[Glorantha] Army of Sartar, cavalry (circa 1600)

In message <Pine.GSO.4.58.0609030412340.28293@paju.oulu.fi> Mikko Rintasaari writes:
>
>I've been trying to figure out what sort of an army Sartar was able to
>raise against Tarsh and the Lunars.
>
>An average tribe would propably be capable of sending out approximately a
>thousand fighters, so that would give us a maximum field army strength of
>about 24 000.
>
>But what would those troops be like, and how would they be grouped? Also
>how much cavalry do they have, and of what quality?
>
>The Unspoken Word article of the army of Tarsh has been very inspiring
>(aside from the addition of longbows which is easy enough to ignore.
>Longbows are for Rathori, and Tarsh definitely doesn't need the addition).
>
>But. Mostly I think an army of sartarites will be an irregular (barbarian)
>army dominated by groups of spearmen forming shieldwalls, and warband
>groups that are good for a headlong charge.
>
>Elite units would the humakti weaponthanes and warriors, organized around
>the Household of Death, and parhaps other cult groupings, like Uroxi
>berserkers (blade units, for those familiar with DBM)
>
>The warlord can propably put together some groups of bow, from hunters
>(and parhaps from city guards?), and there will be no shortage of
>skirmishers.
>
>But what about cavalry? The cult of Elmal propably creates good horsemen,
>and weaponthanes and nobles do ride. Am I correct in thinking that the
>amount of cavalry Sartar can put together will be really small, in
>comparison to the more organized army of Tarsh?
>
>Also how would the magical offense and defense be handled?

And Simon replied:

>Personally, I go right back to the beginning with this- the OOB of
>White Bear, Red Moon.

>In WBRM, there are 8 x 1000 strong city militia units, and 8 x 500
>strong cavalry units. In the Sartar Free Army, there are 12 x 500
>cavalry units (although one is the Pavis Royal Guard), and 10 x 1000
>infantry units. There are also 3 x 500 Pol Joni cavalry in the
>Barbarian Horde.

>This would give 18000 infantry, and (excluding the PRG) 11000 cavalry.
>These figures don't include the reserves, or the ducks, in the later
>"Dragon Pass". This represents a high ratio of cavalry to foot!

>In my Glorantha, the majority of the Sartarite cavalry represent mounted
>infantry (as do some of the units in the lunar array such as the Blue,
>Red and Hadrians Dragoons).

>A real world analogy would be the Anglo-Saxon select fyrd, who were
>mounted for mobility (and status), but who almost invariably dismounted
>to fight on foot, strengthening the shieldwall. They could fight
>mounted, and did on occasion, but it wasn't their main role, and they
>weren't all that good at it.

>There are exceptions, of course, like the Pol Joni, who would be very
>reluctant to dismount.

You need to be careful with equating Dragon Pass counters with units of 500 cavalry and 1000 infantry. While it is true in relation to standard units such as Tarsh militia a lot of other units are adjusted in size to reflect the relative performance of the unit. An example which springs to mind is the Black Horse Troop. There aren't five units of 500 men on demon horses, more like five units of 100 men on demon horses who are equivelent to five ordianry cavalry units.

I'd certainly agree that most of the cavalry is mounted infantry and this is probably true of some of the Tarsh army.

Looking at the proportions I'd suggest that the infantry represents that part of the fyrd which was sent away from home and most clans kept at least as many fyrdmen back to defend the tula.

In any case I'd be inclined to regard Thunder Rebels as superceding Dragon Pass and have units organised as clan units made up mostly of spearmen with a small number of warriors and some skirmishers. Then several clan units make up a tribal unit and there are a few oddball units like Baron Sanuel's knights. Also bear in mind that many of the units which appear in the board game weren't available in 1600 - the order of battle represents the army that Argrath raised.

As far as magic units are concerned, in 1600, the Sartarites hardly had any. Argrath introduced the idea of magicians working together to counter the Lunar Colleges of Magic. So the only magical unit would be the Wind Children. All other magic users would be operating with their clans. Just as a lot of Lunar magicians do.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/