weclome vistior

welcome to the home of Oronegro, a land that not so long ago was a peaceful and prosperous place but by the mid 2020's it was engulfed in a violent civil war! The whole world watched doing their bit in the conflict. the story is one of a small country stuck in superpower politics

Sunday, January 6, 2013

uniforms of the Oronegrean first army

while our historian constructs the next and perhaps final installment of Colonisation and expansion we shall now take a brief moment to showcase the uniforms of the Oronegrean first army... it must be noted that the following only shows the Grenadiers and the line infantry and information relating to both. a following post will display the cazadores (hunters) commanders and the other important elements in a unit. We shall now explore the uniforms...
standard line infantry of the first army of Oronegro, the different coloured helmets determine his company
The Line infantry of el ejército primero (first army) are perhaps the most well trained of any in the world! They have the standard military training of any other line infantry along with skills that are especial for a main force of a small nation. These include advanced bush craft, marksmanship, how to make ammunition and gunpowder, first aid, standard biology, standard chemistry, standard physics, basic mathematics, basic ethics and philosophy, history and military history, carpentry, bricklaying, literacy, road laying, boat building, swimming, urban warfare, basic agriculture, farming skills, languages and many more... usually trained from childhood or even birth if the parents are both criminals these men and a few women are the backbone or the Oronegrean army at all times, though the reserves take over in serious conflicts. they have the shooting skills of a life long hunter and the skills that will let them be self sufficient in jungle and even arid environments. They are the masters of combat only second in shooting skill to Oronegrean cazadores.
They can fight in normal shoulder to shoulder battle order, in skirmishing order or even in no set order. they can fight in large conventional battles or in hit and run warfare and if the situation requires it by them selves or in small groups. as such when they fight overseas they are held in high regard and have been known to be loaned by the Oronegrean government to support a foreign ally in his war. The reason for all this training and conditioning is because these soldiers have to fight as well as 20 soldiers from other nations, although that level of skill is rarely reached there are certainly many Oronegrean line infantry that would show up the best that any other nation could put up against them.
they wear the normal dark blue (may be slightly different from in illustrations) overcoats over a white shirt and white trousers. their helmets have coloured crests, this denotes which company (group of 20 men) they come from the standard colours (4 per century) are red, yellow, blue and black. However there is no strict rules to colour schemes and white, green and orange are known to be worn by some companies. it is also known to have several colours in a company this may occur when there are not enough supplies in an armoury of one colour or to many of another, or soldiers trading helmets or crests because they prefer a colour.
All in all the standard Oronegrean infantry man or woman of the first army is in some ways an elite force and yet the regulars of a strict disciplined and yet in some ways lenient army that teaches the most effective and useful military skills in the world.

The Grenadiers were even more well trained than the line infantry though their marksmanship skills were less than those of the cazadores. they were not the tallest men but the strongest, almost exclusively made up of men due to the physical requirements. they came from the families of soldiers themselves, also raised from birth to be ultimate fighting machines they had all the practical skills of line infantry and a few more. these included advanced chemistry which meant that in many situations they made their own lethal weapons including explosive rounds for their muskets, practical wargaming so that each individual grenadier could if the situation require make tactical decisions, practical knitting and sewing so that they could make their own over coat or other clothing so suit their situation, desert conditioning which included long marches in the arid valleys of southern Oronegro, jungle conditioning which included long marches in the jungle hills on the edges of the great farming plain, and even advanced agricultural skills which meant that a grenadier unit could set up a camp and then grow their own food in hostile or remote territory where supplies might not reach them for months.
Because of the physical and mental requirements for the grenadiers the size of grenadier units is small compared to even Oronegrean units. instead of the 20 men to a company of the line infantry there are 8 to a company in grenadier units. The ratio of officers and NCO's to soldiers ridiculous however as grenadiers will usually fight individually or in larger groups of 2 companies, which means there are 16 soldiers it does not matter to much.
Oronegrean grenadiers are a special bunch that can be used as much as an implement of terror upon a foe as they can to eliminate them.

This post has been dedicated to the normal and yet extraordinary men and the few women who make up el ejército primero or first army of the Oronegrean military, the grenadiers and line infantry of what could be considered the finest and yet one of the smallest fighting forces in the 18th century world or parallel world.

LINE DRAWINGS ARE REMADE FROM HAT LINE DRAWINGS, I TAKE ONLY LIMITED CREDIT...

8 comments:

  1. Obviously Oronegro is as outstanding in the military field as it is by its level of education and religious tolerance!

    But you're right: while at creating an imaginary country, as far as possible make it an idyllic utopia.

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    1. these are matters of need, nearly all laws are created as matters of national strenght, safety and stability. Oronegro is no Utopia although official history portrayed here tries its best to show that of coarse there were struggles but for the nation of Oronegro religious tolerance was needed so avoid division.

      As for the extreme training these soldiers go through usually from childhood, such extreme measures must be taken to prevent them being annaihlated on the battlefield, besides when your main army consists of around 5000 men and your other armies training is merely adicuate you need those 5000 to be the best of the best.

      but we'll have to see how they perform on the battlefield.

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  2. Mind you, with such an investment in the education and training, a Head of State would not be inclined to prodigality of their lives. That said, I can see that such a soldiery will retain a social usefulness long after their strictly military service would have expired in any other nation's armed forces.

    Whoever heads the Government in Oronegro is the sort of figure to command respect. Wouldn't be an acquaintance of Simon Bolivar, would he...?
    Cheers,
    Ion

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    1. you are right there at the ade of 50 all soldier who do not rise higher up in the tranks are retired from service, though most can retire at 40.
      However in service they will frequenty build roads, irrigation systems, bridges and other useful infestructure.
      As for Oronegro's government, Oronegro is sort of a constitutional monarchy the mayor of La Ley hold quite a bit of power and influence especially over the army, the Mayors of La Ley are decended from Juan Carlos and all are elected by other family members to rule, the usual qualities the family looks for are strength, intelligence and ambition, though occassionally you get a few very wise men or some cunning ones depedning on the situation at the time of succession, the Mayor then rules for life with only a small election each 10 years to see if the family still favours him, though when he is not favoured he can be challanged in another election by another candidate.

      its complicated but the mayors always seem to desire a strong, efficient military that is as useful in peace as it is in war.

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  3. For minis in tricorne don't forget the Great Northern War: the uniforms may be a little outfashioned for the mid-18th C. but Oronegro has more urgent needs than following that last trends of European fashion.
    Besides, headswappings with Napoleonics in bearskin or helmet couls gave you interesting original types?

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    1. don't worry I have materials, and the means to make plenty of Tricorns, in fact I have already got the Cazadores converted, and I think that it won't be that much harder to do more necessary conversions, for the Oronegreans, the others may take longer.

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  4. Gowan, something seems to have gone wrong with your latest posting. It shows up on dashboard, but can't otherwise be accessed. What's the story?
    Cheers,
    Ion

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    1. um it may be there was the accidental first posting Ion try again now... if that does not work I'll try re-posting it... its a good story as it goes back to relate to a story from early Oronegrean history

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