Thursday 29 April 2010

The battle on the road to Fromel (5)

Friedrich rode up to Lieutenant von Pilsner “Well Hans, it looks like we’ve got a problem, the odds don’t look good and we have to give the militia time to get back to the woods”
At that moment the full squadron of Chasseurs rode into view. Standing up in his saddle Friedrich called out “Right lads, let’s deal with them before they are fully deployed, Charge!!”

The Freihussaren gave a loud cheer and charged towards the French whose lead troop promptly countercharged. Both sides slowed before impact and the combat turned into a confused swordfight before both sides fell back to reform.

This is it thought Friedrich as the second troop wheeled into line alongside their comrades. However for some reason they hesitated (*) allowing the Freihussaren to withdraw a certain distance.
The French chasseurs advanced forward as a mass, obviously waiting for the right moment to strike. Meanwhile over in the east the rest of the Freihussaren retired while covering the retreat of the militia in the face of the building numbers of French infantry.

Ilse was with the bombardier “Are you sure this will work?”
“Yes Milady, I’ve not done this all my life to fail now. Then making a final check, he discharged the mortar. The wagon body rocked, but the shot flew high and true landing among the French Chasseurs, causing consternation just as they were about to charge.
Grasping the opportunity presented Friedrich ordered an immediate retreat back to the woods. He did this knowing that the Freishutze were already back in the woods and hopefully could cover his retreat.
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Note(*) both troops would charge on a roll of anything but a 1. They rolled two 1's so neither troop charged.

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