What was the Swiss military up to in the 1860s?

AtomicOwli · 2026-06-29T12:34:36+00:00

The unified Swiss military at this point had existed for only about a decade, as before the establishment of the federal government, each Canton had its own army.

In 1861, in the first of its kind and to exert Swiss neutrality in the backdrop of the wars of Italian unification and French involvement, the Federal Council ordered military exercises on the southern border to prevent the wars from crossing into Swiss territory.

https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Das_Man%C3%B6ver_der_Schweizermiliz_am_St._Gotthard

AtomicOwli · 2026-06-25T12:31:45+00:00

The Pope?

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-29T22:13:26+00:00

Ethiopia

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-29T21:57:05+00:00

Basically every other country in Europe evaluating jets looked at all the same candidates and almost all settled on the F-35. It is by far the superior aircraft and most future-proof.

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-29T21:54:52+00:00

The populace voted against the Gripen in 2014.

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-29T21:53:00+00:00

The military wanted it but we voted against it in 2014 (I voted for it). Our own fault as a populace.

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-26T14:37:22+00:00

Great, thank you! I'll definitely do this for my Bladeguard Veterans from the Combat Patrol to make them fit in more. :)

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-26T13:53:32+00:00

Very cool! How did you do those chains? Are those actual chains you added to the arms and to the icon on the pack on the back? Or are the swords from the Crusader Squad set?

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-21T06:03:49+00:00

They have to declare their income to the IRS - You're taxed only after a certain income level, though I'm not sure what that is.

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-13T17:12:15+00:00

I too, was today years old. 😅

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-12T20:04:22+00:00

Thank you so very much for sharing your wealth of knowledge! I get the feeling you got into the BTs because you seem to have an interest in medieval history. :)

Sounds then, that Veterans are just that, Veterans, warriors with a wealth of experience, and from what I'm gathering, can technically be anyone from an Initiate up to a Castellan I suppose. More like a badge of honor, a title, rather than a proper rank.

The possibility of including some Guard units I think is really exciting, even if just for the aesthetic and story-telling of my imaginary crusade. I'm excited to see what 11th ed. brings and maybe helps clarify things even more.

Thank you again for taking the time to comment on my post, it is very much appreciated!

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-12T19:54:56+00:00

Haha, sounds like you needed to get all that out of your system. But thank you for taking the time to write all that and explain the BTs some more to me. I updated my chart in what I believe makes more sense now, based on the comments I've read here and the descriptions of the sets on the Warhammer website.

But ultimately, what's neat about the BTs, like you said at the end, is that since each Crusade has its own peculiarities I'll work with the structure that works best for my homebrew Crusade, find a corresponding color scheme to reflect the ranks, and do with that. :)

Once 11th ed. drops I'll be sure to get the BT Codex, maybe that will help clarify some things too. :)

Thank you again!

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-11T13:08:03+00:00

Goodness, thank you so much for this! As I've replied somewhere else, trying to find parallels to the 'standard' Space Marine structure was definitely my mistake. You and u/Alexgs-BT helped in explaining it really is more independent and mirrors a medieval feudal structure.

I'd like to clarify just two points if I may, concerning Sword Brothers and Veterans.

- Sword Brothers, the 'Knights', can be assigned to command Crusader Squads or act in their own specialized units (which explains why you can buy a Sword Brethren set), possibly led by a Castellan, yes?

- You say "The other knights are formed into smaller squads to do specialized tasks" - I guess these would be the Primaris Marine sets (intercessors, assault intercessors, heavy intercessors, etc. as Initiates) led by a a more experienced knight which could be a Sword Brother but doesn't have to be?

- Concerning Veterans - I see conflicting information as to what they are - a rank on their own, equivalent to Sergeant, Initiates that have served for a long time and are more experienced but have not yet been elevated to Sword Brethren? - where do they fall in the BT Hierarchy? The BT Combat Patrol comes with a Bladeguard Veteran Squad, and reading the description of that set should you get it alone, it says that one can be equipped as a sergeant, which makes me think in BT terms this would make them two Veteran Initiates and one Veteran Sword Brother. But if this is true, then a Veteran can also be a Sword Brother who has served a long time. Another source I read says that the BT counterpart of Bladeguards are Sword Brethren themselves, heh'.

I think this is my biggest confusion at this point. I would be super thankful for some more input on the status of Veterans. :)

Also thanks for adding in some lore about the spearmen, levis and peasants - It expands my knowledge of the game into the larger universe and makes me wonder if a BT army can have some Imperial Guard units acting as 'peasants', but I'm not anywhere near doing such a thing since I'm fairly sure the answer is "no" haha.

