Basileus wrote:I wonder if the Dutch Huguenots get a bonus for fighting against King Louis and his army. Any views out there on that? Stuarts commentary is always spot on, apart from whilst Chalons in itself is unimportant now the road to Paris is truly clear with the other cities to the east of Paris also in Dutch or Austrian hands and the rest of France is being picked up by the Spanish. The truce will probably come into force before a drive can be made to Paris, but if the war resumes the next set of battles will probably be for the capital which is now in the frontline.
This strategic position may be helpful for the allies in their negotiations on peace terms. As is the clear position that the Austrians, Dutch and Spanish have all individually out fought the French now. Come the April talks not much of France will still be held by the French. The advantage the allies have is that they can individually take a share of the fighting burden at different times, but the French havent had that luxery.
I doubt if Huguenot troops in Dutch Service get a bonus for fighting the Royal Catholic Troops of the King of France since it can just as easily be said that the Royal Troops should get a bonus for fighting Heretic Traitors.
I suspect it was a simple case of troops with a fairly low Sickness level taking on troops with a high sickness level. About the only troops who actually seem to get a "hidden" bonus are the Swedes when attacking.
Feb 1707 Glori du Roi now out and seems to offer more backing for the above theory since highlights of this issue for non G7 types include-
1) Swedes attempt to storm a modern Russian fortress guarding route to St Petersburg in mid winter and their general is killed by one of the first shots from the defending artillery. These fanatics still take the the fortress at the charge using ladders!!!
General theory in G7 is that for the Czar to defeat the Swedes in a stand up battle he needs odds of 10-1, fieldworks and for the Swedes be about sickness level 6, out of supply, low on Gunpowder and for their horses to have the glanders. Even then its going to take a lot of vodka to get him to face these nutters.
2) Meanwhile Big Lou is still heading back to Paris with the main French Army moaning to him about the cold and sickness in the ranks. Their morale probably not helped by their general abandoning them on the road to bugger of to a warm fire and a hot mistress back in Paris.
The Austrians seem equally frozen but their Moldavian Allies seem to be keeping warm by burning down Chateaux.....come home to a real fire buy a Chateaux in the Loire Valley! Moldavian sickness levels blamed on too much rich food but it could also be due to drinking looted French Brandy for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper
The Spanish also seem to have buggered off to the Pub......actually their officers seem to have gone to balls but unlike the French they did at least see their lads into winter quarters and dump a load of cash on various Inn Keepers, Merchants and Cobblers - The King of Spains Silver? That will do nicely.
3) While big Lou lead's his wet and pukeing main army back to Paris saying nasty things about the lack of fighting spirit in modern frog officers his even more gutless son the Grand Dauphin has set a new low by abandoning the city of Joan of Arc and running away from a Austrian force half the side of his own!
Me thinks that this is not going to look good at the Peace talks - with the Allies taking the main crossing points on the Loire and laying waste to the rest of the valley this effectively cuts France in half. Faced with tricky problems like that to explain the French would seem to need a diplonatic giant like Roger Martel at the peace talks now due in April.
4) Roger Martel AKA Rodrigo Martello AKA Roger I of England (if if Mums Wedding Cert is believed) latest coup is to get the Spanish to give him and his merry crew control of Porto Rico and perhaps Hispaniola & Tortuga as well. Sadly however the days of dealing with nice reasonable people like the Asante and the Spanish now seem to have been replaced by having to deal with the Papacy and the French Pirate Chiefs of Tortuga & Western Hispaniola.
To add to Rogers problems that infamous Pirate Blackbeard has killed one of his captains and stolen one of his best ships. Is this the start of a final war between the hardline pirates and the the ex smugglers turned fully paid up members of the Havanna chamber of commerce?
5) Meanwhile back in the dear old home islands good King William has been forced to abdicate from the English Throne & has been exiled to Scotland......poor Billy!
The Scots government have rejected the proposal to unite the governments of England and Scotland and will William now resting his royal behind in Edinburgh while James III does the same in London the Union of the Crowns has ended as well.
One wonders who now the Irish Crown? A Catholic majority in the country probably favours James but its the Protestants who own all the land and control the Irish Army & Parliament.
Thousands of English Protestants now seem to be following William into exile but oddly not to Scotland. Most seem to be heading for a new life in the American colonies.
6) In Italy the Jusuits see to be doing Church things (when are they going to try and convert the Czar to the true faith?) while the Doge of Genoa has finally finished the canal from the port of Genoa to the river Po and the Milanese. No doubt the HWIC, the Asiento and the manufacturers of Milan will soon be going on about Piracy, yellow fever and Genoan harbour dues. But if times are so hard for these poor merchants how come they all dress in silk and carry silver topped canes????
7) In Persia the rebuilding of the Persian Army into a force to overawe the Russians, Ottomans, Afghans and Hindu Princes continues. On paper the Shah's new infantry units equiped with Hapsburg Muskets, lead by trained officers and filled with high quality fighting men from the Indian Shia community are most impressive. Its just a pity the officers and men speak a different lingo!