combat in Glorantha

From: Carlson, Pam <carlsonp_at_wdni.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 95 09:52:00 PST

I've been following the SCA Shield Walls vs Real World Nasty Weapons debate.

I too have seen a few Pennsic Wars, and a shield wall is a pretty impressive thing - especially for holding a fixed point, like a bridgehead. And my RQ experience has been that shield walls stop small groups of charging horsemen, because you don't want to get your horse hurt. But I think Gloranthan combat has two features which make it more aggressive than most real world combat:

1. heal spells, and lack of infection from non-lethal wounds.
2. fanatical belief in your deity - Most PC's seem to be religious fanatics of some sort, and run screaming into certain doom for the glory of their gods, certain that the deity will either save their heinies or give 'em a glorious afterlife. While this attitude does exist in the real world, it's much rarer.

In short, I'm sure you could find a bunch of rabid Orlanthi willing to run "low and fast" into a file of hoplites, but after a while you'd run out of Orlanthi capable of succeeding.

Question: How effective were soldiers behind shield walls at defending themselves once the walls were broken?

Pam

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