Army of Liberty: a Fantasy Revolutionary Warfare Quest

Your intel is limited, but you can expect the emigres to have strong cavalry as their trump card. There are also rumors that units from the Kingdom of Norn are on their way to join the Volunteer Army - which would mean professional infantry and artillery, if it's not just hearsay.
While this is potentially hearsay, there's also the possibility of Nornish artillery (though probably just one unit?) if what's left of the Royalist Volunteer Army is getting reinforced.

Though this depends on them not getting called back when word comes of what happened to the first two Nornish "volunteer" Legions.
 
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Yeah, even if this is all they can muster right now, I don't anticipate royalist elven Calvary to never be a problem again, so it's good that we bled them while we could.
 
Honestly whether they continue now depends entirely on what else, if anything, is still en route from Norn, or what professionals they held in reserve. I'm assuming a worst case scenario of another dwarven infantry regiment or tactical equivalent that we'll need to aggressively dislodge before we can call this campaign over, but I'll be happy to be proven wrong.
Another Dwarven regiment isn't going to save them. That would only push their force to four reduced cavalry regiments and two infantry regiments. That's not viable if it's facing anything bigger than a division, which they are.

Keep in mind that the Dwarven regiments that are reinforcing them aren't Arnése royalists. They are Nornisch regulars. While they're working together, they are different factions with different recruiting bases. The loss of two regiments of regulars, maybe three if they come around for another go or had we waited, hurts. But they can be fundamentally replaced by drafting more people into the army and raising new regiments.

The royalists cavalry is irreplaceable and their infantry is also coming from a very limited recruiting base. Without holding any ground in Arné they have just whoever is willing to flee the country to recruit from. A big ask for (former) peasants that form their main recruitment demographic. Their officer base is even more limited given it is restricted to actual (not titular) nobility.

To make a bit of an example let's look at the émigre armies. The Volunteer Army was 8100 men strong, with 2000 of those being Norns. Had we withdrawn to Vaud chances are it would have been 9100 with 3000 Norns.

OTL we had the following émigre armies (not émigres who joined armies of other nations, but independent formations). The Army of the Princes and the Army of Condé.

The Army of the Princes was short lived. Lasting only from 1791 to 1792 and the first year in pretty much name only. It counted 10.000 men at its hight, mostly raised by Louis XVI's brothers in Trier. It mainly served in the rear of Brunswick's army, never actually taking the field. It was also severely distrusted by both the Austrians and Prussians, and considered unreliable in combat. It was hated by the Rhenish population.

The Army of Condé lasted longer, from 1791 to 1801, and actually saw action. It was noted as officer heavy, with half of the original intake being noble officers (about 2000) who fled the revolution. During the 1792 wars it was also held in reserve due to concerns about its reliability, even if it was 20.000 men strong at that point. After Valmy there were talks about disbanding it, but it was taken into Austrian and Russian service (with British pay) fighting in numerous battles and would fluctuate between 6.000 and 10.000 men for the remainder of its service.

Recruitment and funding was an issue in both cases, with replacements and steady financing being core issues. Eventually their remnants, especially the officers, would mostly be integrated into the national armies of the coalition members.

To throw in some contemporary assessments on their skills (google translated from French).

"The emigrants, individually very brave, are bad infantry, and this body should be supported and guided by a troop more accustomed to discipline and fatigue. Children, old people, office staff fill the ranks. They fall after a walk, they clutter hospitals. The captains who carry the musket know the price of their devotion, and demand that their comrades who serve as their leaders do not treat them like simple soldiers. »

"The legions composed of gentlemen, reduced to pay and soldiery, were destroyed by disease; if we except a few vigorously constituted individuals, all those who escaped death returned in a state of exhaustion and infirmity which they will feel all their lives. To form corps of gentlemen-soldiers would therefore be to complete the destruction of the remains of the French nobility, half of which have already perished. »

Again. Assuming some similarity in numbers, then the kind of losses the royalists are suffering here are not sustainable in the long run. I'm expecting their total manpowerpool as a relevant faction to be about 20.000 ~ 25.000 at maximum, probably lower.
 
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Beyond just depriving them of manpower, we are killing experienced, skilled elven manpower.

Its hard to improve Elven units and if they retreat they do not get the benefit of getting the revivals.

Even if they get more recruits to fill up their regiments, their veterancy is going to suffer.


Do we get to loot the muskets of the captured units? They are significantly less valuable than their cannons but we could expand our infantry significantly with them.

