Lothranian Feudal Army

 

This week we are looking at one of the human armies of Gal Hadre, that of the Kingdom of Lothran, the youngest Kingdom on the continent.

This army resembles more one several hundred years after the legions, that of western european kingdoms in the dark ages.  Therefore it is far less structured than the Legions of Kal’Garand.

A feudal army, based around the forces that each noble could call upon, with larger formations built by counts and dukes combining the forces of the nobles that awed them fealty in units.  Thus barons would bring their direct retainers, and a count would take both their personal retainers but also those of their barons, dukes would do the same with the counts below them and then the King could coordinate the forces of the entire Kingdom if it was assembled in one place.  Of course different elements from vassals wouldn’t necessarily be put together, like a Count’s men-at-arms and their levies usually aren’t lumped into one formation.  The few cities of decent size, including the capital, would also be required to provide troops, usually a levy stiffened by an element of the city watch that had at least some training and equipment.

The largest numerical portion of the Lothranian army is the levy, the mass of peasantry that is called up in times of war.  Most of the levy were equipped as spearmen, but those able to provide their own bows were used as archers.  Some lords would maintain a small amount of bows to equip a portion of their levy as archers.  Other than a spear and usually shield, any other weapons, armour or equipment was on the peasant to provide for themselves.  This has led to huge variations as some peasants could afford to buy a helmet, some leather armour and a mace or axe and others could afford nothing.  Skilled laborers would also often petition their liege lord or the city masters for a formal exemption from the levy, which was usually granted though many skilled tradesmen would be still be required to support the army using their specialist skills.

The archer component of the levy was the main ranged portion of the army, the biggest weakness of it.  They lack both the heavy, armour piercing longbows that the english and welsh had, or the smaller compound bows made by steppe tribes.  And with the technology level of Gal Hadre, crossbows are very rare.  This leaves the Lothranian archers with bows with relatively low draw strength that lacked the range or penetrating power of better bows.  Most of the archers are hunters and/or poachers in their day to day lives, so they are effective at fieldcraft and often decent shots.  Thus they are usually used as scouts and skirmishers for the army.  Many lords cycle archers through more active service so their warriors has some ranged support when fighting bandits or raiders from the Undil Wastes.

While the levy is the majority of the infantry in the army, nobles do maintain their personal forces, many of whom are more heavily armoured infantry.  Still generally fighting as spearmen, they all have chainmail armour, even the poorest lords will find the coin to give their personal guard chainmail vests; but most have full chainmail coats that have sleeves and hang to their knees.  Few except officers have breastplates, though some personal guards have greaves and wristguards.  Helmets are also universal among these professional warriors.

The real strength of the Lothranian army is its cavalry, which is nearly entirely heavy cavalry known as men-at-arms.  This includes both knights, and retainers, the main differences being that knights are effectively the lowest tier of nobility and provide their own arms, armour and mounts and often have their own minor holdings, while retainers are paid warriors equipped by the lord they serve.  Men-at-arms have the largest, strongest and fastest horses that the Lothranians have been able to breed, and carry the most well trained and equipped warriors of the Kingdom along with armour for their own protection.  They function as a hammer, and the rest of the army, but especially the professional guards are the anvil they crush things against.  With multiple layers of armour, triangular shields, spears and a variety of secondary weapon options most of them have trained since before puberty for the task.  One would think that a solid block of spearmen would easily be able to defeat a mounted force but only well trained warriors are likely to actually hold their position when faced with a wall of charging horses and metal; yet their odds of survival are better if they actually hold their ranks but human minds work in strange ways.

Few mages or priests in the Lothranian army are purely battle focused, they are both too rare and valuable to have focused purely on fighting.  Most nobles have connections to mages and priests that they can hire when necessary.  Other than healers who stay well clear of any fighting, both divine and dragon magic users will be mostly found supporting the cavalry and to a lesser extent the heavy infantry.  A cavalry charge can be turned from effective to devastating with a spell cast at the right moment, and a line of spearmen can go from being in trouble to easily winning fighting on magically prepared areas.

The Lothranians have the precursors to field artillery, giant oversized crossbows that depending on size can throw anything from a javelin up to huge bolts fit to be the spears of giants.  They can also build catapults on site for besieging a fortress or city.  However they cannot use them in field battles as they have no way to quickly transport them places in a usable state.  Nobles are unwilling to risk having to abandon the expensive weapons or their highly specialised operators.

What do you think of the Lothranian army?  Are there obvious flaws you think it has?  If you could add one thing to make it better what would it be?  Come back next week as we look at another path of dragon magic.