Dreaming of Byzantium

The history of New Byzantium

...and therefore I have sailed the seas and come, to the holy city of Byzantium. (Yeats - Sailing to Byzantium)

A Short History

Following their defeat at the gates of Vienna in 1688, the Ottoman Empire went into a long decline and Russia and Austria nipped away at its European lands. Many of its subject provinces started to agitate for more independence as Ottoman power waned, and in quite a few there was open revolt, though the typical outcome was the Ottoman Empire came to terms with them, albeit usually leaving them virtually independent. This is the story of one of those states, the (alternative) history of New Byzantium. 

In 1716, Prince Eugene of Savoy defeated the Turks at Petrovaradin. The Banat and its capital Timişoara was conquered in October 1716. The following year, after the Austrians captured Belgrade, the Turks wanted peace and in 1718 the Treaty of Passarowitz was signed. The Austrians maintained control over Belgrade, leaving the Turks with control over the south bank of the Danube river.  By the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish war in 1735, Russia had managed to secure a favorable international situation by signing a few treaties with Persia in 1732–1735 (which was at war with Turkey in 1730–1736). Austria had been Russia's ally since 1726.

Emboldened by this, many of the remaining territories of what is now New Byzantium felt it was time to remove the Turkish yoke and rose in revolt. The Turkish army, busy fighting Russia and Austria, was not in a position to put down the revolts and the revolutionaries. Russia and Austria could see the benefit of such a revolt in the Turkish rear, fed the revolutionaries with money and surreptitious military assistance. At the end of the war, the Turks attempted to restore order but were too weak and the revolutionaries, with the help of Russian forces landed from the Black Sea and Austrian Grenz troops, forced Turkey (through gritted teeth) to give them semi-independence at the Treaty of Edirne

Under Russian influence, a new king, or Basileios, with vague connections to the last Byzantine emperors was found and installed as Constantine X, and the Greek Orthodox church was quick to move an autocephalous Patriarch to the new capital of Thassaloniki. During the 1740 - 1748 War of Austrian Succession, New Byzantium happily took Prussian and French money to attack Austria, but spent most of this loot in building up its own army, and its attacks on Austria were slow and largely ineffective. When the French and Prussians pressed this point, Constantine X responded that he needed more materiel and training to build a "proper" army - which France duly gave, and is reflected in the French flavour of the army even today.

By 1751, Turkey felt Austria and Russia were sufficiently weakened to try and overturn the treaty of Edirne and attacked New Byzantium, and at this point it became clear that Constantine's policy in the War of Austrian Succession had been to build his own forces up while expending as little energy as possible in actually fighting Austria, and the French trained Byzantine army, supplemented with its European mercenary soldiers demobbed  from the recent wars (and urgently recruited as mercenaries) gave the still largely feudal Turkish army a bloody enough nose in a series of engagements that made the Turks rethink their policy towards this irritating but relatively small new demistate. The Treaty was re-ratified, but no-one was under any illusion that this was a stable situation.  

Roll forward to today, and we are in early stages of the Seven Years War. New Byzantium is (as usual) carrying out a delicate balancing act of trying to get money out of warring European states and collaborating with Turkey to extract trade revenue while carefully watching them. Austria and Russia are fighting with France against Prussia and England, and the new Basileos, Alexius VI  is busy negotiating with the British for payments to attack Austria and Russia, and letting them use his main port as a naval base in return. The newly resurrected emblem of the Byzantine Eagle is truly watching both ways (or is truly two-faced, as its opponents claim)

The Byzantine Army in the Age of Reason 

The troops of the revolt were primarily men serving in the Turkish army as well as a ployglot collection of mountain men, farmers and city militias. They were joined by a ragtag collection of demobbed European soldiers, idealists and ne-er do wells who formed the core of Western style cavalry and infantry units, but without Russian and Austrian help the revolt would probably still have been put down. After being anointed, Constantine quickly realised that his best option was to build a core force of European style heavy cavalary and line infantry which the Turks had no real answer to, but use it in conjunction with the local troops who were better at the light infantry and light cavalry warfare that Turkish forces excelled in. With a vengeful Ottoman empire breathing down his neck he know there was no time to train his own troops, so like the Byzantine emperors of old he used the French and Prussian money to recruit more European soldiers as mercenaries. He resurrected the names of some of the great regiments of the Byzantine Empire to add lustre to loot. In addition he regularised the local ex-Ottoman light troops, as he and his French advisors realised that Balkan light troops, properly armed and with some discipline, were the match of any (indeed most European armies were busy recruiting them as well). The desultory border fighting with Austria was more about training this new army to operate together, and capturing equipment, before the inevitable clash with Turkey. This was accomplished in the nick of time, so that when the Turks attacked in 1750 the locals, stiffened by the mercenaries of the new Varangian Guard, Foreign Legion, Latinikon, Gianitzaroi, Turkopoloi and their own light troops were able to inflict enough early reverses on them to delay their plans. At the same time, fortuitously, many demobbed Prussians, French, Austrians and other nationalities were available after the ending of the War of Austrian Succession and more were hastily recruited as mercenaries and put into new battalions and squadrons, and it was this force that then caused the Turks sufficient damage to persuade them too sue for peace till another day. 

