Friday, 17 March 2023

Merkenwig, the Fourth!

A volley of musket fire issues forth from the Kurlandian line! Three of the leading enemy units are roughly handled by musketry. The Wurstburp reply consists of the usual cavalcade of Mittelheim feckery. They inflict some casualties, but no decisive damage is done. Alas, their love of  weapons that chop, maim, and tickle at close quarters means that their effectiveness in a firefight is much reduced. This is not an army that is likely to win a fair exchange of volleys and they are still well out of head-butting range.


Unpronounski realises that he has made a tactical mistake. Much to Horace's surprise this is not any pachyderm-related perils. (Below) He could order his troops to charge and give them what they excel at: bloody violence at close quarters. But because his cavalry has been left so far behind, he would leave his flank exposed to the depredations of the Cassock irregulars. And there's nothing the Cassock's like more than a good flank to sink their teeth into.


Whilst Pronounski cogitates, ruminating upon his options, Horace speeds off along the line in an attempt to rally the disrupted infantry. This has the predictable consequences, since de Saxe lacks any of the things necessary to improve the morale of the obdurate Jacobite porridge-gobblers: whisky; deep-fried confectionary; tales of English sporting failure; or an opportunity to punch one another at someone else's wedding. The Wurstburp lines remain gloomily disrupted.  


(Above) The Grand Duchess Catherine may be inexperienced in war but she is also not burdened by a pudding-brained, four-wheeled waste of space like de Saxe as an advisor. Sensing that the Wurstburpers are faltering she decides to seize the initiative! Orders are despatched, and the Kurlandian regular cavalry begin to move from their position on the hill. Beginning to wheel, their target is obvious: the flank of the advancing enemy line! Surely the Wurstburpers' goose is cooked (a process that in Wurstburp would require stuffing the goose with haggis, boiling it in Iron Brew, and then throwing it away) ...

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