Re: The Glorantha Digest V7 #506 from Roderick and Ellen Robertson on 2000-03-31 (Glorantha Digest Vol 07)

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_sierratel.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 11:12:52 -0800

> Good, but...
> One thing that always intrigued me about Gloranthan warfare is the almost
> complete absence of War Chariots. Still this device was well used by many
> ancient armies, up to the diffusion of Bridle/saddle and other serious
> cavalry gear (in the early middle ages, after the fall of the Western
Roman
> Empire, I deem).

I asked Greg specifically on this subject (as War Czar), and there are the only two chariot users in Glorantha.

The East Wilds Orlanthi use chariots (on the Irish or Pre-Roman Briton model), while the lunars have a unit of chariot/fast wagon-mounted light artillery (The Deretinites, who require specialized magic to stabilize the weapons).

Now, earlier in Imperial history, there *were* chariots (used in a Mycenean way, to ferry elite warriors around the battlefield), but infantry learned to stand against them, so the Imperial warrior cultures gradually abandoned them. Cavalry and Stirrups put paid to chariot warfare, at least in Peloria.

Remember that there are mixed technologies at work in Glorantha, so while it may look like a Bronze-age world, things like Stirrups *have* been invented. A chariot is not as agile as a similar number of men mounted on horseback, can't take the same punishment (lose a wheel or a horse, and the chariot is "dead"), and isn't quite as flexible tactically as cavalry, being unable to go places horsemen can.

Roderick

End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #507