Re: Those Ker-razy Romans (Was Re: Larnsti Brotherhood)

From: donald_at_...
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 21:04:35 GMT


In message <BAY103-F847062CE1B3DDBC9EE50FA8FD0_at_...> "Mike Holmes" writes:
>
>>From: donald_at_...
>
>>It's never been more difficult than today to rise through the ranks. ISTR
>>an Emperor who gained the purple after working his way up in the legions.
>>By contrast today if you haven't succeeded in getting a place in officer
>>training you can't get a commisson. Most of those places are filled with
>>those who show academic ability before recruitment.
>
>I can't speak for the UK, but in the US, getting training requires going to
>a college with a Reserve Officer Training Cadre (ROTC), or other school.
>Getting into ROTC essentially takes getting into a college. Given that if
>you enlist before doing so that they'll pay for your education (more than
>$50,000) it's actually easier to get into college this way than to get in
>without going for a military education. And many of the schools that have
>ROTC departments are not what you'd call academically difficult to get into.
>When I went to the University of Wisconsin, anyone in the state who was in
>the top half of their class was automatically accepted. 50%. And more got in
>after that if there weren't enough applicants.
>
>Further, graduation is not a requirement for commission - you just need X
>number of completed credits. So a commission in the US armed forces is not
>hard to get. Not remotely.

It just requires you to have a university education, that's what I mean by showing academic ability. You can get into officer training in Britain by having the minimum exam results to attend university without having been there. I don't know about the US but here that excludes more than half the population and there is a strong class bias in those excluded.

>For Glorantha, I'm betting that there is no such rotation, and that the
>system is largely "regimental." Meaning that the troops from one unit are
>all from one place. Including the officers. In times past - and I'm talking,
>say, before WWII, regimentalism meant that personal politics were in fact
>expected. That is, the officer corps chose themselves from the ranks of the
>aristocratic (or what passes for it here in America), and they would
>perpetuate themselves. But this, itself, was a product of the Euro-Prussian
>military tradition (let's remember that everything the Americans learned
>about organization in war was taught to us by a man named Von Steuben -
>http://www.americanrevwar.homestead.com/files/VONSTUB.HTM) of having the
>dual officer/non-com rank structure. You can't select enough leaders from
>the ranks of the nobility to lead at the very low levels of an army created
>by a nation state and conscription.

The regimental system developed in the 18th Century so I'd be reluctant to carry it across to Glorantha. It also worked very differently in different parts of Europe and at different times.

>There's your main difference. The standing armies of a state like the Lunar
>empire are going to be regimental in that they are lead at the top by local
>nobility, but under this they will be professional soldiers that come from
>whatever other class. There is no need for nobles to lead at any lowere
>levels, because they can trust the professionals at that level to handle
>things correctly (in theory). As opposed to the larger national armies where
>you need to appoint officers to lower levels to watch the conscripts.

I don't think the Lunar empire has a standing army at all. Like in many things the army is a mixture with some units like the Stone phalanxes and Rinliddi avian and cavalry being made up of citizens with a minimum wealth qualification (like Greek city state or Republican Rome). Others are tribal based such as some Tarsh units and the mercenary Char-un. Then there will be units raised by a wealthy local who may or may not be a noble. Some will be elite units of professional soldiers like Satrap bodyguards, others will be made up of anyone who can be bribed or conned into signing up. Some will have a lengthy tradition, others will be raised to meet a specific threat and allowed to wither away afterwards. Of course for places like Dragon Pass a temporary threat can be somewhat elastic in definition.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/

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