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The wind tugged at the balloon with a demonic fury, threatening to toss the occupants of the basket out to their deaths on the snowy wastes below. Grabbing a guy rope with a heavily gloved hand, Lieutenant Jerade Amant braced himself against wicker side of the basket and scanned the panorama below. From this height, he felt like one of the Warrior-Gods, maybe even Shivalia himself, peering down on the insect like mere mortals below. To the east, Amant could make out the retreating mass of the Grande Armee. Battered and desperate, the column looked like a wounded snake, stretched out on a snowy vista. The aerostier could imagine the level of suffering felt by the wounded and frost-bitten in the main army, as they trudged blindly south towards Amorica and safety. Below the balloon was the rearguard of Galahad Ney, Lord and Marshall of the Empire. Amant's balloon was the last of the three that Ney had commandeered to his command to provide his beleaguered troops with whatever advantage they could gain over the ravenous hordes of Undead. The first had been destroyed to prevent its capture by the enemy, when the wagon carrying it had broken a wheel. The second had broken away from its tether when in use, and the balloon and its two occupants had been carried high and far out into the wastelands of the Witch-lands. One could only hope that the two Elves had found eternal rest in some uninhabitable part of the Star Wraiths realm and had not been found and reanimated to march against their former colleagues. Staring into the icy wastes to the west, Amant's attention was interrupted by his fellow crew member Corporal Lamond Adragain, a conscripted line infantryman from the 46eme Ligne, who could only get into the basket with the smell of alcohol on his breath. "Lieutenant, beyond the woods..." Amant turned to the look to the south-east; "Damn" he muttered, "Cossacks between the rearguard and the main column." Scrawling a message on a scrap of paper, the Lieutenant grabbed an empty cartridge case with a strip of red ribbon tied to it, and stuffed the message inside; "Quickly! Before Ney is outflanked and all is lost!" Adragain took the cartridge case and threw it out towards the ground crew below. Amant watched the case fall to the ground, its red streamer fluttering brightly behind it, as the ant-like figures below scurried to retrieve it and its contents. He breathed a frosty sigh of relief as he saw one of the ground crew pick up the case and rush towards the Marshall 's headquarters. "Bloody Undead", he mused, "you can almost smell the cadaverous host up here..." Amant frowned, he could smell something and it wasn't the stale wine odour of his companion he had grown so increasingly used to, no, this was the stench of death... Swinging around, he saw the cause. There! Charging in on their skeletal flyers was a troop on Undead Winged Hussars, their target - Amant's balloon. "Adragain!" he screamed, "To arms! Grab your musket before we are done for!" Creation The Corps d' Aerostiers were formed soon after the Ferach invasion of Southern Catalucia and AI-Garvey. Impressed by the effect the Goblin Airboats had against his battle-hardened troops, Mordred ordered the creation of a similar arm to his Army. Utilising captured Goblin airboats to facilitate the making of their own, the Elves soon developed a practical balloon device, that would carry a crew of three and give the Elves a definite advantage over those of their enemies who did not possess bal1oons. Active Service The first campaign the Corps found itself deployed on was the disastrous Witch-lands expedition. Initially the balloonists found themselves to be a encumbrance to the main army, as the Elves advanced rapidly across the frozen tundra under the weak light of the sun, earning disparaging comments from the bulk of their colleagues. However as the expedition plunged into failure with the onset of winter and the mass attacks from the Undead Legions, did the worth of the Aerostiers become apparent. Orders were given for the Corps to abandon their balloons and be drafted into the infantry for the retreat. However Ney realise that proper usage of the Corps could give him a vitally needed edge and allow the rearguard he commanded an outside chance of making it back to safety and protect the bulk of the retreating army. Accordingly Ney commandeered three balloons and their crews to the rearguard, where they provided sterling service and intelligence against the Undead. Although all three balloons were lost in the campaign, one abandoned, one lost to the weather and one lost to enemy action, the worth of the Corps had been proved. Under the patronage of the Marshall of the Empire, the Corps d' Aerostier were reformed under the command of Witch-lands veteran Brigadier General Jerade Amant and performed well in the continued campaigns