9.1 Regiments
Gentlemen will find that a career in the military offers the best opportunities for advancement. Regimental Table A lists the names of the Regiments and the minimum die roll needed to be accepted into that Regiment per Social Level. This die roll may be modified by influence with the Regimental Commander.
If the Regiment is commanded by a player, no roll is required: the Commander decides who is accepted. The candidate must meet all the minimum criteria for acceptance into the Regiment. If the regiment commander hasn't issued any orders regarding who would be accepted or not, anyone applying is accepted if they roll the required number. The same applies if the regiment commander has issued conditional orders, but the applicant does not fall within the conditions neither for acceptance or rejection.
A player who unsuccessfully attempts to join a Regiment may apply to other Regiments in the same week, but may only apply to Regiments of a lower social standing than the one to which he has been denied admission. The social standing of the Regiments is the order in which they are listed on Regimental Table A, the Royal Foot Guards being the highest, and the Frontier Regiments the lowest. For every two rejections, the character must subtract one from his die roll on subsequent applications.
The character has the option to buy an officer’s commission provided he has the Social Level and the money to do so. A rank up to and including that of Major may be bought immediately upon entry into the Regiment, providing the character meets all other requirements. Regimental Table B lists the minimum Social Level, Status Points received monthly, pay per month, and price required to purchase a particular rank. The price to purchase is the amount of money it takes to receive that rank from the rank immediately below it. In order to initially buy a Majority, for instance, a character would have to pay the costs of the rank of Captain and Subaltern in addition to the cost of Major. For the ranks of Lieutenant-Colonel and above, commissions may not be bought initially.
Members of Cavalry Regiments and Captains of any Regiment must buy one horse and equipment. Majors and above in any Regiment must buy three horses and equipment. Anyone who buys a horse must also hire a groom and pay support on a monthly basis. A horse costs 100 livres, and requires support of 3 livres per month. A groom must be paid 2 livres per month, but only one need be hired, regardless of how many horses are to be cared for.
A character who is promoted will automatically buy the relevant number of horses. If he cannot afford it he has 3 months to purchase them or will lose his rank.
Each regiment uses one of the columns as follows:
Attempting to join a regiment is a weekly activity, but multiple attempts to join different regiments (in descending order of rank) are possible in the same week. Regimental duties begin the week after joining (so if joining in week 4 a character need perform no military duties until the next month).
Subalterns and Privates may choose which Company or Troop in a regiment to join but are attached to A troop/ A company if they fail to do so.
Subalterns are officers and those in the Queen's Own Carabiniers and Dragoon Guards are eligible for membership of the Horse Guards club.
Characters with the rank of Private must spend two weeks of each month on duty with their Regiment: cleaning stables, mounting guard, polishing equipment and so on. While on duty, they may undertake no other action.
Subalterns must spend one week of every month on duty supervising the Privates, while officers above the rank of Subaltern need not spend any time on duty at all. Privates and Subalterns may be excused from duty by the permission of their Battalion Commanders. A non-player Battalion Commander will excuse a player from one week of duty on a roll of 5 or greater on one die. This may be modified by influence.
* House Rule
Each Regiment is a component of a specific Brigade. Brigades and their component Regiments are listed on Regiment Table C. Brigades are important in determining which Regiments go on campaign.
* Status points for positions as listed in the Status Points column are awarded to the Brigade commander and Brigade Major
9.2 Regimental Organisation
All Regiments are organised identically. Each infantry Regiment has three Battalions, numbered 1 through 3. Each Battalion has two Companies, for a total of six per Regiment. Companies are lettered A through F. Cavalry Regiments are organised the same, except that the Battalions are called Squadrons and the Companies are called Troops.
There are ten officers above the rank of Subaltern in each Regiment; there are an unlimited number of Subalterns and Privates for the purposes of the game.
Officers of the same rank in a Regiment are arranged on the basis of seniority. Therefore, the Captain commanding A Troop is the senior Captain of the Regiment.
Upon achieving the rank of Captain or above a player becomes the junior officer holding that rank in the Regiment. As officers above him are killed or promoted, he will advance in seniority, but not necessarily be promoted.
9.3 Campaign Season
One of the aspects of joining the military is that it is sometimes necessary to go on campaign. Each campaign season lasts for three months, and there are four campaign seasons a year. The summer season begins in June, the fall or autumn season in September, winter in December and spring in March. The only season in which the regular army (all Regiments except the Frontier Regiments and the Royal North Highland Border Regiment) campaigns is the summer season. The Frontier and RNHB Regiments are the only ones that regularly campaign during the other seasons and are always on campaign, year round.
While on campaign, characters continue to receive pay and allowances, but do not have to pay out any money or keep track of Status Points.
9.3.1 Poltroonery and Reckless Bravery
In each campaign every character will have to roll two dice to see if they die. This roll can be modified by poltroonery or reckless bravery. The player choosing to take this option may add or subtract any number to the die roll needed for death.
Bravery/Poltroonery modifications should be conditional on your Death Roll. Orders such as “Reckless Bravery to die on a 13. No Poltroonery” are the usual format. Specifying a blanket reduction such as “Reckless Bravery 3” could be fatal. It is a good idea to specify something even if you do not expect to be at the front in a month - you never know what might happen!
