I don't think anyone has criticised this idea as such, we're just confused by the apparent suggestion that this was The Rule. It can't be an RQ2 holdover (often a synonym for "God-Learner construct"), since in Them There Days, one didn't "half strength heaing", one had a separate spell.
Paul Reilly retrospective agrees with some of what I suggested about
Pelorian formations, and then wonders:
> The Millenium
> 1 commander, 10 officers, 100 noncoms, 1000 soldiers. Some debate as to
> whether it should be this or 1,9,90,900 (total 1000). Wrote this up at some
> point but forget if I ever posted it to the Net.
For the Dara Happans, 1, 10, 100, 1000, since this then makes, as running totals, the other DH "magic numbers", 1, 11, 111, 1111...
> Seven cohorts made up a Lunar Legion,
> c. 2451 men (with a General commanding).
This would be troublesome, I suspect, since it makes a much bigger entity than a conventional phalanx. Have to tear up all those old books of large-scale formations, redraw supply lines, and try and coordinate different sizes of large unit on the battlefield.
Nick Brooke tries the philosopher's Outflanking manoeuver (when refuted,
agree heatedly):
> > They synthesised the C&A cult, constructed Grandfather
> > Mortal, etc.
> Which proves my point. There used to be stories about Wild Man, Old Man,
> Grandfather, Father Malkion, First Man, Ancestral Man, etc. When the God
> Learners finished with him, there were stories about Grandfather Mortal. If
> that's not a "whittling-down process", those words must mean something
> different in Glasgow.
Certainly does. Hereabouts, "whittle down" does not mean any of: "make up a new term for"; "stick disparate things together" or "Invent Zistor the Machine God out of a warped subconscious". If linguistic contortions have produced these denotations Down South, then we must be agreeing, albeit in a very unlikely fashion.
Alex.
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