

The wind favored the attackers, and in a short while they were in sight of Île-de-Suillen. A fast-sailing cutter emerged from the isle and sailed towards the Formaggian shores: the Formaggian Western Fleet was alerted. The Glambrian navy successfully intercepted the intervening enemies while the transport ships, too weak to put up a fight against a ship of the line, continued their way under full sail.

The Île-de-Suillen Campaign

We are taken back in time again, on this occasion to the Formaggian invasion of the Glambrian Île-de-Suillen. The island is currently under Formaggian control, but has originally been part of the Glambrian crown's lands. A fleet carrying a large amount of troops starts an invasion. The (usurping) Chancellorette Beatrice Schiavona has, by now, consolidated the Formaggian hinterlands, so she has a sufficient number of loyal troops available. 

Île-de-Suillen (Isola de Suillen) is almost halfway from both the Glambrian and the Formaggian shores. It has a strategical importance as a naval base. The Glambrians feel that despite their latest failures against the Protestant Duchy of Armagnac, their cooperating army and navy could capture the island; another reason the government wants it back is that it could serve not only to control the surrounding seas, but as a base for an island-hopping operation against the island of Luprec that is under the Duchy's control.

Île-de-Suillen in the centre; the Glambrian (purple) shore to the west, the Formaggian (yellow) to the east.

If you visit the 'Basic info' page you can see that there is no result stated in the chronology tied to this event, so the series of battles will decide the canonical version. The fort on the map is in Glambrian colors, but we'll see about that.

I'm going to use the 'Flossian' 6mm army for Glambrians and 'Schultze-Böhnstadt' for QF. Naval action will be fought with my fresh 1/4800 scale fleets.

Battle #1.
Takes place near the Western Suillen Shelf
Engagement: Naval
Rules: Kiss Me Hardy

A full-on engagement between two large fleets of ships of the line. The Glambrians have better ships and crews while the alerted QF Navy has more vessels.

Battle #2.
Engagement: Land (Irregular vs. Regular)
Rules: Maurice

A brigade of Glambrian units lands on the western shore of the Formaggian peninsula to divert troops from the relief of the island. They are almost completely irregular units that intend to plunder the coastal towns and cause chaos to tie the Formaggians down. However, their area of operations is limited so they must stand battle against a regular QF force. 

Battle #3.

Engagement: Naval

Rules: Kiss Me Hardy

A unit of well-trained Formaggian privateers (on frigates) plays their own trick against the Glambrians as they lure the frigates part of the blockade away from the island so the relief force could land.

Battle #4. 

Engagement: Land + Naval support

Rules: Maurice

Île-de-Suillen itself is protected by a small fort. Despite the efforts on the seas and the mainland, a Formaggian brigade reached the island, but a storm forced them to disembark further to the north - now they must reach the fort in time and lift the siege.

Most of the Glambrian navy sailed away to chase the privateers, but a heavy frigate remains to provide support (activated as an artillery formation of 3 cannon).

The battle of Snowy Village

As the campaign season ended, old General von Hohenspitz went home to see his family. After he'd told everything about the current campaign, he had sat down with his grandchildren to tell the story of a battle during the War of Störkburg Valley.

'I had been but eighteen years old, a Fahnlein in the Prinzess Angela Cuirassiers, very close to promotion. It was a clean, cold December morning when we approached this small village on the western border, lying in a small plain between two hills. We had seen General Kraufer's troops in the distance and they looked they'd be giving battle. The village at that time had been very silent - not a soul to be seen on the main square. '

Refurbished map and character sheets

This is a smaller, 60x80 hex (if I remember right) map of the world. Any resemblance to historical nations and geography is accidental. You can now access the map from the 'Basic information' page and download the full-size version.

This would call for slower movement rates on campaign, so an army will have to have over 75% cavalry to move 4 hexes a day (applied to messengers too), and any other unit will move 2 hex per day, 3 in forced march (only on roads), and roll on 1d6 and reduce movement rate by 1 hex when rolling a 1.
This time I opted not to name many settlements and fortresses and name them on the go. I can always look up older posts or turn to the old map for inspiration or naming these consistently. Also, the geography is a bit different from the previous version but I tried to keep the events of the Störkburg campaign relevant.

