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Fantasy Arms Race, Round Two
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<blockquote data-quote="s/LaSH" data-source="post: 724191" data-attributes="member: 6929"><p>Centauric Jinn do have a small problem: the standard centaur is CR3, making the Tamarchs vastly elite compared to standard armies of the West - their basic soldier (in half the Tamarch) is much better than any human conscript and could probably beat many veterans in one-on-one combat.</p><p></p><p>Further, the question of the number of Tamarchs comes to mind. Do the Jinn really need to defend their borders? If so, from what? Or who? As a recently nomadic people, I'd be surprised if they quickly developed a knack for defensive warfare (as opposed to the high mobility nomads espouse).</p><p></p><p>The centaurs might have a place in the coming conflict, or might already have a presence - but I strongly recommend scaling them back. Perhaps the Auselen modified a single tribe of nomads, and the Khan and his kin are centaurs (which enabled them to dominate their neighbours one-on-one), but their numbers are limited to a few thousands.</p><p></p><p>As for the Tamarchs: I suppose I can envision the Jinn having border patrols, and they would probably be structured in the aforementioned fashion, albeit with far fewer centaurs. Warponies would be common amongst the skirmish cavalry wings, but no human heavy cavalry (the centaurs fill that role). Perhaps half a Tamarch is cavalry; the rest is foot soldiers (although they too might have horses or ponies, they don't have the skill to ride them in battle, and many of the Heaven River troopers don't have horses at all).</p><p></p><p>It's unlikely that the Jinn will have much skill in siege warfare. Historically, nomads such as the Mongols were horribly bad at sieges; I don't know why. With maybe one third - one half their troops drawn from the Heaven River people, they will have some knowledge of how cities work, but the Heaven River people were fairly much unified under their demonic rulers and never had to participate in siege warfare so they don't understand it either. The only way the Jinn could beat fortified opponents was to encircle their cities and starve them out; the demon rulers started preying on their own people and were largely overthrown by their disgruntled subjects, although Jinn soldiers smuggled into the cities by insurgents did a lot of the fighting.</p><p></p><p>Golems are unrealistic at this point. Official sources cite them as requiring Limited Wish at the least, and that's well beyond current magical technology. Homonculi and animated objects are possible, however.</p><p></p><p>The rest of Strangemonkey's suggestions are good.</p><p></p><p>All right, I think the antagonist is detailed: the Jinn want to invade Cresia for its fertile ground. Now we need to know the rough capabilities of Cresia, Stempa and Ausel. (The last two are technically bystanders, but they're sure to take sides.)</p><p></p><p>Cresia is not a warlike state. They maintain a standing army, not being stupid; I'd surmise it has perhaps 10,000 soldiers. Perhaps one thousand beastmen (the elite Delta) serve as special forces; while not part of the above-mentioned armed forces, Cresia can also field maybe two thousand druids and sorcerers higher than first level. (Note that they can probably triple their troops with conscription.) Separate to this, they have a powerful navy, with perhaps two thousand large ships (one thousand are deep-sea capable, the rest are shallow-keeled riverboats and shore vessels). Each ship can carry perhaps 50 marines, although they only have about 4000 marines total. Each ship has two Controllers: these druids control the wind and the cetaceans that make the boat move. Finally, there are maybe 1000 scurvy sea dogs, arr, in the armed forces; they perform submarine patrols.</p><p></p><p>That makes roughly 17,000 soldiers or combat personell in Cresia. Now, they're technically the closest to Ausel, so they might have a few advantages from trade... of course, they also suffer the occasional raid, and so most of their naval forces are foundon the south coast. Their land armies are found more along the Stempan border, because of a little belligerance on a certain city-state's part in the past. That said, I think they'd probably have a few Auselen secret weapons - combat monsters. No aquatic monsters (the Auselen enjoy their aquatic dominance), and the beasts aren't too mobile so they can't interrupt raids... anyone have any ideas?</p><p></p><p>As for the Stempa, they're militarily strong but divided. They could probably equal the Jinn in raw numbers, and their troops are likely to be a little tougher and better-equipped (tower shields, plate armour, long spears and effective swords, as well as their bows (picked up from the Jinn centuries ago)). However, they don't see themselves as being a part of this conflict.</p><p></p><p>The Auselen have a warrior culture too, except they tend to rely on magic a lot more - even their frontline soldiers are expected to pick up a few spells. I surmise that they'd be limited to perhaps a thousand keelships, each with a crew of one hundred sorcerer-warriors (some of whom are elite high-level types). Each keelship is owned by a different sorcerer-lord (some of whom are capable of casting sixth- and seventh-level spells, but these mighty types tend to stay home, having proven their worth). Ten thousand troops, tops - and most would probably stay at home. However, their magical prowess would likely be very important in a fight...