Café de Nuit

Hi all,

One of my NPC's is going to be a Captain of an army regiment in one of the Domains, but I don't know or can't think of any names of Regiments that he could be Captain of?

The PC's meet him on a ship, they help him and he offers assistance of his regiment?

He looks like Solomon Kane.

Sean

Which domain is he serving in? Falkovnia would most likely have a very logical number based naming system for units, although they probably have a nickname (And another nickname that isn't spoken to their face). Darkon would more than likely have units built from a local lord's holdings, in the feudal tradition, so they may reflect that lowly baron. Dementlieu probably has the national "Chevalier" regiment that Josephine Chantreux commands (See "Lights in the Fog" and the Gazeteer). Nova Vaasa would be feudal again, though loyalty to one of the 5 noble houses could define his role better: Othmar's units are essentially in command, while the Rivtoff defenders may be used for more political maneuvering toward regaining their rightful regency.

Barovia has a militia that is loyal only to Strahd, and they tend to be busy enforcing curfews in the annexed portion of Gundarak and listening for rebellion. Mordent, Tepest, Kartakass, Lamordia and Verbrek don't really have a standing military. Richemulot probably has a patchwork military that would lend itself well to one charismatic leader taking control and defending the land. Valachan's military is mostly monstrous and under the sway of von Karkhov. Invidia's mercenaries are hunting Vistani and directly under Malocchio's control. Borca's military is probably quite impressive, and while nominally commanded by Ivan Dilisnya, it probably has a more military-minded commander. Not to mention the Church of Ezra may have its own contingent of holy soldiers.

So...which domain?

In my current (mistfinder) campaign I have a player whose character is an intelligence officer in the mordent militia. The militia is funded by a tithe from the aristocracy and town councils, and as such the militia is often influenced by local politics. The militia is equipped with muskets and rapiers, and they wear grey (mist colored) tunics. The intelligence corps primarily concentrates on monitoring Falkovnia, but Verbrek is another location of particular interest.
Second sons of the artistocracy often join the militia with a commission, and there are some light cavalry units that are made up of aristocratic sons and sons of wealthy land owners. Cavalier levels are common in these units.
In this campaign, Dementlieu has a similar militia, and there is an exclusive cavalry academy. The class divide is even more noticeable in the militia of this realm. Richlieumont and Borca have small standing armies that resemble "musketeers" funded by city states. In Borca the church of Ezra also has a small regiment (similar to the Swiss guard).

I think CL 7 domains shouldn't have regiments, and thinking of it, not even CL 8 domains unless they have a large population and border CL 9 domains.

Thanks all for your help.

This sounds daft but I had a dream about my campaign last night and I thought what would be pretty cool would be to have the guy as a Necromancer, he could create undead and have an army of undead to fight with him.

But failing that I do like the idea of the Holy Soldiers from the Church of Ezra, that could work.

Cheers everyone.

alhoon wrote:I think CL 7 domains shouldn't have regiments, and thinking of it, not even CL 8 domains unless they have a large population and border CL 9 domains.

The first 'professional army' in England was in 1640 - the New Model army, which was 22,000 or so strong. A regiment of infantry was 1,200 men, and cavalry 600 (roughly a third-ish of a current regiment). From the images and descriptions of technology in the core rule books, CL8 domains would be in this time period or later.

But the popuation of Great Britain was about 4.4 million at the time.

It depends whether you use cannon numbers for city and town sizes (I boost them upwards to reflect larger town sizes in the 1600s/1700s) as to whether a domain could support a standing army. But a couple of companies or a batallion (perhaps 400 troops - taking into account smaller unit sizes in period) might be possible in a CL8 domain.

alhoon wrote:I think CL 7 domains shouldn't have regiments, and thinking of it, not even CL 8 domains unless they have a large population and border CL 9 domains.

The idea that well-organized, professional militaries didn't exist in Medieval times is mostly based on a too-narrow focus on Western Europe. The Medieval East Romans had professional forces, well-organized, with a trained and literate officer corps. A regimental system (the tagmata) was actually used for an important part of East Roman history.

doctor-evil wrote:

alhoon wrote:I think CL 7 domains shouldn't have regiments, and thinking of it, not even CL 8 domains unless they have a large population and border CL 9 domains.

The first 'professional army' in England was in 1640 - the New Model army, which was 22,000 or so strong.

In England, yeah, more or less.

In Britain? Not by a long shot. The Romans had a professional army centuries before Cromwell. Professional armies are older than the idea of England.

It seems to me that Falkovnia and Darkon, being the two states most often at war, would have the most need of a professional military. Of course, Darkon haz zombie defenders. I'd still think a small professional border guard would be a good idea, along with some troops to supress rebellions and keep the barons in line. Azalin might use his army mainly as a gendarme force.

seanadams wrote:Hi all,

One of my NPC's is going to be a Captain of an army regiment in one of the Domains, but I don't know or can't think of any names of Regiments that he could be Captain of?

The PC's meet him on a ship, they help him and he offers assistance of his regiment?

He looks like Solomon Kane.

Sean

Darkon or Falkovnia both look like good choices of domain to me. They are large domains. Falkovnia is ruled by a soldier-king.
Darkon could easily be imagined as having certain Roman features.

ewancummins wrote:

alhoon wrote:I think CL 7 domains shouldn't have regiments, and thinking of it, not even CL 8 domains unless they have a large population and border CL 9 domains.

