> I thought [the Stonewall Phalanxes] were a creation of Khordavu, which
> would make them Dawn era? According to
> http://moondesignpublications.com/new/imperial_military.html anyway.
In the expanded version of the History of the Dara Happan Army (no longer extant on site and also somewhat gregged in parts), some phalanxess did have a history referring to mythical events.
>> I don't see much evidence for [SUn County being known for archery and missile combat].
> You mean, apart from the Kuschile special sub-cult that teaches riding and horse archery?
Probably a borrowing from the Pure Horse People. I don't see any evidence of Sun County or any other Solar county actually been known for their fantastic horsemen and archers.
> And as for missile weapons, that too has a long history for the cult. Being a master bowman was a requirement for Sun Lord back in RQ3, and bow has always been a cult skill, and still is part of the cults range of abilities (and also in RQ3, all initiates had to have a bow).
While they may be religiously obliged to have bows instead of slings, the evidence for the people of Sun County are actually being known for their archery doesn't seem to be very strong.
> I think they've always been known for mounted archers as the Kuschile sub-cult.
Although their original grant from Kyrem stipulated it, the Sun Domers of Sun County no
longer rever nor raise horses. They have adapted to their fate
afoot, and have been forced on occasion to rely on allied mounted
nomad tribesmen of their religion for cavalry support.
p7-8 Sun County.
Sun County is not rich or populous enough to have an mounted archer wing and the Praxians would have made short work of any horses during the Solitude of Testing.
> And there has always been a notable link between the Yelmalio cult and horses (even discounting that the Dragon Pass Sun Dome Templars are only a few generations away from being Elmal cultists).
I don't see this link being notable, I'm afraid. They will have some Pure Horse traditions but they are far from being intrinsic to the meaning of Yelmalio.
> Though I don't see how you can reconcile [the Sunstand having no
> Shields] with the Stonewall Phalanxes being from the Anaxial era!
I do believe I said the Storm Age was ten thousand years long. What is the problem?
> [The Macedonian Phalanx] has to be invented by someone - if it isn't invented by Urvairainus, why not the Daysenarus cult?
Because they are too recent so to speak. The extra long spearmen are shown in the arming of Khordavu which is a century and a half before the Sunstop and Daysenervus. And Khordavu isn't known for inventing the spear tradition.
>> As a rule of the thumb, the technology or rather the style of the people
>> fighting now is pretty much the same as in the Dawn Age and the Storm
>> Age.
> We have quite a record of military technology changes in historical Dara Happa, and that is one of the most conservative places - Kastok adds cavalry, Elmexdros reforms, Carmanian heavy cavalry.
Most of the Dara Happa fights pretty much according to Dawn Age friezes. Dara Happa had cavalry long before Kastok - what he had was stirrups which didn't alter the overall look and feel of the cavalry. The same goes for Elmexdros. Pretty much the same as it was in the Dawn and Storm Ages is an accurate summation of the situation.
> Perhaps (though it really isn't so much a matter of having elite hyspaspists as having some differently armed troops at the flanks). But I wasn't aware we were talking about just one little place in Prax. Sun County is weird by Sun Dome standards, and fights different enemies mostly.
What other place are we talking about then? All other Sun Domes are either pathetic decaying temples (like the one in Balazar) or spanking new temples with brand new traditions imported via Montogh from Prax.
> I don't know why you are speaking as if 'Sun Dome Templar' means 'only in Prax'. There are 15 of them, most of them in Saird, and the one in Prax is the least typical of all of them.
The ones in Saird have only been around for sixty years and is based on Prax. There's been no other model for the Sun Dome Temples on how to run a martial state.
> The ekdromoi tactics were developed partly to fight peltasts and light skirmish troops (a category that many Orlanthi troops probably fall into), so for most of the traditional areas for hoplite troops (Sun Dome in Saird, or Dara Happans or Pelandans for that matter) ekdromoi tactics would be useful.
Why waste time and money with Ekdromoi when the Sun Domers can easily call upon allied cavalry or peltasts? It's not how their God teaches them to fight.
> But even in Prax, they certainly don't just fight cavalry. They are often hired to fight trolls, for example. Have some troops leave formation to clear skirmishing trollkin, but fight charging trolls in tight formation.
They don't fight trolls with spears but also through the Light of Yelmalio. That alone does puts the skirmishing trollkin to flight and thus there is no need for them to pursue Ekdromoi tactics.
> Think Saird, not Prax. I don't think the inhabitants of Sun County are
> ever likely to have encountered Thunder Delta Slingers, but the
> inhabitants of Saird probably have.
The Sun Domers of Saird are unlikely to fight the Thunder Delta Slingers because both fight for the Lunar Empire. Secondly it's not the job of the Sun Domers to go after skirmishers either on foot or mounted. That's as stupid enough as sending human troops to make a night-time raid on trolls. The Sun Domers are there to attack foes like a Heortling Shieldwall or repel a cavalry charge. If other troops are involved, the commander of the Sun Domers will use more appropriate troops. Since the Sun Domers largely fight as mercenaries, there's nothing unethical about them hiring mercenaries themselves to fight the troops they cannot.
>
> Though even if we are talking Sun County in Prax, bear in mind he has mounted archers of his own.
No, he doesn't. There are no mounted archer formations in Sun County of Prax. They don't appear in Nomad Gods nor do they appear in Sun County (Rogar's riders are spearmen that have taken to riding on horseback).
> And here was I thinking that most Sun Dome Temples had survived the threat of Praxian Nomads by being located in Saird, far far away.
The Sun Dome Temple States of Saird didn't survive the Dragonkill. They were revitalized by Monrigh.
> Though, FWIW, the Templars in Sun County have fortifications, mounted archers, and a lot of missile armed troops. If all they had was Templars, I would agree that they would be unsustainable, but they have other troop types.
What missile armed troops? In Nomad Gods, they only have two phalanxes. In Dragon Pass, they have three Phalanxes. They don't have anything else.
--Peter Metcalfe
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