The Courier ... deliver the dispatch ...

At the Palace, Captain Schmidt, handed the despatch to Mlle Lisette Givenchy (who tucked it away in her cloak). The Captain said - "Get it to the main commandery as quickly as you can"

Meanwhile, M'lady de Vintner had found out by some means that the despatch was being couriered to the commandery. She instructed her best man Rutger Roquefort and one of his cronies to arrange for the message to be intercepted (Roquefort would get his associate the Hook and his men to do his dirty work)

---oXo---

Mlle Givenchy changed for some suitable street clothes and set off, along with her trusted friend Otto Bahn ...they were soon in the city...

and headed towards the bridge into the quarter where the commandery was located.....

Suddenly blocking their way was tall and wide man... 

Swords drawn and Givenchy moved up cautiously to persuade him to stand aside ....

A couple of swishes of the blade and he staggered backwards off the bridge with two rather nasty wounds ...

after they'd crossed the bridge Givenchy and Bahn were attacked by three more men....

Two were downed and one fell back down the street....

Givenchy and Bahn chased him and after a brief encounter he too was down clutching a nasty wound..

By the time they reached the edge of the small market square, it looked like they were OK; waiting for them as arranged was their friend Johannes von Tiddenheim.... 

"Had a bit of trouble eh ?" said von Tiddenheim 

"Just a little" said Givenchy. 

Bahn said "Not far to go, it should be easy to get to the commandery now....."

As they turned to move on, they were confronted the Hook and his men (some in front of them and two behind them..)

"Time to Dance" exclaimed von Tiddenheim and soon they were embroiled in some furious swordplay ...

They easily repulsed the first attack (but von Tiddenheim was wounded)...

They tried to work their way round the egde of the market square towards the commandery..

Soon they were crossing swords again ....

They'd managed to hold them off and had edged backwards slowly towards their goal ...

After pushing the opposition away, they moved back again slowly....

in came the Hook and his men again .....

Both sides stepped back to catch their breath ....

As Givenchy ran to the commandery nearby...the Hook made an attempt to get through after her 

The Hook failed; the Hook and his crew slowly fell back, all of them wounded in some way; von Tiddenheim and Bahn watched them leave.. 

Givenchy reached the commandery ... and hands over the dispatch ...

... Mission Successful ...

Tatar Segban ...

 To make my Tatar Segban I  used up a variety of my own castings and made a few modifications - mostly the head-gear; in addition I made up a mould for a standing horse, casting some to go with the horse holders.

All painted and ready for action...

Elite Tatar Warriors finished ...

All painted up...

and with the rest of the horde-let

Elite Tatar Warriors (WIP)

Selected a few types of my castings Tatar, Polish Pancerni and Ottoman cavalry riders, to do some conversion to make up a unit of Elite Tatar warriors....(sons of nobles..)

Adding to the Library (5) ...

Soldiers & Weapons Polish-Ottoman war books...

Nice books, the main text is in Italian (which I can just about read, with help from online translate tools)  The colour plates are nicely done and cover the troops types - the text for these is in Italian and English.

Polish Light Cavalry ... reworked....

 While I had the 17th century storage boxes out, I noticed my Polish Light Cavalry needed some attention, I'd painted the two units, one in a green theme and the other a blue theme - a bit too 'uniform'. So I've repainted/rebased them to give a better look.

The original green and blue themed units....

On the workbench and altering hats ....

Some of the coats repainted and blue/green/red/brown now intermingled....much better than before

Tatars painted ....

 Finally got round to painting the tatars I cast in February(!)..

They join the rest to make up a horde-let ....

The commanders...

Tatars .. recruiting more ...

The current tatar force ...

Recently I spent a bit of time casting twelve more, 

this will give me a total of 32 +  three command, enough to make a good sized raiding force or as allies for a potential cossack army.

Adding to the Library (4) ...

Recently arrived  ...  Charles X's Wars Volume 3 - The Danish Wars, 1657-1660, by M.F. von Essen

briefly perused on arrival, I've just started reading it in depth.. so far a very good read ...

Hoflandt Campaign PDF

I've put together the Hoflandt campaign PDF. Wittenberg and Saxe-Jarlsberg in conflict over control of the Hoflandt. It has an introductory section and includes all the relevant blog posts from the campaign (the pictures link to those on the posts so you can click and enlarge if you want to). 

The link to access the PDF is here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jK__SsDjnWrvq2DXcoY3sSbllwChNktg/view?usp=sharing

The Treaty of Montberg..

With no viable remaining field army, Wittenberg in possession of the Hoflandt, Saxe-Jarlsberg has no alternative to sue for peace. Saxe-Jarlsberg will cede control of the Hoflandt to Wittenberg.

Delegates gather at in the abbots hall  at the Montberg abbey.  The finalisation of the treaty to end hostilities in the Hoflandt will be signed.  Cardinal Lazunarund and his assistant has already arrived and is about to go into the hall, the Cardinal will sign the treaty for Wittenberg. The coach carrying Count Pottensdorf, the Herzog of Saxe-Jarlsberg's first minister, has just arrived ....

---oXo---

This brings an end to this Hoflandt mini-campaign

Adding to the Library (3) ...

 More information on the deluge... 'Against The Deluge' from Helion by Mical Paradowksi..

A nice book, full of info and well worth a read.