>Why would
>ANYONE bother to raid nomads?
Horseflesh, reprisals, weapons, leather goods etc.
>Sure, you can burn their yurts, but
>everything they own is mobile, so the wealth basically runs away.
The stuff in the yurts will not run away but has to be packed away.
Martin Laurie
> >???? A horseman with two or three remounts can cover considerably more than
> >this per day (the Mongols regularly covered 60 KMs per day and could exceed
> >80 km is pressed) and should easily outpace a footman.
> >Remounts says it all, doesn't it? The average nomadic clan is
> >not going to be able to outfit all its riders with remounts,
> >considering that excess ridable horses are usually surrendered
> >to another clan bigger than you.
>The average nomad has a couple of remounts, they measure their wealth in
>horsesand when they are riding to war, they will use them
The average nomadic _warrior_ has a couple of remounts and not all horses that the horse nomads have a suitable for riding. This will be especially pronounced among the pure horse folk considering that they also use their horses for _food_.
>and I disagree that excess horses were surrendered to a bigger
>clan, this only happened in war and was not that common.
Tribute can be paid in peacetime to avoid being whacked.
> >And a Rathori can sneak to within firing range and take him out
> >with a single shot.
>And then he is noticed to be missing within a couple of hours, plenty
>of time to move the camp and issue warning.
A military camp might be packable within three hours but the average domestic yurts are not.
> >[The Rathori] can close in on a weak and isolated Yurt.
>Which would imply strong numbers, at least 100 raiders. Even a weak
>clan can field 50-100 warriors.
Why would a clan travel altogether in one place? The Praxians don't.
> >There are large amounts of rough terrain in any steppe. And who
> >is doing the hunting? The yurt that has just been raided or
> >another yurt? Would the latter yurt bother to send help?
>Because a clan is part of a tribe and a tribal khan has obligation to
>defend his people,
The CharUn are all one tribe and the last time I looked, the Khan was excessively corrupted by the latest lunar fashion. Given that he probably most of his fortune by hiring out cossacks to the Lunars, it doesn't seem that honoring tradition obligations rates to highly on his list.
>plus if the Rathori are allowed to get away with it, then they
>will come again, and who will be next?
The weaker clans, which wouldn't concern the wealthier clans overly much.
>Even if the Rathori did defeat a yurt, they would have a hell of a job
>getting out with theirr loot, especially as they can't ride the horses and
>the horses would not want to go with them and would resist.
Horses are not the only loot in a yurt.
Steve Lieb:
> > Since the CharUn use their horses for food, very few of the
> > hoofprints represent a mounted rider. And they would be able
> > to tell by the depth of the hoofprints whether it carries a
> > rider or not.
>If the Char Un use them for food, and most of the hoofprints represent
>beasts sans riders, doesn't that mean that they'd have LOTS of remounts?
No, for the simple reason that most horses are unfit for riding, just like most trollkin are unfit for warrior duties.
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