[Mass Combat] Feudal Mediaval Fantasy troup element-types?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by TJA

I realy tried to give that information :)
"mediaval TL3 pseudo feudal world in a D&D like fantasy campaign"

I will remove the mounted archers then ...
But Heavy Infantry does not seem to fit the bill. Or?!?

Thanx!!

Maybe if you had added the word European :)
I just assumed that was what your looking for since its the most popular.
However Japan had its feudal era as well and as he said the army makeup would vary by culture.

[TJA]

Originally Posted by refplace

maybe if you had added the word european :)
i just assumed that was what your looking for since its the most popular.
However japan had its feudal era as well and as he said the army makeup would vary by culture.

"d&d"?

:)

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Edit: The forum software is getting worse - i cannot write "D & D" - it always changes it to lower-case!
:-(

[Akicita]

Originally Posted by TJA

"d&d"?

:)

Your D&D has no Oriental Adventures? A bit more seriously, D&D was always such a mash-up that I'm never surprised when someone's mostly European world includes Shaolin priests, Parthian archers, ninjas and samurai around the edges.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by TJA

"d&d"?

:)

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Edit: The forum software is getting worse - i cannot write "D & D" - it always changes it to lower-case!
:-(

LOL
D&D isnt actually that useful to many of us as a descriptor.
There are too many versions out there and not just different editions but also subset, pretty sure there have been a couple of Japanese style cultures and others so its not all midevel European stuff.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Akicita

If you've reached the Swiss Pikemen stage, then good heavy infantry.

I would represent them as pikemen, which has its own entry. Barbarian warriors like the Saxons, the Franks or the Vikings would be Heavy Infantry (and maybe some Heavy Cavalry as well). The English were famous for their Archers - that's Bowmen, and so are the crossbowmen from Genua.

[Agramer]

Originally Posted by TJA

Just to make sure ... in a mediaval TL3 pseudo feudal world in a D&D like fantasy campaign, what types of elements would you expect?

Each force would have different % of different units depending on social,economic and geographical conditions.

-geographical: affects what people are using the most in civilian life and what is available

-economic:what can they afford

-social:from organization(of society and military) to mentality(Forced training in longbow by Welsh in England,"dominance" and search for glory among French nobility who considered ranged weapons as cowardly and were cuting hands of captured English archers::>almost no or no ranged units in their army,Vikings training for war/plunder,saxson raining in shieldwalls,Greek phalanks,Roman legions,Parthian Cathaphracts and horsearchers....)

Citystates would have poor troop quality of light infantry while woodland areas would have much higher quality of same troop type.Cities would have poor-average(if training a lot) quality of cavalry while steppepeople would have much higher...since thats what they do in civilian life all the time

So after considering those 3 aspects you can decide on % of what unit type is included in "average" army of that constituency and what unit types arent represented or are represented in negligible numbers.


Rough Examples:

Steppe nomads would have a lot of light cavalry(cowboys),Horse archers(hunters) ,some medium cavalry(wealthy/noblemen) and almost nonexistant infantry.

Highlanders would have very few heavy cavalry(nobleman),many medium infantry,few light infantry,few archers.

Citystates would have a lot of heavy infantry,could mobilise a lot of medium infantry and would have some heavy cavalry

Mountain&forest tribes would have many light infantry,many archers,many medium infantry,very few (some)cavalry

Feudal lowlands(medieval france) would have a lot of heavy cavalry,
few(or none) archers,many medium infantry(probably low quality)

[Pagan]

Plus you get into the whole issue of racial make-up.

What type of society does Elven, dwarven, halfling, gnomish, goblinoid, and orc races make up? Their military will be informed by geography, climate and aggression.

I'm a old timer too (first D&D dice were numbered yellow, red and blue dice from the red basic box set), but TSR and then WOTC tried to touch on each culture from European to Mongol hordes.

Saying "D&D" and "world" covers quite a bit of territory :-)

[chrissandvick]

Originally Posted by Pagan

What type of society does Elven, dwarven, halfling, gnomish, goblinoid, and orc races make up? Their military will be informed by geography, climate and aggression.

And stature :) It'll be tough going for those Halfling and gnomish soldiers to strike fear into the tall folk.

[gilbertocarlos]

Originally Posted by chrissandvick

And stature :) It'll be tough going for those Halfling and gnomish soldiers to strike fear into the tall folk.

Probably gnomes and halflings won't fight directly, but instead, have humans and dwarves to protect them, if they need to fight, they would probably resort to hit and run tactics and skirmishes in caves and holes, where the big size of enemies is a disadvantage.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by TJA

Just to make sure ... in a mediaval TL3 pseudo feudal world in a D&D like fantasy campaign, what types of elements would you expect?

There will be Heavy Cavalry, representing knights and such ...
And there will be Light Infrantry, representing the "normal" people drawn to war, maybe some Horse Archers and also Pikemen.
In case of defending the land, there will be a Levy of Inferior Light Infrantry with Basic or Poor equipment.

That´s it?

Would you model this differently?

I would add more troop types for various countries.

An army based on the medieval East Roman armies before about 1100 AD is going to look quite different from an army based on medieval Ireland.

Horse archers definitely work for some cultures, and not so much for others. Are these archers well-armed cataphracts on mid-sized horses, or lightly equipped and highly mobile Mongol-type on ponies?

Do any of the towns field good quality civic militias?

How does battlefield magic play into all this? Is it rare? If it is common, have you given thought to how it might affect troops types and tactics?