>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.
This is weapon use, not battlefield savvy. The Loskalmi Knights have almost certainly gained most of their experience by means other than battle experience as no major wars have been fought by the Army during the ban and yet they still have sufficent numbers in the Knight caste.
The situation on the battle field requires more than being able to hold your weapon. One has to know when to run and when not to run. For example, if an enemy (even only a few knights) appears on the rear, your green troops are going to think 'Oh Shit, we're surrounded!' and try to flee the battlefield before they supposedly get cut to pieces. Normally this would be solved by having experienced veterans in the infantry brigades. But Loskalm _promotes_ its veteran footsoldiers to become mounted warriors. Thus the infantry is being robbed of a stabilising force and only one veteran footsoldier unit exists in Loskalm.
It is in areas like this that Loskalm is woefully ignorant. They try to solve it with stuff like Battlefield Elan. But what they really need is realism on the battlefield. Chivalry is dead and Loskalm doesn't know it yet.
David Cake:
[on Harrek]
> The guys a super-hero, Nick. He is one of the most powerful
>magicians of his age, the magical equal of Jar-Eel or perhaps even Arkat.
[Throws up in disgust]
I Strongly Disagree. When Harrek massacres an army unit, does he roar his head off and carve the enemy into little pieces or does he cast a spell to kill them? Harrek Is Not A Magician.
G. Winter:
>I am wondering how long its been since the KOW fought a war. They were
>caught up by the Ban & probably started by fighting amongst themselves,
>eventually they were united by a strong leader & started studying war full
>time. Have they had the opportunity to fight wars with smaller countries
>coming out from under the Ban or is the current conflict their first major
>military experience since the ban.
I suspect Lord Death on a Horse took absolute power in 1618 for that is when they started trying to take territory. Prior to that they were raiders from their release from the ban in 1612. I suspect that they had continued this in a ritualistic setting (much like the Flowery Wars of Moctezumas propoganda) while they were under the ban. They have conquered Perfe as of 1620 so obviously they have had ample experience in fighting.
>How much experience do they have with exotic cult magic? In DP one of the
>tricks is to avoid being the targets of the Earth shakers or having moon rock
>dropped on you. I bet fighting power sorcerers has different consequences.
I don't think the Loskalmi have exotic magic units. Furthermore I don't think fighting is much like Dragon Pass in which wars last 30 days at the most. The Kingdom of War acutally does most of its conquests by raiding and attrition. Eventually people flee the area and the Kingdom of War expands. Every now and then, someone gets sick of the Kingdom of War and sends an army. Lord Death on a Horse then musters his army and proceeds to destroy it in a seasons campaigning. While the foes are licking their losses, the Kingdom of War starts raiding the next area so that it will eventually fall into their hands. They aren't so hot on siege warfare which is what slows them up. They counter this by depopulating the countryside so that eventually the enemy in the stronghold realises that his position is unsustainable (due to lack of food or people) and has to retreat to friendly ground.
Loren Miller:
HARREK'S ANTI MAGIC
>Naturally, Harrek does the same thing Conan does when people cast
>magic against him. He refuses to believe it can affect him, and since
>his will is so strong, it can't. In his presence, hostile magic
>becomes a mere hallucination. When he's nearby he can protect other
>people by telling them to believe the same way, and in the area
>around him those beliefs actually work! They don't work elsewhere.
Capital!! Capital!!! A Sterling Effort!!! [Claps hands...] Yes, this sounds excellent but I don't believe that Harrek tells his boon companians that magic doesn't work (cf the centrepiece in the Glorantha Book of G:CotHW where several of Harrek's Friends are casting magic. What I think is the case is that Harrek believes that it won't work on them....
Mark Smylie:
>Are war/battle gods that happen to emphasize foot fighting totally
>ignored in the KoW, or have they been altered by KoW cultic practice
>into horse-related gods ("dragoonized", in effect)?
I presume so. Take for instance Zorak Zoran. Everybody knows of their Troll Berserkers who cannot be beaten for a Frontal Charge. The War worshippers of him, IMO, emphasize his brutality and cruelty (don't be taken prisioner by these folks!) in battle. They also are expert in ambushes and in night fighting (think of how Vlad the Impaler drove back the Turks). As for the association with horses, I think their attitude towards them is more like a medieval knight than a Pentan nomad.
The Kingdom of War does appear to accept the use of mercenaries from Rathorela, Jonatela and so on. I think these make up the infantry force when Lord Death on a Horse needs one. Alternatively they spend their time acting as tax collectors and all those boring jobs the Warlords disdain, like garison duty for instanse.
>Mounted berserkers (despite bison-riding Storm
>Khans) have always struck me as something of a contradiction, and I assume
>that somewhere in the KoW are folks that follow Pole Star (who, with his
>emphasis on Dance and Discipline, has always struck me as a candidate for
>unofficial god of pikes) or, as I think Nick Brooke suggested, gods/spirits
>similar to the Granite Phalanx wyters.
I think people are reading too much into the line that the Kingdom of War claims to worship All War Gods. I do not think that they worship or even know of Vangono (War God of the Doraddi) for instance.
As for Polestar, I do not believe that the KoW worship him. He is more of a god of generalship and parades rather than a war god. In Peloria, he is not a fighting god but co-ordinates the activities of the fighters (more like a Brithini Talar in battle). This was a concious cultic adaption by the Dara Happans. I believe the Pentans see him as the guardian of a campfire instead of a heavenly general.
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