Topic: Geography

[Midaski]

I was looking at the 'provinces' map in the ed5 army book, and Middenland's involvement is beset by geographical difficulties.

Either they will have to invade Talabecland, travel by cruise liner up the Talabec river or the Reik and then the Stir, or have some sort of movement alliance with Hochland and maybe Ostland.

Bearing in mind the 'movement of troops' credibility of Karl Franz's and Valten's armies in the SoC, this is an aspect of the campaign that probably needs some early thought.

Obviously many of us are 'planning' our involvement and which side of the triangle we want to be, and those of us with 'northern' allegiances have to get together to move our troops early.
Maybe the forces of Middenheim/land should be the initial aggressor, having secretly moved their Ulrican 'mercy missionaries' into position.

This would be perfectly logical as culturally and intellectually more advanced than the plebs of Talabecland and Stirland, they would naturally be more "pro-active".

Of course the Tsarina, with the mutual respect of fellow powerful animal
lovers (Bear and Wolf), has also negotiated a deal for one or two trading rights, and other benefits for her aid.

(First shots across the bow)

[Benedictus]

As Middenland is mostly involved through it's attempts to increase it's religious power, you could make a case out of the armies being disguised as bands of religious mobs and thus able to cross provincial borders with little difficulty. This is a time of civil war, and so long as they don't attempt to enter Talabecland (with whom they are at war), then it should be fine.

[RGB]

Hehe I guess I know which side I have to fight on now - my army is Ostlander with Kislev allies. Mehehehe.

We don't know who rules Kislev at that point though, do we?

[Benedictus]

Tsar Marek Mrozkiewicz, my former brother in law. He's a highly intelligent man who enjoys tinkering with Imperial blackpowder in his spare time.

Kidding. I don't know....is the Kislev timeline that specific?

[BAWTRM]

Keep in mind that not all battles need to be fought in the target province to have an effect on it.

Stopping reinforcements from arriving, terrorizing an enemy's home province so he needs to send back troops, driving an Orc tribe into your rivals estate etc. etc., these are all things that have an effect on the fighting capacity of your opponent(s).
And while it may not seem as glorious as pitched battles at the main site of conflict it's these moves on a strategic level that scribeners tend to describe as'brilliant' in their historic works.

[General Helstrom]

Also keep in mind that in this age, provincial borders are really just lines on paper. Individual nobles rule surpreme on their estates, and on top of that much of the northern Empire is wilderness where no-one really has much to say about what goes on. Marching an army from Middenheim along the Talabec's northern bank to Bechafen (crossing the river at the Talabec-Urskoy fork) shouldn't be much of a problem. Keeping your line of supplies intact, however, is a different matter. Me thinks there will be much pillaging poor Ostermark's fields to feed the troops.

I'd expect the provinces to shy away from all-out open war, limiting the fighting to the Ostermark. Of course there will be raids and skirmishes in the rest of the Empire, as well as consistent attacks on lines of supply, but none of the provinces has any interest in turning their already depleted lands into a war zone.