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 The Merkitan Tribes

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Graley




Posts : 231
Join date : 2010-05-10
Location : Room.

Character sheet
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Age: 1
Race: Human

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PostSubject: The Merkitan Tribes   The Merkitan Tribes Icon_minitimeFri Aug 27, 2010 6:24 pm

The Merkitan Tribes Wolfl


The Merkitan Tribes
The Merkitans are nomadic tribes, living by simple ways. They believe in a strong right arm, a good bow and a fine horse. The Merkitans are toughened by the constant threats in The Wastes. There skins have grown hard, there arms have grown strong. They have pinpoint accuracy, being able to hit an egg from 300 feet (about 90 meters) with a bow. They have mastered the techniques of riding, regularly covering 125 miles (about 200 km) per day, switching the horses out for new fresh, rested horses after about every 25 miles (45 km).

Religion
The Merkitans believes in a Blue Sky, a nature overgod, thinking that when they die, they will return to it. They put the bodies of warriors on top of mountains, letting eagles and various creatures in the sky feast on the body, the soul returning up to the Sky. Shamans exist in the tribes, often being feared by the people. The shamans are powerful, controlling and summoning the spirits. They use fear and persuasion to buy power in the tribes, serving as the advisors for the leaders.

Settlements
A yurt is a portable, felt-covered, wood lattice-framed dwelling structure used by the Merkitans.

Yurts consist of a circular wooden frame carrying a felt cover. The felt is made from the wool of sheep.
The frame consists of one or more lattice wall-sections, a door-frame, roof poles and a crown. The (self-supporting) wood frame is covered with pieces of felt. The frame is held together with one or more ropes or ribbons. The structure is kept under compression by the weight of the covers, sometimes supplemented by a heavy weight hung from the centre of the roof.

A yurt is designed to be dismantled and the parts carried to be rebuilt on another site.

The leader of the tribe often has a bigger yurt, serving as the center of the various settlements.

Economic and loot system
The Merkitans do not have any sort of money, but instead exchanges goods and various possessions. A horse could be traded for a good sword and everything had its own value. The loot from raids on settlements is divided by the tribe. The leader gets one-tenth of everything, the rest is divided equally among the warriors. They have a sort of tax system, the leader being entitled to one-tenth of every trade made inside the settlement, could something not be shared in one tenth, as a horse, something of lesser value is instead given as taxes.

Military setup
The Merkit military organization is simple but effective. The army is built up from squads of ten men each, called an arban; ten arbans constitutes a company of one hundred, called a jegun; ten jeguns makes a regiment of one thousand called mingan and ten mingans would then constitute a regiment of ten thousand called a tumen.

When in battle Merkitan forces use an extensively coordinated combination of armed forces. Although they are famous for their horse archers, troops armed with lances are equally skilled and just as essential to their success.
The army's discipline distinguished Merkitan warriors from their peers. Forces under the command of the Merkitan tribes are generally trained, organized, and equipped for mobility and speed. To maximize mobility, Merkitan warriors are relatively lightly armoured.
All military campaigns are preceded by careful planning, reconnaissance and gathering of sensitive information relating to enemy territories and forces. All males aged from 15 to 60 and capable of undergoing rigorous training are eligible for conscription into the army, a source of honour in their tribal warrior tradition.

Military training

The Merkitan armies constantly practice horsemanship, archery, and unit tactics, formations and rotations. This training is maintained by a hard, but not overly harsh or unreasonable, discipline.

Officers and troopers alike are usually given a wide leeway by their superiors in carrying out their orders, so long as the larger objectives of the plan are well served and the orders promptly obeys. The Merkitans thus avoids the pitfalls of overly rigid discipline and micromanagement which have proven a hobgoblin to armed forces. However, all members have to be unconditionally loyal to each other and to their superiors, and especially to the leader. If one soldier ran from danger in battle, then he and his nine comrades from the same arban would face the death penalty together.

One unique training method that the Merkitans uses are huge hunting excursions organized annually on the steppe. The Merkitan horsemen will make a great circle, and drive all manner of animals in towards the center. Practicing the dynamic maneuvers also to be used on a battlefield, the Merkitans will trap all the animals of various types in their encirclement, and on the order of their commander, begin the slaughter. If any hunter kills any creature before the appointed time, or if one allowed an animal to escape from the ring, they will be punished. Thus the Merkitans are able to train, enjoy the recreation of hunting, and gather food for massive feasts all at once.

