n7axw wrote:Hi everybody,
One potential issue that has been alluded to but not thorougly aired here is the reality that Corisande is only now moving from the status of conquered and occupied province to full participation in the Empire. Because of this, its reliability can't be firmly established.
That will change over time, but memories of being recently conquered by Charis are for lots of Corisandians still pretty fresh. This raises the question as to whether or not it would be wise to raise and train fresh Corisandian units as such and trust them in the field.
Corisandians have had the right to enroll in the armed forces of the empire upon oath of allegiance from right after the signing of the armistise, but the concept was not of separate Corisandian units, but of Corisandians
"fully integrated" into imperial armed forces. That would mean mixed units consisting of people from all the empires provinces to avoid promoting separate Corisandian identity.
Gharvy's armies prior to defeat by Charis were about 130,000 men. They were well rounded in basic military skills and discipline. They were defeated primarily because of Charis' advantage in weapons and Merlin's ability to provide superior reconaisance.
After armistice Cayleb allowed for the recruitment and rearming of 30,000 men as peacekeepers who were reissued flintlock muskets, not rifles. So while their basic foundations are sound, they would need additional training in fully modern weapons and tactics. Given that, it would be a lot more prudent to ship them up to Chisholm for training and to rub elbows with Zebadians, Emeraldians and others who are already there training with the army cadre that is already there in the interest of promoting the integration I referred to earlier.
Don
Don, those are good points. To promote an identity of an
United Charisian Empire I would try to do that same for the ICN crews as well. As I pointed out in a previous reply, Tarot and Emerald casualties were mentioned during the assault by the AoS on the 12th Mounted's position so it seems some integration of Tarot and Emerald forces had already occurred and RFC didn't make a differentiation of whether those forces were integrated into ICA formations or as separate units within the ICA's overall command.
Where to deploy those integrated forces would be both a strategic and a tactical decision which could change with the ebb and flow of the situation in the Siddarmark Republic.
I still think that Corisande will move more quickly to identify itself as a member of the Empire for several reasons. The obvious attitude of Irys and Daviyan toward the Empire, the even handedness and quick transfer of local authority back to Corisandian hands and the vicious attack by CoGA terrorists upon Hektor and Irys on their wedding day. I believe that attack and it source will change a lot of minds as to whom actually killed Prince Hektor and the Crown Prince. Plus there are the examples of how quickly Emerald, Chisholm and Tarot have integrated fully into the Empire. I'm not so sure Corisande would want to deprive itself of the benefits both economically and political of holding out and letting all the benefits of membership in the Empire flow to the other member kingdoms.