Men-an-a-half

[Darius West]

8 hours ago, David Scott said:

And 5% other. There are about 2900 Men-and-a-half (half can be considered children, leaving 1450 x 0.05= ) 73 who are members of other cults.  It's likely that many are also lay members and initiates of Oakfed, or its spirit cult, and many other spirit cults.

"Other" is a very broad category.  Given their pike based fighting style I am also surprised that the Agimori don't include more Yelmalios, but then Yelmalio has a problem with fire, as he doesn't have any.  As to Oakfed, it is primarily useful as a weapon, and it would be hard to justify the Agimori maintaining a large cult, even if they are resistant to flames and likely to  Oakfed more effectively as a result.

[French Desperate WindChild]

On 4/21/2023 at 7:17 AM, Darius West said:

Given their pike based fighting style

but do they use these as a phalanx or more as warriors with lance and shield ? I mean, a pike (stats) is a pike if you compare with a sun domer size, but if you compare with a man and a half, it is "just" a lance. And a lance is a "natural" weapon for lodrili too.

 

[dumuzid]

59 minutes ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

but do they use these as a phalanx or more as warriors with lance and shield ? I mean, a pike (stats) is a pike if you compare with a sun domer size, but if you compare with a man and a half, it is "just" a lance. And a lance is a "natural" weapon for lodrili too.

 

Their Bestiary write-up doesn't describe Agimori tactics, but it gives them equal facility with pikes, spears and javelins, and only slightly less skill with shortswords (probably more like big fighting knives to them, but shortswords to standard humans).  I wouldn't expect that their fighting style is pike-based, but that pikes are one of several weapons they use as part of a multi-weapon and multi-formation fighting style.  Pikes will be great protection against charges from the light- through medium-sized Praxian riding beasts, as much because many beasts simply won't charge a readied pike wall as because of the stopping power of a pike braced against a charge.  The pike hedge grows riskier in proportion to the size and toughness of the riding beast though.  Bracing a pike against a charging rhino or bison is putting a whole lot of faith in your ability to physically stop the oncoming beast and rider, even for an Agimori warrior, which is why I expect they'd favor looser formations with shield, spear and javelin ready against the heavy mounts.  Similarly, relying on pike formations on the open plains is going to fail miserably against the mounted archers the sable, impala, ostrich and other peoples can field, but by adopting loose formations and skirmishing with their javelins from behind the protection of their large shields the Agimori could stand up to them much more effectively than most infantry fighters.

[soltakss]

22 minutes ago, dumuzid said:

I wouldn't expect that their fighting style is pike-based, but that pikes are one of several weapons they use as part of a multi-weapon and multi-formation fighting style. 

They fight in 10s, 100s or 1000s, their thousand warrior group is called an Impi and uses pikes in formation, which they learned from Lodril the Spearman. Maybe they are not as disciplined as Yelmalians, but they are effective in combat.

 

[dumuzid]

Just now, soltakss said:

They fight in 10s, 100s or 1000s, their thousand warrior group is called an Impi and uses pikes in formation, which they learned from Lodril the Spearman. Maybe they are not as disciplined as Yelmalians, but they are effective in combat.

Yeah, I don't disagree, as the rest of my post describes.

[Akhôrahil]

If we extrapolate from the ”impi” term (it’s from the Zulus), they would have a fairly short spear, with a hide shield.

A formal phalanx doesn’t seem very useful on a wide open plain against cavalry, so they might have at least tactics for mobility and charging (much like the Zulus).

Edited April 25, 2023 by Akhôrahil

[dumuzid]

1 hour ago, Akhôrahil said:

If we extrapolate from the ”impi” term (it’s from the Zulus), they would have a fairly short spear, with a hide shield.

The Agimori cultural weapons are essentially the Zulu military array after Shaka's reforms (assegais for throwing, iklwa for stabbing, shield), plus the shortsword and pike.  They might've brought all those weapon traditions with them from Pamaltela (Vangono the Spear breathes three different fires; they have three different kinds of spear), or they might've learned the pike from the sun templars of the Bright Empire in the First Age, or the later Prax Sun Dome; either way, it's a natural tool to cope with the other nomads of the Wastes as non-riders

Edited April 25, 2023 by dumuzid