The tour continues on with the St Vladimir Jaeger Corps on patrol

An image of the StV Jaegers with some of my home-made terrain pieces and a little AI editing to make a scene out of it (and hide the original backdrop, which might have been my kitchen...)

Ladies and Gentlemen, the St Vladimir Jaeger Korps, seen here in a patrol near the medieval town of Bacharak, on the road toward Klow 

The dour St. Vladimir fortress (a fortress by Syldavian standards but simply a hefty fort in the real world) guards a strategic pass linking the capital city of Klow to the interior valleys further to the north and those eventually lead on to the Bordurian frontier and the Danube.  It has become one of the most important military posts in this small country.  Amongst the units posted there is the St. Vladimir Jaeger Korps, a unit of regular light infantry recruited from highland farmers, hunters, woodsmen and herders of the Klow, Wladruja and Moltuja regions, people notably loyal to the crown.  The double use of the name Vladimir here is not a mistake. The name harkens back to a series of significant medieval kings named Vladimir and to the fact that St. Vladimir is Syldavia’s historical patron saint.  King Ottokar looks forward to his visits to the fortress as he can nearly always indulge himself with a hunting expedition nearby and members of the St. Vladimir Jaeger Korps compete for the honour to act as his guards and guides when he does so.  

 

The St V. Jaeger Korps comprises a single battalion of volunteer soldiers and is noted for its excellent morale.   Syldavia’s northern frontier provinces raised militia light troops analogous to the Austrian Grenzers, these soldiers were well capable of independent and varied missions on their own but were not well disciplined.  However, during his youthful service as an ensign in an Austrian infantry regiment, the future King Ottokar encountered a Scottish Highlander regiment and faced the Prussian Feldjäeger zu Fus at the battle of First Landshut; he saw the possibility that he might make a similar useful “regular” regiment out of men recruited out of Syldavia’s highlands and so set about building a new royal toy, the St Vladimir Jaeger Korps. 

 

While most other Syldavian non-line infantry units wear more or less traditional local-flavoured costume, this regiment distinguishes itself with the use of tricorns and an ample german-style laced coat worn over more traditional blue waistcoat with plenty of braid and doo-dads, baggy trousers, tall stockings and low shoes. The men are known to affect a rakish look with the tricorn cocked at an angle, the coat clung left open or slung over one shoulder in warm weather as if they were hussar cavalry and showing off the braided waistcoat, and longish hair with no wig.  For all the vanity of its men, this regiment is a fairly effective force (at least at the petite guerre) and there is no lack of need for such a form of infantry in Syldavia’s rugged countryside.

 

This battalion is made up of Eureka 18mm Catalonian miquelets, a set obtained in about 2012 by signing up to an offering Eureka made their old 100  Club. They have another, different Miquelet on offer three days in their rather pretty 18m WSS Catalonian range.  I saw that these castings were unlike anything else I saw then on the market and the uniform was strikingly unique, archaic for the SYW yet plausible if set in a place like Syldavia.  I order a bag full, painted up these ones and still have two dozen or so unpainted figures stored away!  The are a bit chunky (the coat worn like a pelisse doesn’t help that) but they do look like they have the heart of a pirate and I like that.