[Glorantha] Re: Glorantha Digest, Vol 12, Issue 384

In message <177dc5fd0609150757j2b43d749yb13dd7561c7b92db@mail.gmail.com> "John Machin" writes:
>On 9/15/06, Mikko Rintasaari <rintasaa@mail.student.oulu.fi> wrote:

>> Cv, I'd think. Sword and spear instead of bows. No doubt they also have
>> javelins, but still Cv.
>
>Fair enough. I suspect most would be (I) or (F) at best though, unless
>Elmali are highly represented.

I see the Pol Joni (who I believe come from a Pentan background) as light cavalry while the Elmali are mainly medium cavalry. Of course some of the Pol Joni will be armoured light cavalry.

>> I'd think auxia rather than psiloi for the great mass of Sartarite
>> skirmishers. Rather than young greek boys with slings, we have sword and
>> spear armed skirmishers who move well in rough terrain and can fight
>> hand-to-hand. Skirmishing with bows, javelins and slings.
>
>Sounds about right, although there might be some Ps(S) if there are
>plenty of Hedkoranth cultists about.

This is the sort of thing I object to about most sets of wargames rules - making everything fit the classical troop types. Hedkoranth are not light infantry, they are a warrior cult and will fight with the rest of the clan warband. Just because the Greeks and Romans didn't generally have mixed units doesn't mean no one else did.

>I suspect that any Sartarite army would have a lot of optional
>configurations - a bit like Alexander's pezetairoi who can be Pike or
>Auxilia. Sometimes weaponthanes might deploy as Warbands, other times
>as Auxilia, others times perhaps as Psiloi - depending on the enemy
>and the popularity of specific Orlanth Adventurous cults.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Auxilia" here. Weaponthanes are the basis of the clan warband fighting in a loose formation as suits the individual and the situation. AIUI this is precisely what the "Warband" troop type in wargames rules is supposed to represent. However that seems to have become a "horde of mediocre barbarians" unit. The Orlanthi warband represents an elite, well equipped and trained, superior in the right circumstances to long serving regular soldiers.

The way I'd organise an army would be around clan units of spearmen (the fyrd) with subunits of warband and skirmishers. OK a strong leader can persuade the clans to detach their warbands and skirmishers to form up together but I'll bet it involves lots of argument when it happens.

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