Potentially yes but in reality no. Almost any army of reasonible combine=
d
arms
has the _potential_ to defeat another but the realities of command, moral=
and
opposing factors invariably chip in. DH has at various stages defeated
every
type of foe but has also lost to every type of foe. So has the following=
Lunar
Empire. Though they have the units to use, do they have them in the righ=
t
place?
Part of Jomes Wulfs success was that he used the right troops for the rig=
ht
battle
Part of Tatius' failure was he used the wrong troops (Grazelanders) in th=
e
wrong =
place (Esrolia - where the urban nature of the land and population densit=
y
seriously
disrupts their raiding potential and speed of movement)
>They will have a regiment against any enemy
>past, true, but I am not sure they could defeat them then, and it is eve=
n
>worse now, after the ritual of many centuries has vitiated the
>once-effective tactics.
Ritual of many Centuries? The Empire only defeated Sheng in the last
century
- - that was a struggle that would make the hundred years war look like a
joke. =
They also invaded the south and conquered significant opposing armies. =
Hon-eel
also defeated the Orayan Pentans. Before the Dragon Massacre, the Empire=
successfully holds down all of Dragon Pass but for a few enclaves. Doesn=
't
seem
like a moribund army to me.
Their tactics haven't changed much BTW. The major Lunar reforms include
the
altering of their order of battle to factor in the magical units but othe=
r
than that,
they still remain a combined arms force one would recognise as the DH or =
Carmanian (even Spolite) Empire armies at their most cosmopolitan. =
On cohorts =
If the Romans mustered and army of three legions plus the odd auxilia cohort or two we =
are talking some 16,000 men. This would be pretty much the ENTIRE Lunar=
mobile field =
army. That is, every regiment they could spare to move and battle. Yet =
to
the Romans
this would only be a fraction of their total military power. =
The Lunars do not have the same force structure as the Romans because the=
ir
numbers
preclude it. Also, Roman military and social culture was pervasion and
dominating. The =
Legions were a manifestation of this homogeneity as were the roads and other architectural =
features. In the Lunar Empire, most of the diversity of its various cultures is maintained and =
therefore the army reflects this reality. Mainly it is the Tarnils offic=
er
corps that ties the =
divergent regiments together in a larger organisation. =
This is why they have no 5000 man legions and why they have no pressing need for a =
homogeneous tactial unit of the 500-600 man level. Remember that the Rom=
an
cohort =
was formed as a sucessor to the inefficent maniple system because it simply didn't work =
in the larger legions or with the shift in their tactical dispositions.
Many of the Lunar officers are trained the same way and this is how they are cohesive. =
Alas this also means that they can misuse their troops quite badly. =
Reminiscent of the
British officers in the Americas sneering at their rustic colonial cousin=
gs
for fighting
in skimish formation instead of nice neat lines. =
MGF potential would be a Tarnils officer from one of the Phalanxs
transferring to a Peltast
regiment - "What a shower! No bloody discipline and their uniforms are
scruffy!"
Martin Laurie
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