Comments on: A Mighty Fortress – Snippet 03

By: Karina

Karina — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:11:23 +0000

One thing that I’m interested in, with all the stories swirling about Merlin’s physical abilities coupled with all the tech changes, well….it was mentioned in the last book how people are noticing how everythings coincided with Merlin’s appearence. I don’t think it would take much for the GO4 to decide to declare him a demon and the reason for the initial attack. If the GO4 got replaced with someone more reasonable and would they offer peace in exchange for Merlin being the fall guy?

By: Summertime

Summertime — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 05:36:47 +0000

Relative to large numbers of inferior armed soldiery eventually defeating smaller, even much smaller, bands of really well-armed soldiery; it didn’t happen with Charisian forces invading Corisande in BY HERESIES DISTRESSED. The issues of strategy and tactics also have to be addressed. My guess is that the Charisians are going to stay ahead of any combination of opposing forces and eventually unite the planet. The interesting thing will be how long a time, how many books, whether the current characters will be superseded by descendents, and whether Merlin will morph into another identity in the process. As others have commented; could be a LONG series. How old is DW and how much attention is he willing to put to Safehold developement in the future?

By: Rekes

Rekes — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:19:33 +0000

* either as ransom… or executed.
*ally

By: Rekes

Rekes — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:17:54 +0000

Agriculture is usually the subject of hidden abuses once industrialization of that industry begins.

Siddarmark will receive their Charis-modern arms. The question is when. Charis will likely wait for the common opinion of Siddarmark to favor them over the Church, something which is up in the air at the moment. If Charis holds off the massive armada being made ready by the Church, then it is likely that the Church will seize any victory they can within their boundaries. This will likely mean the seizing of Charisian expatriates, civilians and their families, with their being held either as ransom against Charisian endeavors. Whether or not they’d be executed would depend on how desperately Charis backs the Church leadership into a corner, a corner from which they will try extreme measures before someone tries to change things at the top. If Siddarmark turns its favor towards Charis in the majority, it is at this time that Charis can provide their then-official all with arms. Siddarmark would make an excellent deterrent to either the current or future Church leadership.

By: Bones

Bones — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:22:16 +0000

Pike formations went the way of the dinosaur when it became feasible to equip every person in your army with an accurate long range weapon that could be fired relatively quickly. Any pike formation that went up against a well trained flintlock formation usually would be decimated before they even got close enough for a charge (or whatever). So, technically, yes, the Siddermark army is obsolete when compared to the Charisian army, but if they went toe-to-toe, the Charisian’s would probably wind up being slaughtered due to Siddarmark’s larger army. Siddarmark would suffer horrendous casualties, but as long as they didn’t break (morale), they could roll over the smaller Charissian army. Just my take of the two different countries armies…

By: Grant

Grant — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:51:33 +0000

That’s supposed to be “toe to toe” not “to to to” obviously…

By: Grant

Grant — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:49:08 +0000

They most certainly would have cavalry. Besdides the scouting angle you use pikes to smash an army that’s engaging you in the field or to hold a fortified position, but you only really finish them with a pursuit after you’ve turned them back.

Pikemen don’t do pursuit.

Then of course there’s archers. If all you have is a bunch of pikemen marching around on open ground sure you don’t want to go to to to with them, but a company of archers will have them for breakfast if you don’t have any forces to run them down. They’ll always be able to outmaneuver pikemen to avoid being run down, they can fall back in front of them indefinitely and fill them full of arrows all day long.

I absolutely guarantee any army on a planet with weapons technology at the Charisian level either uses cavalry or ceased existing a long time ago.

By: Peter Z

Peter Z — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:46:36 +0000

Robert, I can see where modern weapons are a danger to Siddermark. As soon as Desnair (predominently cavalry) realize how effective the new rifles are for infantry units, they may want to try and plow Siddermark under before they incorporate the rifles into their units. Desnair will sure as shooting inform Clyntahn that a rifle armed Siddermarkian army will be several times more powerful than the current one. So, there will be a huge incentive to crush Siddermark BEFORE they modernize. The Knights of the Temple Lands may well have to organize Harchong and Desnair into an anti-Siddermark coalition as soon as Siddermark even considers modernizing the army.

It may be wise for Siddermark to modernize their aggriculture first. That productivity gain immediately frees up the manpower to beef up the army. If the G4 decide to go after Siddermark, the added manpower will better enable Siddermark to defend against a multi-pronged invasion. Also, the threat of modernizing their economy first may escape the G4 and Desnair’s attention and not spark a pre-emptive strike.

That’s just how the situation strikes me. Who knows how David will paly this.
PZ

By: Drak Bibliophile

Drak Bibliophile — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:17:22 +0000

Robert, while Siddermark is known for its pikemen, I suspect that they have some cavalry if only for scouting.

By: robert

robert — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:50:04 +0000

Does Siddermark have a cavalry or just an infantry? What happens when they get modern rifles and artillery from their good friends to the south? Way south. Treaty, shmeaty!