Friday 4 March 2011

Armies of Greyhawk - Thoughts.

In starting a project, one is inevitably immediately drawn into the enthusiasm and excitement of new work, new challenges and the prospect of creating something memorable. Alright, at least I am. It's the same with a painting project, a writing project, a chain mail project or anything else I set my mind and turn my hand to. The thoughts about difficulties and problems that will arise within the work usually come a little bit later on, after the initial adrenaline rush passes.

Such is where I'm at with writing these Armies of Greyhawk lists.

No worry should arise about my not finishing what I have information for, or what I've promised various people I'd do. I'd sooner saw off my left hand than go back on my word, but the more I look at information about the various forces and factions, the more I'm drawn in to something of a quandary.  Many of the forces are truly grand in scale, with thousand upon thousand of armoured, beweaponed warriors standing ready to do their sovereign's will. Then there are smaller ones, where a force might total three thousand or so at most. So my thoughts have been about just where the balance of scale for soldiers per base should lie, given that I want it to have something of a cohesive theme and balance within the Field of Glory rules.

Originally, I aimed for something measured by the thousands.  Roughly 12 bases per two thousand men. This works fairly well and is practical for the larger armies - Nyrond, Great Kingdom, the various Thillonrian tribes, etc. It doesn't however, work very well for a force like that of Sunndi. And worse still for one like the Sea Barons or the individual Bandit Kindoms' forces.

So, now I'm considering re-writing the ones I've done so far down to a more manageable scale for all concerned.  I'm leaning towards something like 85-90 men per base (give or take) to allow 12 bases per thousand, right now, but I certainly need to think on things more.  Sure, it would make modeling the complete Nyrondese standing army something that only a madman would try to accomplish (*ahem*), but it would allow a much greater flexibility in both writing and playing with the lists. This, I feel, would make things more fun for people that might actually play with these lists

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