Imperial Syndeoneian Army
"Men of Syndeoneia! Heed my words, and call them fair in your heart. For today's victory shall make us all legends for centuries to come. Our enemies outnumber us in numbers and weaponry, but what they lack is the Hearts of Dragons and the Spirit of Foxes that you all have. Let us ride forward together and die for the glory of the Divines." Prince Alexios Mikhailovich Doxapatres at the Battle of Aratos, 789.
Overview
The Empire of Syndeoneia is a nation founded by the right of conquest and stands as one of the greatest powers in what is known to foreigners as Indeia. Though her proud people have been humbled recently, her spirit remains unbroken, and stands ready to overthrow the chains of the foreigners, and traitors that now rule over her in these "Times of Great Troubles". For hard times bring forward great men, and great men shall lead her to ever greater heights as she seeks to not only break these chains but rise to fulfill her destiny as a world power.
The Imperial Army stands as the greatest instrument for this great task which her people will accomplish, and her army has always been the sword by which she has lived and died by. In the prophesized "Times of Glory" to come, it shall be the Army that will start the fire that will burn across the land and bring her to these times by the force of its arms and the will of the men who serve her. The past heroes of Syndeoneia and their memories shall encourage the future leaders to greatness. Long dead great commanders and heroes like Alexius Doxapatres, Nikephorus Phokas, Vladimir Palatinos, Andrey Trubetskoy, and Konstantinus Komitopulov pray for our present and their spirits shall be with Syndeoneia during the great struggle to come.
Basic Information (as of 1130)
General Information
Standard: 
War Flag: 
Motto:
Kardies Dracus, Pneyma Alepoudon - (Antiokeian)
Sartsata na Dragonite, Duchot na Lisitsyte - (Fazovoye)
Hearts of Dragons, Spirit of Foxes - (Holoimperial)
Headquarters: Kastra Antiocheia
Effective Size: 40,000 Professionals and 140,000 Conscripts active.
Key Commanders
Commander in Chief: Emperor in theory, in practice Great Domestic of the Schools.
Megas Domestikos ton Scholon (Grand Domestic of the Schools, Leader of the Armies): Demetrius Konstantinovich Tzipoureles
Megas Hetaireiarches (Grand Hetaeriarch, Commander of Imperial Guard): Basileios Theodorovich Argyros
Megas Adnoumiastes (Grand Enumerator, Quartermaster-General): Nikephorus Nikephorovich Limpidares
Domestikos tēs Borra (Domestic of the North): Ioannus Stepanovich Kaballarios
Domestikos tēs Vasholēs (Domestic of the East): Georgius Leonovich Diogenes
Structure
An armies structure is important to understanding it as much as the tactics, units and men themselves.
Officer Corps
The Officer Corps is entirely made up of either Dynatoi, or foreign expats of note. Dynatoi have always held this rule as the landed military aristocracy and will continue to hold it with vigour for many years to come. It is seen as their divine duty, and the way to favour with both the Church and Crown. Though rot and incompetence were a major issue during the great humiliation, and are still seen, a new generation invigorated appears to be ready to change this with aplomb.
The foreign expats come largely with their comrades that have found homes in the army, and largely are societies steeped in military tradition such as Pomerania, Drakenland, the Kaiserreich, and Maitoyl.
Recruitment
The Army itself is made up of two types of soldiers. Those that are professionals, and those that are conscripted or impressed into its ranks. The Professional Soldiers are a mixture of Foreign Mercenaries (often granted land grants for their service), Aristocrats, and more recently volunteers. Prior to the national humiliation, the professional core was rather small and often made up of foreign mercenaries hired by crown, and the practically private regiments of the Dynatoi. This formula worked well against the threats the Empire faced for centuries but proved to be no match for any of the enemies the nation fought on land during the national humiliation. Even the Artavans, long believed to be inferior military power, were more than a match for the former army and it is not a shock the Artavans crushed the Army of the East like they did.
Even for the traitors in power, it is obvious that things needed to change and with threats from Vasholijo rising, the army has started a hard process of recruiting a much larger professional corps. The main issue lies in that the nation can not afford it, and the bandage for this is the calling of volunteers, who are promised futures in return for years of service and given a livable wage. Volunteers are called from all areas of society, and many homeless destitute wretchs joined without much to lose. A warm meal and shelter proving to be a boon for them. However, much progress has not been made since many Dynatoi no longer have their private regiments or battalions. Several regiments, and battalions of foreign expats have also been formed in recent years, with the promise of land for their families inticing some to seek opportunities.
