Some Odds and Ends

More on Generals

Okay, I'll confess it, Generals are "chrome" to the system. I prefer to know that it was General Hund-Hund who was killed or wounded, ont General #7. And with the way the rules are written, taken literally, a hard-fought campaign can do you out of generals. We know this doesn't happen, though command talent can get mighty thin in a prolonged war.

So players should name their generals. Put them in the nobility, and invent colorful biographies for them. Thus we can have General Sir Hugh Hackwell-Slashem, the famed cvalry leader, Sir Pickaninny Pouncetrifel, the Auditor General, and most beloved of all, Citizen Field Marshal Lord Stanley of Umbrage (he successfully took Umbrage, a town in Imaginary Germany). The more joking, the better. For example, the Colonel of the Marine Regiment is Lagostin (which I believe is lobster in French). The regiment has yellow facings because lobster with butter...yum!

So as generals fall by the wayside, new ones step forward to risk life and limb. The sprigs of the nobility have to be pruned from time to time.

Guards

Both armies have guards. They number, at most, a company. They snap to attention and thump their halberds on the groun when nobility passes. The palaces are guarded in turn by regulars who take turns doing it.

Grenadiers? More later. A pernicious habit, by the way.

Now to describe the armies -- next post.