>Praxian Yelmalio piquemen
>
>1. I always assumed that the best RW inspiration for Yelmalio piquemen was
>classical Greek and Macedonian piquemen. After reading the mentioned book I
>changed my mind: Yelmalion are the swiss (renaissance swiss piquemen) of
>Glorantha.
Without going into the details, the differences between the Swiss of the Renaissance and the Hoplites of the Greeks are not trivial. The troops of Sun County are definitely modeled after the Greeks. The Swiss tactics and composition was much more than a bunch of spearmen in heavy armor and doesn't fit the Sun County army at all IMO. The Swiss used various types of weapons, each with a specific purpose (the long spears to fight cavalry, the halberds to fight infantry, the riflemen to fight long distance). The greek infantry was uniform, much like the Templars.
>
>2. Yelmalion fight with piques and piques need poles. Correct me if I'm
>wrong, but poles are made of a single piece of wood. A pique's pole can be
>something between 3 and 6 meters long. That requires either a tree with
>long branches or with a long tronc.
>Now, Prax is semi-desertic so you wouldn't expect to find there the
>adequate trees for pique's poles. I started to wonder where do Yelmalion
>find te poles for their piques. (If there isn't an acceptable answer, no
>poles => no piques => no yelmalion on Prax. But we know there are yelmalion
>on Prax, don't we !?)
On page 18 of ROC, it states that lumber along the river plain north of Chomoro is scarce except for whitewood, but I believe whitewood is a soft wood not suitable for making spears. It states also on this page that the only productive forests are found in the north (I assume north of Pavis). However, south of Chomoro, the river valley is full of dwarf pine and hardwood trees. It is probably through trade from the north and trade from the south that the Templars get their wood (and in times of great need, maybe the armies occupy some of the forests to the south). The souther forests are probably where the Agimori and Lunar grantland troops get their wood as well.
Lee
Powered by hypermail