WI: European armies use Japanese-style banners

Several wars become much duller and more boring? Look at the battle flags of the English Civil War; they were the size of oil paintings, and occasionally were. Mottos, sayings, paintings, three barking spaniels chasing a member of parliament, five heads, wheatsheaf and crossed clubs, Sun and virgin- any volunteer unit at the start of any complicated war, Thirty years', American civil, French revolutionary, tend to artwork. The sort of thing that you'd see on a poster nowadays, albeit with fewer pike and shot. And don't forget the numerous individual variations on the Jolly Roger.

There's no room for anything like that on a Nobori. Small flags are for professional armies with nothing new to prove or say. Apart from one issue; battle honours. Most of the British Guards regiments are running over a hundred now; they don't put them all up at once, but even at eight feet by ten, you're still approaching "continued on next colour".

Back banners just don't have the room or visual impact to be the symbol and rallying point of a battalion. With them, it becomes harder for units to hold together and to reform, and without those visual markers it becomes harder to marshal them and direct them on the field.

Hmm. Colours turn out to matter a lot more than I had thought at first.
 
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