NationStates Jolt Archive

Russian Imperial Announcement

Today we declare war against the Kingdom of Poland and their usurper king, as I speak our conquest army marches toward their lands ready to restore a rightful monarch and execute this wretched "King".
As this declaration rings out the conquest army numbers seven divisions of Russian Infantry and fifty brigades of cavalry, acompanied by eight artillery regiments.

The Rusian army has just arrived on the Polish border and is begging to march into the Poles land.

OOC: Someone tell Mad that he's being invaded?

OOC: Wasn't the russian military really poorly trained? I would think that 7 divisions of men wouldn't be enough since the only real tactic the Russian's ever had was over-whelming numbers....

ooc: Well, actualy, some russian generals were very good, in the battle of Balaclava, the Chimean war, it was a tactical victory for Russians...

Also, they werent trained THAT bad, i mena, they were not as good as Austrians or French, but they were better than some smaller countries, like most of Italian states and Helvetian republic...

Uldarious, you better tell him in his thread...

(Note: I am using my own invented military numbers as a refletion of the recent military reorganisation that I initiated on taking control so there's been quite a while for the army to be re-organised, thus 7 division = 140, 000 men, each division is 5 battalion, each battalion is 4 brigades each brigade is 10 regiments. Also the Russians were not bad soldiers there have been many accounts with the strength and bravery they fought with in their war with Napoleon, their problem was a lack of skilled commanders

Finally the army was given the order and it began it's march into Polish land.

OOC: I've done a bit of research on that actually, the Russians were not the finest infantry but they usually were capable and strong men and when lead by a good commander such as in the Napoleonic Wars they actually proformed very well

What's the deal? is Poland still playing? anyone know?

OOC:The Second Conquest army has now entered Polish lands, they are approx 20 miles from the Frist Conquest Army.
This makes a total of over 200 000 Russian men in Poland, most of these have seen heavy training and have been appointed under the most skilled officers availible (some of which are actually pretty good) they are no crack Austrain troops but they are no Italian or Spainish clutz's either.
The cavalry isn't up to the level of the elite Polish troops but is made up of some of the best cavalry Eastern Europe and Western Asia have to offer, including a large number of fierce and skilled Cossacks.
The Cannon/Artilery crews are well trained and know what they're doing, they might not be quite up to the level of the Italians but they're still pretty skilled.

IC: General Ulmovich sat and examined the facts, the Polish would be on even ground infantry wise, superior with cavalry and artilery was an unknown factor.
Around him the other commanders sat in the command tent.
"So what are our battle-plans?" asked Domitav who was short and dark.
Ulmovich rubbed his moustache and spoke "We should be able to overpower their cavalry with our superior numbers there, just have to make sure we don't get outmaneuvered, I doubt they'll have as much cannon as us so their we'll be able to outshoot them and if we maintain good-order with infantry we'll be able to out-gun them their too but we have to rely on more than just numbers, we'll still wait for the reinforcement army before we go on" Ulmovich said.
"When they arrive they will march on our right flank, when we make contact with the enemy I'll decide how to use them but I think the best way to do this will be to divide our forces into three groups and attack head on and with a pincer is we can manage it" Ulmovich continued.
"I think the best way to do this is to refine the plan once we find the enemy and know there position and numbers" Duke Yenin suggested.
"Indeed" agreed Yuko.
They sat and examined the maps of their nation while they waited for the second army.

ooc: as there was a debate abouth curage and training of Russians...This is something i found on one of the sites, it is abouth infantry when taking artilery hits:

''The Russians are standing, take the hits and die;
the British usualy don't dare to stand up;
the others waver, duck or flee.''

It tels you something about the discipline and curage of Russian troops...

Thanks for that, I'm sure that helps my case that my troops are NOT undisciplined and cowardly.

Now, having a possibly supereor economy and population to yourselves, but being highly supportive of Russia (also I have a very small defence allocation, so that aspect is weaker here than it is on your side), I wish to join the war on your side. Do you accept?

This is for NE: Earth Rp, I'm Russia and Wolfen is Austria, I'm invading Madnestan who is Poland however he is currently banned (I only learned this a short while ago) so the RP is on hold till he gets unbanned in a few days.
This is a "Closed" Rp though, perhaps I should have added that to the title.

