NationStates Jolt Archive

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Background

Tulgary is an ancient land quite stuck in its ways.

Centuries ago the Tulgarians commanded a small empire beyond their own borders, it never matched the empires controlled by antiquity's greatest powers but made Tulgary at least as much a leader as a follower and earned her elite significant wealth.

This relative golden age came to an end shortly before much of the nation's natural wealth would have come into its own, as a series of wars and crises of succession lead to the Tulgarian Empire's partitioning amongst greater powers and Tulgary's vassalage to a foreign king*. This was the creation of the Grand Duchy, officially subservient to a monarch abroad but practically in day to day control of the land. However, it was during these years that the industrial revolution found a use for Tulgary's vast coal deposits and other resources, most of which served the industry of Tulgary's mentor and did little for the Duchy.

Over the decades, links between the Duchy and its legal master began to fall away with political changes in both lands and as Tulgary, unable -kept in technological stagnation- to benefit from its own resources became more of a burdon and less of the threat its empire once had been. For most of the C20th, Felvarosh Pupin ruled as Grand Duke almost unmolested by his neighbours.

Earlier, though, Tulgary's intellectual elite had made a habit of fleeing the fallen empire, and this only compounded the wounded little nation's troubles. The Grand Duchy has remained in isolation rather than face the changed world and join amongst the nations it once considered inferior now knowing that its technology was dated, markets uncompetative, and military weak.

It is only in the early C21st -with the Grand Duke past one hundred years of age- that things have begun to change. Ethnic Tulgarians and families of others began to return, partly because they saw the nation regaining much of its independence and more specifically because of trouble in the lands to which they'd fled. Notably, the Sociality Unity-Republic of Zapadslavia, comprised of ten lands united by the son of a Tulgarian immigrant, collapsed on itself in a storm of ethnic striffe, sending anyone with ties to Tulgary running back to the Grand Duchy.

Today, many members of the Zapadslav unity government have found places in the aged Grand Duke's otherwise dusty government.

*As yet this king has not been decided. I intend eventually to find a nation to play the kingdom (which may even have ceased to be a kingdom) from which the Duchy drew its official power.

Geography

Tulgary has not yet found a fix place in the world of Nation States, so geographical information is seriously restricted in this regard.

The Grand Duchy -though reduced from its peak- remains a quite vast domain that has significant expanses of wilderness and scantly peopled territory, along with a great many rural communities and a growing number of imposing urban developments.

Much of Tulgary is accounted for in quite beautiful mountain terrain, which eventually breaks down into gradually less dominating hills and rolling fields. While many mountain ranges are hardly accessed and remote areas remain virtually unexplored, others hide heavily developed valley-based communities and industries. Despite its many severe mountain slopes and difficult microclimates, Tulgary is able to commit a good portion of its area to the cultivation of vegetables and grains and to the rearing of livestock.

The climate is generally cool temperate, but summers can be quite pleasant. The mountains especially are subject to frequent snow.

Natural hazards include rockfalls and snowdrifts in some areas, infrequent severe storms, mild earthquakes, and some winter blizzards.

The worst artificial threat to Tulgary's natural environment is from significant and increasing use of coal in industry and transport.

People

Most Tulgarians are ethnic natives of the land they inhabit and are speakers of its tongue, and they are generally quite proud of their Duchy and their imperial past. A large minority made-up of Zapadslav-national refugees is almost exclusively Zelenoslavian by ethnicity.

The national religion is nominally Catholicism, but in reality has become quite distinct, especially in the Grand Duchy's century of introspection since the collapse of the Empire that preceeded it, during which time contact with the Papacy has been limited and the religious significance of the Grand Duke and his favoured associates has increased.

Literacy in the Grand Duchy is a limited thing, with rates sometimes below ten percent in rural and certain industrial areas, while wealthier districts see much higher standards.

