Saturday, January 30, 2010

Royal Armies of The Hyborean Age: Army List (Khitai)



Khitai 3000 points

Imperial Banner - Gold "S" shaped dragon on a red field (carried by Imperial Cavalry & Chariots only)

Khitai is rich in both foot and horse archers. The bulk of the non missile Infantry is city based garrison troops which are rated as medium Infantry. A portion of these are pike armed to support the mass of the infantry from nomadic cavalry armies. In addition, the nobility of Khitai provide personal forces of well trained heavy Infantry which could account for up to twenty percent of a field army in the service of Khitai. Thus, the breakdown for the infantry of Khitai would be a s follows:

Light Archers- -LI- -B- -12- 10-20
Regular Foot- -MI- -B- -24- -45-80
Pikemen- -MIP- -B- -24-30- -0-20
Elite Companies- -HI- -A- -24- -10-20

Ancient Chinese figures serve well for archers, medium foot, and especially well for pikemen with bamboo type pikes. The heavy infantry can be Chinese or even more elaborate samurai types. Each unit would have a uniform though their would be no army wide uniform type. The pike armed mediums would tend to wear off white shades while all others would wear pastel colors with their lacquered leather armor in red or black. Units would carry colored banners in colors of their city or noble. This is also their uniform color.

Cavalry would make up 25-30% of an army fielded by Khitai and it would emphasize the horse archers recruited from the nomadic outlying regions of the Empire. These horse archers would wear no uniforms and would really be more militia than regular in training. However, as these forces were born to the saddle, we rank them as regulars in terms of Morale Class.

In addition to these horse archers, Khitai had an elite force of Imperial Heavy Cavalry which was fielded by the Emperor. This could also be supplemented by Regular Heavy Cavalry units from the personal forces of the various nobles. The breakdown for cavalry types is as follows:

Horse Archers- -MC- -B- -12-18- -677
Imperial Cavalry- -HC- -A- -12- -20-33
Regular Cavalry- -HC- -B- -12- -0-13

Figures are available for both Chinese and Japanese heavy cavalry types. Only the heavy cavalry would have uniforms which would vary only by unit with the colors simililar to the uniforms of the foot troops. Some horses would be barded in red or black lacquered armor in leather. Horse archers carry yak tail banners as opposed to banners of heavy cavalry.

In addition to all of the troop types listed, the army of Khitai could field one Chariot for each 1500 points of strength. These chariots could either be light or heavy chariots as described under Chariots in Royal Armies of the Hyborean Age.


Khurasan's Himelayan Tribesmen for my Light Archers

Khurasan's T'ang spearmen for my pikemen

Khurasan's T'ang Infantry for Regular Foot

Khurasan's Kofun Japanese for Elite Foot

Khurasan Horse Archers

Khurasan's T'ang for Imperial cavalry (with a mix of the Kofun Japanese, but there are no pics yet)

Khurasan's T'ang for my Regular Cavalry

6 comments:

  1. I stiull think the pre-Samurai Japanese mixed with some early Chinese and maybe some Tibetans would make for a very psuedo-historical fantasy army that would be memorable.

    In my own project to recreate some of the armies of my D&D campaign world, I have borrowed from sources that have nothing to do with the actual historical analogs of my nations. For example, some Middle Eastern troops have made their way into a national force with an Slavic feel.

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  2. That's what I was going to do. Unfortunately Khurasan's Kofun Japanese Cavalry aren't out yet. I suppose I have to be patient :). I'm going to use some of the heavy infantry of the Tibetans also, maybe I'll come up with provincial differences for the army.

    I think the pre-samurai would be perfect for the imperial army though.

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  3. True about the Kofun cav. BTW, I had a chance to visit the Kofun era burial mounds when I was in Japan as a kid. Pretty cool and a bit eye-opener for a teenager who's only view of Japan was based on Samurai era movies and history.

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  4. That's pretty awesome!

    I've always wanted to go to Japan. Someday...

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  5. As a wargamer and REH fan, I'm finding these army features quite enjoyable...

    A question: does the ruleset you are using include an army list for Asgard/Nordheim? If so, any chance you could post the unit types?

    Thanks!

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  6. Keith, I will be posting Asgard and Vanaheim soon. The book has them listed as Northern Barbarians and then breaks them down into Asgard, Cimmeria and Vanaheim respectively. I'm an Asgard fan myself!

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