[Glorantha] Imperial bodyguard

Mikko Rintasaari <rintasaa_at_mail.student.oulu.fi> writes:

> [Stephen Tempest]
>> A clan champion is the best warrior out of about 400 adults.
>> The Red Emperor can choose the best seven warriors out of a population
>> of about 5,000,000 adults. That's four orders of magnitude higher...
>
>I don't think the math there holds water. The heortlings are a warlike,
>heroic people with an emphasis for personal combat prowess. The vast pool
>of imperial subjects aren't anything like the hill-barbarians of Sartar.

Well, my suggested skill of 10w3 isn't four orders of magnitude higher than a clan champion's 10w2, either...

But your assumption about the differences isn't necessarily true either. (obviously, YGWV). Most of the population of Sartar are cow-herds and ploughmen and crafters, whose experience of warfare is mostly confined to waving a spear and shouting loudly in the fyrd, participating in semi-ritualised cattle raids and battles where it's very rare for someone to get permanently injured.

Compare that to the Lunars, who include people with just as much or more of a martial tradition than anything Sartar lays claim to - the Daxdarian citizen-hoplites of Pelanda, the newly civilised ex-hill barbarians of Saird, the arrogant and warlike Carmanians, the hard-bitten soldier-settlers of the Redlands: and that's not even mentioning the Char-un or the citizens of Alkoth...

More importantly, the greater population base, more productive soil and climate and more advanced level of economic infrastructure in the Empire means they can afford to support far more professional, full-time warriors than Sartar can.

>No doubt he has a few hundread kick ass infantry (or cavalry) men around
>him on the battlefield. I was thinking about the more immediate
>bodyguards.

To my mind, that would be represented (in the wargame) by stacking the Red Emperor counter with an infantry or cavalry unit...

(Or with Jar-eel, Aelwrin, the Crimson Bat, the Cratermakers and two Full Moon Corps regiments, to create a Killer Stack of Doom <g>)

Stephen Received on Thu 21 Sep 2006 - 15:30:15 EEST