The Crows Milita
"Hold the lines! Surround their flanks! Take aim! Open Fire! Fall back! Repeat! In the name of the Crow we fight and take flight with the storming gales! Protectors of her mountains and people, none can break our hearts as long as the shadows of the feathers above grant succor to our march!"
Composition
Manpower
The Milita carries 400 men within a unit. It consists of a total 10 units for the entire army and has four more backup units which is generally set up from the less trained and experienced soldiers. This backup crew doesn't necessarily consist of 400 men but can rather be any number from 200 to 600 depending on the terrain and foe, as they often run supplies between the frontline and supply deposits.
Equipment
Donning the colours of elderberry purple and midnight black to honor their Household. The Crows Milita is armed in a mishmash of plate, carapace armour, fancy pilgrim hats and metal hauberks with chain coifs and plate caps, or full on steel helmets. Their uniforms also consist of a full gambeson which sits either above, underneath or inbetween the rest of the armour and is a tight fit for pants which often trail down into a pair of either cuffed boots, riding boots or steel sabatons.
The reason for this varying degree of harder or lighter armour comes with the many various roles played on the battlefield. Those with looser gear and better mobility are generally siege engineers or field medics, which are properly equipped with their various toolkits. Meanwhile the more plated figures tend to have straps with grenades, extra pistols or a larger side melee weapon ready to defend the frontlines with.
Weaponry
The Melee Units carry weapons with them that consists of spears, pikes, billhooks, glaives and the odd warhammer. Any long weapon that can be properly utilized simply by poking goes, to keep enemies far away from the soldiers. They also carry out the role of anti-cavalary in case the ranged units get charged.
The Ranged Units are armed with an assortment of rifles, muskets, crossbows, grenade launchers and marksman pistols. Their roles are simple enough, as they're the missile infantery supposed to weather down foes engaging in a charge before they can reach the melee units, or support them with a hailstorm of lead from distant ranges to support the melee infantery by covering their backs.
The Mixed Infantery wields weapons such as rapiers, scimitars, blunderbusses, pistols and shotguns. Their job is to support whichever line requires them the most.
Vehicles
The Milita usually have a few dozen horses, mules or even goats with them to carry carts of supplies or cannons. Usually these are found among the backup units. They also have a few crows, ravens and the rare pidgeon to deliver quick messages within the battlefield to more easily reach every unit command with news of the various fronts. Thus allowing them to swiftly regroup and strategize even in the middle of conflict.
Structure
Each unit carries one Kommendant, who serve as the leader of each unit. Each Kommendant in turn have six bodyguards and a seventh member of their troupe known as the Birdwatcher who relay messages to one another of the command. All of these unit leaders take their higher orders from the Stormriders commander Goldbert Hagglewire and their Marshall as the scouts and outriders ahead.
Within the units, there are also fourty of the four hundered men that serve as Pointmen. Their role is to shout out repetitions of their Kommendant's orders for the infantery, thus ensuring word swiftly travels through the lines and everyone can properly follow up on them.
Tactics
The Crows Milita combine pike and shot formations, where the frontlines usually wait down charges, while the ranged infantery rain down hails of lead on their foes. Though it's mostly a waiting game, if the opposition does not engage and instead utilize longer range formations or overwhelming missile force, the ranged unit takes to the front with the mixed infantery. Once they are close enough to fire with somewhat accurate accuracy, they'll stand their ground and fire off all shots, while the mixed infantery keep running and gunning, before they and the melee lines engage in frontal clash.
Utilizing the Birdwatchers, the tactics within the battle usually include the swift change of tactics and formations to lock the enemy into bottlenecks and keep them on a distance for as long as possible. Normally this include boxing them in with the ranged and mixed infantery freely firing into their flanks, while the melee units engage head on. They then make slow tactical retreats backwards all through the conflict, to minimalize casualties and attempt to gain a source of respite and new grounds each time the battle gets too heated up.
To help them with this retreat. From each box formation they'll escape through falling back into a cone, while firing their mortars and cannons right above their own lines, as the melee units make a full retreat with the mixed and ranged infantery taking turns to cover the rear and fire, to then revolve into a fifty meters jog before repeating untill they have either successfully escaped the battlefield or made their way to the closest new bottleneck.
Training
Most training to the milita is rather simple. Depending on which unit one gets assigned to, it either involves sharpshooting, sparring or a mix of both. They also often train formations and swift mobilisation to prepare for the milita's rapidly changing tactics whenever they do engage in battle.
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