I blame Bill Gates myself. (Again.)
> What i am trying to work out is some suitably gloranthan reasons
> (traditional or mythic) as to why [file/squad sizes are what they are].
Well, of course the _real_ reason is that you want a "squad" which corresponds to the size of a file in some sensible formation. So this determines at least the ballpark figure. Once some particular number has been used (successfully) a few times, it becomes a tradition all by itself.
I can't give a justification of why (or even whether) eight is a magic number for the Pelandans.
> For the lunars it appears easy to build a case for the use of 7 (lots of
> precedent for it being a popular number, 7 mothers, 7 phases of the moon etc).
> I can see the bureaucrats now "yeah, lets reorganise the army into a 7 x 7 x 7 x
> 7 legion, the Moonson will love it".
BTW, I think that if the 7^4 organisation was ever tried, it was on a one or two "legion" basis, not the whole army. And as I suggested before, it probably wouldn't be very successful, either.
> this ties in with what the boys in Sun County
> are doing (and you can bet that if that's the system they're using now,
> its the system they've always been using).
Who them, the people whose god and history changes every five minutes? ;-)
> >Dara Happan versions of the phalanx would have a more formal hierarchy,
> >with a 10 (men) x 10 (files) x 10 ("squares") being the obvious Yelmic
> >structure.
> do the Yelmies see 10 as an obvious number
I'd think so, yes. GRAY keeps banging on about things being organised into neat decimal sequences, as well as quarters. "Nelsons" also seem to be significant (1 + 10 + 100 = 111 ( + 1000 + 10000 + 100,000 = 111,111), and so on). Plus a 10 x 10 "century" will be pleasingly regular to the DH eye. I can't go quite so far as to cite you a "Why The Number 10 is Brilliant" myth, but there seems enough evidence to be going on with that it's a "nice" number.
> while the Yelamions have stayed with the traditional 8 ?
This one is pretty tricky, not least because the history of Sun County is so arguable. Sun County suggests that the SCers are very fond of varying their formation by doubling the numbers of ranks, and halving the numbers of files, or vice versa, so having a basic "squad" which is a power of two is handy.
Sandy ordains:
> 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. [...]
> (ie., there was no standard depth [of file], it seems)
I suspect Pelorian (of whichever sort) phalanxes have "semi-standard" depths, chosen as multiples or simple fractions of the notional file length (or vice versa, if you'd rather). Thus you'll often see units with variously 7-man and 14-man files in identical formations (say) 7 deep. The choice of supposed file size may reflect their "preferred" formation, but could easily be of mainly historical significance.
I agree that 8 was probably the de facto standard of depth of formation, but this needn't mean that the Official File Size was eight. Files of 16 could have come about from an early 15:1 shoutee:shoutor ratio in the Pelandan army, or something equally arbitrary.
> 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.
I think that even at this point, different tradiotions are at work. The Pelandans "invent" an 8-man-file phalanx, though on occassion they also use 16-man files. This is modified by the Dara Happans into a more "regular", standardised 10-man-file regiments. So there are 8, 10, and 16 versions floating around, with the DH 10 gaining ground over the others.
> The Yelmalions likely double this to 16, since they use much
> longer pikes and apparently have a different type of phalanx.
The Sun Domers have (very) heavy cavalry to contend with, which surely encourages a deeper, more solid formation. If the bison charge breaks your line, as it might by sheer momentum, you're in deep, Bugger Underling level, trouble.
Of the Lunar army fighting Dara Happans and other phalanx-types:
> [...] 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.
This was roughly my own thinking. However, I suspect that the ancient Pelandan phalanx was semi-extinct by this point, and the Dara Happan version was the norm. So cutting down from 10 to 7 is a more significant change. In effect, the Lunars are "reviving" the Pelandan formation, but modifying it for their purposes.
So I think that in the modern army, one sees files/squads of variously 7, 8, 10, 14, and 16. This is a bit of a mess, but as Sandy points out, it's purely an internal matter for each phalanx's organisation, so it doesn't really screw anyone up. I bet it winds the bureaucrats up so end, though. I think that "centuries", though, are pretty standard, and have been since Dara Happan times, as well as the approximate size of a whole phalanx. Conspicuously under- or over-sized units at these levels would start to introduce tactical and logistical complications. Which is of course why the army (would) hate the 7^4 idea.
Alex.
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