However, the army very much still relies on conscription and in some ways impressment. Reforms are needed for a modern means of this, and better training given to the conscripts but the interference of corruption has long delayed this. Impressment has been called to be removed totally, given the tendency of impressed troops to desert, and the general mood of the Generals is to remove it and outlaw it. However, this is impossible currently.
For the local security forces such as militia, guards, and even militarized police, they are drawn largely from the young men of localities for service. This area is a major issue since their is a general apathy to this and bandits have grown in threat greatly. Reforms here are needed.
Organization
The Army is organized into armies during war time that are assigned to regions where they are needed. As doctrine, all commands of two or more divisions are in effect independent, while smaller commands fall under the command of a regional commander, typically of a larger formation or formed into ad hoc units. For particular large armies, they operate with various wing commands in battle.
The armies are built around infantry formations, and the charts below reflect such. When a cavalry division is unavaliable in full, generally whatever cavalry that is avaliable is directly controlled by the army commander or assigned into an ad hoc division. Artillery is often placed under divisional command, with some suggestions of even larger formations of artillery being considered but deemed unrealistic given the situation.
Specialist units such as marksmen, and engineers either operate directly under the CO or are placed under the command of a divisional commander. Garrison, Militia, Police and Guard forces are not under military command but under the command of regional governors.
Charts of Organization
The chart above shows the standard organization for infantry and armies.
The chart shows the organization of cavalry divisions.
The chart shows the organization of artillery.
Units
Infantry
The standard unit of infantry is Line Infantry, like most nations in the world. They are the building blocks of the army as a whole, but as state above, the quality of each line regiment, or even battalions is hard to generalize given the current structure. The professional regiments, without a doubt, are of extremely high quality but calls for regiments (Syntagma in chart) to be at 1/4 capacity in peace, aside from frontier regiments, may cause problems but also provide solutions to the notoriously unreliable conscripts.
Light Infantry and Marksmen are independent regiments or battalions that aim to increase the flexibility of Infantry forces. Sometimes, they are attached directly to regiments or brigades and other times operate free from them completely.
Cavalry
While the quality of the infantry can be questionable, the cream of the army is the Cavalry as it always has been. All cavalry regiments are professionals, aside from auxiliary units such as Doryphoroi and Koursores. Given the roles of cavalry differ little from other nations, it is not need to explain the them but rather explain the quality.
The Heavy Cavalry, such as the anachronistic named Kataphraktoi, are without a doubt the best non-guard soldiers in the army. They are made up of nobles sons and are trained from birth for their role as the shock cavalry.
Medium Cavalry such as Hippeis are largely of city citizen soldiers and notables and while not as well trained as the former, and while also having quality distinctions based on even the city themselves, are good cavalry overall and serve well
Light Cavalry is most auxiliary based, but this does not mean they are of poor quality. Aside from their discipline issues, units like Doryphoroi and Koursores are excellent at what they do.
Artillery and Support
The importance of artillery in warfare continues to grow, and Syndeoneia knows this rather well. The problem for the Empire is that artillery is expensive and finite. Modern guns are common in areas of importance, but old guns are a common sight in the army. This is an issue that the nation seeks to address but has no realistic means to.
Support units such as Engineers, Medical Staff, Logistical Units, etc. are as important to any armies success as any, and particular emphasis is placed in recent years on the logisical units, which has been an issue in the past.
Imperial Guard
The shining star of the army, and the pride of the nation are the men of the imperial guard. Consisting of the best of the best, being trained to be the best, and being equiped the best, the Imperial Guard remains a constant force of excellence even during the dark current times.
Strategy and Tactics
With the current issues facing the army, the main focus in recent years has been ensuring that the Vasholijo threat is countered with what resources are avaliable. This has led to a strategic doctrine to be changed to one of aggressive defense. Strongholds have been constructed near the border and stronger fortresses behind them at strategic locations.
Tactically, the army is rather coventional to the standards of the world, but with great emphasis now being placed on scouting.
Deployment
As of current day, there are 4 main armies, two in the north and two in the east that roughly have 120,000 men total in all to face the real threat to the east. Reserves stationed across the Empire number some 60,000 men.
General Army Deployment as of current day.