BrokenShade/ArmyConstruction

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Lookshy

A Lookshy Dragon has unit sizes as follows

Dragon 1250 (2 Wings)
Wing    625 (5 Talons)
Talon   125 (5 Scales)
Scale    25 (5 Fangs)
Fang      5

A half strength Lookshy dragon looks like this

Wing One - 1st Wing, 2nd Dragon, Pasiap's Thunder
125  Talon One, Command (Dragon)
125  Talon Two, Ashigaru   - 3 scales Ashigaru, 2 scales Gunzosha
125  Talon Three, Infantry - 3 scales infantry, 2 scales archers
125  Talon Four, Infantry  - 3 scales infantry, 2 scales archers
125  Talon Five, Mixed     - 1 scale Artillerists, 1 scale Rangers, 2 scales Ashigaru,
       1 scale mounted skirmishers (all mounted)
125  Attached Dragon Armor Fang

Wing Two - 2nd Wing, 2nd Dragon, Pasiap's Thunder
125 Talon One, Command (Wing)
125 Talon Two, Gunzosha    - 2 scales Ashigaru, 3 scales Gunzosha
125 Talon Three, Infantry  - 3 scales infantry, 2 scales archers
125 Talon Four, Infantry   - 3 scales infantry, 2 scales archers
125 Talon Five, Mixed      - 1 scale Artillerists, 1 scale Rangers, 2 scales Ashigaru,
                             1 scale mounted skirmishers (all mounted)
125  Attached Dragon Armor Fang

Assigned as needed
125 Warstriders Fang

Split of Troop Numbers

Total unit strength, not counting support troops – 1,625

  5 Warstriders
 10 Dragon Armour

325 Command Troops
300 Ashigaru (Superior, with a few Heroic Mortals. Essence based weapons, e.g. Fire Lances)
185 Gunzosha (Superior, with a few Heroic Mortals. Essence based weapons, e.g. Fire Lances)
 50 Rangers  (30-40 Heroic Mortals, DBs and God Blooded ... the rest are Superior)
 50 Artillerists

 50 Mounted Skirmishers (Elite)
260 Archers  (Elite)
390 Infantry (Elite)

Detail

Dragon Army and War Strider Fangs

- two Scales mixed heavy infantry and archers (3/2),
- a scale (25) Ashigaru
- a support/command Scale (commanding officers, medical, signal, a Sohei and his
    support)
- and some security (Gunzosha)

Artillery scales

- support a half-dozen field pieces each, on highly mobile gun carriages
- two are on First Age spider-carriages, giving them superior mobility, and likely to
    be used to support Dragon-Armor raids

Talon command will either be a Heroic Mortal or a Terrestrial – there will be a sprinkling of Heroic Mortal or Superior scale leaders, and even fang leaders as well.

Archers have reinforced buff jacket or breastplate (exceptional, as above); usually have a buckler, and carry a short sword, short spear or javelin, and a Lookshy strongbow (Outcaste pg. 46) – normally shooting a mix of broadheads and target arrows, but they will have specialty arrows available, and tailor their mix to the engagement when possible. Most likely piece of empowered gear for archers is their armor, shifting from non-encumbering studded leather outfits to reinforced buff jackets.

Heavy Infantry are wearing exceptional reinforced breastplates (+1/+1 soak, –1 mobility), or exceptional articulated plate ( –1 fatigue, -1 mobility) and carrying great axe, spear or lance, chopping sword, and a target shield (if appropriate – great axe guys will not be wearing shields!). Most will have at least one piece of Elementally Empowered equipment – often a shape-shifting weapon with water (javelin to spear to lance, for example). They might have a pair of javelins in a quiver on their back, particularly great-axe guys.

The Realm

A Realm Dragon divides up as follows

Dragon  500 (2 Wings)
Wing    250 (2 Talons)
Talon   125 (5 Scales)
Scale    25 (5 Fangs)
Fang      5

The basic Realm Legion

10 Dragons (20 Wings of 2 Talons each) of Infantry (or other)

6 Standard Infantry Dragons

500 medium infantry

Competent extras (with elites, and the occasional superior or heroic mortal mixing up as command, special units, etc.)

About a half-dozen Terrestrials per Dragon.

