The Viereckstal Campaign. Chapter 6 (part 2)

 // The Battle of Essigford, part 2 //

As we return to the sharp action at Essigford Major Verbockt's Tattemberg dragoons and jager have four further turns (turns 5-8) in which to break through the Gallian defenders and exit two units from the road leading to the north. Aggressive counterpunches by the Hussars d'Etranger have disordered some attacking units, who have also been hindered by the need to redress ranks after fording the river. The Gallians have withdrawn one of their infantry companies and one troop of hussars. At the end of turn 6 a third unit must be withdrawn.

The opening event of turn 5 was yet another charge by d'Eclair and his command troop of hussars. Wearily drawing sabres and touching spurs to their horses' flanks they darted forward to crash into a troop of Shwarzwald dragoons on the Tattemberg right flank:

Although the resulting melee went the way of the dragoons, d'Eclair was able to reform his hussars on high ground to their rear. Critically to their rearguard action, the disruption inflicted on the Tattemberg horsemen would hinder the speed of their advance.

When their opportunity came, the dragoons on the right opted to reform the troop just engaged while swinging the supporting troop to their left, facing the centre of the battlefield:

Meanwhile, Verbockt continued to steadily grind forward up the road, his left-hand company proving mobile than the right-hand one who had struggled to shake off disorder from crossing the river, not helped by skirmishing fire from a platoon of the Chasseurs de Poulet. On his far left Verbockt used a jager platoon to keep the lance-armed hussars disordered:

Turn 6 began saw the Schwarzwald dragoons seizing the initiative and charging the platoon of Chasseurs in the centre, who had already pulled back. The dragoons delivered and unconvincing assault but did narrowly win the melee, forcing the light infantry to take a morale test with significant negative modifiers.

Requiring rolls of '1' to succeed the Gallian dice fell into the tray and fortune was clearly still smiling on Captain Lacrosse, who while not a featured commander in this scenario was still visible among the ranks. Succeeding with two of the three dice the platoon was able to fall back rather than rout or be destroyed.

The dragoons could only look on as Lacrosse's platoon scampered away to reform their line:

Elsewhere, the Tattemberger forces continued their methodical advance in the hope that an opportunity to seize victory would present itself. On the Gallian side, Major Mantelwenden now needed to withdraw a third, and final, unit. His intent was for this to be the badly disordered lance-armed hussar troop, however they failed their activation roll. Although the resulting morale check was not disastrous, the hussars would clearly be unable to withdraw meaningfully this turn. Mantelwenden's only remaining option was to order his remaining company of line infantry to pull out. This was achieved efficiently, but would leave the defenders with only two hussar troops and the two platoons of the Chasseur de Poulet company. Would this be enough to resist the advance when outnumbered 2:1?

With things looking increasingly tight we now move on to turn 7. The cards determined that d'Eclair would act first and he again ordered his hussar troop to deliver a charge in order to delay the Tattemberg advance. Sweeping downhill into the flank of a dragoon troop the hussars' luck finally deserted them.

Not only did l'Eclair lose the melee but his exhausted men also failed on all three morale dice and ran from the field. No doubt they will reform to the north and we will see them again. Their loss comes with no dishonour given the multiple charges they have delivered, holing back twice their number and the reputedly timid l'Eclair has lived up to his late brother's memory.

This loss did however leave Mantelwenden with just two platoons of light infantry and one fatigued and disordered troop of hussars. Desperate to defend the road exit he edged the hussars back and ordered Lacrosse to form his chasseur platoon into a more solid line in the face of oncoming cavalry. The second chasseur platoon hurried back from the left flank, using the wooded hillside as cover and pausing occasionally to deliver ragged musket fire into the enemy horsemen, hoping that any disorder inflicted would slow them down.

With just one more turn to go, it did seem unlikely that the Tattembergers could be prevented from outflanking the defenders. Much would depend on which side would grab the initiative...

At last we come to turn 8. Mantelwenden heaved a sigh of relief as he was able to activate before his opponents. Using his initiative points he was able to carefully withdraw the hussars and Lacrosse's unsteady infantry in the face of the enemy, taking position close to the road exit that was now the Tattemberger's only objective. 

Running out of time, Captain Kirschwamm joined the ranks of one of his dragoon troops as they charged Lacrosse's platoon, perhaps guilty for having taken so long to manoeuvre across the kleineford and into position. Again Lacrosse and his men faced the thundering hooves and gleaming sabres of a cavalry charge.

...again the chasseurs narrowly lost the melee and faced a morale test in which only '1's would succeed. The dice were placed in the cup and shaken into the tray...

...and the charmed life continued with yet another fall-back result and the dragoons were left blinking disbelievingly as the chasseurs pulled back right to the table edge.

Things were now desperate for both commanders. Verbockt ordered his reserve troop of dragoons to charge directly into the hussars on the road. If they could break and pursue them off the table this would deliver one of the two unit exits he required for victory. The dragoons activated successfully and delivered their charge with cool efficiency. This proved too much for the exhausted hussars who did indeed rout with the dragoons close on their heels. Both units left the table and Verbockt looked at his options to get a second unit off the table.

The only unit capable of reaching the road junction was the troop of dragoons who were furthest the the rear. Carrying two disorder markers they only generated one action for the turn, however Verbockt was close enough to use his single initiative point for the turn to scream at them and provide a second action.

The dragoons would therefore have two movement actions to reach the road exit.

Rolling for their first move they found themselves twelve inches short of their objective. The next roll would settle things.

Two d12 were shaken and rolled into the dice tray...

One came up 2...

The second came up 12! and the dragoons surged forward to exit the table with a mere 2 inches to spare.

With this, Verbockt had carried the day for Tattemberg. He brought up the remainder of his advanced guard and prepared to send word back to von Trapp of his hard fought success.

Perhaps surprisingly, the last elements of the Gallian force remaining in the battlefield were the two platoons of Lacrosse's company of the Chasseurs de Poulet. Using the forested hills to the east as cover they evaded their enemy to march north in the hope of rejoining the army as soon as possible. 

That was fun and in the end was very close. 

As previously mentioned, it will be a few weeks now before I'm likely to get troops on the table again. In the meantime I'll aim to post a few interludes to reflect on this battle, any figure or terrain painting and probably get some small updates added to the rules. 

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