No.
Adrian White
>In the RW (at modern times) squad sizes are as much decided by
>budgetary and recruiting restraints on manpower levels, as by
>tactical theory. I am sure that we can come up with some reasons
>behind Gloranthan military traditions which are a little less dry.
I don't think the budgetary and recruiting restraints will hold water for any reasonable modern army. If you have fewer recruits, but need big squads, you'll just have fewer squads.
Ancient military forces, of course, didn't _have_ squads. There was no real subdivision of a Centurions' hundred guys. The 16-man file of an Alexandrian phalanx wasn't like a modern squad in any way beyond being roughly the same size and having its own leader & assistant leader.
But, carping aside, obviously a unit of Gloranthan troopers in an area like Prax, where the entire regiment doesn't ever muster, but police functions are paramount, are going to have small flexible units to do stuff -- in effect, squads.
Since a phalanx's file are chosen from men who work reasonably well together, and probably bunk in the same tent or group of tents, they'd be chosen to act as a team (I expect) in policing the misbegotten Pavisites. But the next question is why the file is 7 men.
OKAY. first off, I don't think that a half-file is 7. I think a full file is 7 men, with a file leader. Here's why.
The ancient Greek hoplites more often massed in depths of 8 men, though 12 or even 25 were not unknown (ie., there was no standard depth, it seems). 8 was a sort of "standard" depth, but the Greeks were clearly able to choose different depths at will, and in fact this was one of the major tactical decisions that a Greek commander had to make before entering battle.
Now, the Dara Happans are no doubt more rigid and hide-bound than the ancient Greeks, and I perceive them as settling on a specific file length as somehow "traditional" and mebbe even a little sacred. HENCE, the traditional Pelorian file length of 8 sounds about right. The Yelmalions likely double this to 16, since they use much longer pikes and apparently have a different type of phalanx. Also, for what it's worth, the "classic" Alexandrian phalanx used a 16 man file (at least sometimes).
Now, the Lunar army originally fought Dara Happans and Pelorians. Although their hoplites were needed to hold off the enemy cavalry and hoplites, the major strike arm, even in the early days, was no doubt the magic colleges. Hence, the Lunar hoplites don't need quite the depth of the Dara Happans -- they just need to hold off the enemy long enough for the Chaos magics to take effect. However, because they have to guard the defenseless sorcerers, and hold off generally larger numbers of enemy troops, many more of which have cavalry, it makes sense to decrease the number of men per file, and widen the frontage of the unit.
Therefore, early on in Lunar history, the file was shortened from 8 to 7. This meant that a Lunar phalanx of 1000 men had a frontage of 360 feet, while a Dara Happan phalanx was close to 300. This is certainly enough to make a difference on the defense, while the pressure of 8 men vs. 7 isn't great enough to change much in the actual combat. Presumably the Lunars experimented with 5-man files, 6-man files, etc., to discover that 7 was the ideal for their purposes. Plus it has sacred significance, so what the hell!
One final point. the Lunar Monitors are nominally assigned one per file. A typical Monitor has a POW of 18 (that's not so extreme, really -- figure a typical monitor is 30-40 years old, with a starting POW of 14 -- like 10% of the population -- and even by the harsh RQ previous experience, they'll all have POWs of 18). This means that the monitor has 3 MPs available per other man in the file. Just about right for a nice Lunarized standard file length.
Ergo, 7 man files for Lunar hoplites becomes the norm.
Now, how about Peltasts and Antelope Lancers? Well, obviously peltasts don't have "files", and neither do Lancers, really. However, Peltasts certainly have Monitors, and once the 7:1 ratio of monitors to men became the norm, the Peltasts would be organized similarly. Hence, the Silver Shields are in 7 man groups, one of whom is a monitor.
However, cavalry is different. They don't have monitors. It's too hard to do the magic while trying to ride a horse and all that. Besides, learning to be a mounted warrior is pretty damn tough, and most monitors spent their time learning magic, not horsemanship. So no monitors for the Lunar cavalry (another reason why the Cavalry Corps is separate from the rest of the army; organization on the most fundamental level is different). So the cavalry are simply organized by squadron. If a smaller group of cavalry is needed for a policing mission, the officer in charge assigns someone as boss and sends 'em out. Since the cavalry probably rides two abreast, they'd need an even number, and 10 is a nice round number. Therefore, we end up with the Antelope Lancers going in 10 man units when on patrol.
Satisfied?
End of Glorantha Digest V1 #204
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