The idea that well-organized, professional militaries didn't exist in Medieval times is mostly based on a too-narrow focus on Western Europe. The Medieval East Romans had professional forces, well-organized, with a trained and literate officer corps. A regimental system (the tagmata) was actually used for an important part of East Roman history.

Do tell me about Medieval East Romans ... I'm Greek.
We had Tagmata and 8emata, along with generals etc, but we didn't have regiments.

doctor-evil wrote: The first 'professional army' in England was in 1640 - the New Model army, which was 22,000 or so strong. A regiment of infantry was 1,200 men, and cavalry 600 (roughly a third-ish of a current regiment). From the images and descriptions of technology in the core rule books, CL8 domains would be in this time period or later.

But the popuation of Great Britain was about 4.4 million at the time.

Well, IIRC CL8 is late medieval period, up to 1492. CL 9 is Renaissance, up to 1660. That's why I said that only advanced CL9 domains could have a regiment if they had the population to match.

As for population? I quadraple it, and double the size of the cities mostly. I also use a larger scale than usual, 50 miles/inch of the map in the cover of RL book.

Armies? We had near to 2% in 8emata and Frederick the Great topped that, so I think that 1.5% or so in the army of a CL9 domain isn't far fetched.
Still though, Dementlieu and Lamordia couldn't support a regiment even with the increased population in my game. So I have them have companies instead of regiments spread out in the much smaller area.

alhoon wrote:

ewancummins wrote:Do tell me about Medieval East Romans ... I'm Greek.
We had Tagmata and 8emata, along with generals etc, but we didn't have regiments.

I'm referring to the 10th and 11th century tagmata (not later units, after the decline of the Empire). That's what I meant by regiments. In English language works about the East Romans, we often see these tagmata described as 'regiments.' For English speakers, this is the best translation (in reference only to the 'regimental' tagamata of a certain era, of course- words shift meaning over time).

This is a good point, the word "regiment" could be contextual. To us it may mean several thousand soldiers commanded by a colonel. In the setting Falkovnia is most likely the only nation to field such a unit in terms of size. To a Borcan, a regiment may be much smaller, more of what we think of as a company, or even a platoon. Because warfare is so uncommon there would be no real reason to raise larger units except as a show of force; the truth is those bodies would be more useful in food production than standing around guarding a border that no one is going to cross.

Falkovnia could possibly begin the equivalent of an arms race if anyone wanted to enter into it with him. Like the British and German naval buildup, you need a partner, at least in theory, for a gap to exist. While not all darklords are political leaders, enough are that they would see the futility of keeping a large standing army with the state of affairs controlled the way it is. If the population of the entire Core were around half a million people, having even 2% of that population as soldiers results in a standing force of only 10,000 across all the armies of the Core; seems small until you realize that no one fights any wars.

Strahdsbuddy wrote:This is a good point, the word "regiment" could be contextual. To us it may mean several thousand soldiers commanded by a colonel. In the setting Falkovnia is most likely the only nation to field such a unit in terms of size. To a Borcan, a regiment may be much smaller, more of what we think of as a company, or even a platoon. Because warfare is so uncommon there would be no real reason to raise larger units except as a show of force; the truth is those bodies would be more useful in food production than standing around guarding a border that no one is going to cross.

Falkovnia could possibly begin the equivalent of an arms race if anyone wanted to enter into it with him. Like the British and German naval buildup, you need a partner, at least in theory, for a gap to exist. While not all darklords are political leaders, enough are that they would see the futility of keeping a large standing army with the state of affairs controlled the way it is. If the population of the entire Core were around half a million people, having even 2% of that population as soldiers results in a standing force of only 10,000 across all the armies of the Core; seems small until you realize that no one fights any wars.

I bow to Alhoon's superior Greekness.

I'm just giving what I've read in books written by American and British historians, and what omes up on the web. I suspect he's thinking of units actually called 'regiments'; whereas I took the OP to mean 'regular, permanent units of a large size, commanded by a high ranking officer equivalent to a colonel and divided into smaller units equivalent to battalions, companies, and/or squadrons.' Of course the word 'regiment' was not used by the East Romans.


IYC, how do force structures, ranks, and nomenclature vary from one domain to another?


IMC, I assume that most domains miantain only local militia forces and maybe a professional gendarmie. Invasion is usually only a danger for neighbors of Falkovnia. I'm sure farmers in northern Mordent keep their powder dry and their muskets handy! I imagine that every border town keeps a couple of cannon on hand, and plenty of broken chains, lead shot, etc for use against Drakov's forces.

Well for a nation of 35K people surrounded by nations of 10-100K people, 500 soldiers could well be all their manpower. So I think that 150-180 instead of 1200 could be considered regiment and 30 could be considered a company. No platoons. Squad, company, battalion, regiment.

alhoon wrote:Well for a nation of 35K people surrounded by nations of 10-100K people, 500 soldiers could well be all their manpower. So I think that 150-180 instead of 1200 could be considered regiment and 30 could be considered a company. No platoons. Squad, company, battalion, regiment.

I'm on board with this idea, absolutely. A squad, though, that sounds like a PC party to me!