Back to the Colonies

Having sold most of my collection, what mostly remains is SYW/AWI stuff. I'm going to repaint some, and make up small forces for skirmish gaming. There is little to no space for me to set up a table now, and all the clubs are closed - no matter, I'm not a club going person anyway. But fighting small skirmishes on the New Continent has a beneficial effect to table size. For grand battles on the mainland, I have something in mind that's already in the making, and is mysteriously called 'Micro Maurice'... Stay tuned!

Continent of Rot Gaming aide for Hex Conquest

Letters from Fortress Diken, Ep. 1

Quarantine Campaigns in Cossacks

As I have limited resources and I forbid my acquaintances to visit during these days, I dusted off my old copy of Cossacks: Back to War for some solo gaming fun. I have not only one, but three campaigns planned right now.

The first is the siege of Fortress Diken. The narrative for this would be letters sent from the besieging side by the Chevalier du Pétal, General of the Glambrian Army, to His Catholic Majesty's Court, and Kiraz Bey, the governor of the fortress, to the Great Padishah in his seat at Tekirdag.

The second and third would be based on my Hex Conquest rules. One is the Varangian Wars, between Varangia, Flosse and Medvetland, the other is the Continent of Rot series I had already begun playing using the Maurice Succession Wars rules, however, I can diversify and add more factions etc.

So expect some content like this in the near future, while I'm organizing my hobby hoard for more games.

Moijeame, Glambrian 74-gun ship of the line

After the two elderly warships follows a very much modern one. This is the flagship of the Glambrian West Coast Fleet, the Moijeame. Its name is derived from the odd dialect eastern inhabitants of the Rebellious Provinces speak, and the way they call small monkeys that are part of the fauna all along the southern seaboard of the Kingdom of Glambria. 

(Military relations between the two peoples are common, for example, the entire hussar arm of the Glambrian cavalry was founded by a rebel duke and general from the aforementioned parts of that country.)

Moijeame was recently completed, she has a copper-plated hull and two main gun decks sporting 74 guns. She has a brand new set of sails, and the pennant of the Glambrian Navy flies proudly over her main mast.

LRS Dreigend, Leuwenthaal 64-gun Ship of the Line

This is an old school ship of the line for the Republic of Leuwenthaal. Their navy is quite numerous, and eventually use for ships like this one could be found. It's ship-rigged and has a galeon prow, but this does not detract from its fighting ability.

Le Pépé, Armagnac 74-gun Ship of the Line

The Duchy of Armagnac, since their secession from Glambria some hundred years earlier, had been struggling with maintaining a fleet in the shadow of the Glambrian and Albionic ones, maintaining their hegemony over the seas. 

In one of the recent clashes with their northern Catholic neighbors, they could lay their hands on a 30-year old 2nd rate ship of the line, Majesté Catholique. The name did not ring well for them, so they added a new one and painted over most of the gilding and decoration with a black and yellow scheme. 

Now the ship is named Le Pépé, and due to its solid build, large surface of sail and relatively little participation in armed conflicts ever since, she is in quite a good condition, forming the core of the Armagnac battle-line fleet.

The Schultze-Böhnstadt Navy is Growing

The Schultze-Böhnstadt Principal Navy has had no capital units so far to sail the grand seas. The country had instead relied on their Albionic allies when the necessity arose. 

Now, to stand on their own sea legs and protect their interests on the new continent, the Grand Cabinet of the Principality has decided to build large seaworthy vessels - the first four being 36-gun frigates. Most of the funding would come from the Flossian treasury paying interest after the previous war.

Princeps Gerhard Berthold von Jazygia has decided to name them the following: Dachshund, Wolfhund, Jagdhund and Schweinhund. 

Expanding the Schultze-Böhnstadt Universe

I've been getting back to Maurice for a little while lately, and I've got some plans concerning these imaginary 18th century nations.

You are all familiar with the old world map I've been using, the one which was created in Hexographer. Now I would like to do a new, extended one on paper that would include further away nations from the central continent. I would then create armies for them in the usual 6mm scale and customize each to play with Maurice.

On the main blog I'm on to naval themed things, and I could do so with this one as well. As most fleets would be small, early 18th century naval combat could be simulated with Fighting Sail or Galleys and Galleons.

So the old nations so far spoken of are:

Schultze-Böhnstadt (somewhat similar to Brandenburg-Prussia and Saxony)

Flosse (similar to Austria and the rest of the HRE dominion)

Glambria (similar to Bourbon France)

Armagnac (basically a separate Huguenot French country)

Quattro Formaggi (Italy)

Varangia (Sweden)

Leuwenthaal (Netherlands)

And the new countries would be:

The Great Empire of Tekirdag (Ottomans) and it's derivatives on The Continent of Rot

Medvetland (Russia)

The Rebel Provinces (Hungary and Transsylvania)

The Kingdom of Island Nations (United Kingdom)

There were plans for some of these as well earlier - I have a GNW Russian army disguised as the Army of Leuwenthaal, and also a complete Ottoman Turk army at my disposal.

I shall be working on the complete map this weekend whilst figuring out international relations between the new kingdoms and the old.

Battle for the North

There was the usual prancing around before the State Army troops encountered the rebels in numbers. The Count of Calvacasa avoided a major clash because much required reinforcements were trickling in from the way of the Schultze-Böhnstadt border towns. 

Finally he found a large field near the royal highway south of Lago Placco and reconnoitred it in detail. The lay of the land was good for defense and strong counter-attacks.

What neither side had considered was the fact that Northern Loyalist militia had vanished from the scene. There was no more incentive to fight against the rebels now that they held all the strong points north of the mountain passes. Therefore the State Army was not as strong in itself as it could have been - with enough militia, it could outnumber the entire rebel force two to one, but this way they even had to send a pair of Schiavona militia battalions post-haste to the front just to be sure. The loyalists still overestimated their own strength, and so did in fact Pietro di Calvacasa. Gracco di Piedi's volunteer battalions were kept in reserve and were scheduled to arrive sometime in the middle of the day the battle was calculated to take place on. 

All outlying pickets were ushered in the main camp and the two armies slowly approached each other.

The fields near the royal highway moving towards Lago Placco and the northern towns are wide grasslands with the occasional small grove signaling moors or dried up lake beds. The highway is straight as an arrow as it moves toward Civita Maria and the Böhnstadt border. 

The rebel army was drawn up facing roughly south right on the road. There was a small unnamed village and fields of fresh crops to their right (west) flank and a small sandstone hill further west. The center was dominated by the road and surrounding plains, but there was a thicket moving east by southeast. A small slope proved a good place for the regimental guns right near the road.

The Count dismissed the importance of the hill overlooking the village and used it to hide his reserves instead. The Glambrian storming party was therefore left in the village to expel any cavalry advance on the extreme right. Next to them were placed the Böhnstadt Freikorps von Schütterstöck, a good quality and well motivated unit. Further ahead the Calvacasa militia had hidden between the crops in a loose formation. 

The main infantry line was drawn up between the hill and the thicket. The foot dragoons were sent ahead to protect the artillery on the slope.

The woods itself were a tactical conundrum for the rebels. The Count expected a large amount of skirmishers to swarm it, so his units had to get there first and expel them. Therefore his best Varangian infantry and mounted Freikorps were tasked with occupying it. 

The next problem was the expected large number of loyalist cavalry. Good battle cavalry was completely lacking from the rebel ranks, the best they had were the Freikorps and Calvacasa Outriders, the latter closer to light dragoons than anything else. These were massed on the left flank east of the woods to exploit the large open field. The Count expected the enemy cavalry to be drawn up there as well.