>The Kingdom of War seems like a load of bollocks to me. The rate
at >which it consumes resources, human resources, far out weighs the
>rate at which resources can be assimilated. Tapping is an
extremely >inefficient process. The armed forces of the KOW are
going to be >rapidly diluted from the elite core (corps?) from which
they began. >Attrition and assimilation of inferior forces makes
this inevitable. >Where do they get these new recruits from ?
TAPPING: Tapping is not primarily used to give the KoW magic. Its main function is to ensure that a very small number of overseers can control a very large number of serfs. This makes it very efficient indeed. The Jonatings have to assign a fairly large proportion of their army to repressing, taxing, and organizing their own farmer population. This also enables the KoW to exact taxes at a far higher rate than any other nation -- almost all of the peasants' labor is taken for the use of the KoW. A typical oppressive government in Glorantha is lucky if it gets 10% of its population's increase. Thus, the KoW's peasants, while individually less productive than a free man, provide a vastly larger amount of resources to their rulers.
ASSIMILATING RESOURCES
Assumptions:
(1) 4 slave-peasants are needed to support 1 Kingdom Warrior in reasonable efficacy.
(2) 1 warrior, during his lifetime, is able to enslave 4 new serfs. (Not really that high a rate of conquest).
(3) The warriors replace themselves each generation. (4) The warriors recruit new warriors out of the peasantry no faster than they can support them. (5) The KoW is so harsh that each generation under its rule_halves_ the peasant population.
Now look at the numbers.
If we start with a band of 100 KoW warriors, they'll need 400 serfs. After one generation, 200 serfs are left. In that time, the warriors have conquered a new group of 400 serfs. They now have 600 serfs, and can increase their warband's size to 150 (remember this is taking 30-40 years to accomplish). In the next generation, they are down to 300 remaining serfs from the former group, but their new size of 150 enables them to conquer 600 more peasants. This means that they can recruit up to a size of 225.
This continues at a geometric rate and like all geometric advances, it gets gross after a while. In ten generations, the Kingdom Warriors are 5800 strong. Note that the original serf population died out (became negligable) after only 3-4 generations. The Kingdom Warriors have conquered a total area containing 400,000 serf peasants, but only 23,000 are still alive!!
This shows what a terrible scourge they represent! In ten generations, the total population of the land will be only 6% of what it was before the KoW came.
ATTRITION AND DILUTION
Attrition is not a problem for the KoW. In ancient wars, it
was unusual for a battle to inflict high casualties on both sides.
Typically either both sides had low casualty rates, or else one side
suffered very heavily while the other side was comparatively
unscathed. (source: Ardant du Picq) A Roman soldier could expect to
soldier through his lifetime and go through many battles, and never
lose one of his close comrades. The same is true for the KoW. They
pretty much never lose a battle, and so their warrior supply remains
only little-altered from fight to fight.
Dilution is not a problem for the KoW. They do not incorporate other army's troops into their army, but exclusively raise their warriors from the age of 8 to the age of 20 or so as warriors. This _is_ a rather slow process, but it gives them fine warriors, indeed.
VULNERABILITIES
The KoW has a small, but elite force. This means that if it
ever _did_ lose a serious battle, its progress would be enormously
slowed, even stopped entirely. Think of the battle of Manzikert --
the Byzantines lost their whole army, and were not ever able to
replace it. They were hard, but brittle, like the KoW.
If this _did_ happen to the KoW, would they be able to react flexibly enough to change their tactics? Maybe. But it might not matter, if the army that defeated them did so by adopting the KoW's tactics. The now-defeated Kingdom Warriors may be able to get jobs in their conqueror's armed services, and continue their campaign, for the glory of a different ruler, it is true.
Sandy P.
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #226
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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