> I've been going through the Dragon Pass area material, wondering what
> will happen when war does break out. One of the things that didn't
> seem to make much sense was the new material on the Blackhorse Troop.
> Nice flavor, but way too many troops.
Erm, you should realise IMO that Blackhorse County is an outgrowth of the Troop, not vice-versa : it therefore makes sense that such a huge proportion of the local population is soldiery.
> Ignoring for a while the "capital" of Muse Roost, a knight driven
> feodal society like this should be composed of 200 villages of about a
> hundread people.
A normal society yes, which Blackhorse County _isn't_ IMO.
> Every village has a knight as a manor lord, and the
> knight has a fev squires with him.
>
> From this we get an elite body of 200 knights and 400 of the less
> armored and less skilled cavalry.
[Snip]ped analysis generally a good one, but misapplied in the specific case of the BHT, which is more in the line of being an exception that proves the rule.
Morgan :
> "I think Ehilrists troops don't have stirrups"
>
> What's the scoop on this for Glorantha in general? Our group was
> debating whether 2 handed swords could be used from horseback, which
> would only be possible with stirrips.
In a German fantasy/sci-fi movie I once saw (can't remember the title), one of the warrior characters does exactly that, to quite devastating effect. He fights in the film on one flank of the horse only, leaning outward and sideways (effectively, facing away from his mount & so having all necessary space for his weapon, plus the power and maneuvaribility of the horse) ; the technique relied on perfect control of the horse with his knees and voice commands IIRC. Possibly, secure attachment of torso to saddle would be far more useful than stirrups with this technique, although stirrups were indeed in use.
Julian Lord
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