Introduction:
As the Nydoan empire expanded, its former army which composed of elongated spears over shield walls, like a phalanx formation, is becoming obsolete. As such, Tei'hi, one of its best generals. Has formulated reforms in order to help with this problem. That which will be known as the Imperial army reforms. It sought to be a mainly defensive force with its strong shield walls and great armor, but it can also be offensive with its short spear design for aggressive poking capabilities.
Recruitment:
An army starts with its recruitment. In regular times, recruitment takes place in select cities for each region, citizens, mostly males are encouraged to enlist. Requirements vary with the needs of each region, which is monitored by the governor. The most common requirements include height (158 cm above), and weight (Varies between regions). A soldier will be paid 4 gold when enlisting and will be in service for 10 years.
Before the reforms, soldiers are encouraged to bring their own equipment, as such their quality varies. Yet, after the reforms, Tei'hi standardized the equipment to be used by the average soldier. As such, the net worth of the soldier is no longer taken into account when enlisting.
Another important thing to note is that, even though males are the ones encouraged to enlist. There is no denying that at times females enlist as well. Though they have different requirements that look more into their skills in maintenance rather than in combat, they can be used as auxiliary fighters such as archers and scouts.
Equipment:
Following the mass production of iron in the reaches of the Nydoan empire, the standardization of equipment was found to be gracefully effective and, at the same time, efficient both economically and in the context of equipment quality.
Firstly, their armor. The helmet. Purpose designed to protect the head from the lower neck, upper nape, over the ears, and to the upper head. The face remains uncovered to minimize the blocking of vision.
A soldier's shoulder pads and vambraces, also made with iron, are meant to protect a soldier's upper limbs. As for their chest, they wear chainmail under a segmented iron armor, this is to not limit the mobility of an individual soldier, considering the speed and terrain that they fight their enemies.
A similar design idea is present in their greaves, made to not be too heavy, it is mostly made with chainmail, similar to the under armour present in the chest area, with the upper heel being heavily guarded.
Second, their weaponry. The regular foot soldiers wield with them a medium-sized (140 cm) spear, its shaft is made out of hardened wood with its tip made out of sharp iron. Soldiers are trained to maximize their accuracy with the spear, aiming for parts of the enemy that would inflict the most damage to their body, such as parts that cannot be physically armored without advanced technology, or parts of the body that may incapacitate someone away from battle form. such as their chest area, their shoulders, hands, or in some cases, knees.
And lastly their shields. Circular and made out of refined iron, this is the most important component of a Nydoan footsoldier. It covers most of the essential parts of the body, mainly their chest and upper body area.
This choice makes them very effective against cavalry units and indeed, the Nydoan Imperial Army is immune to all cavalry charges and makes them the most formidable forward defense force in the entire continent.
Another thing that helps them keep this title is their auxiliary units. These include the archers which consist mostly of female enlist. And their cavalry which consists of their highly elite units.
Let's start with the archers. Their bows are made of wood. To ensure its ease of usage, they settled with using regular short bows rather than longbows. For their arrows, they use iron-tipped arrows with wooden shafts. Effective usage of this bow and arrow starts at 90 meters. Their armor is made out of leather, making them effective ranged soldiers and skirmishers.
Their cavalry units consist of their highly elite units. We use highly elite to denote soldiers that either served in at least 10 battles or someone that, during training, scored highly in both physical and disciplinary tests.
They use a regular footsoldier's armor and shield. The difference is that they're trained with horse riding as well making them effective shock-troopers which are designed to attack an enemy's exposed flanks, as well as preventing enemy flankers from attacking their position. They are also equipped with a shortsword, which they could use should they be knocked off of their horse, which may happen often in quick warfare.
Formation:
For the purposes of this paper, I will not include maintenance officers and auxiliary units when counting the number of units.
The smallest possible formation in the army is a group of 10 people, a squad. This is the most intimate formation as these soldiers stay together through their entire years of service. These soldiers ate together in their camps and shared a tent together. In some cases, if one of the soldiers dies, the others would contact the deceased's family to inform them. The leader and representative of a squad is the most experienced of them.
After that would be the century, consisting of 100 men. This is the most basic tactical formation available in the army. They are led by a man called the 'Century Leader', which is basically just the most experienced squad representative in the entire century.
Following that is the house, consisting of 1000 strong men or 10 centuries, these men are the ones that really form a basic Commune. Houses, despite being more advanced, are the ones that truly mobilize in the sense that an army moves with the houses in mind.
Communes, formed from 10 houses or 10,000 men are the largest force to account for in a normal-sized army. These men, indeed a normal-sized army would consist of 2 to 10 of these communes.
Auxiliaries and maintenance crew are not accounted for, but they typically make up half of the total size of the commune. So one commune would have 5,000 auxiliaries and maintenance crew at their disposal.
In the siege of Chezilux, Tei'hi uses 2 communes in the entire siege, despite being the last place he has ever sieged. This is because of various rebellions that are present throughout the empire, keeping other communes occupied.
And in his first conquests in Arcadia, he carries over a single half-strength commune to accompany him.
And in the last breath of the fall of the Nydoan Empire, they had with them 20 communes to defend the capital city. But even then, it was not enough.
In the next paper, we will speak about the logistics of the Nydoan Imperial Army.
- Marcellus Cillia, Historian from the Arcadian Empire