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Over the Hills and Far Away - A British enlisted soldier in the Napoleonic Wars

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  • Voting
    • alright looks like I'll call it here. Work has picked up so I have no clue when the next update will be but we know what'll be in it
    Adhoc vote count started by MaHaL on Jan 26, 2024 at 5:59 PM, finished with 24 posts and 19 votes.
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  • Voting
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    An Introduction to the Goat
  • Threadmarks
    • [x] Attempt to learn Welsh
    [x] Learn to read
    [x] Socialize with your new comrades
    ​

    [X] Learn to read

    Half of your pocket money had been poured into the book you had on the table in front of you. An illustrated copy of the bible in German that you had managed to find at the port market.

    Slowly tracing the letters on the page with your finger you tried to remember what each one represented when footsteps sounded in the hallway and you looked up to see a young officer entering the room. Immediately you shoot to your feet ready to come to attention but he waves you down before grabbing one of the other seats at the table and speaking a rough accent different from the others you've met so far.

    "Private Simon, yes? I'm Lieutenant MacGillivray, I hear you're the newest member of our Light Company. Normally it'd be Captain Blackwood coming around but he's on leave tending to some family estates."

    "Yes Sir, Walter Simon Sir." You nodded at the Lieutenant, making sure to keep your finger at your place in the book. His eyes followed your arm for a second before pausing as he looking at the page.

    "Is that a German bible? Good man, too many of our ranks don't read the good book regularly." MacGillivray commented with a smile, causing you to duck your head.

    "Ah, I can't read Sir. I'm trying to learn and deutsch is easier than english."

    "Commendable work Walter. Tell you what, I like having men of letters in my platoon so talk to Sergeant Morgans and tell him that you're one of mine now."


    COMBO
    [x] Attempt to learn Welsh
    [x] Socialize with your new comrades

    "YFED CWRW! YFED CWRW! YFED CWRW!" Echoes around you as beer flows down your throat. Every time you finish a mug another is placed in your hands and you take a deep breath before going back under.

    How things ended up like this still escapes you. You had started talking with David Vaughan after lunch and mentioned that you were still having trouble picking up welsh. He had nodded and said that having more of the regiment not be English was always an improvement before saying he knew the perfect way to help. It started fairly sedately, a bit of a tour of all the places around town that every ranker needed to know before they went back to the barracks and with everyone else also coming back what had started as friendly introductions soon turned into a welcoming party and then Keith Jennings walked in with a massive cask of ale.

    That was as far as your memory stretched before it all washed away in a flood of beer. The next thing you knew the sun was peeking through the curtains, stabbing into your eyes as someone's footsteps came down the hallways.

    The door creaked open and a voice you subconsciously dreaded came through as the scarred visage of Sergeant Morgans that had seen you assigned to this platoon peered through the doorway and inhaled before he was interrupted by the bleating of a goat. You both blinked and turned towards the sound, finding a spotted goat laying in the corner of the room, chewing on a small bit of hay.


    THE GOAT IS SAFE. I know they're Welsh and thus we all must think of the memes of what happens to the poor sheep but I promise it was normal drunken shenanigans instead of something nefarious.

    STORY VOTE TIME

    So historically the Goats didn't have their next major deployment until 1795. I'm gonna be writing 5 years of updates so that leaves us with a question. Do you guys want me to come up with an original deployment for you to cut your teeth on or just have a montage of you guys settling in with the regiment until we get shipped out to the West Indies in '94?

    [] Original Deployment
    [] '94 West Indies

    Either way they're still be a bit of a time skip montage so what'll you be focusing on as that happens?

    [] Rising through the ranks / You desperately want to make Corporal, the extra bit of pay and responsibility call to you.
    [] Making friends / Being surrounded by soldiers who see you as one of their own is a new experience and you love it.
    [] Self Improvement / Friends and rank are both nice, you won't turn them down but you're more concerned with making sure your skills only get sharper.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [x] Original Deployment
    I don't have a preference for the other vote, but nothing prepares you for war, except war. Best to have some battle of no importance with people of no importance before we face the french scourge.
     
    [X] Original Deployment
    [X] Rising through the ranks / You desperately want to make Corporal, the extra bit of pay and responsibility call to you.
     
    [x] Original Deployment
    [x] Making friends / Being surrounded by soldiers who see you as one of their own is a new experience and you love it.
     
    [x] Self Improvement / Friends and rank are both nice, you won't turn them down but you're more concerned with making sure your skills only get sharper.
     
    [X] Original Deployment
    [X] Rising through the ranks / You desperately want to make Corporal, the extra bit of pay and responsibility call to you.