Government

The Grand Duchy, as the title indicates, revolves politically around Grand Duke Felvarosh Pupin and his primary residence at Grestovar Fortress in the capital, Trepest, in Trepestina District.

Other district capitals [and their districts] include: Nova Velikograde [Toranjina], Zamakograde [Dovia], Gospodarstovo , Javovo [Herznia], Slovograd [Sloania], Keliini [Albovina], Dolinana [Bravania], Jezerovo [Planinaskaya], Sojenica [Suncevo], Severeb [Ravnicana], Felvarograde [Otsana]

While Grand Duke Felvarosh Pupin is the executor of the Tulgarian nation and his son (the tellingly Christened forty-two year old Prince Kiraly Pupin) the Heir Apparent, the nation's legislative arrangement is by the Chamber of Deputies, over which the Grand Duke has power of appointment and expulsion.

The Judiciary, likewise, owes all of its powers and appointments directly to the Grand Duke.

National holidays include the Grand Duke's birthday and the Harvest Festival.

[b]Economy

Tulgary is a nation isolated since military collapse a century ago, and its economy remains similar to the one operational when it left the world stage at that time. It runs on the burning of coal, which is one of the Grand Duchy's most abundant natural resources. Infrastructure consists of railways travelled by steam locomotives, tramlines travelled by horse-drawn trolleys, dirt tracks trod by people and oxen, and cobbled streets walked by horses that may or may not be pulling buggies and carts, not forgetting rivers and canals on which pole, steam, and horse driven barges drift.

Agriculture is the largest employment sector, with industry an increasingly close second.

A number of grains, many vegetables, some fruits, and livestock -of which Tulgarians are especially proud- are the nation's agricultural produce. It is worth mentioning that the Grand Duchy produces racehorses of the very finest quality, the Duke himself owning one of the finest stables in the world, and it is now possible that Tulgarian thoroughbreds may contribute to the economy internationally.

Tulgary's natural resources include truly massive reserves of coal, with new seams discovered every time another is exhausted. There are also slightly more modest quantities of oil and natural gas, which as of yet are not widely exploited, much as the mountainous nation's great hydropower potential is almost entirely untapped. After coal, it is resources such as iron ore and to a slightly lesser degree copper ore, bauxite, lead, and zinc that come in next in the Grand Duchy's hierarchy of natural reserves, although in some cases -such as that of bauxite- these reserves too are under-used. There are also precious and semi-precious metals and stones to be found in the mountains, ranging from gold and silver to various gemstones. While these are mined and collected, it is generally suspected that current exploration has uncovered only the fringes of what lies buried for future generations. Finally, Tulgary's fertile soils and arable land and its vast forests provide renewable wealth where they are properly tended, and the mountains themselves continue to be quarried for building material such as slate and granite.

Though Tulgary has yet to establish foreign ties, some of its bravest businessmen have begun to stockpile resources for potential export, with the following being main examples of likely staple exports:

Coal of good purity and cheaper material as usually sold back to miners for a token fee as basic heating fuel
Timber, both mountains of run of the (saw) mill and smaller quantities of fine native hard woods
Gold
Silver
Copper, though as yet in fairly small quantities resulting from low levels of exploitation of this abundant resource
Staple foods such as grain and vegetables, though of course the stockpiling of these goods for future export is not so standard!
Livestock including dairy cows, sheep, goats, pigs, oxen, poultry, carthorses and other animals including working dogs and warhounds, sporting falcons, warhorses, and world-class racehorses
Lead
Slate
Granite
And finally there are the Tulgarian resources that the Duchy is loosely aware of but yet failing to make practical use of and as such not forward about offering for export, though it is not hard to learn of the existance in Tulgary of many millions of tonnes of bauxite plus significant natural gas and oil reserves.

