RCW Drozdovski unit

[cuprum]

Tricolor (white-blue-red flag) is a Russian national flag. The bourgeois Provisional Government declared this flag "state flag" after the overthrow of the tsar. White troops who hold the republican orientation, can use it, but it is not belonging to any particular military unit.

[Mark Plant]

Flags sold by B&B miniatures, it is a generic flag though and the Studio Siberia one is specific to the unit.

Let's not get too worked up about generic.

The Studio Siberia one, the top one, is specific to the unit -- but only for 1920.

The second is a staff flag, which means it isn't a field flag.

[cuprum]

Accuracy is never superfluous!  

In the "colored" parts in the initial period the banners of the regiments of the Imperial Army were used. In particular, in the Drozdovsky Regiment - the banner of the 1st Marine Regiment was used. I did not yet painted it, but be sure to painted.  
I also prepare the banner of the Kornilov and Samur regiments for 1918-19.

[Mark Plant]

Accuracy is never superfluous!  

Sure. But if you are playing any campaign other than the Northern Tauridia Operation under Wrangel, the St Nick the Wonderworker flag wouldn't be accurate. It's also not really a field flag, so wouldn't be in the front lines anyway.

In those situations, generic tricolour flags are better.

[cuprum]

You're wrong, Mark. Each military unit at that time was tried to stand out from the general mass. Often, even the companies had an individual, special banner! Of course, these banners could be created on the basis of tricolor, but almost always they had some individual characteristics.

To take out the regimental banner in the field is the tradition of the old Russian army and I see no reason for the white army to abandon this tradition. What sources do you rely on, claiming that simple tricolors were used instead of regimental banners?

[Mark Plant]

To take out the regimental banner in the field is the tradition of the old Russian army and I see no reason for the white army to abandon this tradition. What sources do you rely on, claiming that simple tricolors were used instead of regimental banners?

There's banners and there's banners. There's taking banners "in the field" and there's taking banners into the front line.

Regimental banners were at regimental headquarters. Part of respecting banners is not having them captured, and the small number of captured Russian regimental banners in WWI suggests that few, if any, went anywhere near the firing line. (They went to extraordinary lengths to prevent capture -- destroying them, burying them, chopping into pieces individually smuggled out etc.)

The original reason for regimental/divisional banners is so that messengers can locate the regimental/divisional HQ (not locate the colonel, who may move around, but the HQ). Taking such flags into the firing line would remove their actual purpose. Unit banners at company and battalion level act likewise for messages, and as rally points. It is important that each unit use their actual banner, not some unrelated one.

Now unusually I field entire divisions in my armies, so my Markov HQ has the Markov flag, and the sub-HQs appropriate regimental flags. But my front line Markov rifle units have battalion flags at best.

I know that RCW units used banners regularly, so I went to a lot of trouble to make sure that they were properly flagged, including artillery. And many of those flags are on my website. My cavalry units fly sotnia flags in the correct colours (with the regimental flag at the HQ). But properly doesn't mean "hey one unit of this type used this flag so any of them can have it".

So unless our good man has a division of Drozdovski, why would he have the divisional flag at all, let alone in a rifle company?

And that was my point -- a generic tricolour, with number and cypher -- is a much more realistic flag for a wargames unit than some highly prized flag that was kept at HQ.

(I'm a bit unsure on this, but I recall reading that regimental and divisional ceremonial flags were so treasured that they were kept protected for special occasions, like parades, and weren't allowed out in the weather. Many in the Imperial army were quite old, dating back to Napoleonic times. So they were almost always carried inside their waterproof cases. I was tempted to put my HQs with a dress flag but wrapped in it's black oilskin case, but I thought that always explaining to people why wasn't worth the bother.)

[cuprum]

The First World War can not serve as a model for evaluating the use of banners. This is a completely different way of fighting. The Russian Civil War, in terms of its dynamism and the mode of action of the troops, is closer to the wars of the early and middle of the 19th century. Indirectly, this confirms the tendency to the appearance of bright, colorful uniforms or elements of military clothing. In the conditions of a maneuver war and the absence of a continuous frontline, the problem of quickly recognizing its parts and their location on the battlefield was paramount.

You correctly describe the situation with regimental flags. But in the Civil War, it is not uncommon for the whole regiment to go on an attack (sometimes even with an orchestra))). In this case, the real banner must be carried to the line of fire. In the ranks of the regiment, the regiment commander often went to the attack, and then the presence of the staff flag in the ranks is also justified. But, of course, this is a special case.

Also, if we do not play skirmish, we use scaling the number of units depending on the rules. One figure can designate a platoon, three - a company, ten - a battalion, and 30 - a regiment ... And what kind of a banner should they be given?

A realistic flag is a flag that was actually used by a particular military unit in a given historical period and its use is confirmed by some reliable source. The probability of using a real staff flag in combat is still much higher than the probability that you just guess the look-existing in reality, battalion or company flag, as it is - just a fantasy)))  At you on a site (and not only at you) too, alas, there are fantastic flags (

By the way, real reality often surpasses any imagination ....

For example, I recently became aware of a description of the black company flag, which had a rifle company, formed from the Chekists, and included in the regular red regiment on the Eastern Front. Moreover, this company had black ribbons on its headdresses as a cockade.  And these were not anarchists - namely the Bolsheviks...

Or, for example, everyone draws the Samursky regiment with the yellow top of the caps. In fact, they had the top of their caps black, and the band - yellow))) "Osprey" is mistaken.

In the end, it's just a game. If you like fantastic uniforms and flags more - no one can forbid you to use them)))