Pentan force distribution

From: Svechin_at_...
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2002 19:32:22 EDT

> > > In a "typical" Pentan military unit, (in our case, raiding the
> > > Lunars) what percent would be light horse archers vs. heavy
> > > lancers? Thanks.
> >
> > Since the Pentans go through an age structure with different
> > fighting abilities, every rider (archer) that survives becomes
> > a warrior (lancer). Hence I expect a 60:40 ratio between
> > archers and lancers at the most. More archers are possible
> > if some pentans in the warrior age group still choose to
> > fight as archers.

I agree with Peter's ratio. The leaders of some of the rider groups would be warriors and would fight as lights but the riders are too ill equipped to fight as heavy cavalry, plus, given their age, they are likely to have the worst mounts and poorest equipment, thus the role suits them.

The warriors would also have divisions within their ranks. The poorer warriors would be leading the horse archer swarms while the richer, elite warriors, with heavier ponies and armour would form the bodyguards for the various chieftains and khans. It is these men who would be the mass of decision for a Pentan army.

So a Pentan horde of 10,000 warriors would have

6000 Riders (Horse Archers)

1000 Warriors (Horse Archers, bow, lasso, no or minimal armour)
2000 Warriors (Medium cavalry, bow, lance, light armour)
1000 Warriors (Heavy Cavarly, lance, shield (or two handed lance and no 

shield), sword and heavy armour (laminate usually)

Given such a low percentage of heavies, the Pentan horde would use the time honoured traditions of feints, arrow swarms and flanking attacks to force multiply.

There would be shifts in the above totals depending on how rich the horde was through conquest of civilised lands or through contact via trade (eg the Char-un have far more heavies due to their constant interaction with the Empire). A horde from inner Pent would look like the above.

Martin Laurie