Many Tulgarian manufactures are also available at extremely low cost, as the nation's century of isolation have seen labour movements pass it by, and though production methods are perhaps quite crude, they are generally inexpensive, meaning that many clothes, fabrics, pieces of furniture, and other simple goods are essentially a steal. Meanwhile, finer items such as watches and clocks and the nation's steam locomotives and black-powder firearms are generally machined in a fashion that is quite expensive but often more robust than by modern construction.

**Becoming gradually more informative!**

The Royal Tulgarian Army and Navy

Grand Duke Felvarosh has of late put a great deal of effort into restoring the once great Tulgarian military as he prepares to re-open Tulgary's gates and, many suspect, to cast-off vasselage and reinstate the Tulgarian Empire.
The army has always been Tulgary's primary focus, and is once again stretching its belly to consume tens of thousands of eagre young recruits with spirits high as the nation faces a brave new world. Volunteer numbers are high and coffers sufficient to pay wages that are just enough to get by in a land where many struggle.

Felvarosh has also begun the construction of a fleet of warships to protect Tulgary and perhaps to secure a hoped-for spike in sea-going trade, and though the nation has rarely looked out across the high seas with much ambition, the Royal Tulgarian Navy's expansion is another enthusiastic affair and a point of growing pride.

The Fleet

Ships of the new Tulgarian fleet are referred to as HRHS, or His Royal Highness's Ship. The flagship of the fleet is to be the Prinz Kiraly

RTN Strength
(Estimated in blocks per one-hundred million heads of population according to the Grand Duke's design, which officially over-rules any contradictions evident in reality)
Battleships: 1
Coast Defence Ships: 2
Armoured Cruisers: 2
Scout Cruisers: 4
Destroyers: 8
Submarines:2

RTN Ships

Grand Duke Felvarosh Class Sea-Going Coast-Line Battleships

The greatest warships ever built in Tulgary. Their pioneering nature means that they are built with little prior experience, and the distribution of weight aboard the ten thousand ton battleships means that they roll excessively. There are tentative plans to rectify this with bilge keels at some point in the future. Turret armour is lighter than maximum side armour partly because of technical difficulties already presenting themselves in traverse of main guns.

Builder: Royal Jezerovo Sea Arsenal and Borsos War Metals at Royal Yards
Displacement: 9,700 tons standard; significantly above 10,000 tons full
Length: 339 feet
Beam: 68 feet
Draft: 24 feet mean
Armour: 7-15" belt; 12" main turrets; 12" barbettes; 6" secondary turrets
Primary Armament: 4x10"/L45 guns (2x2)
Secondary Battery: 8x6.8"/L47 (2x2 on each side)
Light Battery: 8x4.5"/L40 (along broadsides)
Quick-Firing Guns: 12x2"/L42
Arms Lockers: 4 (x12 Marine Carbines)
Rig: Two military masts
Stacks: Two, straight
Complement: 58 officers and 571 men by design, likely more in wartime
Propulsion: 8 cylindrical Fashion-XI boilers; 10,500hp normal, 12,000hp forced; 2 shafts
Design Speed: 18.5 knots normal, 19.7 knots forced
Coal Bunkerage: 750 tons
Endurance: 2,500NM at 12knots, 3,300NM at 8knots
Ships of Class: Prinz Kiraly and Pupin in service; Javoric under construction.

Tulgary Class Coast Defence Ships

Side-mounted 10" guns face a trade-off between overhead protection and elevation, with different configurations under in-service trial.

Builder: Borsos War Metals at Borsos Severeb Yards
Displacement: 5,800 tons standard; 6,100 tons full
Length: 302 feet
Beam: 55 feet
Draft: 19.5 feet mean
Armour: 8-11" belt; 10" primary turret
Primary Armament: 4x10"/L40 (two in turret fore, two in sponsons amidships)
Secondary Battery: 4x4.5"/L40 (single mounts along broadsides)
Quick-Firing Guns: 4x2"/L42
Arms Lockers: 2 (x12 Marine Carbines)
Rig: One military mast
Stacks: One, straight
Complement: 32 officers and 397 men peacetime
Propulsion: 5 cylindrical Fashion-X boilers; 6,000hp; 2 shafts
Design Speed: 15.5 knots
Coal Bunkerage: 450 tons
Endurance: 2,100NM at 10knots
Ships of Class: Tulgary, Trepestina, Toranjina, Dovia, Benivaria

Velikograde Class Armoured Cruisers

Likely to be tasked with the bulk of serious fighting, these are considered a slightly more realistic and sustainable expense than are the full battleships operated by a civilisation that traditionally puts more faith in its army.

