Rumors spreading from the Landgrave of Ober-Schweinsberg speak of the impending meeting of the council loyal to Prince Asgar, one of the competing brothers engaged in civil war over their deceased father's throne. The Landgraviate continues to be divided over the issue of succession, with each Prince having been crowned Landgrave by different bishops and supported by their own government structures.
Speculation runs high that this gathering of Asgar's Council will draw the attention of Prince Arnold, and that an expedition may be mounted despite the winter season to arrest the Council members. Already, some residents are reported to be leaving the small town of Unter-Schweingau in anticipation of bloodshed, while others stay, the mayor having called the town's militia to arms. As of yet, there is no word of the Council's arrival in the town, and rumors differ as to the exact date planned for the meeting.
It is thought that any move by Arnold's wintering forces will result in a battle of some size, as one of Asgar's divisions lies in winter quarters across the river from the town, and would likely be called upon to defend the town.
(and yes, this is a background post for the proxy battle I'm working up to be played out by Murdock's group)
35 minutes ago
12 comments:
So eventually this will probably be played in my game room . . . but not next Sunday (I'll be watching the Super Bowl).
Take your time, Jonathan, and get things just the way you want.
I know that Murdock asked about the personality of your various generals & brigadiers.
If you don't have a system of your own for rating them, use my "Tricorne Wars" ratings (which is probably what we will game it out with).
For each one, roll 1 Averaging Die (numbered 2,3,3,4,4,5) for 'personality':
5 = Political
4 = Aggressive
3 = Steady
2 = Careful
Also roll 2d3 for each one . . . the lower number rolled is their 'initiative' score.
Finally roll 3dAv. The total is their command radius if commanding mounted; the total of the two lowest dice is their radius if Brigadiers commanding infantry.
Morale ratings of the units can be Raw, Veteran, Elite. You can grade these yourself or let the dice do it.
If the latter, roll for 1d6 each unit:
6 = Elite
3-5 = Veteran
1-2 = Raw
We usually allow 1 light gun for each Infantry Brigade; plus one medium gun per General; and no Horse Artillery.
In other words, we limit the number of guns so that the troops have to decide the battle.
I hope that this helps.
-- Jeff
Hi Jeff,
I actually already used your Tricorn wars system for them, to rate their personality. :) I just haven't finished the writeup and map. Funnily, the rolls actually came out similarly to my initial visions of some of the generals.
I didn't do the initiave or command radius as I figured I'd leave those for Murdock and company to do as they see fit.
Troop quality I've assigned myself, usng BAR's ratings which seem to be the same as yours except using the word Poor rather than Raw. Feel free to substitute.
I might reduce the guns based on your allowances there. I gave Arnold's force a single heavy gun, 12pdr, based on the intent to attack a town.
The beginning of momentous events! I look forward to reading the battle report.
Jonathan,
A single heavy gun would be okay . . . normally we'd dice for it being there (a 50-50 shot for a heavy); but since they would wait for it to arrive, I'd say that they would have it.
Actually I use "poor" as well as "raw". They are the same thing in game terms. The difference being that "raw" troops are just inexperienced; "poor" troops ARE experienced, they just haven't done well.
I've been reworking the rules a bit (version 0.2 should be available before we get to play the game); and hopefully it will read a bit better than the current stream-of-consciousness version.
-- Jeff
Here's an early list of the generals involved. I may add one more officer for Asgar, to command the troops in the town. Ratings are listed by BAR quality, then Tricorn personality.
Arnold's officers
--------------------
C-in-C: Generalmajor Wlodzimierz Borowczyk - Polish immigrant, Veteran, Steady
Black Brigade (infantry): Brigadier Max Färberböck - Elite, Steady
Kinski Brigade (infantry): Brigadier Werner Kinski - Trained, Political
French Brigade (infantry): Brigadier Jean-Louis d'Civeyrac - Veteran French Mercenary, Aggressive
Muldowney Heavy Cavalry Brigade: Brigadier Sean Muldowney - Veteran, Aggressive
Light Cavalry Brigade: Brigadier Hans Andress (Trained, Political)
-----
Asgar's Commanders
-----------------------
C-in-C: Generalmajor Peter Schweiger - Veteran, Aggressive
Third Brigade (infantry): Brigadier Wim Gronenborn - Veteran, Steady (note: Third Brigade defeated by Black Brigade in last battle)
Second Brigade (infantry): Brigadier Roland Kruger - Raw, Political
Murnau Heavy Cavalry Brigade: Brigadier Klaus Murnau - Elite, Aggressive
Light Cavalry Brigade: Brigadier Sebastian Boll - Trained, Aggressive
Thoughts. All officer personalities were rolled using Jeff's table. I took the liberty of swapping two of the personalities, those of Gronenborn and Kruger, as Gronenborn already had an established character from last battle. But all personalities were actually rolled.
