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.

What the Flossians Learned

With trouble looming to the east, the humbled and humiliated Flossian Union now watches over the internal dealings of her neighbor, the Principality of Schultze-Böhnstadt, with renewed interest.

The Flossians know that a large part of the Böhnstadt Army was sent to support the Rebels with their ongoing fight against Medvetland. They also know that General von Hohenspitz, now well past his seventieth year, has finally retired and there is no true replacement for a character like that.

The Rebel Lands Campaign, Episode 6: A Chance Encounter

Dietrich von Spülge had a hard week. He had to rally the north-western Rebel countryside to draw more troops to supplement his own. He finally managed to gather a force large enough to begin maneuvers on the Medvetland Corps of Observation. 

His army camped near Ebugatta Crossroads, a junction between the northern cities and the southern plain of the country, when his outriders reported that the Medvetland force was within a day's march, and very much stretched thin. It was the chance of a lifetime for von Spülge to prove himself. He ordered the army to march out and intercept the enemy.

The next dawn his army was arrayed across the road next to a minor settlement called Komlóverő Major, and the head of the Medvetland column, tired after forced marches, had to accept the fight.

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...

The Rebel Lands Campaign, episode 4: A Taste of Blood

Herbert von Plischke dared not wait any longer for his subordinate von Spülge's marching column. Thus he arrived at the front earlier with the troops under his direct command, hoping he would be not too late. News of the defeat of the Rebel army reached him while on the march, and at first there was conflicting evidence of his allied command disintegrating. As he neared the scene, he met troops rested and more or less well organised, and by then he knew the situation was not so dire as previously pictured. 

Prince Hegyeshváry Szabolcs's army was falling back in good order on interior lines, and he could even commit a large part of his force to halt the advance of the other Medvetland column, for which von Spülge was grateful - it would have been a very uneven fight without any support from the locals. 

After some milling about, the Allied army met the Medvetland regulars at the Battle of Bodros Hill. Von Plischke could deploy his superior artillery on the commanding height, and direct the battle from there.

The Rebel Lands Campaign, episode 3: Making a Stand

The Rebel Lands army, now thinking themselves sufficient to give battle after major concentrations, chose their ground well and stood against an invading Medvetland column.

New House, New Rules

I was thinking of an even easier option to play 18th century battles than Maurice, and came up with a diceless game which uses playing cards and unit values to determine the outcome of a set piece battle.

I'm going to upload it soon to the Rules page of my main blog, and will be using it to conduct battles in the Rebel Lands campaign.

The Rebel Lands Campaign, episode 2: The Opponents

The additional participant comes first: this is the two brigades of the Schultzdorf Expeditionary Force, four regiments of foot, two of horse and one Hussars, and a single artillery battery.

This is the Rebel army, three hussar regiments, three Border Guards, three regular foot, three militia and a single artillery unit.

And lastly the invaders: the Medvetland Corps of Observation consists of eight cavalry units, three artillery bases, seven regular infantry and six Observation Corps battalions (which is a separate thing and only they know why).

The 'figures' are prints from the Junior General website, colored to my liking and pasted on a bright green background, then cut out and glued on cardstock. These three armies were virtually free to create as I've had every material available and I printed just three A4 sheets for them at my workplace colour printer.

 

The Rebel Lands Campaign, episode 1: Mobilization

On March 20 1551 OC, the garrison of the Turulhát Pass on the Rebel Lands - Medvetland border spotted a large dust cloud approaching. Soon the sun glittered on thousands of bayonets and drawn swords: the Medvetland Corps of Observation was moving on them with full force.

Now Medvetland has coveted the eastern fringes of the Rebel Lands since ages, as they claimed the predecessors of the people now living there stole that land from their Arch-Tsar Svatopluk IX. But it was a mere pretense: the Medved was hungry for conquest, and the greater foe, Tekirdag, had been sitting idle for the past ten years or so, being occupied with the Alanians coming from the east, and the various anti-piracy actions in the Levant; so this seemed as good an opportunity as any to come to increase the Tsar's sphere of influence.