> >>The deep Rathori forests are at best 100km away from the large
> >>cities and their hinterlands of Eastpoint (pop 100,000),
> >>Southbank (pop 80,000) and Riverjoin (pop 120,000) and the
> >>medium cities of Glastar (pop 100,000) and Zoria (pop 50,000).
> >The population figures you quote are _total_ populations
> >of the city states, not the populations of the cities
> >themselves which are markedly smaller. A city of one
> >hundred thousand souls is something you'll find only in
> >Sog City, Nochet etc.
> >Aha! If you read what I said in my paragraph, you'll note that I said
> >"from the large cities and their hinterlands" [...]
Alright.
> >This indicates that cities like Eastpoint may well
> >have around 15000 people.
For a population base of only 100,000 this is stretching it quite some distance.
> >The upper Janubian cities are by no means densely populated
> >states - they are isolated cities in the wop-wops
>They aren't densely populated by Pelorian standards, but Riverjoin has
>120,000 people in an area at _most_ 100km by 200km which would take its
>land up to the forest border.
And the Kingdom of War is to blame for this curious state of affairs. Riverjoin has a shitload of refugees from the recent fall of Perfe and a vast reduction in territory.
> >By definition a large city is the equivalent of a Roman provincial capital
> >like Lugdanensis or Antioch, therefore it is in the heart of civilisation.
> >Look at the density of cities in and around Loskalm, Dara Happa
> >and Safelster. Those places are the heart of civilization, not
> >remote places like the Upper Janube valley.
>I'm not saying they are the "heart" of civilisation,
Pardon me, but you did say exactly that above.
>but they do have large cities and they have enough density of people to
>attempt to equal the Sartari fight against their raiding Hsunchen, the
>Telmori, who are more effective than the Rathori in fighting as a group
>anyway.
The Telmori don't really need tactics. They fight in a group because that's their totemic tradition. The Arrolians OTOH are not even half as good as Sartarites in fighting. They are Pelorians who fled rather than take up arms against Sheng Seleris. For them to be stalwart doughty fighters kind of repudiates their reasons for coming here.
> >What strong force? They have "a small number of professional
> >soldiers"
>What does this mean? Small as opposed to Loskalm? Small as a
>percentage of population?
A small number seems pretty clear.
>Besides professional soldiers are not everything.
When it does say that what other forces it can rely on are "ragged peasants and city dwellers", it's clear that the professional soldiers are pretty much all they have and not Thematic Byzantine part-timers.
> >We were talking about "a quick reaction and warning system", not
> >a "response ability". As said before, the Janubians do not have
> >any amount of forces to deal with raiders effectively.
>You don't need much. I'm not talking regiments or serried ranks of
>cataphracts or anything. The local lord should have a couple of
>dozen men in his employ, he summons his peasants and yeoman,
Already we are handling non-Arrolian concepts. The Arrolians are at heart a community of equals.
>The Byzantines developed a simple strategy for raids. They would often
>ignore the raid force until after it had raided, position themselves at the
>point of exit for the raiders and then slaughter the laden raiders with ease.
And given the vast border between Arrolia and Rathorela, where exactly is this point of exit? The geography is nothing like Anatolia.
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