On top of which, the more cohesive and organized imperial forces will probably suffer lower casualties on average. They'll be more organized in defeat, less prone to being routed and slaughtered as they run, and they no doubt have better ability to deal with the wounded so that they don't die and aren't permanently disabled. Defeat an imperial army and it may be ready to fight again next year, defeat a barbarian army and it might take a good portion of a generation to recover....
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.
I totally agree that the Empire will win any "fair fight" over the
long haul.
>
> >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.
Hmmm, moving supplies to southern Tarsh may not be so hard. Getting them reliably into Sartar would be quite a bit harder, I think. Taking Dragon Pass itself requires travel over steeply switchbacked track, I seem to recall, and exposes you to raids by the Tarsh exiles around Kero Finn. The other two routes have their own hazards, and are not immune to raiding.
Now, when Sartar was first conquered and sacked, the sacking would have provided the required food and facilities. Later, the taxation system handled that. Once Sartar is actively rebelling again, however, I think large imperial forces would have a very hard time foraging for enough food in the very broken lands, where most clans can retreat into the hills with their herds when needed.
Not that it would be impossible to bring in substantial supplies, or
that foraging couldn't be done, but it would end up requiring large
numbers of troops, exposing them to hit and run raids, which is the
one battle of attrition that the rebels can win. So I would imagine
that in the face of ongoing rebellion, if it can't be crushed
quickly, the cost of keeping a large army in the field south of
Dragon Pass would become very high. Of course, if they merely keep
limited but strong garrisons south of the pass to secure access,
winter safely in Tarsh, and attack in force in the better seasons
they can disrupt the Sartarites substantially....but that is a very
different thing than conquering them.
>
> 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.
They also have to reform the rebel army, don't they? I thought that to finally have much success they formalized it much more, adapted new tactics, copied the imperial concept of coordinating magic and manpower, improved communications, etc.
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