Recently Peter Metcalf wrote
>Loskalm could have professional light infantry in their army but are
>too engrossed in maintaining their idealism to come to terms with the
>harsh necessities of military realism. Which is why the Kingdom of War
>is beating them...
and David Cake wrote
>To the Loskalmi way of life, soldier is only a step on the way to
>knight. So why would you want training in fighting light, missile arms, >and
>skirmishing tactics, as all that will become irrelevent once you become a
>knight?
> They are misguided, of course, but the Loskalmi fighting tradition
>has for the last few decades been used either against opponents with no
>real
>military training, or to impress the girls and show off to your betters. It
>has been a long time since they have had a serious war. Boy, are they >going
>to get their butts kicked when they meet the Kingdom of War (who field >just
>about everything).
Obviously if this thread continues unopposed all of Fronela and possibly all
of Glorantha is going to be conquered by that band of bloodthirsty lunatics
called the Kingdom of War.So I have come up with the following.
According to G:CHW "The Loskalmi Army is one of the best in the world."We are
told that Their battalions consist of both knights and armored footmen. Half
these footmen are heavy inf. carrying "spears, swords, and large shields"the
other half are light Inf. carrying "crossbows swords and smaller shields."
Furthermore the commanding Noble Battle battalion has "3000 elite
footsoldiers" in addition to it's cavalry. That these soldiers are "elite"
indicates that the Loskalmi know how to use them. And as Steve Stair pointed
out in #159 the fact that all Loskalmi officers have "come up through the
ranks" means that they would have first hand experience in their use.
Concerning the Kingdom of War I'd like to point out that just because one
likes war it does not necessarily mean that one would make a good soldier, as
Adolf Hitler demonstrated. We know very little about these guys and it is
entirely possible that their initial successes are due to a blitzkrieg
mentality; when it comes time to make a strategic withdrawal they might
refuse to do so and suffer a horrendous defeat.
On the other hand, if extremists of the Imperialists movement mentioned in
issue 13 of TotRM (who want to convert Junora and Dona to Hrestoliism by
force of arms) gain control, the Kingdom of Loskalm might become little
better than the Kingdom of War, so I may be a little to optimistic about the
Loskalmi. But then I like to think I'm a bit of an idealist myself.
Mark
Mohrfield