Thursday, May 31, 2007

Intro to Battle of Bad Tannes

This is the first battle of "Frankfurter" in its program to enhance the status of minor German states in order to protect its autonomy viz. foreign occupiers like Gallia or Hesse Seewald

Battle of Bad Tannes, description:

Battle is fought East to West (map needs to be rotated)
Middle of table holds Bad Tannes ... which is dominated by the bathhouse and hotel on the eastern side of town and the Cathedral of St. Zonker to the west.
Five roads come into Bad Tannes: two from the west, one each from the east, south, and north.
To the south of Bad Tannes is a large swamp, but between that swamp and the south road is a large mill pond and a large mill.
The east of Bad Tannes there is a large hill south of the road and some distance to the north a copse and orchard with a large sawmill and woodshop complex.
The road northwest from B.T. runs through a small forest. In the original map, there was a farm complex on the road to the southwest, but since one box of buildings didn’t make the trip, this was not placed. This absence may have influenced the development of the game.
A few hundred yards north of B.T. is Gristlehof ... a chateau complex which is joined to Bad Tannes by a tree lined road. This road exits from Gristlehof and continues off the table.
Gristlehof itself is nestled into the slopes of an “L” shaped hill complex which merges into the forest.

The army of Nidda has barricaded Bad Tannes and Gristlehof. About fifty yards east of the road connecting them, they’ve errected a barrier of chevaux au frise ... in front of a large gap in this barrier, about the middle point, a large fleche has been errected which provides some flanking fire to the entire front.

Game mechanics:
Using Koenig’s Krieg, slightly modified ... Battalions number about 24 figures, more or less. I did not use double strength cavalry only because of space limitations. Since I’d only enough artillery to arm one army, I divided them and gave them double dice to hit and kept track of casualties as if they had double the figures manning the guns. Obviously, range and movement measures were also doubled.
On a side note, this game was influenced by an error in my interpretation of the rules. I allowed units in “close combat” range to fire on each other, considering this reflected the greater casualties involved in close combat. However, I’ve since learned that the rules permit a unit only to fire upon a unit charging it ... and then only if it wins the initiative role!

Forces involved:

The army of Nidda
is commanded by Major General Rumple (1).
The cavalry brigade is commanded by Brigadier Flicker (0), and consists of several squadrons of Dragoons (6) x 14 figs and Hussars (7) x 14.
Stationed: Dragoons to the south of Bad Tannes and Hussars to the West.

The infantry regiments are broken into three small brigades:
Brig. Stiltskin (0) / I Nidda (5) x 24; U Nidda (5) x 24; and the Nidda Guard (7) x 18.
Stationed inside Bad Tannes.
Brig. V. T. Roll (0) / Nidda Blues (5) x24; Half Nidda Blues (5) x 12; and
(a volunteer brigade drawn from a fraternal society, Z. Boyz, ... uniformed like Indian Sepoys) Tannes Zboys (4) x 24; Blondie’s Zboys (4) x24 ; and a light artillery battery in the Fleche. Otherwise in two lines: one behind the barriers and one west of the avenue.
Blondie, Graf v. Gristlehof holds Gristlehof with militia (3) x 20 and an howitzer battery. Jaegers (4) x 16. are skrimishing to the east of the North road towards the orchards.

Another brigade is forming near Nidda under Drunklayin (0): Freikorps (4) x 23; New Tannes Zboys (4) x 12; Redsmoke (5) x24; with another battery of light artillery.

Frankfurter:

Lt. Gen. Osacra Mayer (2)
Summer Sergeants Guard (7) x 12 *this unit is trained to “double action” status.
two batteries of howitzers.
* Brg. Shlidelisht (1)
Porccelain Dragoon (6) x 16 ; Cellulite Cuirassiers (7) x 16
* Von Ballpark (0)
Chicken (5) x24; Relish (5) x 24
* Woad (0)
Black Kilts (6) x 24
* V. Phaulie (0)
Phaulie’s Fusils 2 x (5) x 24
*Schwann
Grenadiers 2 x (6) x 24 * also receive double action bonus.
*Hottatrot
IR Hottatrot 2 x (5) x 24; and a battery of light guns.

Gallian “Force of Observation”
*Brig. L’Sorbet (0)
Hussars l’Sorbet (7) x 15
4th battalion, IR Laurie Anne (5) X 28
Brass Balls (3 batteries of 12+ pounders)

2 comments:

abdul666 said...

Hi Frankfurter (aka... another name on SOCDAISY)
Thanks for this so enjoyable report ('Wish I'd be there')!
Now, how much we all would like to 'visualize' all these regiments -with their so appetizing names- e.g. as full-color (schematic) drawings as Saxe-Bearstein dis, using the templates currently refered to on the OSW!
Cheers,
Jean-Louis

Frankfurter said...

take a gander at the post on Bad Tannes ... several of my wife's nice pictures finally uploaded!