Meanwhile, back in Bridgeton

 When last we left our friendly denizens of Outlandisha, Count William had just seen off the Earl's attempt to retake the village of Bridgeton.  3 weeks have passed (time moves strangely in Outlandisha) and the troops grow restless.  To refresh your memory visit No Cheese for You

 

Count William surveyed the construction work as a mix of low walls, gabions, and earthworks were being constructed on the East and South sides of Bridgeton.  Turning to his trusted lackey Curt he said “In another two days the wall should be far enough along to allow a small garrison to hold the Village.  I want scouts sent out tomorrow to sweep the East and South for any signs of the Earl’s forces – although I imagine they are still running as fast as they can.  Assuming the Scouts report no contacts, we’ll take the bulk of the army and move south in 3 days.  I hear the Village of Muscato has a nice Vineyard and Winery and would provide a nice increase in our tax revenue.  Some of the Earl’s Wine would go quite well with all of this cheese as well.  With any luck the Earl hasn’t had time to rally his forces.”  With that Curt  bobbed his head up and down repeatedly saying, “Yes Billy… I mean yes Count, as you command.  I live to serve.”  

 

At the Drunken Dragon Tavern, newly promoted Grand Captain Cuss-a-lot was regaling the wenches with tales of his daring exploits that broke the back of the Earl’s attack.  “With all the heavy armor and barding we recovered from the remains of the Earl’s heavy cavalry, I could almost raise a new unit… once we pound all of the dents out of it”, he chuckled out loud.

 

Meanwhile, back at Earlstown…   a surprisingly sober Earl was overseeing the frantic training of his recent recruits.  He had ordered the garrisons striped in Southtown and Swillville, and had even parted with enough gold to hire a couple of bargin priced units of Northern Barbarian mercenaries (fear for your life will make even the biggest skinflint part with gold).  He turned to face his staff, his blood shot eye glowing like some demon out of legend and bellowed “I want the Cavalry North of the intersection of Muscato and Bridgeton road by tomorrow noon.  We need to be in position to block any advance on Earlstown.  I know how the twisted mind of that old fraud Billy works, and I’m sure he’s coming to Earlstown to kill me and raze the town.”

 

And thus the pieces are set in motion for a meeting engagement.

 

*******

 

I’ve also managed to complete a rough map, I'll eventually finish one that looks a little less childish, but hey, when you use crayons for color, what do you expect.  At the start of the adventure everything North of the River belonged to Count William and everything South to The Earl D’Greer.  The Count’s villages/towns are in Red including Bridgeton which appears to be firmly in his hands at least for this campaign season.  The Earls’ holdings are in purple.  

 

 

Now I just need to paint up some more figures.   Hmmm… maybe dig out a unit or two of Pict spearmen to serve as mercenaries, they haven’t’ been on the table in a long time.   

 

So much lead, so little time