Builder: Royal Jezerovo Sea Arsenal and Borsos War Metals at Royal Yards
Displacement: 5,450 tons standard; 6,300 tons full
Length: 340 feet
Beam: 52 feet
Draft: 20 feet mean
Armour: 3.5-8" belt; 1.5-2.5" deck; 9" primary turrets; 6.5" conning tower; 2.5"-4" bulkheads
Primary Armament: 2x10"/L45 guns (in dual-mounted turret fore)
Secondary Battery: 1x6.8"/L47 gun (in turret aft)
Light Battery: 8x4.5"/L40 guns (single-mount sponsons along broadsides)
Quick-Firing Guns: 12x2"/L42 guns (8 on superstructure, 4 in fighting masts)
Arms Lockers: 2 (x12 Marine Carbines)
Rig: Two fighting masts
Stacks: Three, straight
Complement: 31 officers and 401 men peacetime
Propulsion: 6 cylindrical Fashion-XI boilers; 7,500hp standard; 2 shafts
Design Speed: 18 knots standard, almost 20 knots forced
Coal Bunkerage: 500 tons
Endurance: 2,200NM at 10 knots
Ships of Class: Velikograde, Zamakograde, Gospodarstovo, Javovo, Slovograd

Harrier Class Scout Cruisers

Planned for use as scouts and for recognition and covering duties and as Tulgarian representatives far over-seas. Two shafts can be driven by cruise turbines or four by sprint.

Builder: Royal Jezerovo Sea Arsenal and Anadov Writes at Royal Yards
Displacement: 2,900 tons standard; 3,400 tons full
Length: 354 feet
Beam: 37 feet
Draft: 15 feet
Armour: 2" belt; 1" deck; 1.2" turrets; 2.5" conning tower
Primary Armament: 6x4.5"/L45 guns (one in turret fore, one in turret aft, plus 4 along broadsides)
Quick-Firing Guns: 7x2"/L42 guns
Arms Lockers: 1 (x12 Marine Carbines)
Rig: Two main masts for auxiliary sailing equipment
Stacks: Four, marginally sloped aft
Complement: 23 officers, 280 men peacetime
Propulsion: 16 Fashion-XII boilers; 4 turbines; 4 shafts
Design Speed: 26 knots sprint turbines
Coal Bunkerage: 620 tons
Endurance: 3,100NM at 12 knots
Run: 10 hulls

Astrology Class Destroyers

Used to protect larger ships against sabotage and ramming attacks and to patrol harbours and other facilities. Supposed to be used in towing a line of torpedoes across the path of fast attacking vessels.

Builder: Royal Jezerovo Sea Arsenal and Borsos War Metals at Royal Yards
Displacement: 468 tons standard; 500 tons full
Length: 202 feet
Beam: 22 feet
Draft: 9.5 feet
Primary Armament: 1x2.7"/L41 (1x1 turret-mounted fore)
Secondary Battery: 5x2"/L42 guns (5x1 two fore, one aft, one each side)
Arms Lockers: 2 (x6 Marine Carbines)
Rig: One military mast
Complement: 11 officers and 68 men peacetime
Propulsion: 4 cylindrical Fashion-XI boilers; 5,250hp; 2 shafts
Design Speed: 25.6 knots
Coal Bunkerage: 92 tons
Endurance: 1,500NM at 12 knots
Run: 20 hulls

Grebe Class Submarines

Fairly experimental boats meant to serve as spies and recognition posts, though their slow speed has proven to generally negate their use in relaying acquired information. They may be used to patrol facilities and as mobile maritime blockhouses, and are most likely to be applied as commerce raiders sinking or capturing slow merchants by use of their two guns.

