Roughly: The Empire has 85000 regular Imperial Army forces, 100,000 Garrison Army troops, 150000 house, temple or militia forces devoted to Satraps, houses or other non-governmental organisations and around 20000 naval personnel. Many of the Garrison or House troops are very much part time and many are of doubtful quality.
When the Empire applied a decent amount of force (still a fraction of its total strength) it conclusively crushed the Sartarites in 1602, moved on to crush the Praxians in 1610, then Heortland in 1620. Only Whitewall and the Holy Country before the assassination of the Pharoah slowed down the Imperial expansion and what you have to remember is this - the forces they had deployed in Dragon Pass were barely a tenth of the Empire's standing armed forces, roughly 25000 troops in Sartar, Heortland, Esrolia and Prax in 1624 prior to Pennel Ford. I have a list of occupation forces for that date if anyone needs such a thing for their campaign. Email me.
Mikko:
> I think you are forgetting that the Sartarites end up with many
> allies. There are forces from Prax, allies and mercenaries from
> Heortland (both the Heortlings and the aellians), no doubt some
> forces from Esrolia, the remaining Tarshite rebels, and then as they
> make progress new recruits from Tarsh and eventually other Lunar
> provinces.
One of the great problems for the players in my Gwandor campaign as they fight the Empire in 1634 ( and then a dissolute Empire at that), is manpower and replacing lost troops. Ultimately the Argraths cannot win a battle of attrition with the Empire IF the Empire can direct its full or even just the majority of its strength against Sartar. Hence the defeats of the Argrathi in 1635 and the 1640s when the Empire gets its act together. It is the main reason why Argrath has to find Sheng and get the Pentans to invade the Empire.
>Of course the logistics are even harder than they are today. The empire
>_cannot_ project troops in significantly larger numbers than Sartar can.
>Actually, in totality it can project less. But the empire is rich, and
>can send a unit or two composed entirely of Elites, that are very well
>equipped.
I would disagree with your analysis here. A civilised army can field more men _over the long haul_ than any barbarian force and for a short period, if the population discrepancy is great enough, it can match or exceed barbarian numbers due to the strength of its commissariat. For its initial invasion of Sartar, the Empire would have had around 20k provincial troops and around 20k imperial troops. Logistics along the tarsh road are certainly feasible for such a force.
>I recommend reading some historical material about the Greek - Persian
>wars for those wanting to find out how these things historically worked.
Sure, read Donald W.Engels "Alexander the Great and the logistics of the Macedonian Army" to give you an idea of what is feasible. Much larger distance with a larger army over even worse terrain than Sartar.
Basically for Sartar to win the war against the Empire it has to unite Dragon Pass under the Argraths and take big chunks of the Empire in the Provinces AND hope that the Empire is divided by civil war and outside invasion on other fronts. Fortunately for the Argrathi, they are in exactly that boat after 1628.
Martin Laurie
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