Legions of Kal’Garand

This week we stay in Gal’Hadre as we look at the Legions of Kal’Garand, the great Werd City-State.  As a highly caste based people, the Werd consider their military to be a caste and thus is probably the most gender neutral military of the continent.  As their name implies, some inspiration for their military is drawn from the Romans.

Notionally a Werd Legion is 5200 strong, but in reality it is generally smaller while on paper actually being slightly larger.  No matter how well equipped and supported no organization is ever at 100% strength, though a legion can usually muster around 5000 soldiers, an impressively high percentage.  On paper it is larger because the 5200 number does not include officers.

A Werd Legion has four ranks of officers, centurions who command a century of a hundred soldiers, coordinators which is generally for administrative positions but could command multiple centuries in a divided legion, sub-commanders who command a thousand soldiers, and the commander of the entire legion.

The core of the legion is its 3500 heavy infantry.  Heavily armoured with a nearly full suit of chainmail, they add a helmet, breastplate, grieves, wrist guards and large oval shields to the exoskeleton that all Werd have.  More than one foe has been defeated simply because wounding a legionary is not easy.  They are armed with short spears and one handed axes, and depending on the terrain and foe, may use either as their primary weapon.  A century is drilled in a variety of formations and for various scenarios and is equally comfortable fighting in a ten by ten square or four ranks deep.  Every fifth of the legion has seven centuries of heavy infantry.

The main support to that battle line is 1000 archers.  Still somewhat armoured, with a chainmail shirt and helmet, Kal’Garand archers use composite bows that pack a significant punch but are relatively slow to fire.  They also generally have a one handed ax as a backup weapon but do not carry shields of any kind.  Archer centuries spend a significant amount of time focused on accuracy as the Werd cannot guarantee a battlefield that slopes properly for their archers to fire over the ranks of infantry.  Each fifth of the legion has two centuries of archers.

The werd cavalry use Krydyr, pony sized lizards, that move far faster than most anticipate when first looking at them.  Despite often being brightly coloured and the rumours that the Werd are happy to have spread, the Krydyr are not poisonous or venomous; their bite can still rend flesh from skin if they get a solid grip, but is not great at punching through armour.  500 of these creatures can be found in a legion’s cavalry.  One century of Krydyr cavalry can be found in each fifth of the legion.

Lastly the Legion has 200 support soldiers, a mix of scouts, mages, priests, non-magical healers and siege weapon operators.  On paper a Legion is supposed to have 35 mages and 10 war priests but it rarely can muster such numbers, as both are always in short supply.  These two centuries also contained the rare Lyfdyr riders; Lyfdyr look like giant dragonflies and are able to support one unarmoured Werd rider.  They are far too valuable to risk in battle and are mostly used to carry messages and occasionally scout difficult to reach areas.  

The mages within a Kal’Garand legion are technically from a separate caste, but battle mages are a dedicated sub-caste.  These mages have a broad variety of spells and the Werd have deliberately avoided attempting to standardize the battle spells of any path of magic.  Werd also understand the value of non-combat focused spells to their legions, especially among their path of stone awakened and life talents.  Path of the Worldwind mages are probably the rarest of the eight paths among the legions as the great city believes that its diviners should be centralized in the capital rather than hoping that each commander can effectively interpret and use the guidance their mages receive.

The limited number of siege engineers require augmentation if they are to use their entire arsenal at once; their most commonly used engine is an oversized crossbow with a solid base.  It has huge cranks on both sides for pulling back the cable that throws the three foot long bolts; and the weapon can be fired one of two ways: the more accurate but less used single bolt and the repeating cartridge of 6 bolts.  Through complex engineering the Werd developed a way to have the weapon fire as soon as it is fully drawn if they wish.  A well drilled crew can fire 6 bolts in 15 seconds before taking about 10 seconds to place the next cartridge.

The support train of a Legion on campaign is extensive and if the commander is not diligent can easily be larger than the legion itself.  Officially it is only supposed to be 1000 strong, but that only covers the actual military essentials of transporting goods, smithing and other key tasks.

Inexperienced foes assume that because the legions are mainly heavy infantry that they move slowly, but the Werd are a hearty people and legionaries are a caste that trains nearly from birth for war.  A Werd Legion can cover approximately 20% more ground in a day than most human armies.

One of the advantages of the organization of a Kal’Garand Legion is that it can easily be divided into five sub-legions normally logically referred to as fifths.  Each fifth is a legion in miniature with infantry, archers and a century of Krydyr cavalry, plus whatever specialist the legion commander feels are needed for the task.  Even the great city only has a limited number of legions and against many threats a full legion is overkill.

What did you find most interesting about the Legions?  Is there anything you would change?  What army would you like to see next?  Come back next week as we look at the Glacial Path of Dragon Magic.