M Helsdon

The horse archers performing the action were very lightly armored. In our ancient world, riders on the steppes tended to wear trews to prevent chafing; riders of other cultures wore high boots: some of the Macedonians wore high knee- or calf-length thick-soled laced boot, fastened in front, which left the toes exposed, to provide an extra grip on the mount’s flanks. There was also a custom (possibly Greek?) to shave the flanks of a horse to make it more comfortable to ride.

Turns out the Provincial University is at Furthest. ;-)

Fortunately, we have canonical illustrations that show that some Praxians use toe loops/stirrups.

Yes, that's where they came from (had to type them up)...

Depends on the period. We don't know much about the saddle prior to the Roman four pronged saddle, but they probably inherited it from elsewhere, and the Sassanid saddle had a cantle at the back and two clamps curving over the top of the rider's thighs, fastened to the saddle. The first cataphracts the Roman's encountered were those of the Seleucids and unfortunately we don't have any information as to the sort of saddle they used - though it must have been sufficient to keep the rider securely mounted. Armor was of iron or bronze scale, often covering not only the rider but the mount as well. These were very heavy cavalry. The late Peter Connolly did a great deal of work recreating Roman saddles, based upon preserved leather remains from Vindolanda and other sites, and the bronze plates from another location; the wooden tree was not preserved, but using the leather he was able to reconstruct what it was like. It is very probable that other ancient saddles were similar.

The heavy cavalry saddle predated the introduction of stirrups by at least four or five centuries, as did the appearance of cataphracts. Lighter armored, but still armored, Assyrian lancers are even earlier, predating the introduction of stirrups by perhaps a thousand years (the earliest depiction of armored cavalry dates to around seven or eight centuries at least). Their horses, were, of course, smaller than later cavalry horses. These reliefs at Naqsh-e Rustam predate the introduction of the stirrup by a few centuries, and depict combat between heavily armored cavalrymen using two-handed lances. Bahram II was the fifth Sasanian King of Persia in AD 274–293.

Some authorities consider the piece to have been made, or copied from, the work of a Greek artisan, and the Greeks were certainly in contact with the nomads at that time. It was a very high value item: originally made as a vessel to mix wine, and then used as a burial urn. In some myths the Amazons originated in North Africa, though the Eurasian steppes is more likely, and supported by archaeology, where a large proportion of burials of around the same time of this figurine were of women buried with weapons. The costume and bow appear to be authentic.

A horse archer performing the 'Parthian shot' won't be loosing an arrow directly backwards at 180 degrees to the direction their mount is travelling, and they won't be holding the pose for very long. There's a 6th century BC Etruscan figurine of an Amazon... Some claim this shows a Cimmerian horse archer, but that's impossible to prove.

An average infantry regiment numbers approximately a thousand (on paper), cavalry around five hundred (on paper). Magical regiments consist of a core magical group of between 30 and 60 specialist magicians - priests, devotees, and cultists initiated into the regiment’s secrets - and their bodyguards, with a total around three to five hundred (on paper). Sun Dome Templars (at least those in Prax) are organized into sixteen man ‘files’ consisting of fourteen soldiers, a File-Leader and a Half-file Leader; two files are a double-file, and two double-files are a Square. My personal suspicion is that eight Squares form a Company, and two Companies form a regiment, as that's roughly a thousand soldiers (1024). Each of the Praxian 'Barbarian Horde' units in WBRM is cavalry; I believe David Scott has said in the past that each is led by a Tribal Khan, and in addition to their bodyguard, often consists of four or five Waha Khans leading one hundred and twenty warriors each. The two Amber units are a little different, the 1st being all High Llama riders, and the 2nd a mixture of tribes.

I believe it's from the Glorantha Sourcebook.

The use of a flamethrower from horseback is not recommended.

That reminds me: I should have included a conical shield, like those used by the Assyrians. Will have to modify one of the designs.

Probably not, as the Earth Twins originated in Esrolia and were founded by the Old Earth queen performing a joint ritual with Argrath.

Yes, I was reading that again, last night. Brighteye seems to have powers of Truth and Light. Perhaps its glare means lesser foes can't even come to blows with its bearer, so its multitude of points are never a hazard in such combat. However, lesser shields of that shape are unlikely to have the same capability.

Orlanth’s worshippers specialize in use of the sword, and pride themselves in using all weapons. Orlanth defeated all the Elemental Deities in combat and gained use of their weapons at some time during the Gods War. Some other cults, less fortunate in receiving the use of all weapons, view with dislike Orlanth’s appropriation of their favorites. Whether the same is true for shields I don't know, but I suspect that his worshippers use round shields because he bested so many Solar gods in combat. It's possibly a bit like a warrior in Homeric combat, stripping his defeated foe of their panoply, weapons and shield: all valuable and prestigious items.

Um, no, I'm saying it could have magical properties if used by a Star/Jannisor cult - though I have no idea what they might be. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much information around about Jannisor and Brighteye (and I have searched). The term Orlanthi covers an awful lot of cults, including, by marriage and other means, many Earth cults. Judging from Sun County, and the updated material in Pavis:GtA, and other sources, hoplites and phalangites fight in phalanxes (though there's a never-ending debate in our world regarding exactly how phalanx combat worked). I personally suspect that the Stonewall Regiments fight in a recognizable phalanx (it's in their regimental names), and their magic strengthens and requires that they fight in that way. I also suspect that most regiments in Glorantha (excluding the deeply magical ones like those derived from the Lunar College of Magic or Argrath's magical regiments) fight in ways that can be described using terrestrial terminology, but augmented by their own particular magics.