Builder: Borsos War Metals at Borsos Severeb Yards
Displacement: 210 tons surfaced; 229 tons submerged
Length: 91 feet
Beam: 12 feet
Draft: 12.5 feet
Primary Armament: 1x2.7"/L41 deck gun
Secondary Battery: 1x2"/L42 gun (limited traverse conning tower mount)
Arms Lockers: 1 (x6 Marine Carbines)
Complement: 4 officers and 14 men
Propulsion: 2 gasoline engines; 2 electro engines; 2 shafts
Design Speed: 10.2 knots surfaced; 7.2 knots submerged
Endurance: 850NM surfaced at 5 knots;
Run: ?

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Royal Tulgarian Army Weapons
And RTN small-arms

Infantry Fuzil Snider-Gruev II

The standard long-arm carried by Tulgarian infantrymen is this breech-loading blackpowder rifle. The weapons have, in one form or another, served since the C18th, having begun life as muzzle-loading flintlock muskets of smooth-bore. They soon saw modification and the addition of rifling, which later was improved with more turns. Eventually, a Snider-type conversion was carried out, turning the rifles into breech-loaders.

The breech swings open to accept a paper cartridge containing missile and blackpowder charge, and where the muskets carried their pan there is now placed a nipple that accepts an unusually large copper percussion cap, crushed by the falling hammer in order to ignite the propellant charge through a touch-hole bored into the barrel. The caps are deliberately over-sized and shaped with indentations to, "reduce fumbling" but it was initially found that using such large and elaborate caps lead to problems. On rare occasions percussion caps have been known to burst and fragment in the face of the shooter, and this is sometimes delt with by depressing the centre of the hammer so that it consumes the cap before striking it. The Tulgarian over-sized caps do not lend themselves to this modification, which would result in a rather ungainly hammer piece, and so instead the caps are unusually expensive, being of solid construction around the rim so that the top alone is crushed in a fairly predictable and uniform fashion under the hammer. There is an arguable risk of wartime production degrading this standard, but the dangers are still less than critical.

The bore is .47 inches and the barrel length is 42.5 inches, which, with new rifling and good standard of manufacture, makes for a very accurate weapon.


Cavalry Carbine Snider-Gruev Fashion 1869/1957

All of the Gruev carbines are based on the Infantry Fuzil, but are shortened by various degrees and can also be differentiated by alternate stock layout and furniture, and of course different markings. Generally they are fired with cartridges bearing slightly reduced charges.

Apart from being the shortest of all, the main difference distinguishing the Cavalry model from other carbines is in the extra rounding-off of edges on the stock and sights. This is done to facilitate withdrawal from and return to leather saddlebuckets.

It has a 19.5 inch barrel.

Artillery Carbine Snider-Gruev Fashion 1868/1954

This provides protection to Garrison and Field Artillery, though there is some confusion about whether it is officially supposed to replace the previous rifle in Horse Artillery formations (in fact it is, but conflicting opinions and accounting confusion perpetuate one another).

This has a 22 inch barrel.

Marine Carbine Snider-Gruev Fashion 1868/1959

Arming RTN sailors for defence against boarding actions and for shore parties. It is perhaps the most ornate Tulgarian service rifle, having extra brass fittings.

It has a 23.5 inch barrel.

