First, somehting I should have addressed earlier:
1. Ore - The mainland mountains have plenty, the lowland states have some. The islands trade for it, though even so it's still cheaper than either tin or copper... which, until steel became overwhelmingly common, was the appeal behind iron tools.
2. Fuel - The lowlands have coal - plenty in the south, but enough in the north. The islands have forests, mostly in the mountainous interiors. The mainland mountains have both, but bad, bad transport issues.
3. Skill - Yes, there are armoror's guilds. And?
4. Cash - Ah, here's the rub.
Rivers - The pay's lousy and the equipment's cheap, but the benefits are good: basic living garanteed, for you and your immediate family, for the length of your contracted hitch, whether or not you actually survive. Since the standard hitches are three, nine, and twenty-seven years, that's not a small promise.
Mountain - The Dynasty is always willing to spring for the best gear, but the pay ain't great.
Rider - Fuedal levy system; besides, armor is unmanly.
Islander - How much can you afford? Each man buys his own gear and takes it into the militia. Cavalry are going to be the younger sons of nobility - they have the money to feed their mounts, but don't leave the family short an heir if they catch a dart or a crossbow bolt. Marines are professional sailors... or rather, vice versa.
But, yes. Stirrups are known and used.
*headdesk*
Oops, dammit.
So, wait, how the heck do you define 'half plate', anyway? 'Cause, as far's I can find, the term has no definition.
Ja, -n
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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
Quote:The Riders are cavalry. The new invaders are barbarians - like, berserkers and axes and hewing and such. The Dynasty doesn't have any open land worth speaking of - theirs is all up and down and stuff. The River kingdom has to cope with all of the above, and finds the logistical advantages of uniform equipment are worth more than raising special units to deal with the Islanders when things like field artillery and their own cavalry can do almost as well.
If phalanxes are so overwhelmingly powerful by comparison with everything else, why isn't anyone else using them?
Quote:Hmm.
Putting all together..you have two possibilities....a state-owned enterprise under control of the monarch, which what happened to Sung China when the iron industry developed there. The beauracrats took over everything. The 2nd alternative is either an independent city/city state that is neutral, like Sakai in Sengoku jidai Japan or Limoges in the Netherlands. Now why wouldn't someone decide to grab this place? Simple...if he does, he'll find out that he won't be getting the arms he needs in the quantityand quality he needs and prices you can afford.
1. Ore - The mainland mountains have plenty, the lowland states have some. The islands trade for it, though even so it's still cheaper than either tin or copper... which, until steel became overwhelmingly common, was the appeal behind iron tools.
2. Fuel - The lowlands have coal - plenty in the south, but enough in the north. The islands have forests, mostly in the mountainous interiors. The mainland mountains have both, but bad, bad transport issues.
3. Skill - Yes, there are armoror's guilds. And?
4. Cash - Ah, here's the rub.
Rivers - The pay's lousy and the equipment's cheap, but the benefits are good: basic living garanteed, for you and your immediate family, for the length of your contracted hitch, whether or not you actually survive. Since the standard hitches are three, nine, and twenty-seven years, that's not a small promise.
Mountain - The Dynasty is always willing to spring for the best gear, but the pay ain't great.
Rider - Fuedal levy system; besides, armor is unmanly.
Islander - How much can you afford? Each man buys his own gear and takes it into the militia. Cavalry are going to be the younger sons of nobility - they have the money to feed their mounts, but don't leave the family short an heir if they catch a dart or a crossbow bolt. Marines are professional sailors... or rather, vice versa.
Quote:I'm much less assured of the ability to quickly breed for larger sizes than you are. For one thing, they've never heard of the kind of heavy cavalry you and I have, so they've no reason to think of it. For another, the larger a dog gets, the more likely it is to start showing serious health problems - even without the inbreeding issues you get in a serious breeding program. The current mount breeds don't show much of this because they're old - they've been around and stable since prehistory, having been originally bred to help take really large game - but it comes back real fast when you start messing around with them. And third, even once you've established the type, you have to get enough of them born and raised to adulthood to carry your troops - not a small number of beasts.
Feh, give them 20 years or so and you'll have doggies two or three times the size of the one your talking about. Now... does the cavalry have stirrups? Very important... if you know the difference between melee and shock cavalry.
But, yes. Stirrups are known and used.
Quote:...
Also remember, you're going to be in an iron cocoon with no ventilation, save a few holes in the visor. You're not going o place ventilation holes anywhere else unless you want a dagger or a spear thrusted into it. The few times knights in full plate armor dismounted and marched..they didn't walk no more than a football field, before collapsing from heat exhaustion and dehydration. In cool weather.
*headdesk*
Oops, dammit.
So, wait, how the heck do you define 'half plate', anyway? 'Cause, as far's I can find, the term has no definition.
Ja, -n
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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"