>I've always had a problem with the Agrimori using pikes. My understanding
>has been that pike phalanxes need to drill a fair bit if they're going to be
>effective. I can't see hunter nomads having the discipline or the
>opportunities to drill.
Hunter nomads have _more_ free time than sedentary people (and are healthier too). Much of their nutritional needs is met by womens work (cf the Entekosiad's 'How the Men got Useful' for a Pelorian understanding of this). The disadvantage of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle is that it can support _less_ people per unit area (tenfold is a good rule of the thumb). As for the discipline, it's needed so the Agimori can maintain their lifestyle in the face of competition from the animal nomads.
>IMG I've made the Agrimori peltasts instead. [...] This reduces the
>discipline they need yet keeps them deadly. (Makes 'em more like the
>Zulus too-I know the Zulus didn't use long spears) .
The Zulus never had to cope with enemy cavalry and they could barely win against rifled infantrymen when the latter were fumbling with screwdrivers. The main problem the Agimori have to cope with is the nomad cavalry charge. If they scatter, they're doomed. If they equip themselves as peltasts (on the plains of prax), they're liable to scatter and thus doom themselves. But if they stand firm and present a row of points to the charging cavalry, the nomad animals (save the rhinos) are more likely to turn away than commit suicide.
Those who wonder how the Sun Domers of Prax managed to keep their pikes should know that they didn't. They were conquered by nomad overlords sometime after the dragonkill and at times resembled a large grouping of oasis folk rather than the society of Sun County.
It wasn't until the reign of Narokoris the wise (1458 to 1498) that the people of Sun County became trained 'once again' to the drill of spear and shield (Sun County p5). At this time, the Kingdom of Tarsh is established in Dragon Pass so I imagine that some long distance trade was taking place.
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