against the Krautian Dwarves and in the war in Southern Catalucia and AI-Garvev. It was in the Catalucian campaign that the Corps demonstrated a new worth, fire-bombing the cities of Badajobz and Kooruna with Napatha grenades, as the Ferach swept their enemies back into the Orc homeland of Albion. Although the Corps d' Aerostier did see action in the Albion campaign, participating in the siege of Londinium, their effect was minimalised by allied anti-aerostier defences and airborne units. Balloons of the Corps were present at the climatic Battle of Wheeling-Turn at the end of the Mordredian Wars, but were all either destroyed on the ground or shot down early in the battle, denying the Elves vital intelligence about the movement of the allied forces and reinforcements. Organisation The smallest tactical unit of the Airship corps is a Company. Each Company has a strength of two officers, three NCO's and twenty artisans. All are skilled technicians and the Corps is part of the Army Engineer formations. The Company can operate a single balloon and requires nine heavy wagons to transport their equipment. The standard battlefield balloon carries a basket with space for two or perhaps three balloonists. The large assault balloons can carry a gondola bearing about a dozen infantry plus the two balloonist crew. These large balloons can take days to inflate, so are rarely seen on the battlefield. Just like Artillerie Regiments, the Airship Corps is usually deployed by the company. A Company would be attached to a corps or Army Headquarters to fulfil reconnaissance or artillerie spotting duties. Only in extreme circumstances such as the siege of a vital fortification or a sea borne invasion, would a flotilla of larger airships be deployed in an aerial assault role. Uniform Initially Mordred uniformed his Corps d' Aerostier in a uniform similar to that of the Ieme Garde Infantry Regiment, however following protestations from the Garde and comments by the Aerostiers themselves the uniform was changed following the Witch-Lands campaign to a more practical design based on the Artillerie unifom1. This uniform comprised of the usual blue tunic cut away at the waist with short tails. The collar, cuffs, lapels and turnbacks on the tails are all black with red piping. Epaulettes are blue piped red and without fringes. The waistcoat and breeches are both dark blue. Gaiters and shoes are black, while officers wore boots. Headgear consists of a bicorne or an infantry-style shako with a red pompom. Equipment consists of white crossbelts bearing a black cartridge box on the right hip and a short sword and bayonet on the left hip. The balloonists are supplied with muskets, but these units are rarely deployed on the battlefield as combat troops. Officers carry epees suspended from a white waistbelt. Modelling the Corps Members of the Airship Corps can be easily raised from existing Flintloque figure codes and converted by a simple paint job. The best miniatures would be those from (51028) ler Artillerie Crew and (51032) ler Sappeurs de Ligne, the implements they are carrying converted or removed as seen fit. Making a balloon to hang majestically over the battlefield involves a little bit more work, but isn't that complicated with a bit of thought. The ideal sphere for the canopy is a lavatory ballcock, available from a DIY shop for a mere pittance. The major plus point here is the rigid nature of the sphere. Kids softballs suffer from being too flexible which sees paint flake off at will. The basket should be constructed out of balsa, plastic or even card. When working on it, keep a couple of crew figures to hand to ensure you don't make it too small (an easy thing to do by mistake, believe me!). Again this needs to be quite strong (after all it's going to support at least two white metal figures and form the point the balloon is suspended from to the ground). The basket is connected to the canopy by wire. Again you are looking for some rigidity here, so ensure it is thick (coat hangar wire is good). Four ropes up to one circling the sphere from the basket corners should be sufficient). To make these look like rope, wrap fuse wire or gardening wire around the lengths. Finally fix a length of thick wire from the side of the basket to the base on the ground. This represents the securing rope and again should be disguised as rope as appropriate. Ground crew can be fixed to the base if desired, though I would recommend against fixing either ground crew or even the basket crew, so to facilitate casualty removal. As Phil states in his Aerofloteque article, the possibilities of going airmobile in Flintloque are immense and certainly add a unique fantasy flavour to the game. We'd certainly be interested in hearing your ideas and experiences and about any models you scratch-build or convert... Webmaster's Note This was originally published in Orcs in the Hills, Issue 7. |