</p><p></p><p>Any more thoughts? I think we need to determine how many Stempa city-states there are...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="s/LaSH, post: 724191, member: 6929"] Centauric Jinn do have a small problem: the standard centaur is CR3, making the Tamarchs vastly elite compared to standard armies of the West - their basic soldier (in half the Tamarch) is much better than any human conscript and could probably beat many veterans in one-on-one combat. Further, the question of the number of Tamarchs comes to mind. Do the Jinn really need to defend their borders? If so, from what? Or who? As a recently nomadic people, I'd be surprised if they quickly developed a knack for defensive warfare (as opposed to the high mobility nomads espouse). The centaurs might have a place in the coming conflict, or might already have a presence - but I strongly recommend scaling them back. Perhaps the Auselen modified a single tribe of nomads, and the Khan and his kin are centaurs (which enabled them to dominate their neighbours one-on-one), but their numbers are limited to a few thousands. As for the Tamarchs: I suppose I can envision the Jinn having border patrols, and they would probably be structured in the aforementioned fashion, albeit with far fewer centaurs. Warponies would be common amongst the skirmish cavalry wings, but no human heavy cavalry (the centaurs fill that role). Perhaps half a Tamarch is cavalry; the rest is foot soldiers (although they too might have horses or ponies, they don't have the skill to ride them in battle, and many of the Heaven River troopers don't have horses at all). It's unlikely that the Jinn will have much skill in siege warfare. Historically, nomads such as the Mongols were horribly bad at sieges; I don't know why. With maybe one third - one half their troops drawn from the Heaven River people, they will have some knowledge of how cities work, but the Heaven River people were fairly much unified under their demonic rulers and never had to participate in siege warfare so they don't understand it either. The only way the Jinn could beat fortified opponents was to encircle their cities and starve them out; the demon rulers started preying on their own people and were largely overthrown by their disgruntled subjects, although Jinn soldiers smuggled into the cities by insurgents did a lot of the fighting. Golems are unrealistic at this point. Official sources cite them as requiring Limited Wish at the least, and that's well beyond current magical technology. Homonculi and animated objects are possible, however. The rest of Strangemonkey's suggestions are good. All right, I think the antagonist is detailed: the Jinn want to invade Cresia for its fertile ground. Now we need to know the rough capabilities of Cresia, Stempa and Ausel. (The last two are technically bystanders, but they're sure to take sides.) Cresia is not a warlike state. They maintain a standing army, not being stupid; I'd surmise it has perhaps 10,000 soldiers. Perhaps one thousand beastmen (the elite Delta) serve as special forces; while not part of the above-mentioned armed forces, Cresia can also field maybe two thousand druids and sorcerers higher than first level. (Note that they can probably triple their troops with conscription.) Separate to this, they have a powerful navy, with perhaps two thousand large ships (one thousand are deep-sea capable, the rest are shallow-keeled riverboats and shore vessels). Each ship can carry perhaps 50 marines, although they only have about 4000 marines total. Each ship has two Controllers: these druids control the wind and the cetaceans that make the boat move. Finally, there are maybe 1000 scurvy sea dogs, arr, in the armed forces; they perform submarine patrols. That makes roughly 17,000 soldiers or combat personell in Cresia. Now, they're technically the closest to Ausel, so they might have a few advantages from trade... of course, they also suffer the occasional raid, and so most of their naval forces are foundon the south coast. Their land armies are found more along the Stempan border, because of a little belligerance on a certain city-state's part in the past. That said, I think they'd probably have a few Auselen secret weapons - combat monsters. No aquatic monsters (the Auselen enjoy their aquatic dominance), and the beasts aren't too mobile so they can't interrupt raids... anyone have any ideas? As for the Stempa, they're militarily strong but divided. They could probably equal the Jinn in raw numbers, and their troops are likely to be a little tougher and better-equipped (tower shields, plate armour, long spears and effective swords, as well as their bows (picked up from the Jinn centuries ago)). However, they don't see themselves as being a part of this conflict. The Auselen have a warrior culture too, except they tend to rely on magic a lot more - even their frontline soldiers are expected to pick up a few spells. I surmise that they'd be limited to perhaps a thousand keelships, each with a crew of one hundred sorcerer-warriors (some of whom are elite high-level types). Each keelship is owned by a different sorcerer-lord (some of whom are capable of casting sixth- and seventh-level spells, but these mighty types tend to stay home, having proven their worth). Ten thousand troops, tops - and most would probably stay at home. However, their magical prowess would likely be very important in a fight... Any more thoughts? I think we need to determine how many Stempa city-states there are... [/QUOTE]
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