I've just missed the big Esrolian Women Warriors debate as my email is at work and I spent the weekend with my wife and son! So at the risk of catching fire I'll have a little say. Don't worry if yu don't agree there is no requirement to believe anything I say...
Now imagine the Esrolian army. They would quite a few men for close order infantry with big shields and big spears. Just stand in a mass and run at the enemy when your officer shouts and shove really hard until the enemy crumbles (or you do..).
Women may join the army as officers (men cannot). Good men might be promoted to NCO positions and most women who joined as nonofficers would quickly become NCOs. These would form the core which the militia was formed around. Exceptional men might be promoted to officer but these would rarely make it very high and would never get onto the staff side. Thus the majority of the officer corps would be women with a few talented men. Now this may sound strange and imply that most of the officers would be useless, but remember that upbringing would rule out most of the arguements.
I would also see some elite womens regiments which would be all but closed to men. The Babeester Gor Beserkers (heavy armoured axe wielding infantry) all members must be initiates of BG and the unit would have the same role and reputation as the Varangian Guard. In fact the regimental title would be the Queen's Own Babeester Gor Body Guard (BGBG). Also their would be elite lighter troops where physical strength and size are less important than in a hoplite phalanx. Imagine fast leather armoured companies armed with bows.
Finally, remember the magical support is almost entirely provided by women.
As to cavalry, remember the following and think about the effect on cavalry.
Mutinies are unlikely as their a few male officers and leaders. Also their is a tradition of following women not men. After all everyone knows that men fall apart in a crisis.
As for expansionism, this is male thinking, especially WRT military expansionism. A peaceful take-over is much to be preferred as it does not muck-up the economy or cause too many deaths in the population. So Esrolia is defensively strong, but does not encourage wars as they waste resources.
I see the Esrolian way of war as using the male spearmen to form big, unmanouverable units which provide shelter for lighter, elite women units to attack from. The levy are not well equiped or trained but there are alot of them so you can't ignore them. When you engage them you get flank charged by a bunch of maniacs who want to cut your goolies off!
While not very militarily efficient this would make Esrolia a tough nut to crack. Basically, you would need huge resources (a Sartarite clan would not have a chance!).
So all-in-all I agree with many of the points that have been raised, but I choose to put them together in a rather different way. As for the discussions on size and strength in martial arts they are all valid but nobody has mentioned the crux. In any martial art, but especially soft ones, skill is the most important factor. If that little old woman is a grand master MR MUSCLE MAN has not got a chance unless he is also very skilled. Strength and size help but skill is what counts.
Thus if the women have the skill they will beat less skilled men unless they get involved in a shoving match. Ho, brave Sartarite Warriors I need 1000 volunteers to charge up that hill at 1000 bow women. And to make things even more fun we will have to thread our way past the calthrops, punji-pits and stakes while they are shooting us! And finally even if we get to the top they will probably just run off to the next hill-top where they have prepared another defensive position! Alternatively, we can nip of to the next-door tribe and steal a few cows and have a big booze-up afterwards...
So, if Esrolia has a matriarchy then there is little problem in coming up with any number of ways to make them tough. All I say is pick whatever seems good to you.
Cheers
Lewis
Agreeing with the many, but doing it my way!
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