From: Russ Massey (russ@wriding.demon.co.uk)
Date: Tue 16 Dec 1997 - 16:59:39 EET
In message , "D. Pearton" <pearton@u.washington.edu> writes
>I normally stay out of the military debates, but I have to correct some
>odd notions about the zulus et.al.
>
>Peter Metcalf:
>> >IMG I've made the Agrimori peltasts instead. [...] This reduces the
>> >discipline they need yet keeps them deadly. (Makes 'em more like the
>> >Zulus too-I know the Zulus didn't use long spears) .
>>
>> The Zulus never had to cope with enemy cavalry and they could barely
>> win against rifled infantrymen when the latter were fumbling with
>> screwdrivers. The main problem the Agimori have to cope with is
>> the nomad cavalry charge. If they scatter, they're doomed. If
>> they equip themselves as peltasts (on the plains of prax), they're
>> liable to scatter and thus doom themselves. But if they stand firm
>> and present a row of points to the charging cavalry, the nomad animals
>> (save the rhinos) are more likely to turn away than commit suicide.
>
>The Nguni tribes from whom Shaka forged the zulu nation had indeed face
>cavalry in the form of the boers (and whipped them handily). Granted
>these were not an army by any means.
>
I feel there's a bit of a difference between mounted infantry carrying a rifle
capable of killing at a mile and anything that the Agimori are likely to meet on
the Plaines of Prax.
>The zulus also often defeated the Brits and Boers - I believe that Peter
>might have seen Zulu Dawn a little to often.
>In addition the pre-Shaka conflicts were faught with a long spear,
>basically two impis would face each other and throw long spears
>(essentially javelins) at each other until one side ran away.
Which suggests that the Zulus were fairly loosely ordered. The decription of
Agimori tactics and culture in River of Cradles and Borderlands makes it
explicit that their formation was close order pikemen, each relying on their
comrades to stand firm in combat for the good of the whole unit. Phalanxes
like this don't throw javelins, as it's something that close order formations
inhibit. I think of a 'long spear' as being 7 feet plus - something used for
thrusting and not for throwing. A javelin/pilum is not really comparable.
> An assegai
>is a catch-all term meaning spear. One of Shaka's innovations was the
>introduction of the Iquiwa, or short stabbing spear (named
>onomatapoeically after the noise it made going in-and-out of somebody) and
>the tactics to use it. Battles got a lot bloodier after Dingaan and
>Shaka.
>
>I see the Agimori as javelin and short-spear armed, capable of forming
>close formation and breaking into loose depending on the situation.
In normal day-to-day life that seems reasonable. A pike is hardly of much use
to a hunter. But there is no way to deny that the published sources all indicate
that the men-and-a-half use the pike in organised warfare.
> Also
>unarmoured except for hide shields.
Well leather armour is also attested to. Don't forget that the agimori are not
going to have the problems with heat prostration that normal humans might
have to consider when weraing armour.
> I also like the idea that you use a
>diffferent hide shield depending on your status (or regiment). So the
>young men would use impala-hide, graduating up to bison (etc) and finaly
>rhino-hide shields.
>
That's quite a nice idea. Where does morocanth hide or herd-man skin fit in
the comparative listing?
>I also believe that, as with the Morocanth, they use terrain to their
>advantage quite a bit. Yes, a group of Agimori surrounded by Rhinos or
>Bison on the velt are going to get trampled, or surrounded by Impala
>riders are going to get pincushinned. But I don't believe they would do
>that too often - add hills, dongas, some scrub and thorn-trees and
>things are very different.
>
Never forget that the Agimori are practically supermen. They're average
warrior would be an elite picked man in the armies of any other culture, and
the warrior cream of their society are simply beyond human comparison,
making them as hard to fight as trolls for example. Maybe their way of
fighting seems bizarre when compared to Earth cultural norms, but the
Agimori are not an Earth culture, and indeed, not fully human (from our POV
- - I'm not trying to deny they're man-rune creatures of course).
- --
Russ Massey
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