Rathori at war

From: Svechin@cs.com
Date: Wed 05 Apr 2000 - 19:06:10 EEST


The general comments from various folk (Steve, Peter, Howard) about the
Rathori have been well made and argued well, so I just want to clarify my
point with regards to the origin of this thread.

I suggested that the Rathori would serve as mercenaries for the Carmanians
AND that they would have evolved military skills due to their interaction
with civilised lands.

To which the counterclaim has been made that the Rathori could not develop
such skills given that they are Hsunchen and particularly disorganised

Hsunchen at that.

I would agree that the Rathori are not going to field volley fire archery
units or any kind of disciplined body. I do think however that they would
have been hired enmasse on several occasions and told to "stand over there in
a big clump please" and this would not be beyond them given that:

a). They know how to stand
and
b) They can all eventually be pointed in the right direction.
and
c) they can be stopped from killing each other at least when facing a real
foe.

Furthermore, I think that this would eventually begin to have an effect on
their culture, much as any barbarian people were changed by interacting with
civilised folk.

I also think that the raiding and the interactions on the border would also
have an evolutionary effect, firstly on the civilised folk themselves as they
evolve to cope with the raiding and then on the Rathori as they counterevolve
to cope with the better defences. This is the same old story of tactical
evolution that is seen throughout history, RW or Gloranthan.

The Arrolians and other Fronelans who receive regular raids would begin doing
what every raided people has always done, localised fortification, followed
by a quick reaction and warning system. Even though they are sparsely
populated, this would work over time. The Rathori would have to learn how to

cope with this, learn how to storm small forts quickly and to hold off relief
efforts. As a result, they would begin to work in larger groups, with larger
confederations of raiding clans. This in turn would create evolutionary
pressures on the way they act and think.

As for the Rathori raiding the Char-un, this would be even more suicidal than
raiding the Janubians. The Char-un have all their wealth in mobile defended
groups, are far faster than the Rathori and are much harder to find.
Further, they are adept at countering and moving large bodies of troops with
speed. The Rathori would NOT be able to develop a counter for their tactical

dominance, other than to use superior bow range, and even then, they would
have serious problems.

So to recap, the Rathori are not organised warriors, but they are evolving
that way. The HW will speed up this process very quickly IMO.

Martin Laurie

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