Thread "There are no horses in Harkovast." in forum "Harkovast- the forum "

Posted at 8:03AM, Mar. 6, 2009

Well…no. It is a fantasy comic, after all. Science often takes a back seat.

Yeah science…sit down and SHUT UP!

Posted at 11:04AM, Apr. 24, 2009

I'm currently ignoring the idea of a separated human society.

I thought I should mention that there are breeds of horses that are for meat alone. You have to go to Europe to find it. The French eat horse meat, but they also eat snails and frogs so there's no accounting for their taste.

I was also thinking about the evolotion for your riding animals. They evolved differently so their could be any number of different beasts of burden. Just as you could argue the breeding of dogs until you got something with a better back and gait for riding, your peolpes could have discovered various animals that were big enough for riding and bred them to be stronger mounts. Are there going to be other creature like lizards?

Posted at 1:04PM, Apr. 24, 2009

Snowhunter if you take a look in the page with a Heretic and the page where Chen-Chen explains how the hundred Nameless captured her, you can see a creature called a histoo, which is a large riding lizard, commonly used by the Tsung-Dao.

Posted at 5:06AM, Jun. 30, 2011

*D_Dude casts Thread Necromancy*
Is there a rundown of the various mounts and beasts of burden?

I know of the noble Suss bird, the histoo and the bataks.

Posted at 6:06AM, Jun. 30, 2011

You got it-
Suss Birds- Large, two legged flightless birds.
The noble mounts used by most cavalry forces. Brave, intelligent and fierce, they are ideal mounts for a combatant. They are very valuable and dont get used as beasts of burden, only as beasts of war.

Histoo- Large, four legged lizards.
Faster then a Suss bird but more timid and less intelligent. Being cold blooded, they only really function well in a warm climate, so their use is not very wide spread. The are mostly used in the Tsung-Dao lands and western areas of the Darsai Kingdom. Some Tsung-Dao samurai ride them into battle, as they are a cheaper alternative to a Suss bird. In this role they work better is you are planning to ride around your enemy firing arrows than rushing right at him.

Hanup- Large, two legged rodents with big ears
Slower and more timid than a Suss bird, Hanups are useful as a relatively cheap beast of burden.
They are cheap to feed, and can survive almost anywhere, so they do see use as mounts for war in Jaydia (where they can whether the desert conditions very well) and in the Elsum home islands (Suss birds there have to be expensively imported and need a lot of care to survive the cold weather.)
But no one is in any doubt, that the Suss is in all ways a surperior mount on the field of battle than the lowly Hanup.

Batak- Very large, bulkly hairly creatures with horns nad long necks. Somewhere between a cow and a rhino.
Bataks are not widely used as mounts, being wild and hard to control.
The only successful efforts to semi-domesticate them were made in the West before the rise of The KITW, and are still used by Nameless riders in battle.
They are very hard to control, often throwing off, goring or trampling their riders. They are also slower than a suss bird or Hanup and quick to tire due to their great size.
However, they are incredibly strong, aggressive and the charge of armoured Nameless Knights mounted on Bataks is utterly devastating. No force of cavalry or line of infantry could stand against their charge in the First Nameless War.

Posted at 10:06AM, Jun. 30, 2011

Batak… so those things could even break through Ivos battle formations while having volleys of long armour/shield piercing spears launched into them? (Pilum, if the Ivos share that characteristic with the Romans, the heavier Pila were weighted down with a lead ball so that they would hit a shield and bend, making the shield useless. This worked for the lighter pila, but the lead made it that much more effective at piercing. Needless to say, you get hit by one of those at close range and…). If so, then I suppose that our good Praetor would have countered them with tactics similar to how the Romans defeated Parthian Cataprachts, keep them on the field as long as possible, particularly in the sun, and force them to tire out, then butcher them. Or open the formation lines and surround them.

Posted at 1:06PM, Jun. 30, 2011

The Batak knights were pretty few in number (about 1000 total in the whole last war, out of a Nameless army of over a hundred thousand) so though they were devastating, their overall effect on things was more limited.
The reason they were such a small part of the Nameless army is unclear to people in Vellastrom, as a lack of cavalry was a weakness in the Nameless armies in general.
Some have theorised that this might be because of difficulties in involved in keeping large numbers of non-nameless creatures alive in the West.
There are rumours of groups of Nameless raiders mounted on a new kind of Batak. These steeds are said to be hairless, with greenish-grey skin and bleed the same foul green blood as the Nameless. So far, no evidence has been found to back up these outlandish claims.

Another factor to consider is that Batak knights were not deployed against every type of troops available, or against every commander, but those that did face them in large numbers invariably found them over an over whelming force.

Posted at 7:06PM, Jun. 30, 2011

Now, how would you deal Batack knights? Me, I'd go with one of two things. Lots of prepared Ivos Legionaries (if they are how I suspect), or the Golta. Do Golta have landmines? Because if they do then I'm not sure I see them losing a pitched battle easily. And, really, just mass Golta rifle fire into the charging Batack knights. They are almost too big to miss, and too slow to close fast enough. They might even get in a good couple of volleys.

I'm wondering, do the nameless generally armour their Batacks? I could see that being a problem with overheating and tiring them out quickly. But if they don't armour them… Sure, big nasty critters and all, but pila would go straight into them. Even with armour it is dangerous how much damage a good weighted pilum would do. Then again, I'm not entirely sure. This is the world of Harkovast, where sling stones thrown by focused overgrown lizards can go straight through wolf people! (tongue in cheek! I swear!)

Also, does this mean that Sir Muir took out about 0.3-4% of the Nameless cavalry from the first war? In one sitting? Next to a church? And add to that the fact that most of the nameless pursuing him croaked on the way? I've got a newfound respect for Muir. Unless those weren't "The" Batack knights, just a bunch of dudes riding Batacks, but that doesn't seem like the case.

Now, I've noticed that the Nameless don't need to eat, or sleep, etc… so that means the "undead/nameless" Batacks might not tire either. That would be a serious, serious, problem. Then again, perhaps they don't exactly reproduce all that easily. The zombie things don't entirely look… healthy. If that is the case then the numbers would still be limited…

That also begs another question. How do nameless reproduce their numbers? Do they actually reproduce? Or are there pockets of little mouse/rat people still around used as breeders in the West?

Posted at 1:07AM, Jul. 1, 2011

Possibly that is why The King In The West is trying to conquer the rest of the world, for breeding stock to replace those lost.

And I think and excellent way of dealing with batak cavalry would be caltrops. 4 nails welded together so there will always be one pointing upwards. Then you make a couple of thousands of them and spread them across the battlefield.

Posted at 3:07AM, Jul. 1, 2011

Calthrops and lands mines are great but they require you knowing where the enemy is goin to attack from and having plenty of time to prepare before they do (without them sending scouts and noticing what you are up to!)

How do Nameless reproduce?
Well sometimes when a daddy Nameless and a mommy nameless love each otehr very much they…alright that was a joke. The details of where Nameless come from will be revealed in time (probably quite a long time!)

Additional- Yes those were actual Batak knights, though the figure of a thousand is the total deployed in the last war. How many are currently in the KITW's armies is unknown. But Sir Muir always kills noticiable percentages of his enemies. Cause he is awesome like that.