Hey all, I wrote this setting, based off a campaign fluff of my own creation that I've been playing in Napoleon :Total War (which is a very good game, and i recommend it) on my phone today while waiting in lines on Black Friday. Im thinking of using the Black Powder ruleset for it which are produced by Warlord Games. Its obviously a bit of Alternate History, and is roughly inspired by "A Very British Civil War" . All that said, i hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think.
After successfully defeating and killing Napoleon at the Battle of Dover, the Coalition went to work dividing the vast tracts of the former French Empire, which by this point (1845) spanned from the southernmost tip of Italy, to the border with Denmark in the Far North. The British opted to take control over the Italian and southern European territories, to offer good ports and way stations to mercantile fleets headed to colonies in Africa and India. The King appoints his cousin Sir Edmund Vincent as governor of the region, assured that he will honor his wishes. Edmund however has aspirations of glory, and is far from contented with just Italy, he is set on all of England. Two decades after Napoleons death, and Italy has become far less anglicized than had been hoped. With the bulk of the population pushing for separation from England rather than total absorption into it. The original plan, to make Italy highly favorable to natural born English citizens to get them to integrate the two societies had failed. In no small part due to Edmund's secretly resisting the migration of British citizens into his cities. Worried about an open rebellion, the King sends an army group to Italy, as a sign of good faith to Edmund. Italians see this as a forced occupation by a foreign power and become even more riotous and angry. Their nerves are soothed over shortly however when Edmund converts to the Catholic Church, and moves partial control of Italy to a puppet government, consisting of The Pope ( loyal to Edmund after his conversion and significant financial "donation") , an Italian General, and a group of Governors, all under Edmund's payroll. With the Italians swooned to his cause, Edmund sets to work on the army group, throwing lavish parties for the officer corps at the Italian peoples expense, and getting many of them pretty Italian consorts and some even gained wives. In a years time it becomes evident to most in Italy that the Army Group is more loyal to Sir Edmund than the King.
Finally catching wind of Edmund's actions from some concerned Officers and in-country loyal citizens, the King heads an army to Italy, in a show of force to get Edmund to back down from his traitorous actions. The Kings army sets down on Sicily, from there they actively begin to fortify the island and blockade Italian ports. Before any kind of battle is joined, the King sends a pleading letter to his cousin to relinquish his position and come back to England with him. The response was bold. The next day, Edmund declared himself (with the support of the pope) a living saint and rightful ruler of Italy. No further words needed to be said, The King set his forces on the march from southern Italy to Rome, where "Saint Edmund" had made his capital.
Edmund's army consists of some 700,000 Italians, and 300,000 English. With anywhere from 100-250,000 militia able to be raised from religious pilgrims, farmers, and other citizens.
The King's Army consists of 800,000 Regular English Army. 200,000 Colonial Troops from India, Natal, and Zululand. And a possible force of 8,000- 15,000 militia loyal to the English Crown.
-Your Favorite Madman-
Hmm.
ReplyDeleteEven with a puppet pope, I find it hard to believe that the Catholics would really go for a living saint, especially a recently converted Englishman. Perhaps instead he has Mary (Queen of Scots, etc.) sainted and tries to restart the Catholic cause in Britain. He's nuts, it won't work, but it would give the Crown fits.
For Britain to really take over Italy, I imagine that the wars ended quite differently. Perhaps Talleyrand and Metternich both met early ends, keeping them from being able to set up the "concert of europe". Perhaps Austria held with Napoleon too long, and ended up overrun by Russia, keeping Austria from being able to maintain dominance in Italy post war.
I'd probably also cut the numbers by about 90% - during the Napoleonic wars I think the British army never got much above a quarter million total. Being 4-5x that thirty years later seems unlikely.
DeleteI really like the idea of Austria getting overrun. Perhaps he tries to make one of the Italians a living saint and does so in such a way that makes himself seem more favorable?
DeleteAs for the numbers i did a bit of research on 1866, and found that the totals were vastly to high for any kind of war at the time, and even for most Napoleonic engagements.