Vanishing Armies

The concept of “vanishing armies” is rooted in the crap history we were taught in school vs. the far more accurate history we’ve learned as adults.  On this one, the main example is that we were told the South was defeated in Atlanta and there were no soldiers left to prevent Sherman from marching to Savannah.

Well, now I live in Tennessee, and the folks here know that wasn’t true.  The Army of Tennessee, after being defeated at Atlanta, marched northwest to Nashville, hoping to foul up Sherman’s supply lines.  OK, they didn’t fair too well in doing it, being soundly defeated in Franklin and then crushed trying to lay siege to Nashville, but the important point is that that army still existed.  They were still a threat.  They didn’t simply vanish.

Let’s take something a little more “period” - the Hundred Years War.  During the 100YW, there were frequent periods of truce.  During the truces, the soldiers were often “fired” / let go because they weren’t needed.  Some of these soldiers were left behind in countries that were not their home and didn’t have the means by which to return.  In any case, they either gravitated towards brigandry, or they formed into mercenary companies, often fighting for the various Italian city states.  This was a normal course of the war(s), and when the truces ended, many of them returned to their country’s side and started fighting again.  It is crazy to me that this was “normal”, but it does make sense.  Not only that, but I truly believe this was the origin of the whole idea of “adventuring”.  Just an opinion, no real historic fact for that one.

These “vanished” armies make for perfect adventuring party enemies.  Maybe they’ve gone rogue and are raiding the region or they’ve gone over to the other side and are now fighting as mercenaries.  In either case, they are exactly the kind of group GMs should be sending the party to go “take care of”.  So, at the very least, we’ve just given you next week’s bad guys.

 

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This post was written as part of The Legions of Garnock aka All About Fantasy Military Superpowers, the latest in our Small Bites editions.  Each Small Bites book looks deeply at one subject, a character archetype, a race/monster, a style of questing, or some other role-playing/world building subject.  This one is showcasing one of the most powerful militaries and how they handle their strategies and their various equipment load outs, as well as artillery, armor, officers, and a whole bunch of other things that might give you great ideas for your campaign.

We hope we’re getting you interested.  If you want to see the World Walker edition for FREE!! click the link here.  If we’ve hooked you and you want to get the full 93 pages of content in the Game Masters’ edition, click here.