In the tradition of a long line of articles about Balkania, Gaming with Chuck now presents information about the early 18th century army of the Principality of Bombastia.
Bombastia is a petty state, found within the Simian province of Furstenberg. It is populated mainly by Ethnic Urbs, who are almost all uniformly gourd farmers. While the economy of the region was never a glowing powerhouse, during the early and middle part of the 17th century, the Urbs of Bombastia fared pretty well. Then the pumpkins stopped coming quite as early, nor blooming quite as big. By the end of the century, almost half of all the Urb farms in the region were doing very bad. Because of this, manpower willing to serve in the army of Prince Peter of Bombastia grew and grew. Finally when the Crisis of the Pumpkin-King Throne of 1696 precipitated the War of the Pumpkin-King Succession against the Duchy of Poppenheim, the army of Prince Peter was quite sizable and ready for the conflict.
The progression of the war saw the Bombastik infantry progress from regiments featuring central companies of pikemen, surrounded by musketeers, to all-musketeer units. While Grenadier companies were converged together to form grenadier "regiments", there were also some standing regiments of Grenadiers in the army. In fact, this is in sharp contrast to the strictures of the Edict of Boomplatz. The Prince often explains away his violation of the Edict by claiming that the armies of the Principality are not proper armies of greater Furstenberg, but the droits of nobility, due to him as a peer of the margravate. Curiously, the Prince's foe, the Duke of Poppenheim, does not even bother to explain away why he has Grenadier companies within his armies - also strictly against the codes found within the Edict.
The cavalry of Bombastia consists of dragoons and armored cavalry, but also of units of Cossacks from two main Urbik tribal areas within Simia. The Dukon Cossacks and the Arzov Cossacks both have feudal agreements with Bombastia, and the Prince's family.
The artillery of Bombastia differs from Poppenheim chiefly in the employ of small 3-pounder regimental guns, attached to an infantry regiment, nicknamed "pot guns". The nickname comes from the fact that the original Pot Guns were crafted, during the heyday reign of Ivan Badinov during the 30 years war. During that time, the last of the Patchouli people were rounded up in Eastern Simia, and forced to give up all of their metal and metal objects. This was first intended to disarm the Patchouli people, but it had the unfortunate effect of rendering them Pot-less. The captured Patchouli Pots were subsequently melted down and poured as small cannon for the Badinov's army. These pot guns were passed down from regimental commander to commander, until today they are still part of the regiments (which have a history going back at least fifty years to the 30 years war, and some much farther back).
Tags: Great Northern War,
Wargaming,
Miniatures,
Russia
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