Percussion Fashion Donderbus

A strange hybrid weapon that loads by the muzzle but is fired with a percussion cap. Charges contained in paper may be issued to be torn open and emptied into the flared muzzle before the introduction of issued shot or of none-standard and even improvised missiles, but any loose powder can just as easily be used if otherwise available. The paper cartridges can in theory be used as wadding once their contents are loaded into the barrel. The nipple on which the percussion cap rests is positioned centrally rather than on the right hand side of the weapon as is the case with converted ex-flintlock rifles, and the face of the hammer is shaped to surround the cap on the moment of impact, thus protecting the operator from an unlikely dangerous fragmentation of the cap.

It is held as a second-rate infantry weapon and used in the navy as a boarding and indeed an anti-boarding weapon, and has also been employed against mobs ashore. It can -somewhat awkwardly- be made to accept either of Tulgary's to current standard bayonet types.

The weapon's 16 inch barrel is around 2 inches at the muzzle.

Percussion Pistol Service Fashion II

A single-barrel breech-loading weapon with a rifled bore of .5 inches and a barrel length of 7 inches. The hammer is placed centrally in this design.

Percussion Pistol Defence Fashion III

A side-by-side double barrel weapon with smoothbore barrels of 5 inches. The bore is .6 inches, and the weapon amongst the last muzzle-loading firearms used by the Tulgarian military. They are less common than the Fashion II Service Pistol carried by many officers. The hammers are side-mounted

Sword Bayonet Fashion III

Used sometimes with the Infantry Fuzil and Marine Carbine, and more often with the Artillery Carbine, this weapon has a blade of 19.75 inches.

1972 Bayonet Fashion XV

A more common bayonet of 15.5 inches blade, fixable to any of the Tulgarian service rifles but still rarely seen on Cavalry Carbines.

Section Halberd

4.5 feet long, this somewhat archaic weapon, carried by some infantry officers, is to a large degree ceremonial, but is officially to be used held horizontal as a brace against the backs of Fuziliers in order to make sure that their formation is held steady in action. It had a cutting axe head backed by a hook designed for dragging-down horsemen and is topped with a spike, while the foot of the weapon is weighted and slightly spiked as well.

Cavalry Sword Fashion IV

Used by both officers and men (though the former are likely to have extensively etched and decorated examples), this narrow-bladed weapon represents the current Tulgarian belief in thrusting over cutting swords for the cavalry. It has been demonstrated that, with proper instruction and practice, men using this weapon can out-reach those using cutting blade and sometimes even lancers, and recover quickly. Its narrow blade is 37 inches long, and the rider is protected by an extensive cup-type guard.

It should be noted that officers in the infantry and other military branches are free to purchase swords of their own in a wide range of approved fashions.

Three Pounds Cannon Rifle

Made of a steel tube reinforced by wrought-iron coils, this weapon is the most common RTA artillery piece. A breach-loading weapon of 2.7 inch bore. It has a maximum firing range almost four miles, and an aimed rate of fire close to three rounds per minute. Its effective range is generally considered to be much less than the stated maximum, with firing generally becoming concentrated and most deadly effective not very far over a mile out.

Solid shot, grapeshot, high-explosive shell, and shrapnel are in the Tulgarian inventory and for use by the Three Pounds Rifle. The rifle's name is deceptive as its missiles may weigh seven or more pounds in truth, the title supposedly being an approximate reference to the weight of a round shot were it to be fired from this bore.

It is a fairly light and mobile artillery piece easily towed by horses and handled by cannoneers. Usually pulled by four or six horses, and flexible ammunition carriages likewise.

Ten Pounds Cannon Rifle

Of similar construction to its smaller cousin and also loading by the breech, which closes by a screw mechanism, this has a 4.5 inch bore.

The Ten Pounds Rifle fires the same types of missile as the Three Pounds Rifle, but to potentially greater effect. It is often employed with charges specific to use in a high angle of attack to over a mile range, replacing old howitzers. In more usual gun-type trajectory its maximum range is several times greater.

This piece typically has a much more significant impact on enemy moral when firing at longer ranges especially, and is equally effective against fixed defences.

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(Really nice.)

Thanks!