New Model Army (Vultesia)

New Model Army
Neue Maddayle Armee
Emblem of the New Model Army
Founded	1 January 1900 (1 January 1900)
Country	Vultesia
Type	Land force
Size	219,000 (regular; inc. national service) 56,500 (reserves) 26,000 (Vultesian Defence League)
Part of	Armed Forces of Vultesia
New Model Army Command	Vodtsmar Garrison, Saltstil
Motto(s)	Nel Defelstd ('No Retreat')
Anniversaries	INSERT FOUNDATION YEAR HERE
Engagements	The Green Jacket Persecutions The Nam Insurgency Saltstil Pact Intervention in Rohyn The Xzarvarian Emergency
Website	nma.va
Commanders
First Citizen/Princeps	Felics Basztyn
Minister of Defence	Pjatredd Afcardine
Chief of Staff	Field Marshall Samnel Stjepenitt
Battle flag
Ensign

The New Model Army (Vultesian: Neue Maddayle Armee) is the largest component branch of Vultesia’s military. Its prime objective is that of warfighting through effective, combined arms, land warfare. Subordinate to this function, the force is also charged with disaster relief, supporting the civil emergency services, training the Principate’s allies and maintaining public order.

Since its inception as the ground combat arm of the Vultesian military in 1921, inheriting its role from the pre-Revolutionary Royal Army, the New Model Army has been structured into thirteen special to role corps, which in turn, make up its various battlegroups, brigades and divisions.

History

Early history

Academic consensus is that the first, truly organised, military venture of a Vultesian state was the so called ‘Grand Army’ -or sometimes ‘Great Horde’- of Vultesz ‘The Great’ (approx.290-332), the fourth century nomadic warlord through both diplomacy, barter and force of arms confederated and assimilated the dozens of petty fiefdoms, city states and pastoral tribes across the land that would eventually become modern Vultesia. Considered a military and administrative prodigy by modern historians, Vultesz maintained a relatively large standing army for its day, paid via the tribute of conquered subjects, and complemented by the systematic enlistment of local, specialist auxiliary forces, allowing the Conqueror to lay claim to the credit of fielding the first professional Vultesian fighting force.

Artist’s impression of the Vultesian 55th Royal Regiment (King's Own West Outlanders) during the conquest of Wellsenfaile, 1804.

Throughout the following centuries, of the Warring States, Pentarchate, Rump Crown and Second Kingdom eras, the various kings of the Vultesian nations attempted to emulate Vultesz’s model to various degrees of success. The evolution and implementation of a mediaeval feudal system, however, saw the professional Grand Armies, cut in size repeatedly, until they were more akin to large retinues than standing militaries. Vultesian monarchs and lords relied ever more on peasant levies raised by their barons and other nobles to campaign against their rivals, and indeed mercenary forces when it was their highborn subordinates threatening them with usurpation or secession.

Modern period

Following the overthrow and humbling of Vultesia’s last absolute monarch, King Stjepen IV ‘The Unwilling’ (1600-1652) during the Vultesian Civil War (1642-1644), and with the advent of the so called Kassilitt Reforms of legendary Field Marshal Lewin Kassilitt, a sole, professional, standing Vultesian army once more became a reality. From the early seventeenth through to the twentieth century, it continued to grow and develop, becoming a fundamental factor in the establishment of the Vultesian Empire, allowing for the annexation and occupation of Wellsenfaile, Arollia, the Rohynite Holdings, Toendraland and Xzarvaria. This imperial army was the key flagstone of Vultesian foreign and defence policy and historians note its critical role as a counterbalance to the Riamese royal navy, which was far superior to its Vultesian counterpart throughout the Nostrian Wars and beyond.

Despite its success through the Vulto-Riamese War (1881-82) by the outbreak of the Great War, the status of the Royal Army was in a state of severe decline. Wracked by internal rivalries brought on by well publicised cases of nepotism, a collapsing upper class reducing the traditionally aristocratic officer corps, manpower shortages attributed both to outbreaks of Flavo Langorum and emigration, and the crippling loss of both capital and raw materials brought on by Wellsenfailen independence (1897), the Vultesian military was essentially hamstrung at the turn of the Century.

