Battle of Malbdoux

Battle of Malbdoux
Part of South Terrifica War
Painting of the Battle of Malbdoux, depicts the Duc' de Cationne's forces arriving on the field of battle.
Date 11th September 1822 Location Malbdoux Result Gallandic Victory
Belligerents
Vionna-Frankenlisch	Kingdom of Gallandia
Commanders and leaders
Duke of Teutonberg	Comte de Marchand Duc' de Cationne
Strength
45,000 Men 101 Guns	42,000 Men 110 Guns
Casualties and losses
9,000	4,500

The Battle of Malbdoux was a major battle of the South Terrifica War and the closing battle of the Vionna-Frankenlischian South Gallandia Campaign. Two Gallandic armies under the joint command of the Comte de Marchand and the Duc' de Cationne fought a pitched battle against the Vionna-Frankenlischian army of the Duke of Teutonberg. In a six hour battle, the Duke of Teutonberg's force was beaten soundly and he was forced to retreat to Adeleux, which was put under siege the following month.

Background

Malbdoux was the final decisive battle of the short-lived Imperial South Gallandia Campaign. The army of the Duke of Teutonberg had won three victories against smaller Gallandic armies but Malbdoux was where the winning streak met its end. Following the Vionna-Frankenlischian victory at the Battle of Harsoin, the Duc' de Cationne and the Comte de Marchand decided to split their forces to catch up with the Imperial army.

Taking two separate routes, the two Gallandic generals hoped to catch the Imperial army on the march and strike from two different directions, keeping in close communication to avoid being defeated in detail. Neither side strayed more than six hours march from one another. The Duke of Teutonberg, on the other hand, dithered following his victory at Harsoin and it took him a day to get his army back in order before deciding to march on Malbdoux. Had he made his decision the preceding afternoon, he could have reached Malbdoux before the Gallandians and taken the town. In reality, his delay allowed the Comte de Marchand's army of 21,000 men to reach Malbdoux and form up for battle.

Plans

Imperial

The Duke of Teutonberg planned to move swiftly and press De Marchand with his superior numbers, hoping to take Malbdoux before the arrival of Gallandic reinforcements. To that end, he moved his quickest, lightest artillery to the front of his column and marched his troops hard to reach the town. His force was militia; admittedly, the best of the Vionna-Frankenlischian militia was picked out to be sent overseas but the force was still cobbled-together.

If Lord Poltov's diaries and official army records are correct, his force was quite diverse and, in some cases, shambolic. Ten thousand men were Lord Poltov's own, noble retainers and militiamen from his lands, these men were well-armed, uniformed and trained competently. Their example provided a good basis but was simply insufficient. It is a common belief that these kinds of men were the norm in the Imperial Army of the day, unfortunately, that was not the case. Twenty-thousand men were militiamen from other lordships. These, too, were widely competent and standardly-equipped; however, amongst this force, Poltov commanded a battalion of longbowmen, four-hundred strong and two battalions of pikes. The remaining men were mainly mercenaries, these men came from Vionna-Frankenlisch and Wolfswood, mostly, but there were Germanans and Prodavans too.

Poltov was forced, as he noted in his diaries, to make use of numerical superiority as much as he could. In the case of Malbdoux, he was aware of the Comte de Marchand's forces facing him and he was also aware of incoming Gallandic forces, although he did not know their strength. He had to assume, correctly, that while he outnumbered the Gallandians separately, together they would even the odds or certainly come close to doing so. He planned his attack on this assumption. The reinforcements, he judged, would come along the road from Reinris which sat comfortably behind the Comte de Marchand's left flank. Therefore, he placed his strongest troops, consisting of Wolfswoodan mercenaries and his own retainers, on his right flank. On his left flank, he placed the pikes, the longbows and his light troops from Germana and Prodava. In the centre was the musket-armed Vionna-Frankenlischian militia. He kept the Vionna-Frankenlischian mercenaries and noble retainers in reserve.

Gallandic

The Comte de Marchand's plans coincided almost exactly with the Duke of Teutonberg's expectations. His strategy was to tenaciously hold the outskirts of Malbdoux and await the Duc' de Cationne's reinforcements. He set up his sixty guns on the highest ground possible, sited to fire down on the advancing Imperials. His men were arrayed in four divisions, much like Lord Poltov's. A right-flank division, a centre division and a left-flank division, with a reserve division behind.

