Falkenhelle, the Sixth!

The Fenwickian volleys fly, with devastating effect! One Bachscuttel regiment is left teetering on the brink of collapse, though, obviously, no Fenwickian could ever actually use the word 'teetering', what with its salacious suggestion of actions involving both teets and rings. Worse, every single enemy shot strikes home against the Milchfrau Lieb Garde, whose musketeers fall to the ground. Many are dead; others just take the opportunity to have a lie down, and the screams of the wounded are interspersed with some loud snoring. But the effect is the same: the entire regiment is effectively destroyed in a single volley, leaving a huge gap in the line! (below).

Barry-Eylund stands agog (also a word that can't be used in Fenwick, though the reasons aren't strictly clear, given that the words 'gog' and 'ag' aren't usually associated with explicit adult activity - except in Wales, of course), slack-jawed and shocked! One of his guard regiments mown down in a single volley! There's only one thing he can do. Alas for him, he is wrestled to the ground by bystanders before he can hit the fire alarm. This leaves him with only one other option: 'Give me those dice!' he cries, and grabs the special green dice which are definitely not dodgy. Armed with these new weapons of chance, the Bachscuttel return volley inflicts heavy casualties! Marshal Cavandish responds with an attempt at a rousing bout of rallying to try to restore order to his infantry line.

Alas for him, the Fenwickians seem resistant at this juncture to his attempts to improve their morale. The problem lies probably with his overly exuberant use of words like 'honour', 'duty', 'jelly', 'wobble', and 'strobate': though to be fair, he was misheard on the last one. This leaves his troops vulnerable to the newly reinvigorated Bachscuttel musketry! 'Give me back my dice!' cries Cavandish. 'No fear!' replies Barry-Eylund, shaking his newly captured cubes of caprice (Above). Another Bachscuttel volley crashes home, and a Fenwickian unit routs!

(Above) This is a problem. Thanks to the ploughed field, Cavandish now finds his infantry split into three separate forces, complicating his operations immensely. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when he could ride it away, or invite it out for some light dinner and dancing, Barry-Eylund acts! Throwing again his burgled baubles of boon, Barry-Eylund's Bachscuttlers batter their bewildered adversaries.

On Cavandish's left wing, some of his sweaty soldiery are suffused with a sudden martial spirit. 'Oooh, I feel quite warm' some of his troops say, glowering at their adversaries with aggressive ardour.

(Above) Infused with the heat of battle, this unit, already quite disordered, charges forward into the Bachscuttel line. Barry-Eylund sniggers, fondling his dodgy dice of doom. For good measure, the Fenwickians wheel more so that they end up charging through bad terrain, because that's the sort of man that Barry-Eylund is. It doesn't look good for the attackers: an elite unit of defenders, and some aggressive-looking flora. Still, this is Mittelheim - a land where anything is possible!

Falkenhelle, the Fifth!

No one! Alas, the only thing that gets worn down is Barry-Eylund's temper. The irregulars fail to inflict a single casualty on the gurning Fenwickian conscripts. A hail of green dice, which are definitely not dodgy, drives back the Bachscuttel light troops, who stumble rearwards to the sniggering of nearby squirrels.

This does leave the light troops in a position for a desperate assault upon the flanks of the enemy line infantry. This threat forces the Fenwickian line to bend slightly (above), but their kink is slight, unlike their commander's, it has to be said. The only positive development for the Bachscuttlers is that, thanks to an unspecified development that probably involves a wrong address on some orders, important intelligence has been obtained from the enemy, and it seems quite likely that, at some stage in the fight, one of the Fenwickian units, in the heat of battle, will probably charge impetuously at an unprofitable target.

(Above, bottom) Still subject to some humiliatingly effective fire from the enemy conscripts, the Bachscuttelers, living up to their name, scuttle backwards again. After an entire morning's fight, the sum total of Barry-Eylund's plan is that his light troops are a pub-stumble forwards from where they began, and the damage inflicted on his adversaries is that four squirrels have laughed so much that they have pulled something.

Worse is to come. His infantry line advances. Or, rather, struck by confusion, one of his infantry units advances (above): through his first line, that is and out into no man's land where it is very much in range of the enemy infantry.

'XXXXing XXX!', roars Barry-Eylund, swearing like a Mittelheim nun. 'XXXX your XXX with a wooden XXXX!' he continues.

There's nothing for it. All of Barry-Eylund's irregular antics have delivered nothing more than to waste a sizeable amount of time. In the end, the general has to go with Plan B: which is Plan 'Hey Diddle Diddle, Up The Middle'. The Bachscuttel musketeers advance straight forward into a sheep-free kill zone (above), and the muskets of both sides level ...

Falkenhelle, the Fourth!

General Redmond Barry-Eylund has, as many would attest, a range of acknowledged faults. He is, for example, a cheating, lying bastard; though, to be fair, he does always remember his mother's birthday. One thing that he couldn't be accused of, though, is a failure to analyse his options: indeed, there are few commanders out there more able to put the word 'anal' into analysis

The general has considered three options. Option one: a cavalry attack on his right. Alas, given the angles, the Fenwickian artillery, with their artillery academy training, would have an opportunity to drill his advancing horse with more holes than a Swiss cheese. Of course, a Swiss cheese would actually ride a horse better than his cavalry. But dairy produce is unlikely to fare well in close-quarters combat. Option two: march his infantry forwards straight away, and trust to the effectiveness of his troops' musketry. Alas, the Fenwickians have lethal volleys, and so the Bachscuttelers would be at a disadvantage, helped by the Fenwickian's 'special green dice'. These green dice are definitely not dodgy. Option three: advance his light troops into the woods to their front, turn the enemy flank and then advance his infantry.

The general plumps for option three. Unfortunately, this means that the first Bachscuttel orders are sent to the irregulars. No battle that begins with an advance by irregulars is likely to engender much faith in the eventual outcome.

The irregulars advance (above), encountering a flock of sheep. If it were possible for Barry-Eylund to catch the sheep and put them in uniform, he would certainly sack his irregulars and use the farmyard animals instead. (Below) Marshal Cavandish can be seen checking the rules of war: a useful activity when Barry-Eylund is around, since the latter tends to view rules like a pirate code: more a set of guidelines around which to structure the drinking of rum.

(Above) The irregulars continue to advance towards the woods. With his line becoming stretched, much like the necks of his light troops if they don't do what they're told, his main body also advances towards the enemy in order to head off some potential command and control problems. Barry-Eylund also hopes that this will increase the moral pressure on his enemy, fixing them in place - although nailing their feet to the floor would probably be a surer bet.

(Above) The Bachscuttel irregulars head into the woods. To the top left, a third line, second-rate, Fenwickian unit is detailed to begin the time-consuming task of wheeling to meet the threat. This more or less sums up the first portion of the battle. A lot of careful manoeuvre - or arsing around, depending upon one's perspective - then ensues in which Barry-Eylund seeks a manoeuvre advantage and Marshal Cavandish seeks a better sleeping position. Time bleeds away.

(Above) Finally, Barry-Eylund has his irregulars where he wants them: or almost where he wants them, since the best place for them would probably be in a bath. Deployed in the woods, the irregulars are no worse than their conscript adversaries, and there are twice as many of them. It's time for the irregulars to do what irregulars do. Well, not the main thing that they do, because then they would have to go back to prison. But the other thing that they do, which is to dart elusively amongst the foliage, skirmishing vigorously and wearing the enemy down. Then, they can wheel, and before you can say 'irregulars all over your flanks' there will be irregulars all over the Fenwickian flanks!

Irregulars making a useful contribution to the battlefield? Who'd have thought it!