    We are made for rising the ladder
     
    [X] '94 West Indies
    [X] Rising through the ranks / You desperately want to make Corporal, the extra bit of pay and responsibility call to you.
     
    [x] Original Deployment

    [X] Self Improvement / Friends and rank are both nice, you won't turn them down but you're more concerned with making sure your skills only get
     
    [X] Original Deployment

    [X] Self Improvement / Friends and rank are both nice, you won't turn them down but you're more concerned with making sure your skills only get
     
    [X] '94 West Indies
    [X] Rising through the ranks / You desperately want to make Corporal, the extra bit of pay and responsibility call to you.
     
    [X] Original Deployment

    [X] Making friends / Being surrounded by soldiers who see you as one of their own is a new experience and you love it.

    The army is a team effort, best we know our team. As for rank, we'll earn our stripes in battle I'm sure.
     
    [x] Original Deployment

    [X] Self Improvement / Friends and rank are both nice, you won't turn them down but you're more concerned with making sure your skills only get
     
    [X] Original Deployment
    [X] Making friends / Being surrounded by soldiers who see you as one of their own is a new experience and you love it.
     
    [x] Self Improvement / Friends and rank are both nice, you won't turn them down but you're more concerned with making sure your skills only get sharper.
     
    [x] Original Deployment
    [X] Rising through the ranks / You desperately want to make Corporal, the extra bit of pay and responsibility call to you.
    what was the original deployment?
     
    vote 4 result
  • Voting
    • Adhoc vote count started by MaHaL on May 21, 2024 at 8:52 PM, finished with 15 posts and 14 votes.
    Click to expand...


    That's right, we're back. I am indeed writing things again. Final results posted soon(as defined by valve).
     
  • Voting
    • Conversations with a Sergeant & a please surprise
  • Threadmarks
    • [x] rising through the ranks
    [x] original deployment

    Sergeant Morgans's scarred face peered at you across the table as the wind and rain rattled at the window, off to the side a kettle boils quietly. As he looked down at the scrap of paper in his hand he grabbed the charcoal piece laying off to its side and quickly started to jot down a long series of words in an untidy scrawl.

    "Alright Simon, if you can read this I'm happy to add literate to your papers. Comes with an extra three half-pence on your daily pay if you take up some duties for it."

    When the Sergeant mentions the extra pay your eyes light up a little bit, a whole extra shilling every eight days is nothing to sneeze at. Then the gears in your head turn a little bit, you had been wondering how one went about going up in rank from mere private and this looks like a good first step.

    "Of course Sergeant, I am happy to do this." You say as you take the paper and stare down at it. The cramped and slanted way the words are written makes it difficult to read, as you squint at them Sergeant Morgans stands up and walks over to the kettle. Slowly the letters start to take recognizable form and as Sergeant Morgans sits back down with a newly made cup of tea you begin to read. Your eyes trace over the letters of each word and as you read they fall from your mouth so you can hear it spoken.

    "An honest man here lies at rest,
    As ever God with His image blest:
    The friend of man, the friend of thrush;
    Few hearts like his, with virtue warmed,
    Few heads with knowledge so informed:
    If there's another world he lives in bliss;
    If there is none, he made the best of this."

    As you finish speaking you listen to the words again in your mind. They're nice, they make you think of the old man who helped you figure out some of the best ways to get enough coin to eat when trailing behind an army. When he died you had gathered up a bunch of the other orphans and then some soldier had shown up and said they remembered when he wore a uniform. They laughed about him having a soft spot for the wretched but one still helped you dig a hole while another had roughly carved a name you couldn't read at the time into a rough cross that you hammered into the ground over the makeshift grave.

    "Those are very good words Sergeant. They remind me of a nice old man who died a long time ago."

    Sergeant Morgans nodded roughly as he sipped his tea, he closed his eyes for a moment and the two of you sat in silence.

    "Good, a friend of mine from up north wrote it. Well Private Simon, looks like the past couple of months haven't been a waste of my time and you can in fact read. Lieutenant MacGillivray will be pleased.

    Reward: Trait - Literate gained. You are capable of reading and writing English and German

    ​

    The rising sun crested over the walls of barracks as you stood shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the light company. The Sergeant had called you all out earlier than usual this morning and while you had finished your breakfast of mediocre bread and some leftover meat, others had left half-finished meals on the table due to the early hour.

    In front of your platoon stood Sergeant Morgans while to his side stood Sergeant Miller in front of the company's other platoon. With the entire regiment in attendance, the entire regiment, a line of scarlet tunics still properly red instead of the stained colours you often saw from returning troops, stretched all the way around the barrack's parade square. The Sergeant Major stepped onto the square and marched to its centre, each step of his polished shoes echoing across the square as half a thousand men tried not to make a sound. When he reached the centre he came to attention smartly before opening his mouth in a mighty roar.