Great War

Throughout the Great War, the Vultesian Army fought a war of attrition against Riamese expansion on multiple theatres of the Eastern Front. On both the Wellsenfailen and Nostrian battlefronts the reeling Vultesian Army was almost always outclassed by its Iron Pact adversaries and was routinely found on the back foot, both tactically and strategically throughout the conflict. Indeed, throughout the Great War there are few records of successful Vultesian offensives against Riamese forces and by the conflict’s end in 1911, the beleaguered and severely mauled Vultesian divisions and their Imperial auxiliaries had been pushed back to the formidable natural border of the Delamere mountains, almost into Vultesia itself.

Founding of the NMA

The New Model Army itself, was founded by executive order in the aftermath of the Vultesian Revolution (a.k.a the Green Jacket Revolution/the 1919 Uprising); the assassination of the last king of Vultesia, the young King Leotpram II ‘the Last’ (1898-1919) on New Year’s Day, 1919, a crime denied by all parties, igniting the highly volatile powder keg that was post war Vultesia. Two years of violent civil strife, political killings, street battles and upheaval followed, with Army units deserting en masse, throwing their weight behind ideological firebrands, or simply acting as local warlords by strength of arms during the complete breakdown of central authority in the country. By the May of 1920, much popular support, and a significant portion of the military had joined the camp of radical Markusz Mattiasitt (1896-1939), and his Singularist ‘Green Jackets’, their ideology of Vultesian superiority, the nation’s boundless potential and multiple scapegoats for its poor performance in the Great War, finding a receptive audience amidst many of the nation’s soldiery.

Soldiers of the 8th/18th Grenadier Battalion (5th Armoured Bde), alongside an IFV(P) Errant, Infantry Fighting Vehicle. Pictured during the New Model Army deployment to the Free Land of Rohyn, August 12th, 2021.

Installed as the first Princzeps, (lit. First Citizen) of Vultesia on June the 27th, 1921, a newly created office, it was Mattiasitt himself that decreed a reformation and reorganisation of the Vultesian armed forces. Paying particular attention to transform the Army, into a force stripped of its pre-revolution loyalties to an extinct monarchy and their local generals and befitting the Green Jackets’ vision of the Vultesia of the future. It was Mattiasitt that first coined the term for his reforms at the ‘New Model’, a moniker that has remained in official use with the Vultesian military to this Day.

It is important to note that the extreme ideological shift that followed the regime change in Vultesia saw major doctrinal impacts for the nascent New Model Army. While the Singularists, saw their armed forces, much as the Vultesian Crown saw their predecessors, the Imperial Army, as the foundation of state policy, the increasingly insular and isolated nature of the Principate saw a vast strategic reorientation away from power projection and into increasingly complex, multi-layered defence from perceived enemies, most notably the recovering Wellsenfailen state, and the resurgent Riamese throughout the 1920’s to the mid 1950’s.

This almost entirely defensive doctrine began to evolve during the 1950’s where heightened tensions between Saltstil and Guri during the Principate’s attempted reintegration with the wider Anterian community lead to what has been dubbed the Eastern Parallel or the Nostrian Standoff, a twenty year period of increased militarisation, defence spending and posturing between Astariax’s two most well armed states, and the nations within their orbit. During the Standoff the New Model Army grew to a high watermark of over half a million active duty personnel and was bolstered for the first time with foreign hardware, vehicles and firearms, as so-called ‘blockade runner’ initiatives in nations nominally aligned against Riamo were quickly seized upon by Vultesian requisitions despite numerous embargos and armament sanctions against the Singularist dictatorship.

The first overseas deployment of the New Model Army was during the Vultesian intervention during the Nam’ insurgency (1981-86). The deployment has been noted by both contemporary and now modern academic sources as a major learning curve for the force, introducing personnel to concepts such as asymmetric warfare, multilateral operations, counter-IED and litoral operations; though these tactical lessons were only beginning to be fully realised by the conflict’s end, they would later pay dividends during the New Model Army’s leading role in the occupation of Rohyn by Saltstil Pact forces.

Today

Today, Vultesia’s New Model Army is noted as the largest single military branch within the Saltstil Pact, numbering over two hundred thousand active duty personnel. The NMA has modernised extensively during the last thirty years -notably under the Greer and Basztyn regimes- and while its doctrine continues to focus on its long held defensive bent, its ability to operate overseas is now a fully realised capability. New Model Army soldiers are stationed in multiple Saltstil Pact member states, most numerously in Wellsenfaile and Riamo, and are also currently deployed on active combat operations in Rohyn, as well as stabilisation and counter-insurgency operations in Xzarvaria.