So, we see Arnold saddled with a pair of political Brigadiers, a pair of aggressive Brigadiers, a steady Brigadier, and a steady C-in-C. Promises to be a somewhat chaotic force.
Meanwhile, Asgar has only one political Brigadier, but rolled no less than 3 aggresives, including the C-in-C! If I give them a commander for the troops in town, which I'm seriously thinking they should have, we'll see what's rolled for that.
Wow! This sounds like we're to have a LOT of troops on the table. I hope that we have enough. (We may have to have some of Murdock's Nappies masquerading as SYW chappies.)
How many Battalions and how much cavalry does each side have?
-- Jeff
The only difficulty I see right now with your forces is one relating to the size of your Landgraviate?
You have indicated that this is a sort of 'civil war' with these troops coming from the same 'nation':
Asgar's forces - eight battalions of infantry (from raw militia to elite guards), twenty cavalry squadrons, and six guns. Total 4,380 infantry, 2,400 cavalry.
Arnold's forces - nine battalions of infantry (raw line to veteran grenadiers), twenty-two cavalry squadrons, and five guns. Total 4,560 infantry, 2,640 cavalry.
Giving a total of 14,380 men (allowing 400 men for all the guns). At a rate of 1/12th of the population involved in matters military (at the height of the Napoleonic wars the rate was 1/3rd), this equates to a nominal national population of 172,560.
This article talks about a population density in 1700 of 32 inhabitants/km, making for a nation about 5400 kms.
This makes your area about twice the size of modern day Luxembourg. If this was about as big as you though your lands were then you have your troops to the right sort of size.
For my part of 'advising' your story-telling I would suggest a couple of changes.
1. only a total of 12 'brigades' involved in total - with one side perhaps having the veterans and the other the guards but more levvies/militia/raw troops. This would be because not all forces could afford to become so entangled, lest the other parts of Urope take advantage of the situation and 'press-in' from the borders?
2. Only have 20-24 squadrons of cavalry actually 'in the battle area'. Cavalry is very quick to both move into and away from a battle zone. Cavalry is also very vulnerable in winter conditions...making them less interested in taking part in such actions. Also as noted above with less infantry to watch the frontiers the cavalry would be called on to 'recce' much much more so that the limited infantry forces could respond.
3. your gun numbers at first seemed a bit low (only one battery for each side) but the idea that the frontiers were still needing the guns made sense.
These changes would be great for Jeff and I to be able to game this out better, and still reflects the overall needs of your Landgraviate to maintain itself.
p.s. my email is arcadian@umpire.com perhaps you could also send out some 'flag & uniform' notes?
I'll take your advice into account and do a little more fiddling with the numbers, Murdock. A couple of things I probably do need to clarify:
The qualities listed by the brigadiers are those of the general, not of the troops under his command. BAR has general quality ratings, where Tricorn has personality. I went ahead and did both.
Actual troop qualities are heavy on the trained, with Poor, Veteran, and Elite also represented. I also have one thing skewing both the troop quality and the population calculation: the Landgraviate has a heavy history of involvement with mercenary work, not only with forming its own citizens into mercenary formations, but also acting as a sort of brokerage for units formed of foreigners. So some of the troops involved are mercenaries. The list included 4 foreign infantry battalions and one foreign cavalry regiment.
Twice Luxembourg is probably fairly reasonable, given how large I think Hesse-Engelburg became once I calculated up the map territory. I have yet to actually do a map of Ober-Schweinsberg; it's somewhere down the to do list but a little more complex since it would require defining territories for all three factions.
I'm going to take your advice in hand and look at reducing the forces involved, though, for playability sake. I've still got to do the flags, but I've got uniforms worked up for all the formations. The bulk of Arnold's are in purple Prussian or Austrian style and the bulk of Asgar's in blue French or Austrian style, but feel free to substitute as needed. Also present are red, green, and black.
Great!
I await the next draft of the formations, flags, uniforms and map!
A quick sketch map has been added to the Ober-Schweinsberg blog. http://ober-schweinsberg.blogspot.com
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