Oct 26, 2012

Dorroseani militia

The setting up of the militia was a very debated choice of the Dorroseani high command. CIC Marshal David Meales strongly opposed the volunteer regiments, yet they were issued, one to each division, to increase numbers, serve as gendarmes and for other auxiliary services from guarding roads and bridges to make the 'tail' of the famous attack columns.
Most regiments required better officers to lead as the crews were unruly and after two weeks' training they were sent after the main Dorroseani army. There was a standard of uniform, but the colors weren't told and every soldier made them from the materials he could allow. 'A multi-colored mess of the standard blue, light blue; brown civilian coats with ornaments sewn on them and white straps; but even white, red and orange. A soldier who was supposed to be a NCO of the light battalion wore an all-white uniform; I wondered how he dares, being a target dummy for both snipers and regular infantry', General Lucron wrote when he inspected the marching militia at the Jackewlinese border.
Some units, but a very few, gained fame and had been 'promoted' to regulars. More than that brought shame to their colors and made every possible mistake on the field: firing volleys at allies, charging when they should have held, running from a cavalry attack and being slaughtered, or increasing chaos when joining melees. Surprisingly, their Jackewlinese counterparts, the local volunteers, the Fists of Mackowskill or the Fricklander Freiheitskorps did much better in battles.


Standard regiment is three battalions, one 'reserve', one 'light' and one 'main'.



'Main' battalion with standard and command - the colonel of the regiment is the commander of this battalion too. Flag is a hand-painted piece of cardboard.


'Reserve' battalion, the earlier painted Marines take the role of militia here.


Commander of the 'reserve' battalion.


'Light' battalion in advance line, under direct control.


More Marines, one with rifle.


Bases are dark grey with light grey drybrushing; these six in the first rank were finished before the lot of them (25 painted this weekend) and are a bit lighter in colors.

7 comments:

  1. Nice looking unit. You could, by the way, for larger actions call this formation a brigade.

    Just a point about flags: I recommend paper - just the sort of paper you use in your printer. For one thing, it is robust - surprisingly so. You can design your own or print them from a website like 'warflags'. But what I like is that paper is fairly translucent so that even against the light the 'metals' (white and yellow) stand out. And, of course, they are light in weight.

    I've tried quite a few flag media - milk-bottle top (fragile); tin foil (very fragile); lead (too heavy); plastic (hard to paint well), and these days I have replaced even very well painted flags with paper ones. The way you bend them onto the flagstaff is just the same as what you seem to have done with the cardboard.

    Cheers,
    Ion

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. The advice is very useful; the only reason I've turned to cardboard is that my printer is KIA for a few months now, my friends can't print colors so either hand-painted or drawn (which would require a set of colored pens). If the problem won't be fixed, I might just go the paper+pen way.

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  2. Nicely done sir. I really like these.

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