Skirmishers (Lib-Rah-Tor)

The new remaining scholars who make descriptions of the latest leader of the latest schiavo uprising tend to make very little mention of unique or interesting details, tending to dismiss the uprising as nothing new, or anything of concern. With so many of the forces involved in this uprising being mere "Sikos", it can be very effortless to move ones eyes around and not pay much attention. Scholars and well-read men will take note of how the Sikos and other forces depend so heavily on strong will, and sheer numbers, and think of the whole endeavor as just a larger riot that has crawled out a urban settlement and through the remote areas of the east.

To a degree, this can be understood, and my sympathy is there. Despite this, I know from my own reports and my own eyes, that the Sikos are enough of a problem as is. The frontiers of the Scaeptrum are secured by settled citizens who only fight and drill part time, concerning themselves more with personal lands of a size between a freeman and a noble. While for hundreds of sun cycles it was perfectly well and good to rely off a "citizen-soldier" class, who could provide their own equipment and drill in the part time, they are not the same as full time soldiers. They are very limited in number, and thus have to be heavily supplemented by unwashed outsiders and barbari. Even if the Sikos can only trade a life for a life with the Barbari, and a Tartarughe can only trade a life for a life with the frontier troops, formations of them can still very easily win battles. I have walked along manors or forts that were the sites of battles, which were damaged and looted of anything worth carrying, and came to understand the situation by looking at the bodies I found. The number was twice or three times as many Scaeptrum slain, and by records, one in four parts or one in two parts had given up or fled for their lives. While I understand that a formation breaks if it loses half it's men and how the uprising has more men, who simply do not understand how to run or give up, I was confused by the ratio of dead I was finding.

That was till I finally was able to look over a battlefield that wasn't old enough to be bones, or the rotting flesh I couldn't bear to be close to. I started to find that many many of the dead Scaeptrum soldiers and warriors had been slain by a thrown spear. I started speaking to the various people still working away at the land, because the rich and the poor still need to eat, and heard that as many as half of the formations of the uprising are made up of skirmishing troops. In many ways I was quite surprised that such formations had returned after all these years, but Scaeptrum skirmishers had once been large bands of the young and poor, who had to serve in some capacity. I could see how dangerous it could be for a hundred men to face a hundred more, with another hundred throwing three javelins each at them. Looking at my writings and notes on the various wounds I saw, I found that the spears had been more consistent with where they hit, then what I was expecting. After speaking to the people of the land, I was informed that the skirmishers tie a leather, linen, or animal hide strap to their spears, and use a method to get a javelin that would normally go twenty five paces, to go forty. This certainly explains the little bit of string and broken bits of shields I have been finding.

If this is all physical and true, then it can mean many things. Not only can equal or greater numbers of acceptable brave melee formations be raised, but they are getting lethal use out of men that merely need to throw three javelins and then run behind those who will do the fighting. Such troops are very cheap to raise, very easy to train, and don't really have to show much bravery. If their Tartarughe get enough experience and salvaged armor, they can match professional troops, while the skirmishing troops of the uprising can match and exceed the javelins thrown by professionals before a charge with the cavalry sword. In essence, they can match the abilities of any one man, by just using two, and have each of their men match or exceed each portion of a man. To face them in battle, one can only hope their formations remain overly large and thus sap their ability to feed themselves on the move during long campaigns.