The character sheet was another sensitive matter. I have not had good profiles for most of the personalities besides some very basic guidelines. What helped me a great deal was constructing a chronology (also available at the info page) and give a descriptive age to each character, then use the stuff already described in various scrap files and notes from the Schultze-Böhnstadt folder on my laptop (Training and Temperament). Added to this were the many fun aspects of 'Creating Big Men' mechanisms from Sharp Practice: physique, popularity, character traits etc. Looks and personality goes to the 'Misc' part. 

Long-term plans in Schultze-Böhnstadt

With a Christmas purchase, the two basic (Flossian and S-B) armies will be complete. These will set an example as a core army:
(Baccus sets of figures and numbers used) [units/stands in Maurice]

Basic army
Regular infantry (2=192) [6/24]
Regular cavalry, dragoons and/or cuirassiers (2=72) [6/24]
Irregular infantry (1=48) [6/24]
Irregular cavalry, when used so (1=36) (1-3/4-12)
Artillery (1=4 guns +16 crew) [4/4]
~360 figures.

This is, first of all, for variety and the entire army will rarely be deployed, if at all.

I would like to do some other nations' units as well and in all probability redesign the map for a more integral use.

For Glambria, I will use SYW French (an obvious choice).

For Quattri Formaggi, most likely the same army will be used.

Varangia, a historically accurate GNW Swedish army.

Leuwenthal, a GNW Russian army - these will, obviously, double up as actual GNW units.

A good thing about Maurice is it can be used for totally different levels of engagement. For example, in the games we played, the units were battalions of about 120 men (so a 1:5 figure to IRL scale as played in Cossacks). Remember, these are still nascent peace-time armies of relatively small states. But I could use 4-stand units for regiments of multiple battalions as well - so, for example, I could play the three cuirassier regiments as one 4-stand unit, the 1st Prinzipalitär Foot as a unit of musketeers and one of grenadiers, and the other regular regiments as 4-stand units again. It is explained in Maurice under the advanced rules that the relativity of the game (using base widths and an abstract disruption system instead of casualties) allows a variety of engagement scales to be reproduced.

The Principality also has some sea ports so it is just obvious that for naval games, I'm going to use the same setting.

The Treaty of Neu-Leuchtenberg

The defeated von Presser had met with Princeps Erhard Berthold at the fortress of Neu-Leuchtenberg to sign the peace treaty; a messenger with switched horses was sent to Rückelburg and another to General Hohenspitz with news of the armistice and following negotiations.

The Princeps reasoned, and Erik von Südflosse agreed, that they must not be heavy-handed about the conditions of the treaty, but they must set clear borders:

The Union will renounce all claims of the Störkburg Valley and consider it mandatory to rest its frontier on the Grühne. Any action by local nobility and outlaws against Principality settlements will be met with force on the Flossian side.

The Union, when called for, will provide materials for any Böhnstadter war effort up to a sum of 50,000 Thalers.

Karrotenbad and the neighboring region, up to the border, will be demilitarized.

In return, the Principality will march out of Union territory and will respect the Union's sovereignty over the territories described above.

The Principality, above the possible future 50,000 Thalers, will not ask for any further toll.

These terms were most generous in von Presser's eyes as well, so he signed the treaty with dignity, and the knowledge that, when the time will come, he will be more prepared for a fight instead of sending fresh recruits to the frontlines. But where could he gain a well-trained army? His thoughts were wandering again.

Armistice

On the northeast, the broken army of Elector von Presser left the field routing. The Elector chose to visit Princeps Erhard Berthold under a white flag and begin discussing the terms of surrender.

Bishop Michheim did not risk taking a second foothold on the left bank of the Flosse so he burned the second bridge down, united with the other, intact half of his brigade and marched back to reinforce Rückelburg, waiting for news on von Presser's enterprise.

6mm Standards

For the 6mm armies, I have measured the standard bearers' poles and created a template in Photoshop. I used Paint to create the flags, visited a printing shop and had them printed on thick (250g) matte paper.

 8th & 9th Flossian Füsil Regiments

 1st Prinzipalitär Rgt of Foot

7th Karrotenbad Rgt of Foot 

The Schultze-Böhnstadt royal banner

Flag template

The scribe of Princeps Erhard Berthold reports a battle fought to a tactical victory for the Principality at Müllerstraße Crossroads.

Ferdinand von Csiki, for showing great prowess holding the enemy back until the rest of his Brigade could reform, receives the Prometheus Cross of the Union.

The Böhnstadter Annelise Cuirassiers, the Garde du Corps and the 1st Prinzipalitär Regiment of Foot receive the Regimental Cross for throwing back the enemy and showing great courage on the battlefield. Their united effort is what won the day.