The Army Today

The structure of the army today is shown in the table below:

Unit Name	Type	Uniform	Origins	Picture (to come)
Guard Units
Varangian Guard	Guard Grenadiers	Blue coat, red collars , cuffs and turnbacks	Initially, any mercenaries who had been Grenadiers were taken into the Varangian Guard.  It now retains the traditional bright blue colour of the Varangian Guard, and their black raven emblem
Scholae	Guard Cuirassier Lancers, many of the sons of the local nobility serve in it.	Dress is a mix of Turkish and European heavy cavalry equipment with a certain harking back to Classical times	Many of the sons of the local nobility serve in it, and while trained as a Western heavy cavalry unit retains Eastern lance. Treat as Cuirassiers with higher initial impact but less staying power in melee
Legion Etrangere	Guard Infantry	Brown coat, red trousers and cuffs	The original "Foreign Legion" were a mix of mercenaries, demobbed troops, idealists and ne'er do wells who fought in the Revolts. They wore anything they could find, and a red sash. After teh formation of New Byzantium, to prevent arguments as to which colour coat it should wear, the Emperor selected Brown as no major nation used it.
Evzones	Guard light infantry	White fustinella and breeches, red waistcaot, dark red Greek cap	Originally formed from Greek nationalists who joined the original revolt, it still draws largely from the larger Pan-Hellenic world
Gianitzaroi	Guard Rifle Light Infantry	Red coat, dark red janissary style fez, medium blue zouve style trousers	Formed from locals who served in the Janissaries, it also draws steadly from deserting Turks. The longer Turk musket is more akin to a Western Rifle than a musket. "Gianitzaroi" is "Janissary" in Greek.
Trapezitae	Guard light cavalry lancers	Dark Green coat and trousers, helmet, red facings Turkic style (Interestingly enough. this picture is of de Saxe's Uhlans from the  French army of the period - they were clearly influenced by the Byzantine Trapezitae :)	The best light horsemen of the army, takes the pick of the other light horse regiments
Regular Horse
Latinikon	Heavy cavalry, recruited from European cavalrymen	Grouped by nationality as far as possible - there are currently four regiments of 2 squadrons each, coloured Grey (French), Blue (Austrian, Prussian and German), Dark Green (Russian) and Red (British/Irish)	Originally one regiment recruited from any experienced European cavalrymen New Byzantium could get, as it has expanded they have seperated the regiments into similar language groups.  Western Europen cavalry warfare is not natural to Byzantine locals
Kavallarioi	Sipahi style cavalry with lance, light armour	Each Theme (Province) is expected to raise a regiment of 2 squadrons. There are 3 currently	Locals land-owners who were once Turkish Sipahis were grouped into four squadrons initially, the force is now being regularised. In a game count the same as Polish etc Lancers.
Skythikon	Light Cavalry of the Balkan Hussar style	Each Theme (Province) is expected to raise a regiment of 4 squadrons. There are 5 currently	Primarily recruited from Byzantine subjects who fight in the balkan Husar style light cavalry naturally
Turkopoloi	Light Cavalry of the Turkish Deli Style	Two Regiments formed of Turkish mercenaries and deserters, dressed in the Turkish Deli style	Primarily recruited from Turks and mixed parentage locals, who fight in the Deli style naturally (functionally similar to Husars0
Vardariots	Light Cavalry	Many small local companies	Vardariots function as police, but di have a secondary military capability
Regular Foot
Legion	European Style Line Infantry, still based mainly on the French model	White coats, facings vary by regimental nationality. There are currently 6 regiments, cuffs are - GreyWhite (French), White (Austrian), Blue (German), Green (Russian), Red (British), Darker Red (Swiss)	Originally two battalions - the "Foreign Legion" - was formed from any experienced European troops that New Byzantium could get, but as the force has expanded they have seperated this force into separate Legions (Regiments) of similar language groups, and the second battalion of each Legio is now formed of Byzantine locals and the aim is to further integrate them.	Two initial mercenary battalions were formed in the revolt from a ragtag of demobbed soldiers, there was no uniform. They were equipped in old grey/white French uniforms by the French. During the War of Austrian Succcession the army captured a large cache of Austrian white uniforms and so the growing army was clearly meant to be dressed in white, and so it has remained. In high summer it wears straw hats instead of Tricornes
Mourtatoi	Balkan Light Infantry	Balkan light infantry in the Panduk/Pandour style, semi-regularised.	Most of the local troops in the revolt were irregulars of this sort of troop type. They are currently mainly recruited by local nobles lords (many no better than local bandits) but must have regular uniforms to draw state subsidy, resulting in a variety of weird and wonderful styles. Moves are afoot to raise thematic light infantyry but it is not a priority compared to training the line infantry.
Artillery		"Uniform" would be a good idea - Instructors are mainly French still, so quite a lot of Blue is worn	Artillery is a mix of French and Russian donated equipment plus some captured Austrian guns, and some Ottoman lighht pieces
Irregular Troops
Horse	Irregular Light Horse typical of the region	No uniform	Have the same role in the Byzantine army as Cossacks in the Russian
Foot	Irregular Light Infantry typical of the region	No uniform	Irregular skirmishing troops, typically using long muskets, akin to American colonial riflemen

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