Saturday, 29 December 2018

Rudolph "The Red Nose" Reigned …

over Kleinstaadten for 32 years, until the fateful day he fell from his horse while leading a hunting party.

He was well nicknamed "The Red Nose", although not in his hearing as more than a few long term occupants of his dungeons could testify  His enjoyment of strong drink had resulted in more than a few tumbles from his spirited horses, but the final fatal fall was the spark setting off the Civil War which would split his Kingdom.



A siege gun 

His twin Sons, Prince Zsolt and Prince Vladislaus, had been growing apart since their late teens, as they each considered their likely futures.  Two rival Aristocratic factions within the Kingdom took advantage of this to curry favour with the Princes, attempting to further their influence.

Light Infantry are formed in 2 or 3 Companies, depending on their complement


Zsolt was the elder by just 10 minutes, and that should have ensured his Succession.  However, over the years, Rudolph had made it obvious Vladislaus was his favourite Son.  While never publically announcing the Declaration of his Successor, it was widely assumed this would be done on the grand State Occasion of the Princes' 21st Birthday.  Rudolph died when they were 20.


Couriers set off for all parts of the Kingdom to pass on initial orders

The rival factions moved swiftly to stir discord between the Princes and, within a week, the Kingdom was divided into two camps hastily preparing for War.


Some with more difficult terrain to traverse than others

This background to the War Of The Two Princes explains why my Minifigs on both sides have similar Army Organisation; uniforms; weapons; flags, etc.  


An Ottoman Artillery Regiment

Because of the large number of Aristocrats prominent in the upper echelons of the Officer Corps (Military Service was an honourable career path for Second Sons of the many Landowners); and the equally large number of Relatives of the many influential Politicians, the Army organised itself in Twos to allow a large number of Commands.  So …

2 Wings formed an Infantry Regiment
2 Squadrons formed a Cavalry Regiment
2 Batteries formed an Artillery Regiment
2 Regiments formed a Brigade
2 Brigades formed a Division
2 Divisions formed a Corps
2 Corps formed an Army

The concept of Brigades and Divisions was new, but soon copied by the rest of the Military Powers of Europe.



A combined Reserve and Militia Artillery Regiment.  The Militia Battery has 100 year old guns which are still effective - most of the time!

To man this comparatively large number of Units, they tended to be fairly small - an average Infantry Regiment numbering about 500.

Included were a significant number of Reserve, Garrison and Militia Regiments, varying in quality - which itself fluctuated depending on the Commander at the time.  Having served in many Wars and Border Clashes in this volatile region over the years, many of these older men had some military experience.

The Kingdom was rich enough to hire Mercenary Regiments from near and far; and had bought a larger number of cannon than other countries considered sufficient.

Thus the numerous Aristocrats and Political Appointees all could hold a Command at one level or another.  

The obvious drawback to this system was that, inevitably, a fair number of Officers were well thought of; a fair number were incompetent; and the majority were somewhere inbetween.

Foreign Officers served to gain experience or make their fortune, and most of them were known to be good before being accepted.  However, some (often wayward sons) were given Commissions as political favours to other Countries, and the Army had little choice but to have them serve.

Couriers have been dispatched to all corners of the Kingdom, with initial Campaign orders.





4 comments:

  1. Does the shooting start soon? (A variation on the classic "Are we there yet?" question)

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  2. What a wonderfully eclectic collection...
    This should be a very colourful war...

    All the best. Aly

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  3. I've just written a fairly big reply, and tried to post it. I was asked for my password and, on entering it, was told it was the wrong password (which it wasn't!) and to enter my Google password. Then the whole reply disappeared, and I don't have a copy! Really really annoying. Even if I did something wrong, you'd think I'd still have the reply to come back to. I'll reply again tomorrow. Alex


    Alex

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  4. This time - and from now on - I'll type out my comments before putting them on the blog. So, if anything goes wrong, at least I'll have a hard copy to remind me of what I'd written. On the other hand, I could just learn how to use Blogger properly!

    Pierre - your question spurred me on to really get going with things. I spent 5 hours on Sunday sorting out the figures I had to hand , and started basing them with flock, flowers and stones. This is longer than I've been spending each week up till now! I've accepted not trying to get everything perfect, but to get something onto the table and improve things later.

    Mind you, I still have problems being easily distracted - see yet another big siege gun above I "wasted" time on, as it's not required in the immediate future.

    All terrain is ready, apart from the hills having to be painted. I won't bother flocking them till later: they'll look very "old school".

    One slight problem is I don't actually have a table yet (!) but can knock one up in a couple of hours. I got a 6 x 4 terrain mat as a present from my wife when I first mentioned getting back into wargaming a few months ago.

    I've not made much progress with my home rules. Again, in the spirit of getting something going and improving it later, I'll find a set of basic rules on the internet - something along the lines of Der Alte Fritz' two page (!) 7YW rules? Also, I see there's now a simplified version of "Honours of War" and, on that site, a variation adapting them for the Malburian period. I can add to and adapt them as unexpected things occur in the game. This is far from ideal, but a start, and not too much of a problem as I'll be playing solo.

    So - in summary - forget the ideal setup - get going now.

    Aly - yes - there'll be colourful armies eventually, but not necessarily my favourite units right away. I've all the infantry I require almost ready for the Plattzdorf battle, but they don't include much in the way of Ottomans, which I really like. If I were to rummage around finding these and basing them, that would just hold things up. They might appear quite soon should the battle become a 2 day one, as reinforcements marching to the guns during the night.

    All regiments now have flags, although not always the ones I'd really have preferred. I'd a random selection already cut out ready to fix to bases, and have just used these in the meantime. They can always be changed later.

    All in all, while thinking it would be great to have everything exactly as I'd hoped, I have to be practical - it's been over three months since I set off on this revival...

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