Tag Archives: Medieval

Warfare for Writers - Officers

Warfare for Writers - Officers covers commissioned and non-commissioned officers, different from the days when one could buy a rank. From a Timons Esaias lecture.

Non-commissioned officers - sergeants and corporals and rarely sergeant-majors - are the foreman of the military.

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Commissioned officers lead companies, or their equivalent, and up. Officers are the quarterbacks of the team, they tell everybody else what to do and are responsible if they don't get it done. If officers work well together, they combine their strengths. If they squabble, they make their weaknesses prominent. Think plot conflicts!

An overwhelming concern for officers in most armies in history, is seniority. Armies, since ancient Rome, have had strict rules on who gets what job based on seniority down to minutes and seconds. If a higher ranking officer shows up, based on seniority, even in the middle of a battle, he assumes command and he can change the battle orders. If your character is an officer in a civilized military, this needs to be on their mind. If your character is a knight in a feudal military, then he is concerned about honor and precedence becoming more important, more complex, and more vexing.

Confusion for writers - in addition to names and official ranks there are positions and brevets. Positions are the jobs officers do, adding meanings to their rank with titles such as: executive officer, quartermaster, master, commander, first mate, officer of the day, and so on. Brevets or field commissions are acting ranks usually awarded doing wartime, giving the power of the rank without postwar privileges and pensions.

The one absolute SIN of an officer in the field, if he commands a unit, is not to reconnoiter his position. (Which is, to find out where other units are, and the nature of the surrounding terrain.) This sin is all too common and is utterly inexcusable!

If you find this post useful, please share and add to your social media platform(s). Thanks, Dameon

 

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Warfare for Writers - Fortifications

Warfare for Writers - Fortifications -- another in the series by Iimons Easisa' lectures with his permission.

There are nine things that tend to be missing when you visit fortifications:

  • The surface
  • The Glacis -- . . . the glacis prevents attacking cannons from having a clear shot at the walls of a fortress, as one usually cannot even see the walls until the glacis is crossed and the ditch, bounded on either side by the smooth, masoned scarp and counterscarp, is reached. Wikipedia
  • Top structures
  • Firing steps
  • Moats
  • Full gate structures
  • Barbicans -- A barbican is a fortified outpost or gateway, such as an outer defense to a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. Usually barbicans were situated outside the main line of defences and connected to the city walls with a walled road called the neck. In the 15th century, with the improvement in siege tactics and artillery, barbicans lost their significance. However, several barbicans were built even in the 16th century.Fortified or mock-fortified gatehouses remained a feature of ambitious French and English residences into the 17th century.

    Fortifications in East Asia also featured similar structures. In particular, gates in Chinese city walls were often defended by an additional "archery tower" in front of the main gatehouse, with the two towers connected by walls extending out from the main fortification. Called literally "jar walls", they are often referred to as "barbicans" in English.

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  • Original approach roads
  • Firing slit stoppers --
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    An arrowslit at Corfe Castle. This shows the inside - where the archer would have stood.

    An arrowslit at Cité de Carcassonne. The wall thickness is reduced to 0.7 m to accommodate the niche and the embrasure widens at an angle of 35º.

    An arrowslit (often also referred to as an arrow loop, loophole or loop hole, and sometimes a balistraria) is a thin vertical aperture in a fortificationthrough which an archer can launch arrows.

    The interior walls behind an arrow loop are often cut away at an oblique angle so that the archer has a wide field of view and field of fire. Arrow slits come in a remarkable variety. A common and recognizable form is the cross. The thin vertical aperture permits the archer large degrees of freedom to vary the elevation and direction of his bowshot but makes it difficult for attackers to harm the archer since there is only a small target to aim at.

    Balistraria can often be found in the curtain walls of medieval battlements beneath the crenellations.

    ...more to come!

 

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Warfare for Writers - 4

Warfare for Writers - 4 is the latest update from the Timons Esaias' workshop. These comments go from medieval to modern times.

You can see arrows and crossbow bolts flying through the air, likewise trebuchet loads. And you can figure out pretty much where they were fired from, as a result. Also, you can hear them. Likewise with musket balls and cannonballs free-vector-download-medieval-weapons-icons-design-by-Utopiaand artillery shells. You can see them, and you can hear them, and because they are subsonic you can hear the shot before the projectile gets to you. If it's close enough you can also probably see the muzzle flash of the gun, not to mention the smoke, and tell where it came from.

This all changed with the modern rifle, though. Modern bullets travel quite a distance at supersonic speed, so you actually hear the sonic boom of the bullet before you hear the shot, if you hear the shot at all. Oh, and the bullet will hit you, or go past you, before you hear it. And you generally can't see the bullet, ever. Because the sonic boom is the main sound you hear, and the bullet is past you before you hear it, the sound cues (unless you're VERY used to this) tell you the opposite of the truth. You will think the bullet came from where it actually went, or 180-degrees from the correct solution. When people hear modern gunshots, they almost always start looking in the wrong direction.

The reason we can be pretty sure there were no shots from the "grassy knoll," is because so many untrained people heard shots coming from the grassy knoll.

So unless your character is very close to the weapon when it discharges, don't have them figure out where the shots are coming from by the sound.

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Way of the Warrior: Conduct

Art Work by Eric Guerrero
Art Work by Eric Guerrero

Interesting fact: The longest bronze-age sword measured out at seventeen inches. Longer swords used on foot left the  warrior open to attack in close quarters.  DC

Way of the Warrior
: Code of Conduct  (Author Unknown)

Way of the Warrior: Content - If these sound like the Boy Scout Rules of Conduct, you wouldn't be far wrong. If the warrior in your novel has no flaws, he or she wouldn't be very interesting. Bring depth to your character by giving the warrior failings to overcome. While the warrior may strive to improve, he or she may not. DC

HONESTY AND JUSTICE

Be acutely honest throughout your dealings with all people. Believe in justice, not from other people, but from yourself. To the true Warrior, there are no shades of gray in the question of honesty and justice. There is only right and wrong.

POLITE COURTESY

A Warrior has no reason to be cruel. They do not need to prove their strength. A Warrior is courteous even to his enemies. Without this outward show of respect, we are nothing more than animals.

HEROIC COURAGE

Rise up above the masses of people who are afraid to act. Hiding like a turtle in a shell is not living at all. A Warrior must have heroic courage. It is absolutely risky, It is dangerous. It is living life completely, fully, and wonderfully. Heroic courage is not blind; it is intelligent and strong.

HONOR

A true Warrior has only one judge of honor, and this is himself. Decisions you make and how these decisions are carried out are a reflection of whom you truly are. You cannot hide from yourself.

COMPASSION

Through intense training the Warrior becomes quick and strong. He is not as other men. He develops a power that must be used for the good of all. He has compassion. He helps his fellow man at every opportunity. If an opportunity does not arise, he goes out of his way to find one.

COMPLETE SINCERITY

When a Warrior has said he will perform an action, it is as good as done. Nothing will stop him from completing what he has said he will do. He does not have to "give his word." He does not have to "promise."

DUTY AND LOYALTY

For the Warrior, having done some "thing" or said some "thing," he knows he owns that "thing." He is responsible for it, and all the consequences that follow. A Warrior is immensely loyal to those in his care; to those he is responsible for, he remains fiercely true.

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