“Murdock” on EvE blog posted a comment:
(actually, two, the first one of which pointed out that no single player seems to be playing the Empire at the moment).
In my reading of the 'near end' of the Habsburg 'empire' there were at least 4 factions vieing for control of the Imperial Court.
The Empress' was generally neutral, wiht a mind to using less absolutist means to gaining control, or at least influence, in the European courts outside Vienna. She would rather have used marriages (in the Feudal tradition) and open alliances rather than the, relatively newer, written treaties.
The Hawks were ready to fight -> seemingly all the time to gain their ends.
The Doves held sway over much of the populace and they also tended to support the Empress in 'slower' (read older) diplomatic methods.
The Absolutists, a bit of a mixed bag really, but primarily concerned with maintaining the supremacy of the Catholic faith and in keeping the 'monarchic' rule in power. This small and politically nebulous group could switch from Hawks to Empress to Dove's factions as fast as a battaltion can load and fire.
I say all this to point out the difficulty in having a 'single' entity 'speaking' for Austria, quite often the Historical Austria was speaking out of three sides of its collective mouth at the same time!
March 29, 2008 8:42 AM
to which I reply: ;
Perhaps, I think we each should take the role of one of the ministers etc. at the Imperial court then ....
Indeed, I hope this gets copied back on the Oysterrich blog ...
These days, I don't actually own any of Duffy's books except for Fire and Stone which is temporarily inaccessible.
But
I remember reading at least one of his books on the Empress and her army ... and recall that there were also several factions we need to be aware of as wargamers ...
There was a sort of manipulator who tried to run the Empire for her singlehanded, whose name I forget ...
There were the few good generals, Brown and Daun being prominent that she relied upon for independent ideas.
There was some sort of military council which seemed dedicated to preserving whatever didn't work and inhibiting any effective innovations.
All this is quite dim ... suitable for me, I suppose, as my friends imply that I'm quite dim on occasion.
Now obviously, I'm playing more for the yucks than the solid history at the moment, so I'm not the guy to draw up a list ... and there is the roster of characters I created for the Wieners ...
How's about somebody drawing up a set of ministers or whatever and we each stake out a position ....
BTW, Frankszonia, while obviously loyal, wishes that the Germanians and Wieners would get their act together so the Gallians would go home ... on the other hand, we'd also LOVE to see everybody occupied with somebody nastier than us so we can quietly continue to enhance the qualities of local sovereignty ...
:)
A
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I can assure you that the Regentess of Hesse-Homburg is quite loyal to Her Imperial Majesty. In fact, since her own army is still "outfitting," the Regentess is completely dependent on Feldmarschallieutenant von Blei-Sammeln and his recently victorious army, she doesn't really have much choice!
Still, the Empress is apparently happy with v. B-S' results, since another dragoon regiment arrived, together with enough extra horse grenadiers from various regiments to put together a combined horse grenadier regiment of two squadrons.
In the end, I think we can agree that there is an 'Empress', some very close 'imperial household' characters, then the "Government" of which WE collectively can represent.
I'll do some research poking around to see what sort of ministerial posts existed in the Habsburg courts then perhaps your idea of staking claims might be feasible.
In the end we are likely to have overlapping claims of interest (just like the map of our territories), but at least this way something will be coming out of Austria -> a pretty important 7 years war power and Major Power in the region from the 100 years before and after the 1750's. It would be a great shame to not have any direction coming from them.
Actually, reading in Duffy's book, the overlapping claims and competition for influence in M.T.'s court seems to have been as vicious and as endemic as in any modern scandal ridden superpower.
I suspect I'd better take a non-field post in the ministry, as I've no good Ottoman figures (except for a small batch of Sepoys which might sneak by if nobody looks too close).
perhaps:
* Graf Blotto von Bottleladen: (0) Middle aged, subject to wild mood swings, uses a prince nez
as it reminds him of the view through the bottom of the bottle or stein. While flagrantly
promiscuous on campaign, when at home or on any non-combat mission is notoriously
passionate about family and Frau. Actually, his income is derived more from a successful
tavern and inn chain / franchise than from the minuscule hereditary lands.
und ....
:)
Arthur
Post a Comment