Someone (Andrew Joelson ?) asked for a link between Fronela
and Dragon Pass.
Here is my opininion on the subject.
The lunar empire has many territories in Dragon Pass (Tarsh,
Sartar) and plan to expand its influence on the rest. It has
a frontier with Fronela with the Western Reaches (aka Carmania).
In Fronela, next to the Kingdom of War, there are people who
were lunars, the Arrolians. In time of dire needs, they may
remember the invincible lunar legions and accept to pay tribute
and homage to the red emperor. The same can be said of the
Redlands and the frontier with Pent.
It is fortunate that someone is building castles at the frontier with Charg, they will be useful when the situation is clarified in Fronela and the victor marchs to the east.
As I see thing, one of the worst nightmare of the lunar general staff is called coordinated invasions from two directions. The lunar army is professional and due to logistics, rather small. They don't have the manpower to crush invasions from Pent and Dragon Pass or Fronela if they happen within the same week. That is why Argrath freed Sheng Seleris from Hell.
The lunars could raise more troops to be able to fend off this threat. But the taxes would be so high that the only way to keep the empire unified would be to become like the kingdom of war.
As a side note, I disagree with Nick Brookes on the subject of Bosnia during WWI. After the Gallipoli expedition, the troops were stationned at Thessaloniki in Greece. From there they attacked along the Vardar River and in the end freed Belgrade from the Austrians. The army had Serbian, French and maybe British soldiers in it.
Now, about the Kingdom of War. I think that they have two kind of soldiers: those who fight and those who strike terror in the heart of their foes. The terror soldier are just psychotic killers, they are skilled but a standing army can beat them. When the kingdom army is on the march, the terror soldiers raid, pillage, kill civilians, erect heads pyramid in order to herd the population to the cities. During the siege, made by the other part of the army, they devastate the countryside. A relief army cannot forage, is demoralized by the atrocities and is weakened. If the relief army breks the siege, the defender have to rebuild the entire region and are vulnerable to the next invasion. If the KoW wins, well, tapped peasants will be happy to work for Lord Death on a Horse, and they don't need much. Even Jonating farmer live in luxury and peace compared to the KoW peasants.
Jean
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #211
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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