Comrades!
Fascinated though I have been by much of the recent debates on matters cultural and military, can I just sound a warning note about excessive devotion to partial, particular and preliminary sources?
- WBRM/DP are great games, but their
orbats and unit strengths are as much as anything else products of the need for game balance as anything else. There seems to me only so much that can be read from them. For example, it is clear that there are mounted Heortling units; however, the thought that they are as effective or more so than professional cavalry seems hard to sustain unless you (a) revise what we know about the essentially centripetal nature of Orlanthi society and posit large tribal-level standing armies or (b) simply assume that the Sartar units represent larger fomations than their Lunar counterparts. Or (c) just accept that the counters aren't reliable as data at this level.
Keywords are abstractions. Of course, not every Tarshite or Sylilan can use an axe, for example, just as not every Merchant can Carry Heavy Loads. In particular, gender will often be a key differential. They just give a general idea of what a stereotypical member of that culture may know.
Of course we all know this, and I hope people will forgive my presumption. However, we all sometimes forget this, so enthused are we about a possible extrapolation from a single data point.
All the best
Mark
Received on Tue 26 Sep 2006 - 11:07:54 EEST