If you add to the roll needed - and thus reduces the risk of dying: roll one die; on a die roll of 1 or 2, the player’s cowardice has not been noticed, and he may roll normally for mention in despatches and promotion, but not plunder (he is not hanging around to pick up anything). On a roll of 3 through 5, he has been seen. In this case, he loses twice as many Status Points as the modification he took on his death die roll every month thereafter until he has redeemed himself by being mentioned in despatches. On a roll of 6, his cowardice has been particularly blatant and he is immediately dismissed from the Regiment; he may not apply to another Regiment until he has redeemed himself by mention in despatches in a Frontier Regiment. Under no circumstances will his old Regiment have him back. This penalty is in addition to the above mentioned Status Point loss.
If you reduce the die roll needed and survive, you may use the same modifier to increase your chances of being mentioned in despatches, promoted and getting plunder.
9.3.2 Mention in Despatches
When a character is mentioned in despatches, he becomes a public hero, and his status is raised temporarily. Each time a character is mentioned in despatches, he rolls one die. The result is the number of Status Points per month he receives for the next three months. After the three months have assed, he receives one point per month for as long as he lives. The awards of Status Points are cumulative.
9.3.3 Promotion
Upon first joining a Regiment, a character may purchase a rank as high as Major. A rank cannot be bought if there are so many players with characters in the same Regiment that all positions of that rank are filled by those characters. If two players, for example, have characters with the rank of Major in the Picardy Musketeers, another character may not join the Picardy Musketeers as a Major.
After joining a Regiment, a character may be promoted only if there is an opening of the new rank in the Regiment. If a character is promoted while on campaign but there is no vacancy in the Regiment for the new rank, he is instead mentioned in despatches.
If an opening appears in a Regiment during a campaign but the character is not promoted, he may purchase the rank at any time, as long as all requirements are met and the opening is still vacant. A character cannot, under any circumstances, skip a rank.
If a player holds a rank, but his Social Level drops below the minimum necessary to hold that rank, the character has three game months to raise his Social Level to the required minimum. If he does not, he is expelled from the Regiment. He may rejoin, but does so as if he were joining for the first time.
Player characters have precedence over equally ranked non-player characters for promotion.
9.4 Volunteering
Players may go on campaign during any or all non-regular campaign seasons (Fall/Autumn, Winter or Spring) by volunteering. Players who command a Squadron or Battalion may volunteer their unit to go along with them.
Players who command Regiments may volunteer their Regiment or any Squadron/Battalion thereof. Players who command Brigades may volunteer their entire Brigade or any one Regiment thereof. Players who volunteer only a portion of their commands need not accompany it on campaign.
Volunteering Squadrons and battalions will be attached to one of the Frontier Regiments. Regiments volunteered for the front will be attached to a Frontier Brigade. Any brigades volunteered for the front will lead to a Frontier Division being reconstituted for that season, and the Frontier Division commander (and his HQ staff) will be in for a further season of duty.
Anyone volunteering may request to be sent to a certain front. If no request is made the decision will be random.
NPC commanders of regular brigades, regiments or Squadrons/Battalions will only volunteer their units to fight in a non-regular campaign season if specifically asked to do so - on 6+ if asked by a member of their own regiment/brigade, on 8+ if asked by someone outside the regiment or brigade. (Must be announced beforehand and can be influenced).
Players who do not hold a command as listed above may take a temporary leave of absence (and, some would say, of their senses), volunteer for duty with a Frontier Regiment and thus go on campaign. The character maintains the same rank on the Frontier as he had with his own Regiment, or the rank of Private if he does not belong to a Regiment when he volunteers for Frontier service. Frontier Regiments receive the same pay as the Gascon Regiment. A character who volunteers for duty with a Frontier Regiment retains his position in his own Regiment, if any, and returns to it at the end of the campaign.
All volunteers must be on campaign for at least one month, and may not return from campaign until the end of a campaign season, regardless of time served. In other words, the first week in May is the latest a player could volunteer for the Spring campaign.
9.4.1 The Royal North Highland Border Regiment
The Royal North Highland Border Regiment (RNHB) is a unique unit - an elite Frontier Regiment.
Characters who go to the Frontier to campaign may wish to campaign with the Royal North Highland Borderers rather than a normal Frontier Regiment. To be accepted into the RNHB characters must meet certain requirements.
- Privates may campaign with the RNHB only if they have an Endurance of 110 or more and an Expertise of 9.
- Officers may campaign with the RNHB only if they meet the requirements for Privates and, in addition, have received one merit promotion (nonpurchased) or have been mentioned in despatches. Officers with a military ability of 1 are not accepted into the RNHB.
Since the RNHB is an élite unit, constantly in the field, there are always openings available for qualified officers and men. Officers of the rank of Major and above may always command Battalions (even Colonels and general officers).
When not assigned a Division, the RNHB is assigned to a Frontier Brigade.
The Division or Frontier Brigade containing the Royal North Highland Border Regiment rolls for its battle result as if the Commander had a military ability one higher than he really does.
9.5 Campaigns
9.5.1 Campaign outcome
A volunteering officer attached to a frontier regiment will be considered a junior officer when it is time to replace vacant spots in the regimental hierarchy.
A regimental commander volunteering his regiment will have precedence over frontier regiment commanders when it comes to replacing or assigning brigade command.
A character serving with his volunteered Battalion/Squadron and attached to a Frontier regiment gets his own regiment’s personal outcome modifiers, not those of a Frontier regiment.
9.6 General Officers
If a brevet General Officer receives a promotion, he is only promoted if he holds the command appropriate to his current rank (Brigade if a Brigadier-General, Division if Lieutenant-General and Army if General); otherwise he receives a MiD.