King Karol of VinAlba had other things to occupy his mind which meant Prince Otto and the Zarland succession would have to wait another day.
Both Nuringia and Genachia would no doubt be pressing their claims.
As 1816 closed VinAlba remained officially at war with Zarland although relations had cooled with Davaria. King Karol did not expect any help from that direction after the Kloster Arens fiasco. His view was that, had the Davarians committed all their forces to his attack things would have fared better. Instead they had pursued their own small war to little avail.
Nuringia also remained at war with Zarland.
And Davaria seemingly had lost interest in taking some of Zarland as trouble brewed with its south eastern neighbour – Verbonia.
In Nuringia the Elector, Grand Duke Maximilian had been building his forces waiting for an opportune moment to strike. His objective was a land grab – well recovery of historic Nuringian lands. The broader objective was to acquire control of Zarland.
Maximilian decided to attack once the Zarlanders were fully occupied by the VinAlban/Davarian actions in the west. In the event his troops were marching only as the VinAlbans were failing at the battle of Kloster Arens.
This meant the Zarland Regent, Duke Constantius, was able to move quickly against Maximilian.
When both sides began to make contact their respective scouts reported the following numbers.
Nuringian Scouts estimated 11,000 Zarlanders in the field – this was not what Maximilian had expected.
Zarlanden Scouts estimated 9000 Nuringians in the field.
These estimates* were not far wrong and Maximilian realised his opportunity was gone. He ordered his forces to retire.
In just a few months the apparently tottering Zarland regime had repulsed three attacks on Greater Zarland.
Duke Constantius was well pleased with this outcome at the close of the first year of Princess Maria’s reign. He did not expect matters to improve though.
*for my campiagns I use various systems to create “establishments”. These are then subject to availability based on the turn of events. To add to the uncertainty for solo games I then use variable assessments by the enemy of the opposing forces. In this case Zarland actually did not field 11,000 men.
They had a lot less than Nuringia. It was just poor information and and misreporting that gave the high figure. The fog of war so to speak.
For solo gaming narrative campaigns its all grist to the mill. And it throws up more variety in terms of battles and forces.
The Wargaming Erratic 