In stark contrast to the Vionna-Frankenlischian forces, the Gallandic forces were almost entirely career soldiers. Thirty thousand out of forty-two thousand men were regular soldiers of the Royal Gallandic Army. The remainder were citizen-soldiers of the Gallandic National Guard. The National Guardsmen were generally as well equipped as the Vionna-Frankenlischian militia. The regulars boasted training and equipment of better quality than almost the entire Vionna-Frankenlischian army excepting, perhaps, their Germanan and Wolfswoodan mercenaries.

Battle

Vionna-Frankenlischian Attack

As the Duke of Teutonberg's army deployed for battle, the Gallandic guns opened fire from long range. The accuracy of the Gallandic gunners was poor and the gunpowder was not of the same quality as the Imperial artillery, however, one battalion of Vionna-Frankenlischian militia was badly mauled and Lord Poltov withdrew it to the reserves. Lord Poltov's army was in position by 10:30.

Resolving to take Malbdoux before Gallandic reinforcements could arrive, Poltov ordered the 1st Militia Division under Major General Rowland Villiers to advance against De Marchand's centre. Under the constant fire of Gallandic guns, Villiers led his division forward, taking scathing casualties in the process. A shrapnel shell burst mere feet from Villiers' head and it has been noted as one of the few times the general was recorded to have sworn. The Comte de Marchand's sixty guns were divided into six batteries and were evenly spaced along the Gallandic line. The two centre batteries were directed to fire against the 1st Militia Division and from enfilade positions, they raked the division with round shot and shells. As the militia were not sufficiently trained on offensives, they had to advance in blocks and columns, rather than the thin lines usually utilised by the Vionna-Frankenlischians. Under the fire of these guns, Villiers reported losses of 467 men from his division of 3,000.

Lord Poltov recognised the trouble Villiers had ran into almost immediately and he committed to an attack on all fronts. First, he ordered forward his cousin, Sir Daniel Poltov who led the Teutonberg Retainers. Sir Daniel's Teutonberg Division advanced from their position on the right flank at about 11:30 and, with the Gallandic guns focusing on Villiers' Division, the Teutonberg Division was able to move against the Gallandic left. Voltigeurs of the Chevalier de Valsoir's 5th Brigade fired upon the Teutonberg Division from skirmish positions but failed to slow the advance and, by Sir Daniel Poltov's account, caused under 100 casualties from his division of 4,000.

With the Teutonberg Division advancing rapidly against the Gallandic left with seemingly little resistance, Lord Poltov seemed convinced that the battle could be won by holding the Gallandic right flank in place and putting heavy pressure on their left. On the Vionna-Frankenlischian left, he ordered forward the longbowmen and pikes to harass the Gallandic right flank. The longbowmen moved forward in skirmish order and rained arrows on the unsuspecting Gallandic 8th Brigade. The longbows proved so effective that the Vionna-Frankenlischian Imperial Army retained several battalions of 'Woodsmen' and 'Yeomen Archers' up until the Ai Chi War. While the flank was pinned by the longbows, the pikes advanced in dense blocks, emulating 15th and 16th-century tactics to mixed success. Poltov, seeing the success these supposedly outdated units were achieving against the Gallandic right was intrigued and forsook his initial plan in favour of reinforcing the attacks against the centre and Gallandic right. Poltov threw the 2nd Militia Division, under the command of General Mackelfield, against the centre to support Villiers' 1st Division and committed his only cavalry, consisting of 400 of his own noble retainers against the Gallandic right.

