Awhile ago
I posted about the problems of small tinpot states (
like mine) when larger armies come near them. This is doubly problematical when (like mine) your main army is off fighting somewhere else (we took French coin and went off to Saxony, problem is the Hanoverians approacheth...)
Anyway, I got interested in recruiting more troops - especially a Militia - and did a quick survey of
Kronoskaf and so concocted the following table:
Its not particularly accurate, if they had a number for Garrisons I put them in here. if not I didn't, and I tended to grab the most readily available numbers on the site for any one army, and came up with a number of about 40% of Militia to Line battalions.
But....the lowest ones % wise were States that either took British money to build more line battalions than they would afford naturally (Hanover, Hesse Kassel) or were KO'd early on (Saxony). France and Prussia re probably more indicative of the maxima numbers, c 50%.
At any rate, this gives my tinpot state, with 3 line battalions, a Garde demi battalion, a converged Grenadier battalion and another near-battalion worth of the 3 line battalions' depot troops, a magnificent theoretical total of about 2 Militia battalions.
I needed more.....
Another quick scan - Aha! - there are Freikorps, Legions, Volontaires etc - the French model is typically 2-3 squadrons of horse and a battalion of Foot volunteers. Surely any half decent tinpot state could raise its own Freikorps of Gentlemen, Scholars, Romantics, Patriots and Bounders! I decided mine clearly could
And, another quick reading showed that countries like Austria were quite good at grabbing frontiers men, mountain men, hunters etc into light part-time battalions, so surely there is such a battalion I can make from my hunters, foresters, mountain men etc.
So there you have it - the theoretical muster for your Imagi-Nation is about 50% of the Line battalion strength, and at least one FreiKorps and Light Jager/Grenzer/etc unit.
Which gives my tinpot state - well,
its over here