    "ROYAL WELCH FUZILEERS, ATTENTION!"

    At his command each and every body on the square, including yours, came to attention with the simultaneous crash of feet before the Sergeant Major's voice boomed out again.

    "SERGEANTS! REPORT YOUR COMPANIES"

    "GRENADIER COMPANY! 50 ENLISTED ON PARADE SERGEANT MAJOR!"
    "2ND COMPANY! 44 ENLISTED ON PARADE SERGEANT MAJOR!"
    "3RD COMPANY! 44 ENLISTED ON PARADE SERGEANT MAJOR!"
    "4TH COMPANY! 42 ENLISTED ON PARADE SERGEANT MAJOR!"
    "5TH COMPANY! 43 ENLISTED ON PARADE SERGEANT MAJOR!"
    "6TH COMPANY! 46 ENLISTED ON PARADE SERGEANT MAJOR!"
    "7TH COMPANY! 49 ENLISTED ON PARADE SERGEANT MAJOR!"
    "8TH COMPANY! 41 ENLISTED ON PARADE SERGEANT MAJOR!"
    "9TH COMPANY! 40 ENLISTED ON PARADE SERGEANT MAJOR!"
    "LIGHT COMPANY! 39 ENLISTED ON PARADE SERGEANT MAJOR"

    "FUZILEERS! STAND AT EASE!" At his second roar the regiment slowly slipped out of their tense postures, only to freeze at the Major started to walk across the parade square towards the Sergeant Major. As the Major approached the Sergeant Major's voiced roared out again.

    "FUZILEERS ATTENTION!" In a repeat of moments before every foot on the square crashed down in unison as the Sergeant Major's arm snapped up in a picture perfect salute that the Major returned. Stepping to the side the Sergeant Major moved to be at the Major's side as the officer opened his mouth and in a voice not as rough as the Sergeant Major's but carrying just as well called out to the regiment.

    "FUZILEERS! STAND AT EASE!" This time the tense postures disappeared and you were left standing in a massive formation, wondering what the occasion was that called for the entire battalion to be called together in one place. You weren't left questioning for long though, as after a quiet conversation with the Sergeant at his side the Major began to address you all.

    "Alright Fuzileers, I suppose you're wondering why I've changed your standard thursday schedule. I'm quite pleased to say that it's to deliver some good news to you all. One of England's friends over near Persia, Sheikh Abdullah of Kuwait seems to be having a spot of trouble and His Majesty has decided that you lot are the perfect solution. Now you will spend the rest of the day preparing. A set of troopships will be leaving tomorrow afternoon and if you're not on board I suppose the bobbies will be hunting deserters, and instead of a flogging it'll be the noose. Sergeant Major?"

    "That's everything Sir." You could hardly believe your ears, the battalion was shipping out to the far east. It would be like nothing you had ever experienced before.

    "Excellent. FUZILEERS! ATTENTION!" The Major's voice rose again as you all snapped back to attention.

    "FUZILEERS! TO YOUR PREPARATIONS FOR DEPLOYMENT, DISMISSED!" Turning in unison the entire regiment marched off the square in each of the food corners, turning into huddling masses of gossiping soldiers until the Sergeants started yelling again.

    As you stood in the corner you realized you had a massive grin on your face that you couldn't contain. After all these years following behind armies Walter Simon was about to go to war himself

    So you're off to Kuwait because the Shiekh is having some troubles and asked the British for help. We'll see how interesting it turns out to be. That said you've only really got one thing to decide.

    What do you do while you're on the troopship?
    Choose 2
    [] Socialize with your comrades
    [] Physically train yourself
    [] Keep attempting to learn Welsh
    [] Write in?
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Socialize with your comrades
    [X] Keep attempting to learn Welsh

    Friends are the difference between life and death in the army.
     
    Last edited:
    I forgot to say how many options you could pick. Post has been edited.

    Also have a meme.



    There will also be a character glossary added at some point this week.
     
    [X] Socialize with your comrades
    [X] Keep attempting to learn Welsh

    Cramped up in a troopship sounds like a poor environment for exercise and a worse environment for studying. Gotta do something to keep poor Walter mostly-sane and slightly less seasick.

    Edit: nvm, if we've got a second option may as well use the chit-chat to acclimatize to Welsh more. They probably won't be able to scrounge up enough beer to knock the learnin back out of Walters head a second time.
     
    Last edited:
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