The Viereckstal Campaign. Chapter 7 (Part 4)

 ...in which we conclude the Battle of Sagwerksdorf

// Turn 7 //

Both commanders could sense the end was coming. Mantelwenden and the Gallians had pushed their luck too far and the Tattemberg forces of Von Trapp had an opportunity to deliver a significant blow, despite the reversals back in turn 4.

Starting the turn with the usual determination of officer initiative, the dice decided that for Tattemberg Von Trapp would activate on the black Ace, Schurke and the light infantry on the black deuce. Sir Timothy and Major Verbockt would act when the black 3 was revealed. For Gallia, Mantelwenden and Deuxbistro wouls act on the red Ace while Pommefrite would act on the red deuce. Clearly no-one was showing much energy!

The deck was shuffled and the first card drawn; a black 3 - so Sir Timothy and Verbockt would strike first!

As events transpired, all of the Tattemberg commanders actually activated before any Gallians had the chance to act. Sometimes an army just can't catch a break.

Sir Timothy opted to use his personal command points to order the nearby jager company to shoot the Sechshugel flanker battalion (not being in his own brigade, this required the expenditure of command points). The order was successful and the rifle fire added a third point of disorder and inflicted a stamina loss to the Gallian troops. Sir Tim then attempted to order the Trinketstade light cavalry to charge the shaken flankers; which they duly did.

Over to the east meanwhile, Verbockt ordered one dragoon squadron to rally off disorder while he personally led the battered and bruised A squadron to sweep into the routing 2nd battalion of Sechshugel fusiliers.

The photo below shows the two charges hitting home:

With a close-up of Verbockt and the dragoons:

And here is the Trinketstade light cavalry repeating charge that had not gone so well a few turns ago.

As the Sechshugel 2nd battalion was alrerady in rout, they evaporated once Verbockt's squadron contacted them, the dragoons continuing towards the artillery section, capturing or killing Mantelwenden on the way...Meanwhile the chaps from Trinketstade broke the flanker battalion and pursued...but fell an inch short of wiping them out!

The dispersed gunners ran for their lives and exposed the open flank of the Sechshugel 1st battalion...

The Gallian fusiliers fought bravely, but already disorderd and hit in the flank by charging cavalry it was a tall order and they too broke and ran.

This is what it looks like when an exhausted brogade gets rolled-up by cavalry:

On the Gallian right flank, the Chasseurs du Poulet had little option but to withdraw. Benefitting from Pommefrite's leadership their resulting two orders saw then fall back 18 inches without wasting time to rally disorder.

The two surviving Gallian cavalry squadrons also headed north at top speed. The army no longer needed a rearguard as there really wasn't an army to guard any longer.

Last off the field were the Chasseurs, escorting the Duc de Pommefrite and wondering where it all went wrong.

There we have it. In the end a decisive victory for Von Trapp, even if it didn't look that way at the half-way point. The seems to open up the eastern route to Vierecksbrucke.

What we need to lear now, is what has been happening on the main route over the last couple of campaign days. I'll aim to start exploring that at the weekend.