You can join the NE Earth: RP if you want though, heres the link

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=449185

OOC: From where exactly is your army coming, and how deep in Poland is it? Polish Eastern army is currently located in Minsk, and I'd like to know how much time does it have to prepare for your forces.

IC:

The city of Minsk had been turned to a military base during the months the bulk of the recently reformed Polish army had been stationed there. As the King and his court (although it wasn't anything near like those magnificent armies of nobles and servants that the French, Russian or Austrian monarchs used to drag with them when they moved from their palaces) where there too, it had been given the status of temporary capital. Messengers were coming and going all the time, to and from every corner of the kindom as the king, while beeing the leader of an field army, still had to fullfill his duties as a ruler of the nation.

The army was in better shape than ever, after the glory days in the 16th century perhaps. King Jaroslaw had spent loads of money, and even more all the time as the recovering economy of Poland and strenthened industry made the incomes bigger.

The army had been trained like never before, and the king had introduced a totally diferent, original way of training. What was new (excluding the British army that is) was the usage of real gunpowder and ammo during the firing practice, but what was revolutionary was the way of fighting actual battles with troops forming, maneuuvering and firing at eachother! As the army was too small for the losses caused by completely autenthic training battles, they did not use ammunition. However, the powder was real. Men had to learn how to stand straight and in order while massed volleys were fired at them. Some times local kids, who were of course skilled slingers and used to hit escaping squirrels (not to mention windows(or Linux, ahahah, humour!)) were positioned beteen the firing men, and ordered to fire same time with the empty muskets of the soldiers. They slinged wooden ball and such non-lethal ammunition, but the troops in the opposite formation were ordered to fall down when hit by the slingers. The resul of this was incredibly efficient way of presenting the situation in the battlefield to the men who still lacked the actual battle experience; the incredible noise of armies facing eachother, the sound of cannon and musket fire, the smoke, the shouts and orders, men falling around you - the total mess that the battle in the 18th century was.

Another thing that was exessively trained was the marching, forming a battle line, switching to square, back to line, and again marching for hours, then repeating the battle maneuvers, setting up a camp but immediately leaving it and marching again. Training was harsh, propably harder than the actual campaigns during wartime would be, but the king and his young cadre of the most talented officers that had been chosen because of their abilities instead of high noble family backround were determined that pushing the men to their limits was better to them than waiting until they would be actually forced to do so.

King was on a horseback, which was his favourite seat, positioned on top of an hill and closely following the actions of the 1st and 2nd cavalry brigades who were teaching their horses to keep calm under fire presented by four infantry regiments, and thinking all the money that was currently spread to the field in form of the precious and horribly expencive gunpowder, when the messenger arrived. He was a young Lieutenant from the Brest-Litovsk Border Guard Battalion, and his horse was nearly collapsing due the exhaustion.

"King!" he shouted, "I must see the king!" while beating the last bits of strength off his mount. Jaroslaw Rokossowski turned in the saddle to see what was going on, and saw the Guard Regiment's cuirassiers trying to halt the man. "Let him through" he mumbled, and the order was immediately repeated by the deep, echoing voice of his adjutant, captain Drutavsky. Guards gave away, and the dirty, muddy lieutenant galloped the last twenty metres, jumped down from the horseback and kneeled. The horse behind him kneeled too, but that was because its legs didn't carry anymore.

"No need for that, man, stand up and tell me what's so important!" said teh young king, smiling. The man in front of him immeadiately obeyed, and replied:

"Your majesty, the Russians have crossed the border yesterday and are currently moving westwards! Another army is not far behind them, and according to our own obesrvations and stories told by refugees and civilians coming from the border, it appears this army is just massive! Hundreds of thousands of men, perhaps even half a million!"

Colour escaped from the face of the king. Now already... we aren't ready yet! "Do you have a formal message by your commander, man?"

Lieutenant nodded, and handed over a sealed letter. King opened it with his sword , quickly read it and stuffed it into his pocket. "Good job, lieutenant. I'll make sure you get rewarded for this." He turned to his adjutant and officers that had gathered around him, and simply said;

"Gentlemen, the Russians are once again asking for a decent beating. Make sure the panic doesn't spread in you units, and gather your troops to the maincamp. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning."

