Campaign maps for the Battle of the Zilherhoum Marshes

Hassan Muhtar Pasha's opening moves included raids on all the bridges permitting the resupply of King Ivan's base of operations at Klow.  Red arrows indicate Bordurian movements, black arrows show Syldavian moves.  In order of occurrence, these include A) a raid on  Nie Zileheroum followed by blowing up the bridge over the Wladir River to Klow; B) a raid on Ottokardin, site of another bridge over the Wladir, giving access from the east.  Ivan hastily marched his men to repulse that attack fearing the destruction of the bridge, which he wished to preserve for his own planned offensive; C) Finally, the Bordurian garrison of Zympathia seized the town of Orehovo, and cut off access to Klow from the west.  King Ivan was understandably desperate at this point to recover control of his lines of communication, especially those to the west. 

While preparing my last post I realised that with the slow pace of progress around here, I needed to go back and check my own map in order figure out where things ought to lie after last week’s battle and how they ought to progress.  If I needed a refresher, I can only imagine that the Interested Reader had to do some studying as well.  So, I am going posting here a couple of maps that should illustrate the flow of events across Syldavia’s obscure landscape.  Above is a map showing movements of the start of the spring campaign, namely the Bordurian raids on bridgeheads controlling access to King Ivan's winter base at Klow.  The map below shows King Ivan's movements in response to  these raids leading, finally, to the encounter in the Zileheroum Marshes.  

King Ivan's responses to the Bordurian raids.  After throwing the Bordurians out of Ottokardin, King Ivan learned learn he must hasten to do the same at Orehovo (D) to regain control over the the Djordjevaro-Klow road.  The Bordurian force withdrew to the west, enticing Ivan to pursue, hoping to entrap and destroy the majority of the troops defending Zympathia, which he planned to attack later in the spring.  He in fact had fallen into a trap, he could not catch the fleet Bordurians and moved out of contact with Klow, a situation compounded by late spring snows which choke the roads.  Free from interference, Hassan Muhtar united his forces in front of Klow (E) and began to bombard the city's fortifications in preparation for an assault.   Belatedly receiving news of the situation at Klow, King Ivan finally understoond his situation (F) and turned his army around, marching back to Orehovo (G).  He was harassed all the way by the Bordurians and had to detach infantry, guns and his light cavalry to garrison Orehovo.  Ivan pressed on, force-marhcing his men day and night through melting snow and mud toward Klow.  Having become fatigued and now heavily disorganized, Ivan encountered a Bordurian outpost in the Zileheroum Marshes, (H).  The Bordurians were repulsed during the resulting skirmish but raised the alarm with the Bordurian headquarters.  Ivan made camp there to reform and rest his men before forcing an encounter at Klow.  Hassan Muhtar sought to take advantage of Ivan's vulnerable situation  and sub-devided his army to attack the Syldavians in the Marshes while continuing siege of Klow. This battle, though bloody for all concerned,  went badly the Bordurians. They were defeated soundly and retreated to Klow to conserve their advantage of mass of force for a final encounter. Now left in peace, Ivan continued to reorganize his  men in preparation for an attempt to relieve Klow.