Notes on Combat and Warfare by Arquado Barbarossa

This is a compilation of notes for the use of commanders of the Berini military in order that they learn to do a better job and act upon it to keep the military of the Berini Empire up to it's standards and reputation.

Footwork

Footwork is one of the most crucial parts of combat. It's the difference between life and death. The reason, if you have good footwork then you will be less likely to fall over and be quickly dispatched by an opponent wielding a long weapon to exploit the gaps in your armor or an ace grappler with a dagger. Because of this, I made sure that every soldier under my command had a good mastery of footwork before he could join the ranks in battle. Soldiers who can't stand properly or have problems with their legs are sent away from the fighting ranks by their commanders. Mastery of footwork is the most important thing for an individual on the battlefield, not the mastery of thrusting a spear.

Surrender

It is always preferred that your enemy surrenders to you because it means you don't have to fight him and suffer casualties. It also means that you could potentially make use of him to your advantage in the future. However, one must tread carefully as he could betray you and countermeasures must always be made. Betrayal must always be answered very harshly to lead by example so others don't follow. If it means skinning a king alive, covering him with sand and putting his skin back on, do it. If one rebels, others will follow him as it is as contagious as the dreaded cholera if not stopped early enough.

Foreign armies

Guntartars

Guntartars make the finest light cavalry I have ever seen. They grow up and live in the steppe and know all the nuances of riding a horse. The horses they prefer to use may be small and skittish, but they are hardy, fast and full of energy. This fits with the Uncatchable Philosophy in which the Guntartars believe in. All Guntartars, men women and children are proficient in using slings and they carry one along with a few slingstones at all times. The reason for this is that the sling is not just a weapon but also a tool for herding livestock which is the classic Guntartar lifestyle. The warrior possesses a composite recurve bow with which he is extremely skilled. He stands in his saddle on the stirrups to get a stable shooting position. He can be so precise to hit a man squarely between his eyes while riding at full speed as he only becomes a warrior after training and practicing shooting the bow from horseback for a few years, and he still constantly practices. If the wind is working against him, or he runs out of arrows or can't shoot arrows from his bow for some other reason, he has 2 slings to serve as backups. He slings lead sling projectiles instead of regular slingstones as they are denser and smaller, making them easier to carry. A Guntartar warrior is virtually unbeatable when on his horse, but there is a clever way to best him. If you deprive him of his horse, he is easily beaten if you have a shield as he only may have a sword and his footwork on the ground is usually bad and very unprofessional.
I always use them as scouts, skirmishers or to beat skirmishers as they are fast, ill-disciplined, hard to control, and unable to hold a defensive line or commit to a direct charge. They are good for distracting and harassing an enemy force and weakening it while your main force engages it and crushes it. Another good use is to harass and delay baggage trains. This causes your enemy to weaken and be more likely to surrender rather than fight. Guntartars are best used in flat and open areas where they can maneuver freely. The recurve bow they use is small and powerful. Small enough to be used effectively on horseback but it is an advanced piece of technology with a heavy draw weight that packs a lethal punch. The lead sling bullets they sling easily bury themselves deep in a man's skull and can sometimes kill an armored man by hitting him on the head.
The Guntartars are generally very materialistic and corrupt and can be bribed rather easily. When using them, make them an offer they can't refuse so they won't desert you.

Palii

These manderthals are amazing fighters. Due to the fact that they are apes, they possess extreme strength (about four times that of a man) and can weigh as much as three men. Any weapon that befalls their hands can be used to devastating measure. They can't ride horses because they are too heavy. However, that's not where they shine. The Palii are experts at fighting in a phalanx formation where they lock shields heavier than those used by a human phalanx. They also wear heavier armor and wield longer and sturdier spears. They fight with such strength and ferocity that their spears will go through shields and knock men to the ground if their spears hit them on the head without penetrating armor. If their spears break, they draw their Khopisi swords (more about them soon) which are devastating even in the hands of a man. The Khopisi is a short one handed sword with a forward curving blade. It has a false edge going about a third of the way down and a blade-heavy balance. This makes it a slower sword with devastating chopping power as well as an option to thrust or deal a percussive blow. It has occured on many occasions that a khopisi point penetrated the armor of a Berini soldier with it's force.

by Mr. CookiePasta

Above: A khopisi
The Palii can hold their ground really well and either hold a line or push into it. They aren't stupid and are capable of speech and can overheat easily in high summer when deployed during the day. They are best used in a phalanx formation in a flat area with a barrier on either side during the night. A situation where an enemy is forced to engage with them head on when they are less likely to overheat and can use their night vision which is superior to that of a human. Their phalanx moves slowly and needs to stay tightly packed in order to be effective. if you lead them onto uneven terrain and then close the distance and flood the gaps, you can beat them because of a few reasons: They lose cohesion, they have inferior balance to humans, and they aren't well trained in using swords or in individual fighting. If you knock them to the ground and hit them on the head with a mace or axepick point, you are fine and they are down for the count. The Palii can also use bows so strong that they can penetrate armor and can't be drawn by any man. These archers always accompany the phalanxes to battle. Ooglai Khagan III used the Palii to engage his enemies with a frontal assault while he harassed the rear of the enemy and had his recently acquired heavy cavalry charge into the flanks in the battle of Halkur near where Tarket used to stand a few centuries ago. He achieved a great success.
The Palii have special dietary needs (they are carnivores) and they will see you as an inferior ape as you see them. Make sure to keep them happy and well fed so they won't think of eating you. They are smarter than they are given credit for.

Saniri Tribes

The Saniri tribal warriors are hardened frontiersmen who are the hardiest men I've ever seen, even more than the Guntartars. They come from a sparsly populated harsh land. As a result, they are experts at living off the land and are elite skirmishers as that is basically how war is conducted in their homeland. They are usually ill disciplined and poorly equipped. Meaning, you'll have to officially recruit and train them and upgrade their equipment as some of them come from places so remote that a conventional army is as new a concept to them as an elephant (which can't live up in those mountains) and you will need to start from scratch.
I make sure to recruit them as skirmishers or foragers and I prefer to take from the more civilized tribes like the Tomani tribe. Also, i prefer to employ as large a number of men from as few tribes as possible due to the fact that the tribes are independent minded and harder to unite than Guntartar tribes as it's a virtually impossible task and was never done before.

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This was written from the point of view of Arquado Barbarossa and was relevant to his time. The information was subjected to Arquado's biases and perceptions and limited to the knowledge of the time and eventually became outdated.