Joseph MacCarrin

MacCarrin in 1770.

Joseph MacCarrin was a general of mixed Aenglish-Fhainnin descent who served in the Fhainnin Royal Army during the late 18th Century. During his service, he lead operations by the Royal Army during the West Vandarch War and took command from the deceased Glen Morys during the Second Kin War with Fiannria. His systematization of operational reviews, scouting and intelligence gathering, supply depots, platoon drills, and strict discipline formed the basis of a number of military reforms that helped shape later and modern Fhainnin military culture and professionalism.

MacCarrin promoted his views on war throughout his career, drawing from a mix of traditional military doctrine, foreign treatises, personal convictions and experience, and experimentation with emergent technologies of the era. As General of the Army of the Crossing, his early years in command were marked by a great deal of downtime. While previous appointees to the role considered it a temporary station used to rotate members of the nobility as a reward or bribe relating to court intrigues and favors, MacCarrin took his position seriously, beginning with relentless drilling and long march practice which preceded a major shakedown of the entire Army. This likely was related directly to insider knowledge of the upcoming invasion of Culriocha, which MacCarrin wished to use to greatly improve his career in the military and later politics.

Immediately prior to the order to mobilize for invasion, MacCarrin prepared a key of fireworks colors with his staff and officers to better coordinate the most simple commands; while not useful in detail, the key would rotate each month according to guidebooks, allowing the Fanerian regimental officers to intentionally mislead enemy commanders later in the campaign. MacCarrin additionally procured the services of several printing organizations to create an array of false operational plans, camp pass phrases, and other misinformation to be intentionally spread throughout Culriocha immediately prior to and during the campaign, both through intentional loss and double agents; these endeavors were initially aided heavily by agents of the Throneswatch.

During the invasion itself, the general found himself relying heavily on light cavalry in the form of hussar squadrons, forcing him to fight in a highly aggressive fashion to both preserve his cavalry and effectively utilize collected information. In supplementing his information network, he repeatedly appealed for reinforcements and paid talent in the form of hundreds of cartographers, intelligence and counterintelligence agents, newspapers, local organizations opposed to the Culriochan monarchy, administrative staff, and other support personnel. While not novel, MacCarrin excelled at organizing and formalizing his army's supply and intelligence systems, allowing him to outmaneuver and mislead Culriochan forces for most of the war barring several occasions where early iterations of these systems faltered, most notably the pitched battle at Meawood.

After the West Vandarch War, MacCarrin refined the lessons of the conflict into a military doctrine centered on effective command and control, intelligence and counterintelligence, scouting, and highly-drilled troops able to follow more difficult instruction than the majority of drafted troops which made up the rank and file of the Fhainnin army at the time. This also included a formal practice of post-operation review, improvements to platoon-level fire drill, and a significant shift in the organization of military supply dumps in the Army of the Crossing. Alterations to the supply system in particular became widespread in the Fhainnin military after the conquest of Culriocha, though much of his thoughts on military operations would become mainstream only after the beginning of the Second Kin War.

MacCarrin placed a significant emphasis on scouting and intelligence gathering, as well as the denial of the same to opposing forces. To this end, he relied heavily on light, rapid hussars to act as skirmishers and scouts. Where MacCarrin differed from conventional Levantine doctrine was in the frequent employment of early fireworks and flares to both give orders and misdirect the enemy, using cycling color codes known only to his staff officers and direct subordinates.(revisit?) Additionally, he used both locals and officers as spies in his campaigns, blending into local populations and opposing armies to filter incorrect information to the enemy in excess to mask army movements. This included high-risk maneuvers such as his own hussars running down enemy couriers, donning their clothing, and delivering false commands or information directly to enemy commanding officers, which resulted in even higher casualties among the cavalry but frequently resulted in confusing separated enemy forces. This made forces under his command exceptional at defeat in detail prior to the tactic being recognized as such, though it also earned him the nickname 'General Itheadaeich' (Horse-eater).

Parade drill, counterintelligence, hyperaggressive,