Men saluted and left, and the king noticed the sword he was still holding in his hand. His fingers were white and hurting, as he had been squeezing the weapon without even noticing it. He put it into the sheath again, and took a deep breath. Now, standing alone without the officers around him, he felt like all of his confidense was gone.

We're fucked. Totally, totally fucked.

OOC: I'm about a weeks march away, so that's how long you have to prepare, I will post more tomorrow but I'm busy now.

General Ulmovich sat and thought to himself, the camp was dark around him and little sound was heard except the soldiers on night-watch.
With the reinforcements finally linked up with him and the combined army to continue the march it would be somewhere between a week and a week and a half before combat was initiated.
He was examining the varying strengths and weaknesses of both armies, The Russians held the obviously advantage of numbers and Poles the obvious advantage of location.

The Polish infantry was still reletively weak compared to other European nations although it was getting better by Ulmovich's intelligence reports, what they made up for in training the Russian's could equal with discipline though, after the reforms they were more well organised than they had been before and would likely be their Polish counterparts equal in most cases, of course they weren't fighting for their homeland like the Poles were.

In Cavalry the Polish were the disputed champions, the fact of the matter was that they were the best on average and in most singular cases which was more than Ulmovich could say for his own cavalry.

He had a numerical advantage over the Poles by a significant margin but some of the elements of his cavalry were of doubtful ability, he knew his Cossacks were some of the most fierce and skilled cavalry in Europe and were quite reliable, his dragoons and heavy cavalry were mostly skilled and loyal men who would be reliable in a fight and should obey most orders, the light cavalry weren't expected to do a lot except scout and harry the broken enemy.

The lancers were of an average quality, not the equal of his Polish counterpart by a fair margin and would be mainly use to strike into the vulnerable sections of the oposing army.

What annoyed Ulmovich were the amount of cavalry dandies who'd probably be set on charging in and getting slaughtered, also there were a few too many untested men for his liking, they might not retreat but they'd be killed in short order if they made any mistakes.

On the whole Ulmovich thought that his cavalry would be better suited to killing infantry and mass charges than smaller scale maneuvers, at least untill the enemy cavalry was either broken or stripped of support, He at least knew he had enough skilled men to balance out the unskilled and the Cossacks were reliable.

On the Artilery wing, he was pretty certain his army had the advantage both in quantity and quality, he had plenty of well trained and intelligent men in that corps and knew he outnumbered the Poles but he was determined not to underestimate his foes.

In short Ulmovich was expecting a tough battle but was quite confident of victory.
The next few days would see all the commanders assume their positions in the army and all the divisions, battalions, brigades and regiments undergoing final preparations for the upcomming battle.

They were ready as they could be.
As the King wandered through his camp, alone, from one fire to another and spoke to his men this impression got stronger and stronger. His soldiers were ready, they had faith in their own abilities, their officers and their King. The men he spoke knew their duty, and were determined to fullfill it. Everywhere he went to, anyone he spoke to, he got the same answer to his question.

"Yes, King! We will not let you down!"

Last reinforcements had arrived in the afternoon. The army now included 27 infantry regiments, which were split in 9 brigades, and its total strength was a bit more than 50,000. Cavarly had 15 regiments, but they were strengthened above their usual strength, and the branch totalled more than 18,000 men. It was split in 3 regiment strong brigades, just like the infantry. Artillery had their 112 cannons in three regiments.

These numbers were far from enough, remembering the horrifying hordes of Russian infantry, their swarms of fearless (if rather ill-disciplined) cossacks and the crushing artillery of theirs.

But one thing the Poles had that the Russians lacked. And that thing, that only hope that the Polish King had, was the undivided spirit of determination.

These men what was coming, and what they had to do.

These men were ready.

OOC: Alright, sorry for the time between posts but I can't always manage to answer all the threads in a single day, as we are pretty much ready for the comming battle I think we should sort some stuff out first, my MSN is purpleheroman@hotmail.com.
Also are you using web map of the Minsk area and if so my I have the link? It would make it that much easier if we were working off the same map and it'd probably avoid confusion.