A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
A look at history and popular culture
This is the second half of the fourth part (I, IIa, IIb, III, IVa) of our honestly-who-knows-how-many part series laying out some general guidelines for how pre-modern armies are organized. Last week we took a look at how the leadership of these armies was drawn from the existing elite classes of their societies. As with … Continue reading Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part IVb: Cohesion
This is the fourth part (I, IIa, IIb, III) of our honestly-who-knows-how-many part series laying out some general guidelines for how pre-modern armies are organized. We've talked about how armies are recruited, equipped and paid for. In particular, as we've seen so far, the structure of recruitment, organization and payment (such as it was) is … Continue reading Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part IVa: Leadership
For the next few posts (I, II, III), I want to take a look at how some 'tribal' peoples raised armies, in contrast to the way that ancient (or later) states raised armies. As moderns, we are so familiar with the way that states function that the far older systems of non-state organization and mobilization … Continue reading Collections: How to Raise a Tribal Army in Pre-Roman Europe, Part I: Aristocrats, Retainers and Clients