Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Insulae Mucronis - Legion
Headquarters –Command stand (s3), Signals van (S3)
3xInfantry Regiment
HQ - Command (s2), 45mm AT gun (s3), 75mm pack howitzer (s2), 81mm (s3), Engineer stand with flamethrower (s3), mounted FOO stand (s1)
3xCohorts - Command (s1), 3xRifle Stands (s3), MMG (s3), HMG (s3), ATR (s2) 81mmmortar (s3)
Artillery Brigade
2xRegiments (1 horse drawn, 1 motorized)
Regiment Command stand (s2), Signals Van, 3xFOO (s1), 3xJeeps
2xLight battalions – 1x75mm, truck or limber
1xMedium battalion – 1x105mm, truck or limber
Cavalry Battalion – Command stand (s1, mounted) 3xRecce Stands (s3, mounted), 1x81mm mortar (s3)
Engineer Battalion – 1xCommand stand (s1) 3xEngineer stands with flamethrowers (s3), 3xTrucks
Anti-tank battalion -- 3x45mm, 3xtrucks
Anti-aircraft battalion -- 3xAAMG, 3xtrucks
Empire of the Sun and Flame
Culturally, most of these regions were very similar, having a strict caste system overseen by a hereditary caste, although a merit- and education-based bureaucracy organized on almost Confucian lines provided a means for social mobility for the best of the lower classes. Warfare was stylized and dominated by mounted nobles and their retainers, the mass of the populace being largely unarmed by law and custom, with the exception of certain tenacious hill peoples who provided light-armed infantrymen in lieu of taxes.
Religion is a variation of Zoroastrianism along with a strong ancestor cult and a bushido-like warrior code for the aristocrats.
The Toyahota Shogunate was ushered in with mass armies equipped with rifle-muskets with conical rounds, socket bayonets, and standardized field artillery. However, in order to coopt the various noble houses, after unification the regular infantry was reduced and de-emphasized in favor of the noble muster of horse and the provision for nobles to maintain and command their own infantry regiments or battalions. This system persisted until the beginning of the Great Central War, when its weaknesses were made blatantly obvious by a series of disasters opposing the Swordpoint invasion of the Empire.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Insulae Mucronis
The original groups dropped off were a mix of Romans and Gauls scooped up indiscriminately from the middle of a clash between isolated units during Caesar’s conquest of Gaul. The Roman culture and organization was greatly superior, and the fact that the next group deposited was a cohort from the 2nd century Legio XV Apollinarius, scooped up along with native wives from what is today Uzbekistan reinforced the cultural dominance.
Byzantine line troopers and a handful of Hunnic mercenaries from Justinian’s expedition to Northern Africa that were believed lost at sea also were deposited in the same area, and as they were recognizably Roman and Latin-speaking, they were easily assimilated. The same could not be said for the Apache tribe deposited shortly thereafter, who remain a recognizable cultural minority to this day.
There were several more occasions where Byzantines of progressively later eras were deposited, then a gap of several hundred years, followed by the deposition of a group of Greeks of the 1919-1922 war with Turkey, cut off and surrounded by Turks, who remember only a bright light and awakening on a beach.
Politically, the structure of the Republic owes much to the Republic. Senators elect a pair of Consuls, who however remain Consul for Life. Unfortunately, the politics within the Senate are so vicious and violent that over ¾ of the Consuls die violently. Succession crises are fairly common.
Prior to the Great Central War, Swordpoint forces were a mix of heavy infantry units and cavalry in the Expeditionary Forces, questionable home defense forces, and a powerful Navy with ground forces of its own.