Recruitment

The New Model Army is open to all medically sound, heterosexual, Vultesian born men, between the ages of 18 and 30. Regardless of desired role, all potential soldiers must hold satisfactory grades in Vultesian Language and Mathematics, though additional grades in certain subjects are required for specific roles; such as applicants for most roles in Engineering or Medical units requiring a Grade 3 in Science. Vultesian boys between the ages of 16 and 17 may enter basic training early as part of their State Service, though this time does not contribute to a soldier’s total years of service, coining the term among younger New Model Army personnel of having done ‘two years for the Princeps’. Potential officers must be medically fit, between the ages of 23 and 35, hold a higher educational degree relevant to their unit of choice and have no previous criminal record above the class of ‘misdemeanour’.

Adhering to deeply held Vultesian social sensibilities, women are uniformly prohibited from joining the armed forces; Unmarried, heterosexual, foreign-born men over the age of 20, and of certain approved ethnic backgrounds may join the New Model Army, and indeed eventually become Vultesian citizens through the Vultesian Foreign Legion.

Retention

Upon completing their Basic Combat and Core Specialist training packages, newly minted Vultesian soldiers are required to serve for a minimum period of five years in the New Model Army. Following this initial half-decade, soldiers and officers repeatedly sign on at two year intervals and must give one year’s notice before leaving the force. The only ways to leave the service within the first five years, or without one year’s notice after that, is through medical or criminal discharge, or following the death of a spouse or child.

Structure

The New Model Amy is made up of nine divisions including a training division, which together, account for the total manpower of the Principate’s ground forces. Vultesian Divisions contain anywhere between three and ten Brigade or Group level formations, dependent on their role and forecasted operational requirements. Of the nine divisions listed, four in particular are slated to be tapped for short notice to middle term deployment overseas or in initial defence of the Principate, they are listed as follows:

2nd Mechanised Division: ‘First in the fight, second to none’, that is the motto of the Second Mechanised Division. An agile, expeditionary minded formation, the Division is designated as the Principate’s Enhanced Readiness Formation and is designed to be the first Vultesian presence in a conflict area, should the need arise. Befitting its role as the far reaching arm of New Model Army power projection, the Division comprises of a variety of units, including around half a dozen ‘high readiness’ battlegroups, with an eye towards deployability and pound for pound efficiency once deployed. The decorated General Hal Folgorn has recently assumed command of the Second Division, which currently has multiple units stationed in Rohyn as part of Operation Bannister.

• 5th Armoured Brigade 'Fasces'
• 24th 'Expeditionary' Mechanised Brigade
• 10th Mechanised Brigade 'Cross Keys'
• 15th Rifle Brigade
• 4th Artillery Group
• 11th Engineer Group
• 17th Medical Group 'Cross'
• 26th 'Advanced' Logistic Group
• 22nd Independent Provost Battalion

4th Armoured Division: The ‘Fighting Fourth’ is the largest first line division of the New Model Army, containing its greatest concentration of dedicated fighting brigades, including a proliferation of armoured formations unmatched by any other division in the Vultesian military. The Fourth Armoured, under the command of General Ianis Iorgitt, is the integral, central, component part of Vultesian national defence planning and the Principate’s strategic posturing in North Eastern Anteria. Its Divisional headquarters is located in the Hædtstil Prefecture, in the vicinity of the nation’s second city though its units can be found across the breadth of the Principate.

• 1st Armoured Brigade 'Black Wyvern'
• 7th Armoured Brigade
• 3rd Mechanised Brigade 'Forward Third'
• 12th Mechanised Brigade
• 9th 'Highland' Rifle Brigade
• 8th Artillery Brigade
• 2nd Logistics Brigade 'Sun Ray'
• 19th Engineer Brigade 'Double Diamond'
• 20th Signal Group
• 21st Air Defence Group
• 16th Provost Group

5th Infantry Division: The smallest division of the New Model Army, the 5th Infantry is made up of just three, largely autonomous, elite infantry brigades. The 23rd Rifle Brigade contains the force’s mountain, arctic and adverse weather specialists, including multiple commando qualified combat support units who serve as auxiliaires to Naval Infantry Corps amphibious operations. 6th Air Assault Brigade contains all New Model Army airborne forces, including paratroopers, air mobile artillery and light armour. The Special Forces Support Group contains the cream of Vultesia’s fighting and support battalions, given the means to support Tier 1 units such as the infamous Special Operations Regiment.

