There's nothing particularly mechanically innovative in my article in this issue of Pyramid. It is, though, chock full of historical inaccuracies! But they were put there on purpose. Given my work on other projects, I thought it might be worth issuing a disclaimer. This was not written with my Very Serious Historian Indeed hat on. Consequently, as the introduction indicates, considerable liberties have been taken, specifically to make units fit into size classes of about a squad and a few hundred troops.
The faux-Bronze Age Mesopotamian chariot units, for example, are essentially made up. There are records of garrisons or other smallish units combining a body of infantry with a handful of chariots. That handful allowed me to rationalize a nine-person unit. The chariot kirsu is far from a standardized unit, and the one presented here is very much on the small side when it comes to real ones. While one might find historical examples of the Greco-Roman and Medieval units as listed, all of them were subject to local variation and change over time. The lance is a case in point. For a rather long time, it was a unit of three to six people; a ten-man lance is a rather late development And so on.
So, enjoy the troops, but don't mistake it for actual history.
The faux-Bronze Age Mesopotamian chariot units, for example, are essentially made up. There are records of garrisons or other smallish units combining a body of infantry with a handful of chariots. That handful allowed me to rationalize a nine-person unit. The chariot kirsu is far from a standardized unit, and the one presented here is very much on the small side when it comes to real ones. While one might find historical examples of the Greco-Roman and Medieval units as listed, all of them were subject to local variation and change over time. The lance is a case in point. For a rather long time, it was a unit of three to six people; a ten-man lance is a rather late development And so on.
So, enjoy the troops, but don't mistake it for actual history.
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