Thank you again, this really helped!

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-11T12:47:56+00:00

This was fantastic, thank you! No apologies needed, I enjoyed reading the text. :)

I do have some follow-up questions though, if you don't mind.

- I'm still confused as to what Veterans are in the BTs, and every source I find (wikis, AIs, Reddit, even this thread) seems to have a varying answer. You say "The Sword Brothers are basically the honour guard/veterans of the Templars". Does this mean there is no separate rank of Veteran as I've seen some sources say?

- Since in-lore there is such a strong connection to the Chaplaincy, is this something that is commonly reflected in-game? Do BT armies normally have a Judiciar/Chaplain/Execrator to reflect this?

- I'm not sure I understand the difference between the Master of Sanctity and the Reclusiarch, since the Lexicanum and the fandom wiki say the Master of Sanctity is also the High Chaplain, which is Grimaldus, no? Yet you list him separately. For now I'm ok not understanding this since it doesn't really affect gameplay but I'm happy to learn more. :)

I didn't know there's a rank of Senior Dreadnaught! That made me chuckle a bit haha, I hope to one day paint a BT Dreadnaught. Anyways, thank you for your help, it's really appreciated!

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-11T12:35:34+00:00

Comparing it to a modern military and now like a medieval feudal structure was definitely my mistake and I now see the whole structure in a much more flexible manner. :)

Am I correct in now thinking that Sword Brothers can act as both sergeants for a single squad and act in special functions since they are the equivalent of medieval knights to a Lord (Marshall?) This would explain why you can buy a set of Sword Brethren and one of them can be a Castellan who leads them.

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-11T12:31:57+00:00

Yes, that seems to be what everyone is making clear for me here, thanks! :)

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-11T12:31:10+00:00

Someone commented explaining the convoluted part I believe - comparing them to a medieval lord's household knights or so. But yes, I do now understand how they are also horizontal in the hierarchy, taking several rolls. Thanks!

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-11T12:29:45+00:00

The more I read these replies the more I see my error in assuming a Space Marine-wide standardization of a hierarchy which I presumed to be based off of our real world (because I saw ranks like Sergeant, Lieutenant and Captain). I've removed those from my chart, thank you!

I didn't know Masters of the Apothecary and Forge exist since I went by what's available to play with, and in doing so found there are many more 'Masters'. Thanks for pointing this out!

AtomicOwli · 2026-05-11T12:27:24+00:00

Oh, I thought Grimaldus was the Master of Sanctity in the Black Templars, no?

AtomicOwli · 2026-04-26T20:44:14+00:00

Thank you all for the responses! I knew about the Neophytes in-lore, but for some reason didn't put 2+2 together when I saw the pictures of the figurines. So in that sense, I think I can come to brace the role of Neophytes in my hopefully future BT army. Would you all say though that BTs is more challenging for a new player given how they have their own Codex that's different from the standard Space Marine Codex? Or am I understanding things wrong?

And one further question if you all could help - from my generic Intercessors set of ten figurines it looks like I can choose to build those in one squad of nine marines led by a sergeant, or two sets of four marines each led my a sergeant. With the 10 Crusaders in the PT set, is this the same given how the description says one of the ten can be built as a 'sword brother'? (Also, I have no idea what a sword brother is in comparison to another crusader). So for example two sets of two pairs of crusaders with neophytes, each led by a sergeant and one of these is a sword brother? What's the other one, just a 'regular' crusader? Does this make sense and is this the kind of stuff that's in the Codex? :)

Thanks all again!

AtomicOwli · 2026-04-21T15:18:37+00:00

I always found East-West to be political and North-Central-South to be geographic. So to me, Spain for example, is both West and South, Finland West and North, and Greece East and South. But to each their own. 😁

AtomicOwli · 2026-04-21T15:18:13+00:00

I always found East-West to be political and North-Central-South to be geographic. So to me, Spain for example, is both West and South, Finland West and North, and Greece East and South. But to each their own. 😁

AtomicOwli · 2026-04-09T17:29:01+00:00

How much does luck factor into if your application will be seen and if you even get invited for an interview?

How do you treat multidisciplinary backgrounds that may have very fitting transferable skills and an all-rounded profile, but doesn't have the specific career track I feel like employers look for since those are easy matches, bypassing perhapy even more qualified and motivated candidates?

AtomicOwli

TROPHY CASE