Oberst-Lieutenant Kinsky and his Chief of Engineers, von Fotze stood on the lip of the towns’ glacis.
Von Fotze lowered his glass and opined: “Herr Oberst-Lieutenant, it seems to me that the Gallispans have opened their first parallel and that they have almost finished buildind infantry redoubts at either end.”
“Very good, Captain. Ah, I see my fusiliers are taking a turn on the covered way today?”
“Yes Sir, but-“ and von Fotze lowered his voice “- their morale is low after the last beating they took. They looked more like refugees than soldiers when they came into town.”
Kinsky stuck out his bottom lip. “That won’t do! No, that won’t do at all! Let’s give them something to do other than just stand around. I want three listening galleries driven forward from the edge of the ditch. Knock holes in the counter-scarp if you have to. Start now – it’s slow work, so the earlier we get to it the better. By the time our Gallispan friends have sapped up, we might get far enough out to give them a nice surprise.”
One of the gunners had been trailing them like a lost puppy and now piped up. “Your Excellency, begging your pardon, but I’ve been taking the range and I think I could get a ball as far as the enemy lines.”
Kinsky turned to the man and shook his head. “No. We will wait until he has dug himself further into range before we start burning powder.” He clapped the man on the shoulder. “Don’t worry my lad, there’ll be more than enough to do, bye-and-bye! Now, von Fotze, a crown for each man in the working party that cuts the most clay – does that sound reasonable?”
NOTES:
Mines are dug at the rate of 1” per strategic move.
Detonating a mine or engaging in a day’s artillery fire (ie, firing one’s Artillery in a SIEGE Move) expends a unit of powder. Kinsky has 15 at his disposal. To win, he must hold out for 20 days. Kinsky is seeking to shorten the range before he opens fire.
Kinsky has three infantry units at his disposal. He can this dispose of three engineering officers and thus employ three working parties.
IR35 is on the covered way whilst IR13 mans the bastions and ravelin. The Leib Battalion is in reserve.
With all stragglers now in, IR35 stands at 31 figures.
The Gallispan siege lines are 72” from the salient point of the ravelin and thus at the uttermost extremity of cannon-shot.
4 comments:
...crikey - wargaming in three dimensions, this promnises to be fun!
with such a small number of engineers (thus working parties) at his disposal, the defender is right to simply open out a few counter-sapping locations for now.
Ultimately, and I do not know if your rules allow for this, the engineers might best 'wait' for the needed 'repairs' and refurbishment that will come from the artillery barrage that is likely to issue soon. Also since I do not know of the 'layout' of this fortification it is hard to tell if the attackers have selected the right bastion to go after, for if there is room behind it then these three working parties could be put to work building another 'inner' batter position (or 5) and get the troops busy moving the available cannon to really pound those workers in the saps as they get ready for the 2nd parallel!
Murdock,
Colonel Kinsky is in two minds about building retrenchments. He is keen to extend the resistance of his fortress past 20 SEIGE moves to give the rest of the Royal Army time to get its' act together, but is not keen on exposing the town to a storm and its' attendant horrors.
This is not the 30 Years' War.
The fortress is generic (were I to draw a map, I suppose it would be a pentagonal trace with five ravelins, a ditch, covered way and a glacis. For the purpose of this mini campaign, I am assuming the Gallispans have selected the correct "face" of the work to attack.
All the best,
Greg
Ahh, somthing 'gereric' to test out the system?
Sounds like a good run.
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