The Karagond army is based around the following ideal hierarchy of command:
- Lochagos: commands a lochos (“band” in Koine, called a “lance” in Shayarin) of 10 soldiers. (Around three-quarters of the 100,000+ noble officers in the Phalangites are at lochagos level.)
- Kentarch: commands a hecaton, or 100 soldiers under 10 lochagoi
- Tagmatarch: commands a tagma of 300 soldiers under 3 kentarchs
- Turmarch: commands a tourma of 2,000-ish soldiers under 7 tagmatarchs
- Myriarch: commands 5 turmarchs (10,000-ish soldiers). Everyone this level and higher are Karagonds.
- Strategos: commands 10 myriarchs (100k soldiers). The Nauarchs of the Hegemonic Navy are also considered to be at this level (there are currently three of them).
- Polemarch: top level generals. There are currently 3 polemarchs, each overseeing 4 strategoi (and with a link to a nauarch).
- The Polemarchs are accountable to Ennearch Anakilos, the Archmage responsible for military affairs. The Nauarchs are accountable to Ennearch Lacevra.
The reality is of course messier than this template. Many logistics systems are set up reasonably well to support tagma-sized groups, and as a result there really are plenty of tagmatarchs out there who really do command roughly 300 soldiers. (Though Tagmatarch Aletheia from G1 C4 may have been given command of more kentarchs than usual for her short-term rebel-quashing mission, depending on the scale of your notoriety and the need for a strong show of force in the Rim.)
But the Phalangites have quite a few more kentarchs, turmarchs, and myriarchs than you’d get by dividing the total force by 100, 2,000, or 10,000, and the numbers of soldiers reporting to those officers can be significantly higher or lower than the ideal. Partly that’s down to long-term structural factors including:
- Conscription/recruitment being handled in the same semi-decentralized fashion as so many other Hegemonic government functions. The tourmas that win the right to pull people from the slums of Aveche or Soretto will replenish themselves faster and end up bigger than the ones that have to hunt around the Rim or the mountain country of Wiendrj.
- Political and geographical factors affecting how big a tourma or army is considered to be appropriate/necessary. The myriarchs of Currechert have been determined to stay bigger than their counterparts elsewhere in Shayard (as is fitting for the capital garrison), and their access to the slums of the Hegemony’s second biggest city ensures that they could do so, even as the garrisons of the Westriding and Coast scaled up in response to fears of rebellion.
- A superabundance of kentarchs. This primarily stems from three causes: (a) a buildup of ghost soldiers in the home garrisons, which not infrequently turns theoretical 100s into actual 50-80s, (b) the large numbers of provincial nobles demanding the glory of a military office higher than lance-leader, and (c) the Hegemony’s culture of hierarchy and control being stronger than its ingrained fondness for base ten.
There’s a longstanding, reluctant recognition that lochos-level tactical discretion is vital in responding to Theurgic attack, since larger formations get decimated quickly if they aren’t able to split up and maneuver to fight from cover. But having kentarchs officially command only 60 soldiers (i.e. 6 lochagoi rather than 10, leading to tagmatarchs commanding 5 kentarchs rather than 3) allows the kentarchs more of a hands-on role in closely supervising their lochagoi and keeping them from getting too dangerously autonomous.
In addition to this, a significant part of the messiness is only 30-40 years old, when the Polemarchs inflated the Hegemonic army to a much greater size. This was initially in response to Cabel’s revolt and the third Laconnier Pretender; having big military camps near more provincial cities seemed like it would help stem rebellions with less damage and risk of contagion. It was also due to the Ennearchs and Polemarchs of that era convincing themselves that vast human wave attacks might succeed in overwhelming the Halassurqs and changing the face of the war.
This was a shift away from the previous century’s emphasis on intensive lochos-level tactical drill, which was time- and resource-intensive yet had yielded only incremental wins in the east. The new strategy was to soak up more of the (worryingly booming) population of the cities, ship them off en masse to the border, and launch attacks whose sheer numbers were intended to exhaust Halassur’s magic capacity in the area of assault, allowing the Hegemony’s Theurges to follow up with more extensive breakthroughs. Many of these hecatons had minimal training and lochagoi in name only, non-nobles whose only function was to pass on the kentarch’s orders.
The result was the bloodiest decade of the war since Hera’s day, and a slightly increased rate of territorial gains from the shocked Halassurqs. It was of course also devastating for morale (disillusioning even some very high-level members of the Thaumatarchy) and ultimately ignited a series of military revolts in eastern Erezza, 20-ish years ago, in which the human waves were turned on Hegemonic rather than Halassurq magi. The escalating unrest played a key role (along with the shock and uncertainty of Sarcifer’s treason) in inspiring the 14-year truce.
During the peace, the (new) Polemarchs kept recruiting at a scale consistent with an eventual resumption of human wave tactics, the only thing that they believed had been shown to break the stalemate. A lasting quality gap opened up between the Phalangites under noble lochagoi, who continued to receive intensive lochos-level tactical drill, compared to those under non-noble sergeants who were given a lower level of training. (The ones sent after you in G1 are Phalangites of the former type.) But even when war resumed after the Massacre of Muragno, the Hegemonic authorities found themselves never quite daring to give the order to start wave tactics again… always waiting for a moment that felt less internally delicate.
Meanwhile, the expanded garrisons turned into cities themselves. And a Hegemony beginning to face scarcity of various resources tried to reduce the risk of further military uprisings by increasingly prioritizing pay and supplies for the Phalangites over the Alastors. (The latter were more numerous but less well-armed, and better positioned to supply themselves from the people they protected.)
Guilty-ish… and I can only ask you to take my word that even though that’s a fair description of how it works “under the hood” for the Game 4 climax, it isn’t because I imagined the Phalangites were adding soldiers one by one as your offenses against the Hegemony mounted. The base Phalangite force should be roughly tagma-sized, less one “hecaton” of 60-odd troops for an especially non-notorious MC. The notoriety modifier reflects whether an additional kentarch or two have been added to the force to make an example of you for e.g. murdering the Archon’s cousin, and the anarchy modifier reflects how many lochoi had to peel off along the way to support Alastors in responding to small-scale resisters you’ve inspired. It’s true that I didn’t take any steps to make sure the final numbers fell out in neat 10s or 60s, but I’d hope the results plausibly fit the rationale I just outlined.
That’s right. One of the ways I’m imagining a high-COM MC can out-fight the remnants of the Hegemony in the late game is by putting your Theurges and ground troops under a single integrated command and getting them to fight better in combined-arms formations. (As well as a Napoleon-esque ability to outmaneuver the Phalangites when fighting in the Hegemony.)
I’ll mention Vaulens and its garrison in Ch 2, but you passed well north of it on your way to Irduin, and on your way to Grand Shayard, you’ll probably pass through it hidden in a barge.
If you broke the Archon’s army at the end of G1, the demand from the Rim nobles to base a Phalangite tourma in Rimmersford will be reasonably high. If you didn’t stand and fight, most Rim nobles won’t be pushing for a garrison.
It’s a shock for the MC too – that’s what I’ve been writing this month. Coming out of the periphery and really grasping the scale of this continent-sized empire should I think be a shock, to both character and reader.