Location of Frankograd

The Frankonian Socialist Republic is located on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland (formerly the Gulf of Frank), just north of Estonia.

2nd Battle for Frankograd!

Frankograd in flames!

Oh Frankograd, on the bay of Frank of the river Frank, how I yearn for your pearl white buildings and rolling fields..... 

Not much to report, the Germans tried to defend the city as best they could.  Unfortunately they were overrun by a wave, no an ocean of Russian infantry, Four full Strelkovy (some motor) battalions descended on beautiful Frankograd (recently liberated by our brave forces).  The Germans only stood a chance on the left flank, and that was due to the Russian commander having lost favor with Stalin.  He was ordered to "distract" the fascist pigs while the other four battalions got into position.


Here's some photos of the slaughter.
Don't remember much of the fight other than there weren't enough bullets in the city to kill all the Russian infantry that fell onto Frankograd form the steppes.

 The battle at Fundo de San Francisco

  A hypothetical battle between a royalist detachment lead by Mariscal Marco Del Pont & a Patriot detachment lead by General O'Higgins.

Orders of battle:
The Royalists
Officers

• Mariscal Marco Del Pont
• Brigadier Rafael Moroto

Infantry:

• 2nd Burgos Battalion
• Arequipa Battalion
• Concepcion Battalion

 Cavalry

• Dragones de Chillan (1st Squadron)
• Dragones de Chillan (2nd Squadron)
• Dragones de Arequipa
• Lanceros del Rey

Artillery

• Four gun battery

Patriots:
Officers:

• General Bernardo Ohiggins
• Teniente Coronel Ramon Freire

Infantry:

• 1st Chilean Battalion
• 2nd Chilean Battalion
• 3rd Chilean Battalion
• 7th Argentine Battalion
• 8th Argentine Battalion

Artillery

• Two gun battery
• Two gun battery

Setup:
Both forces were aware of each other, having sent scouts ahead.  The royalists decided to keep all their infantry in column formation on the road, lead by the infamous Mariscal Del Pont.  He also took the artillery battery.

General Morota took all the cavalry battalions and deployed them in line on the plains between the fundo and the road.

Genral O'Higgins took command of  three Chilean infantry battalions.  He kept them in column formation on or near the road to make good speed.  Col. Freire was given command of the 7th & 8th Argentines as well as both artillery batteries.

Both sides advance cautiously towards one another.  The Royalist artillery managed to snake its way to the head of the column and take up position near the cross roads, where it would spend the rest of the game.  On the other hand, the patriot artillery was not as disciplined, one company deployed when orders, while the other failed to on five consecutive attempts (rumor has it it was infiltrated by royalists officers).


Unfortunately for the Patriots, the 8th Argentine also had trouble deploying and stayed in column far longer than was planned.  This caused the 7th Argentine to be all alone in the plain facing the four Royalists cavalry regiments.  Needles to say it was charged by the 2st Chillan Dragoons. after having fired on the 1st Chillan Dragoons.

After a brief melee, they broke and were routed down field.  The Cavalry managed to run them down and hit them again on full retreat.  It was not pretty, the 7th Argentine took heavy casualties and became very disorganized.  It took four or five attempts to reorganize them, and then two more to have them do an about-face, so they could face the enemy again.

Seeing the success of their first charge, the rest of the Royalist cavalry decided it was their time. Fortunately for Col. Freire, the Arequipa Dragoons miscalculated his range and the charge run out of steam just short of reaching him.  He then proceeded run behind his artillery for cover.

On the mid left you can see the 7th Argentine being run down by cavalry, not pretty.

Los Lanceros del Rey charged the 8th Argentine, thankfully after it had formed into a line, with much the same results as their brothers.  The 8th fled through the patriot artillery in disorder.  The Lanceros continued to charge into the 2nd Artillery battery but the brave artillerists held them at bay with their ram-roods and small arms.

These charges left the Royalists cavalry's flanks exposed, the 3rd chilean battalion formed into a line with the small woods to its back and opened up on the flank of the 2nd Dragones the Chillan.  This broke their morale and sent them fleeing towards General Morota.  The brave artillerists of the 1st & 2nd batteries managed to do the same to the Lanceros del Rey.


After some encouragement from O'Higgins and Freire, the 7th Argentine rallied and turned to face their opponents.  They delivered a massive volley to the already weakend 2nd Dragones de Chillan and destroyed the Battalion.

This effectively ended the cavalry's involvement int he battle, the Dragones de Arequipa & Lanceros del Rey Battalions never managed to regain cohesion.  They run behind the fundo for cover where they stayed for the rest of the battle.

Cavalry is caught in a scrum after a successful charge.

The end of the 2nd Dragones de Chillan

Close up of their demise.

On the road side, the 2nd Chilean battalion formed a line opposite the royalist artillery (ouch).  They exchanged fire for most of the battle.  Unfortunately for them Moroto ordered the Arequipa battalion to set up on the artillery's right while Concepcion battalion was sent on a wide outflanking maneuver to the far right. 

 The 1st Chilean attempted to make its way to the 2nd Chilean's right flank to cover the coming Concepcion's flanking maneuver.  Due to poor planning, they were caught marching in column by the Arequipa battalion and took heavy loses and much disruption.  They eventually did manage to form a line and face Arequipa and Concepcion.  By then they had taken so much fire that Concepcion, smelling the blood int he water, decided to charge them.  This broke the 1st Chilean and they were routed back with Concepcion in hot pursuit (till the end of the battle).

The lines are set, observe Concepcion maneuvering on the top left (near the 7).

 

Concepcion Battalion pursuing the uber broken 1st Chilean Battalion.

 Seeing their brethren being routed and Concepcion's flank, the 2nd Chilean turned to face them, no realizing that they gave their flank to the 2nd Burgos Battalion and the artillery battery (ouch).

To add insult to injury, the 1st Chillan Dragoons finally regained their composure and charged the 3rd Chilean battalion, inflicting many casualties and seeding much disorder in their ranks.

O'Higginds did his best to rally his Chileans, but to no avail.  The disorder markers started piling up faster than they could be removed, effectively removing all three Chilean Battalions from the fight.

Smile 2nd Chilean, this is going to hurt you more than us!

3rd Chilean charged by 1st Chillan Dragoons.

 As dusk turned to night both sides exhausted and bruised, decided that they had won a solid victory and retreated from the field of battle.  Marical Moroto's dispatch made allusions to a grand Royalist victory.  General O'Higgins was overheard commenting on how his troops routed the Royalists pigs off the battlefield.

2nd Burgos staring at the 3rd Chilean's flank.

In all honesty, had we played a couple of more turns, I think the royalists would have crushed the Patriots.  The 1st Chilean battalion was being routed off field by Concepcion, which could have then turned and fought the 2nd Chilean battalions.  The 2nd Chilean was being flanked by both the artillery battery and the 2nd Burgos, and had Arequipa in front of them, fairly fresh.  The 3rd Chilean had taken casualties and was flanked by 2nd Burgos.  The Royalists had lost two Cavalry Battalions, but had two left which could have been rallied to charge again.  None of the Royalist's infantry had taken many casualties either.

The Patriots had the two artillery batteries and  7th & 8th Argentine fairly fresh, but they were very far from the main fight at the cross roads.

Ending setup.

Some additional shots from the end game.

7th Argentine! I said veer left! .... no, the other LEFT!.  A slight case of miscommunications, the patriot infantry got in front of their artillery.