over a drink in a snowed in house last week, I tried to justify the presence of females in a marlburian army. I thought long and hard about how and why female troops could be deployed, who or when would they volunteer en masse.
I decided that the first deployment would have to be an accident, a circumstance of self preservation, or a misunderstanding. my feelings were that the first use would be dressing camp followers as soldiers to create a false reinforcements, and them being half threatened and delivering an effective volley leading to enemy units withdrawing from the field. after this success a nobles wife begs a more active role
the nobles wife pays a bounty and recruits wives, doxies, and other diverse sorts to guard the camp, and seeks permission of the crown to fight, and based on the heroics printed in the daily courant thousands of women volunteer, and soon regiments with a mix of women from the generally lower walks of life are lead by officers, and colonels drawn from nobility, across the whole of Europe.
can anyone give a reason that has more plausibility for this imaginations standby?
Do you really need an excuse?
ReplyDeleteI know of two examples on the web of Imagi-Nations having raised -in dramatic, almost desperate times- a regiment of soldiers' widows: 'What-if? Catalonia raised regiment Fiona Mc Gregor (initially 'Filles de Minerva', hence its distinguishing heraldic piece) and Neues Sudland (located in Australia and thus in the 18th C. poor in manpower).
Another possibility is an unit of 'maiden guards' initially raised as a 'parade troop' on the model of Old India and Cambodia: such are the 'Maiden Guard' of the Holy Mormoanic Kingdom of New South Wales (Eureka, the manufacturer of the 'Sandras', is Australian ^-^) and the 'Purple Roses' of Bodstonia.
Glad to see that your project is still alive; do you still plan a Kickstarter?
Cheers and best wishes
yes the project is alive and the computer has been recovered from the terrible weather bound repairs centre (two miles away - might have well been the other side of the world)
ReplyDeleteNo - I am not saying you need a reason for the formation of female units, it is just that I would like one!
The kickstarter will now be started again - only a months delay - due to computer - so I will have some photos up shortly!
How about a "foreign legion" situation? Much as medieval nunneries were disposing grounds for unwanted women or those who did not fit traditional gender roles, a 18th century version could involve putting the more criminal elements into a woman's only fighting force (commanded by men of course). Perhaps some justification was that in an area that had suffered long warfare, the surviving women had banded together in a bandit gang and had started preying upon the stragglers and foraging parties of the various combatants. One side put them down and decided (due to the manpower crisis of the long war) to impress the survivors. After that war, the "amazons" were kept on as a tradition (and dumping ground for unwanted women).
ReplyDeleteso kind of a dirty dozen for all sorts of undesirables... pretty much like the army or navy used to be as well!
DeleteI can see that happening after impressed troops were used.
Ooh, had not thought of it as a "Dirty Dozen" situation ... that does suggest a number of possibilities for a skirmish level wargame in the 18th century. "Daughters of Artemis", an irregular unit of these amazons supervised by a shadowy figure with ties to the monarch's spymaster. They are sent on disreputable missions that require deniability. Or ones where their sex is an advantage in gaining access to hard targets.
DeleteBy the way, good luck with your forthcoming Ladies and Lace project. Since your currently proposed miniatures aren't in my areas of interest, I won't be participating, but I like the fact you are trying to fill a need in two different eras. (Really, the interwar era and then WWII saw a number of female partisans or resistance members ... I'd have thought some would have been sculpted already.)