North and South Chapter Three · 3:37pm Jan 19th, 2023
One last pre-war chapter, and then we get into the trenches. We see most of Twilight's initial corps fill out today, with only a couple holdouts still waiting for muster!
Most of this update is unit musters, although I did finish two useful projects that I'll cover as well to break up the monotony.
Spitfire and the Cloudsdale Dragoons arrive first, marked as the Wonderbolts. I know that's probably a bit confusing of a naming convention if you're unfamiliar with how army units are named and mustered in this period of military history, but I promise it makes sense. Essentially the Dragoons Regiment is a part of what would be considered a larger divisional size unit - in this case the Wonderbolt Cavalry Division- but considering that the Dragoons are the currently only mustered regiment of the Division, they thus take over all duties and name of the Division for purposes of the Army's Chart of Organization. On paper, essentially, they are the Wonderbolt Cavalry Division - even if in reality they're only about 500 strong and wearing uniform/carrying battle standards of the Cloudsdale Dragoons.
Firefly is our second horse of the day, and one of my favorite pre generation 4 horses. In this canon, she served with distinction under direction of Princess Celestia as the over-all commanding officer of the Badlands Campaign against the Changelings and other Badlands nasties, which was essentially this universe's Mexican-American war. She's an excellent officer in universe, if not quite up to date with the realities of modern war (yet).
I don't see lots of Sheriff Silver Star in fiction. This makes me very sad. There's a few horses I would like to see more fiction of though, tbh. Anyways, he's running the first regiment of the Appleoosa Dragoons spoiler, Braeburn is running the second and behind the scenes helped Fleur do her great field gun heist.
You might note that both Silver Star and Spitfire both have equipped what is called a "Hall Carbine" - the Hall comes in both Rifle and Carbine size in this game, and both are pretty good rifles for what they are, even if as the text says, our acquiry of such rifles is... circumspect at best. While the Rifle sized version only carries a range of 400 yards - which is middling, as all regular pattern rifles or Rifle muskets (the Hawken Field Rifle, the Springfield, the Enfield, and the Lorenz, among others) carry this range. What sets the Hall apart from other rifles however, is it's accuracy rating of "Very Good", which is only shared by the Hawken rifle - and unlike the Hawken, the Hall Rifle carries a bayonet, improving melee combat. Additionally, the Hall also runs a very absurd eight rounds per minute - which doesn't sound like much until you realize that most rifles run three rounds per minute, and my beloved whitworth rifles run two, due to their intense rifling. Once I unlock Sharps rifles (likely next update), they do edge out the hall with 9 rounds a minute and very good accuracy at 500 yards, but the Hall is a great rifle for what it does. Additionally, the Carbine is quite good, running 350 yards - and tying it for longest range with the carbine variant Sharps.
Fleur De Lys comes on the scene next, as Twilight's main Artillery Train Officer. I find it very helpful during battles to keep my cavalry and my artillery on their own specific Division commanders, as that cuts down on order delay time. Her name (and all three part names) is hyphened, because unfortunately, Grand Tactician only supports a single line first name and a single line last name; no middle names or three/four part names, unless you hyphenate. Not shown in this fic (maybe later, if the mood strikes me), Fleur offscreen accepts a confederate commission with express intent to walk into their arsenal, steal a bunch of guns, and then walk home.
She even gets away with it.
Our other battery, under EAW OC, Falling Star. He's going to be getting one of my two batteries' worth of 3" Ordinance Rifles (at least until I unlock Rifled Cannons and can buy more). Washington DC is great for mustering small artillery units early on, as they basically never have enough men to fill a full regiment of infantry via volunteers, and barely have enough for cavalry if you invest into them. Artillery, though? Yes please.
Second to last, we have our final project of the update (and how I have eight gun artillery batteries), Artillery Reform. This allows me to have up to 16 gun artillery batteries in my armies. Personally? I prefer 8 guns for field guns, and 12 or 16 for large bore howitzers (or Gatling guns. That's way later though). There's a similar project for cavalry reform to allow for 1250-2500 man cavalry Brigades as opposed to 500 man regiments. Infantry get brigades for free after the war starts, wherein you can muster anywhere from 1500-3000 men per Brigade (and can no longer muster 750 man regiments!).
Finally, Horse William T. Sherman.
For funsies, I made him from Georgia.
I'll just let that one sink in for a minute, for my fellow Civil War enthusiasts.
