Grading Troops

Any questions relating to Beneath the Lily Banners rule system.
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Schomberg
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Grading Troops

Post by Schomberg » Sun Apr 19, 2020 8:43 am

In the course of the current lockdown I have managed to add several new Squadrons of ‘guard’ Horse and finally finish my Huguenot and Dutch battalions for our Elimination Gaming Club LoA Ireland project.

I have two squadrons of Garde te Paard and a single squadron of Dutch Garde Du Corps added to the army. The problem is that I am not sure how these two formations should be rated. I reckon that the English Lifeguards and Horseguards should probably be rated as Drilled Elites but my attempted research into their Dutch equivalents hasn’t turned up much. Eppinger’s Garde Dragonders are rated as a Veteran Elites per the suggestion in WTK. I am tempted to rate my Dutch Horse as Veteran Elite Bullet also but wonder if I am just being too hopeful of finding allied Horse who might be able to go toe to toe for a time with the likes of Galmoy et al.

If any of the community field either of these two units, how would you rate them?

Likewise with my six battalions of Huguenots and Dutch.

There is a reference to Schomberg’s Camp at Dundalk (Child’s iirc) where the Dutch Battalions are described as Veterans but I wonder if this is only in comparison to the newly raised(Raw) English battalions who have been devastated by cold, disease and hunger.

Would you field the battalions of Brandenburg, Nassau and Van Graben as Veterans or as Drilled?

The Huguenot battalions are another conundrum for me. For one, they seem to share an esprit de corps based on their (mostly) shared religion and experience. They seem to be well marshalled by experienced and capable officers and many of these seem to previously have been commissioned in the French Army or Dutch Army. However, they are only fairly recently raised and though many of the individuals my be veterans, there are likely to be a sizeable number of new recruits as well.

I am tempted to field these fellows as Drilled Elite, their Veteran Officer cadre offsetting the fact that they are only recently raised and their religious convictions represented by the Morale boost of the Elite rating.

I am also tempted to treat them in the same way as Royalist French battalions and allow them to charge other unshaken battalions of Foot.

Any thoughts on these suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
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flick40
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Re: Grading Troops

Post by flick40 » Mon Jun 15, 2020 5:16 pm

I hesitate to add to this as I'm no expert on grading troops and I'm probably not helping here. Plus this is an old question you may have answers to.

Given the period most troops are raw or drilled unless part of the military establishment for the army of which they served. Training, uniforms and equipment were all dependent on the colonel for which they were named. How many cut corners to save money? Because of that it would vary day to day. Every unit had good or bad days as history has shown. Huguenots were exiles from France thrown together so they did have a certain religious fervor but so did the Jacobite units. Should they be better than drilled? Probably not. You could used pluses vs increasing their ratings or based on your scenario you could rate them higher. Do your own research and base them on what you feel is right.

Anyway not much help, sorry.
Schomberg
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Re: Grading Troops

Post by Schomberg » Wed Jun 24, 2020 5:42 pm

Thanks for your thoughts. I remembered that Barry had made some suggestions for grading the Huguenots in the Aughrim pdfs and so they are now sorted out. My thoughts were on Schomberg telling William that his Huguenots were twice the soldiers of any any other Regiment in his army. On further reflection he may have been referring to the army at Dundalk Camp. Even at Drilled, they are probably a lot better than most of the another Foot that he had available.

Has anyone any thoughts on grading the Dutch Horseguards and Dutch Lifeguards? Were they parade ground soldiers or were they hardened veterans?

Cheers
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