Famous 18th Century Regiments

[pdoyle007]

Something I was wondering when the 'clans' were announced as a unit - will all line battalions look the same or will there be subtle differences?

Mainly I was thinking of the Scottish battalions in the British army (think they were the 74th and 78th) - they played a major role in the Battle of Assaye (1803) and the entire Indian campaign under Wellington, however they wore kilts.

Will kilted regiments be available for a unit raised north of the border?

[Fisherking]

Something I was wondering when the 'clans' were announced as a unit - will all line battalions look the same or will there be subtle differences?

Mainly I was thinking of the Scottish battalions in the British army (think they were the 74th and 78th) - they played a major role in the Battle of Assaye (1803) and the entire Indian campaign under Wellington, however they wore kilts.

Will kilted regiments be available for a unit raised north of the border?

These were the Highlanders
The Black Watch or 42nd, the 71st, 72nd, 73rd, 74th, 75th, 77th, 78th, 79th, 91st, 92nd, 93rd.


There is a long article I posted on the Highlanders in the British Army on page 7 of the 3D Units and Faction Info Over At the Official Empire Site thread

We can only guess at this point what the game holds, unless some of the CA lads choose to drop by and inform us.

I can hope the special units have special dress though.

[ThePianist]

This is maybe a bit too much to ask, but could each unit have a regimental flag as well as a national flag?
So, let's say a unit in ETW is 200 men and that's a battalion. In RTW, a unit would have a banner above it with the faction's insignia. Could ETW have a banner with the faction's national flag, and another slot beneath it for the regimental insignia, if any? Creative Assembly doesn't even have to make it. They can just leave the slot in the design so modders can add it in a "regimental flag pack".

For example, the unmodded banner above a unit would have only the national flag, with a transparent rectangular space (and you don't see it since it's transparent) for the regimental flag. Then people could add their own regiment picture file, so the modded banner for a unit would have the national flag, and the regiment flag.

This is of course, only in the case of special regiments, since not all line regiments had their own flags. But it'd be great for Gloucestershire Regiment, for example, who has a pair of insignia instead of one. Also the Dragoon and the Hussars probably have their own symbols. Same for Imperial Guards of the Franc and the Habsburg. Also the Pavlovsk, Preobrajensky, Semionovsky, Ismaili, etc of the Rus. My Spanish history is ignorant, but there was the Spanish Habsburg and the Austrian Habsburg. And, this would be especially useful and practical, should there ever be an expansion (or a mod) about American History of the Civil War, then each regiment had their own flag, either a unique regimental flag, or at least their distinctive state flag.

This regiment flag feature may not be very significant but it would do a great deal in historical simulation and atmosphere, which often does more wonder than graphics.

[Fisherking]

Something that has me thinking is that the unit sizes for Empire are going to be Company Size!

There are a minimum of three and as many as seven Companies to a Battalion and five or so Battalions to a Regiment.

A good rough figure might be 25 companies to a regiment…

Named and Famous units are in the game but will we have more than a Company of each?

I know from past games there are ways of limiting the number of a particular kind of unit but do you think they will have gone to that trouble in this game? Will we get real Regiments or just Companies passing as Regiments?

[lars573]

It's going to be the same as the previous games. Considering that there is a screen shot of a requiment menu. And a foot unit is 165 men.

[Fisherking]

That may very well be true, and it is what I expected at this point. I was just being very hopeful!


Thus far we have only covered a few British Regiments.

It would be a good thing if someone could find something on some of the others.

With perhaps, many named units it will be a lot of fun to see what we get.


In America perhaps we will see the British Legion vs. The Swamp Fox or maybe some other spirited contests.

Did you know that Tarleton in 1794, was promoted to Major-General, in 1801 to Lieutenant-General, and in 1812 to General. He had hoped to be appointed to command British forces in the Peninsular War, but the position was instead given to Wellington. He held a military command in Ireland and another in England. In 1815, he was made a Baronet and in 1820 a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB). So much for Honor and Fair Play in the British Empire.

[lars573]

Well the British regimental system is unique, and actually develops over the course of the game. And doesn't even resemble the form it takes on in the 19th century until the Napoleonic wars. On the continent a regiment, outside of royal guard units, wouldn't have much distinction from one and other beyond a flag and a name. A name which might just be the name of the colonel and would change when he does (a convention Britain was using during the second Jacobite uprising). The Austrians use a variant of it. An Austrian regiment was named for it's "Inhaber" (similar to what the British later call a colonel-in-cheif or Honourary colonel). The Inhaber was the noble/royal patron who paid to raise and equip the regiment (but not nessisarily command it in the feild). Which in a lot of cases mean't the Haspburg ruler was the Inhaber. So a second Inhaber could be appointed so that they weren't all called Franz-Joseph's. The anceint regime in France named a lot of units after where they were raised. They also had a number of regiments made up of foregin troops. Like the Royal Écossois (decendants of the Scots guard bowmen you saw in M2TW) and the Irish brigade. As well as Swiss, who were part of the royal household troops. And regiments of Dutch and Germans too.