Im a bit sad that they only had normal artillery, I want to raise a nymph horse artillery regiment we can park in some woods and fire with advantage every turn
 
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[X] Plan: Capture the Enemy Units
-[X] 200th Hob: Shoot 1st Halfling Volunteers
-[X] 72nd Hum: Shoot Schw Dwa Legion, if the Schw Dwa Legion is routed then shoot the 1st Halfling Volunteers
-[X] 148th Hum: Shoot Schw Dwa Legion
-[X] 42nd Elv: Shoot Schw Dwa Legion
-[X] 45th Elv: Shoot Schw Dwa Legion, if the Schw Dwa Legion is routed then shoot the 1st Halfling Volunteers
-[X] 16th Half: Capture Heid Dwa Legion with Rapid
-[X] 19th Half Pfd: Capture 1st Elven Volunteers with Rapid
-[X] 28th Half Pfd: Shoot 1st Halfling Volunteers
-[X] 55th Elv Hsr: Charge the Schw Dwa Legion if they are not routed, if they are routed then capture the Schw Dwa Legion
-[X] 108th Elv Hsr: Rest
-[X] 13th Hob Lan: Capture the 1st Halfling Volunteers if they are routed, if they are not routed then charge the 1st Halfling Volunteers
-[X] 84th Elv Art: Shoot Schw Dwa Legion
-[X] 5th Hob H. Art: Shoot Schw Dwa Legion, if the Schw Dwa Legion is routed then shoot the 1st Halfling Volunteers
-[X] HQ: No Action

This plan first focuses on routing the Schw Dwa, and then if they are routed to have the 5th, 45th, and 72nd also fire on the 1st Halfling Vol along with the 28th and 200th to try to rout them. 19th Half Pfd continues to capture the 1st Elven Volunteers. The 16th Half is ordered to continue to try and capture the Heid Dwa. The 55th Elv Hsr are ordered to charge the Schw Dwa if they aren't routed and to capture them if they are. The 13th Hob Lan is ordered to capture the 1st Half Vol if they are routed and to charge them if they are not.
 
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I honestly hope not. Being able to do so is going to result in extremely cluttered orders full of "if this, then that" for future battles.
 
can we change our shooting targets depending on the results of other shots?
I would guess not at least for infantry based on the description of the artillery ready fire order. It is hard to rotate 1000 infantrymen on the spot.
ARTILLERY READY FIRE can now be set in a cone (such as N, NW, NE). Already implemented in tutorial.
  • Intended effect: Easier to rapidly rotate a bunch of cannons than 1000 confused men.
 
Yeah the only time I've done a conditional it was conditional movement, i.e. "if your movement is blocked, here's your fallback". I don't know about conditional fire, especially since technically, routing happens after all fire is done, and then again after all charges and attacks are done.
 
Vote closed
Scheduled vote count started by Photomajig on Jan 5, 2024 at 11:14 AM, finished with 45 posts and 4 votes.

  • [X]Plan: Finishing
    -[X] 200th Hob: Shoot Halfling Volunteers
    -[X] 72nd Hum: Shoot Schw Dwa Legion
    -[X] 148th Hum: Shoot Schw Dwa Legion
    -[X] 42nd Elv: Shoot Schw Dwa Legion
    -[X] 45th Elv: Shoot Schw Dwa Legion
    -[X] 16th Half: Rapid Capture Heid Dwa Legion
    -[X] 19th Half Pfd: Capture 1st Elven Volunteers
    -[X] 28th Half Pfd: Shoot Halfling Volunteers
    -[X] 55th Elv Hsr: Charge and Capture Schw Dwa Legion
    -[X] 108th Elv Hsr: Rest
    -[X] 13th Hob Lan: Charge Hallfings and capture them
    -[X] 84th Elv Art: Shoot Schw Dwa Legion
    -[X] 5th Hob H. Art: Shoot Schw Dwa Legion
    -[X] HQ: No Action
 
The damage dealt by us before the enemy started to retreat:

Infantry 40%

38% Infantry 563 (84+68+33+21+36+42+6+20+11+36+30+51+33+45+47)
2% Cavalry 28
Artillery

Cavalry 37%

6% Infantry 88 (34+54)
24% Cavalry 348 67+13+35+89+55+89
7% Artillery 100

Artillery 22%

5% Infantry 116 (66+50)
17% Cavalry 230 (83+4+30+31+10+16+56)
Artillery

I manually wrote down damages, there may be mistakes
 
The thing I noticed was that the Artillery really did have a pretty big effect on Cavalry. Like, you expect the Cavalry to have a good portion of the total kills against enemy cavalry (just like Infantry v. Infantry), but the Artillery came close to matching it.
 
Artillery having the smallest percentage is also affected by the fact that we had one unit that was completely useless, and furthermore deployed our field artillery relatively conservatively. The lack of damage output from the 31st definitely skewed things here, as did the 84th only getting a few good shots (but at least made the ones they took count).
 
The thing I noticed was that the Artillery really did have a pretty big effect on Cavalry. Like, you expect the Cavalry to have a good portion of the total kills against enemy cavalry (just like Infantry v. Infantry), but the Artillery came close to matching it.
That actually fits well with what my wikiwalks have told me. Cavalry was apparently considered a poor counter to artillery because cavalry with their horses were large and relatively easy targets. The Cavalry could overwhelming an artillery unit, but apparently the expected outcome was that they'd take disproportionate casualties in exchange.
Cavalry units were vulnerable to artillery fire as the horses were large targets. Typically when cavalry units would charge artillery, they would suffer many casualties while inflicting few on the artillery in return. The artillery crews would ordinarily fire until the horsemen were nearby and then retreat to the safety of a friendly infantry unit in square. At this point, cavalry were trained to bring along headless nails to "spike" the guns by hammering these nails into the touchhole near the breech of the cannon, thereby rendering it useless on the battlefield.
 