Something that may be of interest is that the horse nomads used some unusual weapons and materials. Pausanias, writing in the 2nd century AD wrote: On seeing this a man will say that no less than Greeks are foreigners skilled in the arts: for the Sauromatae have no iron, neither mined by themselves nor yet imported. They have, in fact, no dealings at all with the foreigners around them. To meet this deficiency they have contrived inventions. In place of iron they use bone for their spear-blades, and cornel-wood for their bows and arrows, with bone points for the arrows. They throw a lasso round any enemy they meet, and then turning round their horses upset the enemy caught in the lasso. That's well outside the relevant period, though the use of materials is relevant to Prax and Pent. There's evidence of the Scythians also using lassos as weapons much earlier. The lid of a Greek pyxis from the 5th century BC depicts mounted Amazons using lassos as weapons against hoplites, and Herodotus is familiar with the horse nomads using lassos as weapons.

The Guide says: Gloranthan warfare is superficially similar to that of our world. Formations of foot or horse fight under the leadership of a general, king, priest, magician, or warlord against their enemies. Ambushes, skirmishes, field battles, and sieges are used to break an enemy’s will to resist, just as in the wars of our own world. And: As a result, Gloranthan armies often use tactics or strategies that would make no sense in our world but may be fundamental to using their army’s magic to its best effect. Armies are often assembled according to sacred formulae and combatants are often chosen to best match ancient myths. Certain individuals or units may lack any direct military value, but must be present for other regiments to use their own best magic. So I would tend to agree with you; there are hoplites and horse-archers, but each derive some of their capability from their deities and the associated traditions. However, if a spiky star shield isn't magical, then it's a liability. If it's used by a Star Captain cult, or by members of Jannisor's Hero Cult then it probably will have magical properties.

A related page...

That sort of behavior shows that horses can be trained to do even more complex manoeuvers. When the horse archers dominated the steppes (before and after the introduction of the stirrup) it is apparent that the relationship between rider and horse relied on life-long experience: children learned to ride and use a bow from a very early age, and horses were trained to work with them - those that didn't were probably culled or relegated to other uses, such as pulling wagons.

Yes, which is why there have never been any serious terrestrial shields of that form. Perhaps. I don't know who or what Brighteye was. Given the date of Dan Barker's illustrations, I suspect he received an outline from Greg, so I am not going to argue with two canonical illustrations, however 'strange' the shield design is. In fact, the only fantasy world that has weirder shields is Tekumel, judging from the professor's illustrations in the Armies of Tekumel booklets.

Perhaps instead of trying to show how knowledgeable you are, you should actually do some research about the topics? There's a great deal of ancient art depicting horse archers performing the Parthian shot, and many of those artists would have been producing their art from their own observations, or for a warrior elite intimately familiar with what was and what was not possible. You should also take note of your previous and current behaviors. From a Neo Assyrian cylinder seal:

True. I don't see them as being very practical; they are cultic paraphernalia. They are inspired by Dan Barker's two pieces of art, reprinted in the Guide. All the others are based on real Bronze or early Iron Age shields (even the lion head, which is derived from one portrayed on a Carthaginian/Phoenician ring seal - I did alter the shape).

Hmm, I suspect that's true if you equate stirrups with metal stirrups, but, as with their use of bone and other materials to make weapons, I wonder if they might use other materials derived from their herd beasts? Bone, horn, hide, sinew? Some authorities suggest that the earliest real-world stirrups were made of materials such as wood and leather, which tend to not be preserved in the archaeological record, except under exceptional conditions, so artwork may be the only means of detecting them, and often it isn't possible to determine what materials are being portrayed.

I suspect there's a suspicion that there was a technological evolution of toe-loops into full stirrups, but as usual our modern assumptions about technological innovation don't necessarily fit into the ancient world, where 'obvious' changes often didn't happen as we'd expect, and some innovations were due to a rare innovation (which sometimes seems to happen in multiple places at roughly the same time, suggesting that certain conditions make it more likely that someone will have an idea and implement it because "it's time is right"). It's one of those things (such as the bow and arrow, the fire stick etc.) where we will never know who, when, or where they were invented. Our window into the past is fragmented and blurry, even in times and places we think we know a great deal about. The herders were warriors long prior to the introduction of the stirrup, so I suspect that's a line that reads well, but is only partially true? The Scythians (and perhaps related people like the Cimmerians if we trust Herodotus) were a terror to the settled peoples of the Near East, without stirrups (and at least one group of Scythians were allied with the Assyrians, for a time, but later aided in their defeat). Stirrups simply made the nomads of the steppes even more dangerous to sedentary peoples within their range: horse riding nomads have none of the logistical needs of state armies (save for fodder - which is why the nomads didn't get much further west than Hungary, as Hungary is the most westward extension of the steppes, and named for the Huns), and a long tradition of warfare with their fellow nomads, which makes most riders experienced fighters, in contrast to most farmers and peasants. Fortunately, we have pictorial evidence recovered from the Hero Wars, showing the use of toe-loops by Praxians, and at least some Lunars using stirrups (as recorded in the Guide to Glorantha - Third Age). Personally, I suspect the Pentans (and some Praxians) use real stirrups. Who knows? They may have been introduced from Kralorela, but thus far archaeological evidence is fragmentary. 8-)