You mean like late medieval Scotland? Where the highland clans were still fighting with much the same weapons and tactics they'd used for centuries while the knights from the wealthier lowlands were pretty well equipped if not to the standard of German, French and Italian knights.
You have a point about Dara Happens retaining expensive Ancient Greek style hoplites right up alongside Carmenian Knights but I think that's a combination of tradition on the Dara Happen side and the Carmenian overlords discouraging the DHs from learning more effective techniques.
There's also the issue of suitability for the terrain - Dragon Pass isn't suitable ground for knights. If the Orlanthi were to develop technologically I'd expect them to produce a counter such as the Welsh longbow or the Swiss or Scots pikemen.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/ ------------------------------
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