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...
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| 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...