Good Bad News

The Good News - was rummaging in my drawers yesterday (Ooo-er missus), and found 15 forgotten Old Glory 18th century Albanian bandits (see pic above) I had mislaid some years ago, some are even painted!

Bad news - those bandits double the forces that "Don" Dharko has available to him in his Trans-Syldavial lair and who are making travelling on the Klow-Byzantia road such a nightmare, even raiding our towns at times.

New Byzantinomics, cloaks and daggers....

I published a bit of research I did today on army size vs population size on Emperor & Elector - in essence it showed that a "peacetime" army of the period was typically c 1 % of the population (give or take +/- 33% anyway) and of that about 1/3rd is the "tail". I also found that "European" Turkey in c 1810 was about 8m people. In my mind I had New Byzantium as carving out about 10% of the land, ie (on average) c 800,000 people - or an army of about 8,000.  Unfortunately, the army structure I designed is about 16,000 strong in peacetime.

Now all is not lost, as it was already made clear that the 1st battalion of the 6 Line regiments were mainly mercenaries, as were the bulk of half the heavy cavalry (the Latinikon) as well as 2 mercenary regiments (the Varangian Guard and Biscotins) and some of the artillery - so I know where the extra people come from.

However, the next issue is paying for them - population is a largely function of land productivity in this period, except if you have a trade hub (it being a bit early for the Industrial Revolution) - which of course Byzantion is. It is a port city and a good stopping off point to and from Istanbul.

But the city's real asset is the Byzantion - Klow road, as this allows goods to be unloaded at Byzantion and sent over the to the Adriatic by road, as from Klow its a short hop to the Syldavian ports, thus totally removing the need to travel around the whole of Greece by sea.

The one problem with this road is that it passes through Trans-Syldavia, a wild, forested and hilly land ruled over by a few semi autonomous Duchies etc before reaching Syldavia. Ever since the depradations of "Don" Dharko and his bandits in the Trans-Syldavian hills, robbery of traffic has been increasing and merchants are starting to complain to the Basileos - and more worryingly, threatening to go sailing around Greece thus cutting Byzantion off from all sorts of revenues, which go to pay for a larger than normally affordable army, which in turn is necessaryy to keep greedy Balkan neighbours and Johnny Turk at bay.


A pretty pickle indeed.

What no-one is clear about is just why Darko et al are starting up now, and - more suspiciously - is anyone putting them up to it, are the Trans Syldavian statelets sponsoring this, or is it just normal Balkan banditry that has found a new sweet spot? Enquiries to the various statelets about protecting their bits of the road have been met with "not our problem, we're fine here" responses, along with coldly polite suggestions not to send Byzantine troops to protect the traffic on the road.

At a time like this, there is only one person the State can call on - Diogenes Orczy, who some call the Crimson  Paeonia (others call him the cuck(old)ing fop)...... He is to join the second mapping expedition (the first one disappeared about 2 years ago in the Trans-Syladavian winter), which is due to set off to AplTrnova within weeks as Spring is a-coming in...

Christmas in New Byzantium.....

Today is Christmas in the Orthodox world, owing to the use of the Julian Calendar. There may be a present - a messenger has been sighted galloping down the Via Byzantion with news of a battle at Apl Trnova....

A short, sharp bit of practice

"Don" Dharko's bandit bad boys, 400 in all, came down off the hills at dawn to loot the granary and depot at Apl Trnova, in the northeast (see here for the beginning of the tale). All that was facing them were the 50 men of the Granary garrison and the local vardariots (gendarmes - think Huszar type troops above), again about 50, but they are mounted.

(This was a basic skirmish to start getting into the Sharp Practice rules - figures not fully painted yet and terrain was rudimentary, so no gaming porn pix for y'all)).

Anyway, the bandits came off the hills more slowly than they would have liked, and that allowed the garrison in the granary and the Vardariots in the town to loose off a few telling rounds. There is a long open meadow and a stream between the hills, and the granary and town, delaying them further.

The Vardariots were mounted, and charged the bandits at one point, causing quite a lot of damage on some stragglers before retiring before they were swamped.  The bandits suffered quite a few casualties in approaching the granary but finally got in, and the remaining garrison fought their way out a side door.

The action took a few hours in scale terms, but now its the bandits who have the problem - they have the granary, but the Byzantines are behind barricades in  the town and are sniping at them whenever they move, and hauling the loot over the long meadow is quite hazardous.

What to do therefore? Attack the town and secure the loot, or make off with the loot they can before nightfall and probable Byzantine reinforcement?

Conclusion - short battle, 4:1 odds but 2 "Small" big men in the New Byzantine side allowed them quite a lot of manouvre vs the unfortunate "medium" big man Don Dharko who definitely needs to up his initiative (the Sharp Practice cards were against him...). Also, being in hard cover was very useful.

Trouble at t' Mill

Bandit leader "Don" Dharko and Co cast their beady eyes on the Mill at Apl, Trnova


News is reaching Byzantion of a large bandit force massing in the heavily forested hills above the Northwestern town of  AplTrnova. The local Vardariots (Gendarmes) attempting to investigate were sent packing with a hail of musketry. On the other, western side of the river from Trnova, in the hamlet of Apl, is one of the Royal Mills, a very large Granary and a small supply depot - no doubt all this is what is attracting the bandits' attention - that, plus the county that Trnova lies in is a poor mountain region, so the locally paid miltia forces are near non-existent.

There is also a fear that the whole issue could be being prompted up by neighbouring states, and this may be a precursor to a raid or even an invasion. Consequently, the decision has been made to immediately despatch the Gianitzaroi - one of the the two guard light infantry units - to Trnova, along with available squadrons of 2 of the Huszar regiments of the Skythikon from neighbouring counties while their militia are called up. 

There is thus lots of activity in the barracks, and an advance company of the Gianitzaroi is marching out later today....