What the Flossians Learned

With trouble looming to the east, the humbled and humiliated Flossian Union now watches over the internal dealings of her neighbor, the Principality of Schultze-Böhnstadt, with renewed interest.

The Flossians know that a large part of the Böhnstadt Army was sent to support the Rebels with their ongoing fight against Medvetland. They also know that General von Hohenspitz, now well past his seventieth year, has finally retired and there is no true replacement for a character like that.

The Flossian generalship are no buffoons either: they learned from their tactical mistakes. These lessons could be listed as follows:

(1) Better light infantry. The Schultze-Böhnstadt Jäger units are very good quality troops, and although fewer in number, they can still pose a threat, defending against encirclement or as flanking forces themselves. To counter this, large battalions of irregular troops should be raised. 

(2) Better light and medium cavalry. Since the end of the previous campaign, the Flossians put emphasis on training squadrons of well disciplined light and medium cavalry. They hired Hussar commanders from no place else than the Rebel Lands, Oberstleutnant Pöpecz Rózsef Esq. de Kazinczlaczháza first and foremost. 

The heavy cavalry units (the three large Küirassier regiments) are considered a strategic reserve and would be directed to fighting forces that require them the most.

(3) The Infantry Reform. Recruitment began and enmity against the victors of the last war had reached its peak. New regiments were raised, and the former militia units with fighting experience were integrated to the standing army, either as depot or field battalions, and new militia units took their stead. 

There are two types of regular infantry in the reformed system: one battalion of fusiliers for each battalion of muskets, plus one grenadier company for each battlaion of musketeers, five of which can be converged to form tactical reserve. The numbers have been filled and this was actually put to practice by now.

Further, after every two battalion of regulars, each Flossian Kreis or township has to raise a militia battalion and integrate it with the regulars on exercises and maneuvers. The 2:1 militia to regulars ratio could not always be filled, 1:1 is more likely - the important thing is that the ttactical concept works. The armament of the troops had also been improved: even militias received good muskets from the treasury. The age of pike-armed useless mobs is over.

To execute the reform, the Union hired an experienced warrior and infantry commander in the person of Bornostaz von Aggravatus, Pfalzgraf Odontoceros, Markgraf Himbeertotten, Freiherr und Ritter Donaubratschundt, a former mercenary in the Tzar of Medvetland's service.

(4) Artillery. The artillery train worked well in the last war and is in no need of reorganization. Each battle column the Flossians would form receives a good enough artillery park, at least four pieces of field guns and a few galloper guns, which would all be directed by the infantry chief of the column.

As I'm writing these lines, a mixed column of Flossian troops trained according to these concepts is already converging on the Störkburg Valley vicinity, where the decisive battle of the last war took place. It is led by Elector Michheim and von Aggravatus, the former leaving behing his bishop's mantle and joining the army as a Brigadier General of infantry. 

Schultze-Böhnstadt believes that the crushing defeats of the last campaign would prevent any concentrated attack by the Flossians, and thus the Störkburg Valley is mostly defended by depot battalions and cadres of depleted units. Mobilization in that area would come at a cost, and take a lot of time without proper central organization.

The electors, if you can recall, never intended to pay the 50.000 Thaler indemnity to Schultze-Böhnstadt after the lost war. Now it is their time to fight on equal terms.

Fig 1. Proposed schematic of a Flossian mixed column (divisional level), with units and chain of command.