Grosse Katzick, the Fourth!

As fanciful equine frivolities unfold on the Nabstrian right wing, it is as well to turn away and look at developments across the rest of the battlefield, because too much excitement can be dangerous. 

One of the great strengths of the Zentan troops, aside from their utter expendability, is their flexibility. Much of this is a moral flexibility, of course, a condition which explains the fact that the Zentans have brought their own special dice with them. But there is also an element of military flexibility that comes from their being able to combine both mounted and unmounted irregulars into the same force, and also to ignore difficult terrain - their utter indiscipline making it impossible for them to be further disordered by trees, marshes, or dying. 

Keen to pose multiple dilemmas for the Nabstrians, and also to keep them too busy to ask about the special Zentan-only dice, Bulbous Pasha orders his whole line forwards. (Above) The troops flow, or rather being Zentan irregulars, seep, through their artillery and commence an advance upon the main Nabstrian line.

The Zentan artillery do what Mittelheim artillery tend to do: they drink coffee, amusing themselves by stuffing the smallest of their number down the barrel of their mortar and threatening to fire it. However, since in Mittelheim the purposeful firing of an artillery piece is an idea both ludicrous and fanciful, not even the most gullible of artillery assistants is likely to be terribly worried in the face of this japesome threat.

(Above) In the centre, the Zentan troops splash noisily through a stream. Being skirmishers, they are imbued with a longer range than the enemy musketeers that they face and so no doubt hope to do what any self-respecting Mittelheimer would hope to do - strike the enemy when they can't hit back.

(Below) On the Nabstrian left, the Zentan line extends itself like a pair of Prince Rupprecht of Bachscuttel's elasticated trousers.  As the only cavalry unit on this wing, the Western provincial sipahis probably fancy their chances of being able to move themselves behind the enemy flank. 

All across the line, the rattle of musketry commences. The Zentan irregulars begin to get down to some really serious skirmishing, an activity that, to the casual observer, might seem more like 'probing their noses with their fingers'. Still, given their numbers, the power of the law of averages, and their special dice, the fire of the Zentan irregulars begins inevitably to have some effect ...