Re: Re: Blackhorse numbers - clarification

From: Mikko Rintasaari <mikrin_at_...>
Date: Wed, 01 Jan 2003 21:51:42 +0200 (EET)


On Tue, 31 Dec 2002, Jeff <jeff.kyer_at_...> wrote:

<snip>
> > I was just surprised of how seriously people defend the notion of
> 3500
> > strong demon cavalry squad (don't the demons eat meat even!) sitting
> > nicely in the corner of Dragon Pass.
>
> Because its been canonical from the days of White Bear & Red Moon?

It has, of course. But Greg himself is quick to rework old material when he thinks he can make it fit better. No need to stick to chapter and verse I think.

It's not as if White Bear & Red Moon had a lot of sociological end economical tought behind it. It was just a wargame with cool units and a nice sketch of a background world.

> > Possibly once summoned (well, birthed apparently) the demons don't
> age,
> > but most if not all of Ehilrists men propably are mortal. I can see
> how
> > the feodal structure would keep him with a ready and trained body of
> > knights and cavalry (in the numbers I suggested), but why and how
> would
> > Ehilrist train thousands of knights every few decades and how does
> he
> > keep them with him.
>
> Not really. The land is too small.

By the scale of the maps all of Glorantha is too small, so one has to go with the population figures and assume they have a sensible amount of land to go with it. As a rule multiplying the old kilometer maps by a figure of 4 and then reading it as miles (or multiplying by 6 and keeping it as kilometers, of course) gives very sensible figures.

> And I think that the power of the
> BHT lies in the Mounts NOT in the Riders. Reading up on their too-too
> brief entry in HW:RPiG is enlightening - I really think the Riders are
> more superfluious than a player character might to admit.

That's true, of course.

I think the demon mounts are so cool I don't want to trivialize them any. So they _are_ huge meat eating demons made flesh. Keeping around the 600 or so of my calculations is a big effort, but they are worth it.

The knights and riders just need to be well trained normal humans, though I'm thinking that the "senior knights" who actually control their steeds may frequently become ageless themselves. Afterall, they are a valuable resourse, and Ehilrist himself does know the secret of it.

> Personally, I'd rather have a cool reason rather than a
> boring-yet-another-pseudo-feudal-serf-society.

I think they are way cool. I just don't like D&D very much. I like to know how and why things work. I think having less knights and demons makes them both more cool and more "real".

> > More a question of the evolution of tactics than what's possible and
> > what's not, I think.
>
> ...and veering close to a digest level topic, I suppose.

Sorry. You may be right with that. I meant this as a brief comment. Show's what I know...

        -Adept

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