Actually, nothing about their frequency within the regular troops was said.
>Dammit, not only have I never seen any material anywhere that says the Empire
>conscripts troops
MOB's previews on Soldiers of the Red Moon had characters almost like conscripts, i.e. country boys with little or no other choice but the Imperial troops.
>but I don't believe it. Conscription is needed when your
>back is to the wall and you are facing defeat unless you get every damn man
>into the fight. Not when you're expanding and there's land and loot to be won.
The Lunar Empire hasn't been expanding that much recently. The last "conquest" was that of the lower River of Cradles Valley, which yielded just five or so domains of land in the delta region and a few plots around Pavis, eleven years ago. Hardly sufficient to take even a fraction of all the retiring professionals (of the regular units) after 20 years of service.
Precious little is known about the occupation troops in Sartar of 1622 - the Tarshite Fazzurite house troops will have retreated (or been ordered back home, amounting to the same effect), and the replacements will all be eaten four years later.
My guess is that there are mostly Provincial forces present in Sartar. The Provincials are probably the least regular of the standing Lunar units, being "Orlanthi" in nature. The Native Furthest seem to be the Royal Tarshite Army rather than the dispatched occupation forces. Fazzur's staff comes from all over the Provinces, with a small core of Heartland personnel. The same will be true for his troops...
Other troops known to serve in Sartar are the Lunar Allies. Char-un serve on every border, and so do Carmanian mercenary knights.
The Provincial Army is mostly composed of "Orlanthi" "volunteers" from the subject kingdoms. I don't know exactly how the volunteers are rounded up, but one possible way is to enter the village and demand a quota of either army volunteers or slaves for the Empire.
Prior to Fazzur's dismission late 1621, I suppose that there will be a considerable number of Orindori "Landsknecht" troops from Fazzur's 1613 task force, in addition to other Provincial Army forces.
Personally, I'd like to make use of more troops unable to speak Theyalan or to understand Orlanthi codes of honour. This makes the occupators even more alien than just wearing some moon symbol on their shields. This means more auxilia, be they Praxian hirelings, Grazer hirelings, Balazaring hirelings, or far allies. Maybe some "Lodrilite" Pelorians, too, or Dara Happan lower class people. Poor sods not knowing what hits them even when they face a "set battle" with naked screaming Orlanthi charging at them... Think of the Roman 9th Legion against the Picts, the first Roman encounter with the joint forces of Cimbri et Teutones, or Varus' three Legions at Teutoburger Wald.
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #1
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