That actually fits well with what my wikiwalks have told me. Cavalry was apparently considered a poor counter to artillery because cavalry with their horses were large and relatively easy targets. The Cavalry could overwhelming an artillery unit, but apparently the expected outcome was that they'd take disproportionate casualties in exchange.

Hmm, actually, I wonder if there's any way to represent that without being unbalanced. Because there's definitely this, like, back and forth going on here that seems kinda fun.

Narratively it could just be as simple as treating Artillery unit losses as being more likely to be, "Ran away, will come back after the battle/etc" rather than assuming that a cavalry really can just run them all down. Or, dunno!
 
We also have less artillery than our typical amount of divisions would wield.

If we count the 31st then we're lacking in atleast artillery one or two batteries/regiments. If we discount them then in atleast two to three.

Basic artillery ratio math is one or two artillery regiments per four infantry or cavalry regiments. In addition to attached corps/army level artillery brigades (for corps an additional two to three artillery regiments).

Doing the math means that for our size, we should have had between 5 to 9 artillery regiments. (Low end: 1 per 4 other regiments + 2 corps level. High end: 2 per 4 other regiments + 3 corps level.)
 
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Hmm, actually, I wonder if there's any way to represent that without being unbalanced. Because there's definitely this, like, back and forth going on here that seems kinda fun.

Narratively it could just be as simple as treating Artillery unit losses as being more likely to be, "Ran away, will come back after the battle/etc" rather than assuming that a cavalry really can just run them all down. Or, dunno!
Maybe something like "If an Infantry unit is adjacent and braced, the artillery crews can rush inside the square to protect themselves from a cavalry charge"?

With the trade-off that doing so means the Cavalry is uncontested in spiking the guns, which removes the cannons from play, at least for the battle.

That alongside the new capturing routed units rules will also help mean that deploying your entire army to the front without any kind of reserves is a bad idea.
 
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Also, I'm eager to learn more about the Liberationists and Levelers (the last two not to have their faction tag completed) and maybe see just what our victory leads to, politically! Raka Durand has done a very good job. It wasn't some, "Against all odds" victory, she had superior numbers and the battle was never entirely in doubt.

But it was a strong victory and tilted in her favor in terms of losses despite some bad luck at places.

A larger war in country-wide politics awaits, whether she wants it or not... and I don't think she necessarily seems to dislike it, seeing as how frustrated she was at languishing for a time.
 
Even if we have better relations with them, the Liberationists look way too much like the Girondists to me and the Levelers like Montagnards.

Consulars seem like the Thermidorian expy or maybe the Plain / Maraisards or the Modérés. The Constitutionalists are clearly the Feuillants.
 
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Even if we have better relations with them, the Liberationists look way too much like the Girondists to me and the Levelers like Montagnards.

Consulars seem like the Thermidorian expy or maybe the Plain / Maraisards. The Constitutionalists are clearly the Feuillants.

I don't really think we can rely too much on expies for this. Like, there are parallels, sometimes strong ones, but there are also some pretty notable differences, especially regarding the Levelers, to be honest.

E: Also, imagining a Thermidorian expy in Year 2 of the revolution is honestly not great history in general. Like, the Thermidorians as a 'thing' don't really make sense to compare anyone to.
 
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I don't really think we can rely too much on expies for this. Like, there are parallels, sometimes strong ones, but there are also some pretty notable differences, especially regarding the Levelers, to be honest.
Is it? I'm seeing price controls, destruction of the church (cult of reason), wealth and land redistribution platform (which is mostly land at this point in time), universal suffrage, hints at a willingness to enforce a Terror expy, conflict between branches pushing for centralisation / decentralisation and with a support base in the rural and urban poor. If there's any faction that makes me think 'Ah. The Paris mob!' then it's them.
 
Maybe something like "If an Infantry unit is adjacent and braced, the artillery crews can rush inside the square to protect themselves from a cavalry charge"?

With the trade-off that doing so means the Cavalry is uncontested in spiking the guns, which removes the cannons from play, at least for the battle.

That alongside the new capturing routed units rules will also help mean that deploying your entire army to the front without any kind of reserves is a bad idea.

This is something I've been thinking about, mechanically. Seemingly often in period battles, when artillery guns were captured, the attackers were unable to spike them because a counter-attack immediately followed and retook them. Some kind of set-up where arty crews run away when attacked and it takes a Round of time to actually disable guns by the attacking Unit could be appropriate.

Glad to see people intrigued by the politics. Soon you'll have a chance to dive headfirst into all of that!
 
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