4 Heavy Infantry Dragons

500 heavy infantry

Competent mortals equipped largely as the Lookshy units are (although their gear is rarely exceptional or elementally empowered).These units are likely to have a heavier percentage of Elite mortals than the medium infantry are – maybe one fang in five, average.

About a half-dozen Terrestrials per Dragon.

1 Warstrider Fang

5 Warstriders, 120 support troops

A scale or two of Artillery

25 or 50

This is where you’ll find most of the Essence-discharge weapons in a Realm unit – mostly Essence Cannons, but some other stuff

A couple of scales to a talon of Ranger-equivalents

50-125

Perhaps not as good, perhaps better – highly variable. Mostly equipped with “mundane” artifacts, for Essence wielders – daiklaves and artifact armor, not Gunzosha or fire lances, for the most part – this applies for most of the Terrestrials)

At least a couple of scales of duelists

50

Dragon-warrior equivalents – a unit of Terrestrials fighting as a unit, reinforced by elite heavy infantry, though likely not wearing Dragon Armor).

Commanding Officer and his Retinue

A talon of Command Staff and another talon of heavy infantry (elite) operating as security detachment

250

Including the commanding officer, his second in command, the Quartermaster, a spymaster, some personal scouts and runners, his personal surgeon and their staff, etc.

Plenty of associated units

Combat engineers, field medics, signal personnel (including runners, flag-wavers, drummers and horns, and probably a couple of Terrestrials with artifacts or spells).

The vast majority of the unit’s Terrestrials are actually in this not-really-part-of the Legion section – the commander, his duelists, the Ranger-analogues, etc. Probably around a hundred Dragon-Blooded total, maybe including a couple of Immaculate Monks.

5 Dragons worth of slingers and archers

About 150 DBs total

Detail

The security and other forces in this unit and the Dragon are likely to be elites, and will be equipped in much the same way Lookshy forces are (including exceptional and elementally empowered gear) – these are the forces closest to the Terrestrials, and so they get the best gear (the same would apply for the personnel in the direct command of Terrestrials in the rest of the units – the five-ten guys who watch a talonlord’s back are likely to have better gear than the rest of the talon).

The archers and slingers are mostly either green, or pretty demoralized (half pay, treated badly, regarded *even by the other soldiers* as expendable – hell, the baggage train slaves are treated better). Figure you might be able to scrape a Dragon or two of actually motivated forces out of these guys – the rest could either be treated as Competent units with a high “run away” factor (low Valor), or just treated as Weak opponents.

(The Realm’s mistreatment of archers, etc. is one of the things that points to a serious failing of military doctrine, resulting from spending most of the last few centuries putting down uprisings and quelling barbarian hordes, rather than fighting real wars against competent opponents – a general who is facing committed opponents knows he wants the best damn archers he can get his hands on).

Most of them are unarmored or have buff jackets, and they’re armed with a mix of slings and short bows or long bows (no composite bows – they get wrecked in water, and, well, that’s bad for a military force that is really based around maritime duty and transport), with the occasional javelin, short sword, hand axe or other light weapon for if they get over-run. They’ve got very little in terms of D-B command – maybe a handful, total.

Comments

Your numbers are not consistent with themselves...at one point you say a realm dragon is 2500 men, and then later you say that a dragon is 500 men. Checking the Dragonblooded book, a Realm Dragon seems to be 500 men, and so I think the scaling is (based off the command background): Fang (5) -> Scale (25) - > Talon (125) -> Wing (250) -> Dragon (500), with a Legion consisting of 10 Dragons, as you noted. Of course if your intention was to change the book values, then I would suggest a revision of the Basic Realm Legion you set out - Kraken

Since he introduces new terms for a unit ("Claw"), I was inclined to believe that he was deliberate making alterations. However, since he doesn't use his new scale, I think it might have just been a mistake. I've taken the liberty of "correcting" the table for now (I hope I haven't overstepped).\\ - Raindoll

Thanks, guys! ^_^ I actually posted a query at the WW forum on how a Realm Dragon breaks down into its smaller units earlier. You answered the question! It sure is a lot smaller than a Lookshy Dragon! Thanks again! ^_^ --BrokenShade