The Gloranthan art of war.
Sergio rises some questions, who have easier answers that proposed.
The yelmalions grow their pikestaffs, as any reasonable army does. To get a good pike staff (or bowstaff, or lance) you better grow the tree yourself, and ensure it grows straight. And you don't need to wait too long, as the whole tree becomes the weapon, more resistant that way.
So if you have a hectare (2.471 acres, you antimetrical saxons) of elm, close to the Zola Fel, and you space your trees some two meters (6 feet 8 inches) you have 2500 trees. I know elm was used for spears in the mediterranean region, and they are a hardy tree, just as they have a bit of water. 2500 are a bit too many pikes, so if each village keeps a small copse, with planting each time a boy is born (or initiated) and another when someone dies, you have all the pikes you need.
Tactics. According to RoC, the Yelmalions had light chariots, and the geas show they were good archers. Heavy infantry supported by chariots and archers is a quite nasty combination (the assyrians come to mind), and even without support, the greek hoplites (who the Templars resemble more than the pikemen, IMO) were mercenaries renowned in the ancient world (Xenophon, anyone).
The yelmalions are a good defensive force (specially if the militia does the sensible thing and uses bow and arrow instead of pike and shield). The use of shields and one handed spear (another gift), are more a hoplite thing than pikes. And small unit tactics (with the file as a tactical unit) are practical against small raiding forces. But the only way they have to defeat the nomads is either to make them charge them (and they must have learnt by now) or to attack their camps at night (Catseye and lantern, what are they good for?).
Of course that makes them good anti troll units, and that's why Tarkalor wanted them. I suspect the sartarite yelmalions have a bit of cavalry (overhand spear instead of couched lance) and many skirmishers, some peltast like and some archers.
The swiss fought in closer ranks than the Yelmalions, as they did not use shields, and that allowed also to use longer pikes, and a greater control, two things not considered in RQ. Shields were not very useful against heavy crossbows or firearms, anyway, but they are great against arrows, the biggest danger the Templars face.
The Yelmalions in Sun County are specialized as mercenaries for the nomads (who else could hire them the last five hundred years). So the support elements disappeared to leave the only thing the nomads could not provide, a core of dependable heavy infantry. Besides, they evolved a small unit organization to impede and punish any nomad depredation of their lands.
And they will have all the tricks infantry along the ages has developed to counter cavalry. Stakes, caltrops... Squares I feel are out of the picture, but a structure of supporting formations (8x8), with some covering the flanks while the center advances is quite possible.
And perhaps (to change the models) a round attack formation, like the scottish "Schiltron", the Yelm attack, ideal to break orlanthi shield walls.
Don't get fixed in a model, twist it. The Yelmalions are not greek or swiss, but a besieged people surrounded by foes they can never wholly defeat. So their tactics must show this. And they must be able to fight the foes they know, no some hypothetical enemy. Earth is a source, but imagination is as important.
Agimori.
The agimori are ideally suited to be light heavy infantry. They are fast, their long weapons are longer that their foes, they have longer range with their javelins. Personally I see them more as legionnaries than anything else. A rain of heavy missiles just before impact, and a heavy charge (more of weight than discipline in their case). Countercharging infantry are quite a shock for cavalry, and the nomads will be no different.
As a note, although some mounts in Glorantha will vary, animals don't like running against walls, which is why a solid infantry formation is very resistant to cavalry. When panic or disorder leave gaps, however, cavalry breaks through, and can win a series of individual fights.
It is already too long, so I will stop now.
Jose
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #268
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