Re: Ethilrist's men and total population

From: Jeff Richard <richaje_at_...>
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2005 22:01:13 -0000

> The Black Horse troop demonriders seem to be armoured cataphract
>style,
> head to toe, both rider and steed. Cataphracts stand up very well to
the
> archery of light horse, and horses are terrified by the smell of the
> demon steeds anyway.

Unsupported heavy cavalry does not tend to stand up very well to light cavalry - especially if the light cavalry is willing to use hit and run tactics (just check out the plight of the Crusade of 1101 at the Battle of Mersivan).

> There _are_ a lot of Grazers in there, but I don't think most of them
> want to tangle with Ethilrist. They propably think he's the
antichrist,
> and as long as he's willing to stay in the land he conquered earlier,
> they don't want to think about it.

I dunno, these Grazers seem to hold a grudge for a very long time. My point is that Sir Ethilrist needs to foment trouble in order to keep all of his potential enemies disunited. And he does foment trouble. I wouldn't be surprised if Ethilrist exploited tensions between the Tarshites and the Grazers in 1614-1615 (resulting in a war between Tarsh and the Grazers), and put his forces up for auction to the highest bidder. Total Lunar dominance of Dragon Pass is bad for Ethilrist as well, so I wouldn't be surprised to see Ethilrist throw a few bones to the Rebels after 1621.

Jeff