Hello again all. It is once again the week of July 4th and so, as is customary here, I am going to use this week’s post to talk about the United States. This is going to be a bit more of an open musing than an argument as compared to previous years (2021, 2022, 2023, … Continue reading Collections: On the Declaration of Independence → Continue Reading »
This is the third part (I, IIa, IIb, III) of our honestly-who-knows-how-many part series laying out some general guidelines for how pre-modern armies are recruited, raised, equipped and paid. In the last part, we looked at the various ways pre-modern armies might mobilize their armies, a process that mainly consisted of recruiting and equipping soldiers. … Continue reading Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part III: Paying For It → Continue Reading »
This is the second half of the second part (I, IIa, IIb) of our honestly-who-knows-how-many part series laying out some general guidelines for how pre-modern armies are recruited, raised, equipped and paid. While I hope this will be of great interest to the history nerds out there, I’ve opted to structure this specifically as a … Continue reading Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part IIb: Officials, Contractors and Professionals → Continue Reading »
This is the second part (I, IIa) of our honestly-who-knows-how-many part series laying out some general guidelines for how pre-modern armies are recruited, raised, equipped and paid. While I hope this will be of great interest to the history nerds out there, I’ve opted to structure this specifically as a service for the worldbuilders out … Continue reading Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part IIa: Mobilization without Administration → Continue Reading »
This week I want to try something a little different. Rather than taking apart a particular fantasy military system, I thought I might try to lay out a more general sense of how military systems tend to map on to societies, both because such general historical frameworks are handy for thinking about the past, but … Continue reading Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part I: Why They Fight → Continue Reading »
Hey folks! I had a few other projects that I really needed to get finished this week, which left me with limited time to put a blog post together. My plan for next week is something for the worldbuilders out there, a sort of ‘guide’ to different kinds of army structures, drawing on a number … Continue reading Gap Week: May 29, 2026 → Continue Reading »
This is the fifth and last part of our series (I, II, III, IV, V) looking at how Carthaginian armies were raised and constituted. Over the last four parts, we’ve looked at the larger components of Carthaginian armies: the relatively small role of Carthaginian citizens, the more prominent role of North African conscripts, of Numidian … Continue reading Collections: Raising Carthaginian Armies, Part V: How a Carthaginian Army Fights → Continue Reading »
Hey folks, fireside this week! Next week we’ll cap off our look at the Carthaginian army by covering some of the ‘odds and ends’ components (slingers, elephants), before looking at how that mixture of troop-types was employed in battle during the third century. For this week’s musing, I figured I would answer a question that … Continue reading Fireside Friday, May 15, 2026 → Continue Reading »
This is the fourth part of our series (I, II, III, IV, V) looking at how Carthage’s complex, multi-ethnic armies were raised and structured. Last week, we looked at Carthage’s unusual system for raising vassal forces: long-serving Carthaginian generals could inhabit positions within the personalist, non-state mobilization systems of Numidia and Iberia, enabling them to … Continue reading Collections: Raising Carthaginian Armies, Part IV: Allies and Mercenaries → Continue Reading »
This is the third part (I, II, III, IV, V) of our series looking at how Carthage’s complex, multipart armies were raised and constituted. Last time, we looked at the backbone of Carthage’s armies: North African troops levied out of Carthage’s subject communities in North Africa. These fellows seem to have been directly employed by … Continue reading Collections: Raising Carthaginian Armies, Part III: Generals, Warlords and Vassals → Continue Reading »
Hello again all. It is once again the week of July 4th and so, as is customary here, I am going to use this week’s post to talk about the United States. This is going to be a bit more of an open musing than an argument as compared to previous years (2021, 2022, 2023, … Continue reading Collections: On the Declaration of Independence → 
This is the third part (I, IIa, IIb, III) of our honestly-who-knows-how-many part series laying out some general guidelines for how pre-modern armies are recruited, raised, equipped and paid. In the last part, we looked at the various ways pre-modern armies might mobilize their armies, a process that mainly consisted of recruiting and equipping soldiers. … Continue reading Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part III: Paying For It → 
This is the second half of the second part (I, IIa, IIb) of our honestly-who-knows-how-many part series laying out some general guidelines for how pre-modern armies are recruited, raised, equipped and paid. While I hope this will be of great interest to the history nerds out there, I’ve opted to structure this specifically as a … Continue reading Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part IIb: Officials, Contractors and Professionals → 
This is the second part (I, IIa) of our honestly-who-knows-how-many part series laying out some general guidelines for how pre-modern armies are recruited, raised, equipped and paid. While I hope this will be of great interest to the history nerds out there, I’ve opted to structure this specifically as a service for the worldbuilders out … Continue reading Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part IIa: Mobilization without Administration → 
This week I want to try something a little different. Rather than taking apart a particular fantasy military system, I thought I might try to lay out a more general sense of how military systems tend to map on to societies, both because such general historical frameworks are handy for thinking about the past, but … Continue reading Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part I: Why They Fight → 
This is the fifth and last part of our series (I, II, III, IV, V) looking at how Carthaginian armies were raised and constituted. Over the last four parts, we’ve looked at the larger components of Carthaginian armies: the relatively small role of Carthaginian citizens, the more prominent role of North African conscripts, of Numidian … Continue reading Collections: Raising Carthaginian Armies, Part V: How a Carthaginian Army Fights → 
Hey folks, fireside this week! Next week we’ll cap off our look at the Carthaginian army by covering some of the ‘odds and ends’ components (slingers, elephants), before looking at how that mixture of troop-types was employed in battle during the third century. For this week’s musing, I figured I would answer a question that … Continue reading Fireside Friday, May 15, 2026 → 
This is the fourth part of our series (I, II, III, IV, V) looking at how Carthage’s complex, multi-ethnic armies were raised and structured. Last week, we looked at Carthage’s unusual system for raising vassal forces: long-serving Carthaginian generals could inhabit positions within the personalist, non-state mobilization systems of Numidia and Iberia, enabling them to … Continue reading Collections: Raising Carthaginian Armies, Part IV: Allies and Mercenaries → 
This is the third part (I, II, III, IV, V) of our series looking at how Carthage’s complex, multipart armies were raised and constituted. Last time, we looked at the backbone of Carthage’s armies: North African troops levied out of Carthage’s subject communities in North Africa. These fellows seem to have been directly employed by … Continue reading Collections: Raising Carthaginian Armies, Part III: Generals, Warlords and Vassals →