Gallandic Counterattack

The Comte de Marchand was surprised to see his army in such trouble. The pikes and longbows moving against his right were doing well and had successfully pinned the whole flank with accurate fire and deadly pike charges. Sir Daniel Poltov's attack against de Marchand's left was proving successful too and Villiers' was gaining traction thanks to the reinforcements. However, de Marchand saw a clear opportunity. As the Duke of Teutonberg's only cavalry was deployed on the Vionna-Frankenlischian left, de Marchand's comparatively strong cavalry force could be deployed. Two squadrons of hussars were deployed on the far left of the Gallandic line. A squadron of dragoons were dismounted to support the failing 5th Brigade and two more squadrons of dragoons were deployed behind the hussars. When Sir Daniel Poltov's Teutonberg Division continued their advance, after some time trading fire with the 5th Brigade and their dragoon reinforcements, the Comte de Marchand gave the order; the Gallandic hussars, followed by the dragoons, charged against the flank of the advancing division. Severely outnumbered, the Gallandic cavalry took advantage of the element of surprise and began their attack from the cover of a wooded area. The hussars curved during the charge so one squadron hit the front of the advancing division, the other hit it in the rear. The dragoons charged directly into the Teutonbergers' flank. This action was performed at about 12:20.

The Gallandic charge was incredibly costly to the Vionna-Frankenlischians, it may well have cost them the battle in addition to just over a thousand men (most reports suggest 1,190). The Teutonberg Division was swept downhill, back from Malbdoux. The Duke of Teutonberg was forced to deploy his Frankenlischian mercenaries, numbering 4,000 onto the right flank to fight off the now exhausted Gallandic cavalry. The four squadrons had a combined strength of 1000 and took approximately 150 casualties in the engagement, a clear success. Led by General Gesarin, the Gallandic cavalry was perhaps their strongest asset and numbered three thousand men at Malbdoux, organised into five squadrons of lancers, three of generic light cavalry, three of dragoons and two of hussars. With his left relieved of pressure, the Comte de Marchand redeployed National Guard troops from his reserves to plug the gaps. He noted, with surprise that the Duke of Teutonberg, a famously bold and aggressive commander, was being conservative with his strength. De Marchand was forced to assume that Lord Poltov was keeping large reserves in case the Duc' de Cationne's reinforcements arrived prematurely. He was most likely correct.

Despite being vastly outnumbered, de Marchand spied an opportunity in Lord Poltov's conservatism. By keeping troops back, the Vionna-Frankenlischian attacks were poorly supported. De Marchand figured that a strong push on all fronts would force the entire Vionna-Frankenlischian attack back and buy more time for the Duc' de Cationne's reinforcements to arrive. Thus far, de Marchand had been retaining his troops in their positions, with the exception of his cavalry. He decided, at 1:10, to order a general advance. Across the whole line, the Gallandic troops counter-attacked the attacking Vionna-Frankenlischians. On de Marchand's right, a strong push by two brigades of infantry decimated the Vionna-Frankenlischian pikes and forced the longbows to retreat in disorder. The two divisions of militia pushing against the Gallandic centre were kept in place by the Gallandic 2nd Brigade and flanked by the 9th and 10th Brigades on either side. The left flank, already secured by Gesarin's cavalry charge, saw little action. The 5th Brigade and their dismounted dragoons wheeled about to provide support to the centre.

Under enormous pressure from multiple Gallandic brigades and with the majority of de Marchand's guns focused against them, the 1st and 2nd Militia Divisions withdrew at 1:35pm. Despite their shortcomings, they retreated in good order and continued to exchange fire with their opponents. Out of around 6,000 men, the 1st and 2nd Militia Divisions took 1,411 casualties, most of them from the 1st.

De Cationne's Arrival

At 2pm, the Duc' de Cationne finally arrived on the field. He deployed his forces directly to the left of the Comte de Marchand's army, making his headquarters at a farmstead atop a hill. The Duke of Teutonberg responded to the new threat instantly, deploying his reserves to the right of his main line, mirroring de Cationne's deployment. Poltov also moved four batteries over to his newly-extended right flank to fire on de Cationne's army as it took up its positions. This bombardment cost the Gallandians three hundred casualties and destroyed four of de Cationne's deploying guns.

The Duke of Teutonberg began consolidating his position. He ordered his line reformed to produce a solid line of men from one end to another, leaving only miniscule gaps between units. He placed his Prodavan and Wolfswoodan mercenaries, along with the somewhat diminished longbows, ahead of the army as skirmishers. His cavalry, consisting of 400 retainers from Teutonberg, was split in two and placed on the far end of each flank.