Military tactics
The Merkitan battlefield tactics is a combination of masterful training with excellent communication and discipline in the chaos of combat. They train for virtually every possibility, so when it occurs, they can react accordingly. Their training and discipline allows them to fight without the need for constant supervision or rallying.
Whenever possible, Merkitan commanders find the highest ground available, from which they can make tactical decisions based on the best view of the battlefield as events unfolded.
One of the tactics is to surround the enemy, thinning their lines with arrows before moving in with lances and swords. Then have no mercy and will slaughter anything in their way. Known for their victories, they utilize fear, skill and confusion to win over their enemies.

Weapons
The Merkitan bow
The Merkitans uses a recurved composite bow with layers of boiled horn and sinew to augment the wood. The layer of horn is in the inner face as it resists compression. The layer of sinew is at the outer face as it resists expansion. All of this gives it great power which makes it very good against armour. The Merkitan bow can shoot an arrow over half a kilometre.
The bow's geometry allows it to make it relatively small so it can be used and fired in any direction from horseback. Quivers containing sixty arrows are strapped to the backs of the cavalrymen. Mail and metal armour can be penetrated at close range, using special heavy arrows.

Merkitan sword
The Merkitan sword is a slightly curved scimitar which is more useful for slashing attacks than stabbing and thrusting, making it easier to use on horseback.

Merkitan lance
The merkitan lance is 12 feet long with a blade at the end for piercing and slashing. It also has a hook under the blade for pulling other riders off their horses.




Last edited by Graley on Fri Jan 14, 2011 7:12 am; edited 5 times in total
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Graley




Posts : 231
Join date : 2010-05-10
Location : Room.

Character sheet
Name:
Age: 1
Race: Human

The Merkitan Tribes Empty
PostSubject: Re: The Merkitan Tribes   The Merkitan Tribes Icon_minitimeThu Jan 13, 2011 12:01 pm

Cavalry
Six of every ten Merkitan trooper are light cavalry horse archers, the remaining four are more heavily armored and armed lancers. Merkitan light cavalry are extremely light troops allowing them to execute tactics and maneuvers that would have been impractical for a heavier enemy. Most of the remaining troops are heavier cavalry with lances for close combat after the archers have brought the enemy into disarray. All soldiers usually carry scimitars or axes as well.

The Merkitans protects their horses in the same way as they protect themselves, covering them with lamellar armor. Horse armor is divided into five parts and designed to protect every part of the horse, including the forehead, which has a specially crafted plate which is tied on each side of the neck.

Merkitan horses are relatively small, and would lose short-distance races under equal conditions with larger horses. However, since most other armies carries much heavier armor, the Merkitans can still outrun most enemy horsemen in battle. In addition, Merkitans horses are extremely durable and sturdy, allowing the Merkitans to move over large distances quickly, often surprising enemies that had expected them to arrive days or even weeks later.

All horses are equipped with stirrups. This technical advantage makes it easier for the Merkitan archers to turn their upper body, and shoot in all directions, including backwards. Merkitan warriors will time the loosing of an arrow to the moment when a galloping horse would have all four feet off the ground, thus ensuring a steady, well-aimed shot.

Siege Weapons
Trebuchet
The Merkitan Tribes 695px-Stirling_Warwolf_Trebuchet

The trebuchet is a counterweight siege engine. Basically, a lever and a sling. The trebuchet is a Type-1 lever. In the Type-1 lever, the force is applied to one end, the load is on the other end and the fulcrum sits between the two.For the trebuchet, the force is very large and the load is very small. Like putting an elephant on one side of the see-saw and a small child on the other.
There is a pouch to hold the projectile and two long strings. Both ends of the string are held in one hand and the sling is swung around and around. Then, at the proper moment, one end of the sling is let go with the other end is still held by the hand. The pouch can no longer hold the projectile and the projectile continues on it's way. For the trebuchet, this release is done with a nearly straight hook so that the sling swings out and eventually slips off the hook, releasing the projectile.

So, putting it all together, the trebuchet starts with a long arm. The axle (fulcrum) is more towards one end than the other. The short end has a heavy counterweight and the other end has a sling. When it's "cocked and locked", the counterweight is high and ready to drop. The projectile sits in the pouch of the sling beneath the trebuchet, ready to be pulled along and flung.When the trigger is released, the counterweight begins to drop. This moves the other end of the arm very quickly and the projectile in the sling is dragged along underneath the machine. As the weight continues to drop and the arm continues to swing, eventually the projectile reaches the end of the base. Centrifical force holds the sling taunt as the sling swings out but the one end of the sling is still looped over the hook.
Forces try to straighten out the sling and eventually the loop on one end slips off the hook. The projectile is no longer held in the pouch and so continues on its way down range
This makes it an excellent siege weapon. It can fire up to roughly 300 meters and at a high rate of fire. They can launch every 20th second with enough men to load and reset the siege weapon. The weight of the projectiles vary. Sometimes dead bodies are used to spread disease in a city.

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