• 23rd 'Commando' Rifle Brigade
• 6th' Air Assault' Brigade
• The Special Forces Support Group 'SFSG'

8th Tactical Division: The hub around which the rest of the New Model Army Revolves, is the 8th Division. It is a division of specialists, experts and those which facilitate command and control, held at the highest tier of unit allocation. This division counts many unique units under its command, including Electronic Warfare, Intelligence, Civil Engineering and International Logistics operations and even its own unorthodox infantry brigade, in the form of the Vultesian Foreign Legion. Whether peacekeeping, tackling natural disasters, or deploying to an active battlespace, it is rare to see a New Model Army task force that lacks a detachment from the 8th Division.

• 28th 'Interior' Air Defence Brigade
• 13th Intelligence Brigade
• 14th Infrastructure Support Brigade
• The Vultesian Foreign Legion
• 30th 'Army' Signal Brigade
• 18th Specialist Logistic Group 'Steel Fist'

Special forces

The New Model Army provides the Principate with one of its three ‘Tier 1’ special forces outfits. The Special Operations Regiment or SOR (Vultesian: Eszpeken Zonoron Aidel/EZA) is battalion sized formation, comprising of four companies; it is arguably most famous and decorated of the Vultesian special forces units - the other two being the Naval Service’s ‘Blackwatch’ and the Green Jacket’s N°9 Group. The SOR is trained in all manner of covert and overt warfighting methods, including, but not limited to, HALO, sub-aqua, sabotage, demolitions,advanced unarmed combat, foreign weapons, guerilla warfare and the tracking and elimination of high value targets.

SOR selection, while nominally open to any applicant, is amongst the toughest known, and has a dangerously high injury rate, and an even more concerning mortality statistic, meaning that at least two recommendations from an aspiring operator’s chain of command and a signed waiver are required before the process can begin. While much of the selection and training regimen of the SOR remains highly classified it is acknowledged that marksmanship, bushcraft, language proficiency, interrogation, corporal punishment and a brutal series of endurance tests are all par for course.

Should a NMA soldier manage to survive the months of punishing assessments without injury or termination, he will be offered a place within an SOR ‘Strike Company’, exchanging his previous unit insignia upon transfer for the famous maroon beret and death’s head cap badge of ‘The Regiment’.

Ranks

Commissioned officers

SP Code	OF-10	OF-9	OF-8	OF-7	OF-6	OF-5	OF-4	OF-3	OF-2	OF-1
Army
Vultesian	Folde Marit	Eleben-Marit	Visntal	Hilt-Visntal Delszenal	Delszenal	Coronot	Hilt-Cornot	Hauszal	Iptres	Leytnan	Hilt-Leytnan
Common	Field Marshall	Vice-Marshall	General	Sub-General	Brigadier	Colonel	Sub-Colonel	Major	Captain	Lieutenant	Sub-Lieutenant
Abbrevation	FM	EM	Vis.	Ht-Vis.Del.	Del.	Cor.	Ht-Cor.	Hau.	Ipt.	Ley.	Ht-Ley.

Enlisted

SP Code	OR-9	OR-8	OR-7	OR-5/6	OR-4	OR-3	OR-1/2
Army
Vultesian	Aidelor Senszen Hauszal	Bosphor Senszen Hauszal	Velens Senszen	Senszen	Korval	Hilt-Korval	Baszille
Common	Regimental Sergeant Major	Compay Sergeant Major	Standard Sergeant (Colour Sergeant)	Sergeant	Corporal	Sub-Corporal	Private (Grenadier)
Abbrevation	Ar.Sen.	Br.Sen.	Vel.Sen.	Sen.	Kor.	Ht-Kor.	Bas.

Uniform

Consisting of large rounded patches of Olive Green, Forest Green and Dark Tan, the M99 DPCS is an evolution on the M67 pattern camouflage worn by New Model Army troops from the late sixties onwards, which only contained a single shade of green. While a relatively basic system, M99 has proven to be suitable for Vultesian service on operations around Anteria, and considerably more effective than its two tone predecessor.

The shapes of the M99 pattern are generally large and mostly have rounded edges, though there are occasional small straight edges where two colours abut. As this is a disruptive, rather than mimetic, pattern it tends to be at its most effective when the soldier is viewed from a distance. The lightest, Tan, shade alters the overall effect by reflecting the general shade of its surroundings to some extent, and especially in the bright conditions often found in Astariax during the lighter months of the year.

On both operation and domestically, M99 fatigues make up the service dress; both in the field and on base. A desert variant is also available for required theatres.