Burlam Military

Military Might

Burlam’s troops often are identifiable, strangely enough, by their native hair style—shaving the back half of their heads and growing long mustaches. They possess a standard military training regime, but there is no specific native martial art associated with them.

Weapons

Burlami troops prefer the arming sword, but they also are known to wield bastard swords, lances, daggers, maces, hooked spears, crossbows, and nearly the entire gamut of popular medieval weaponry. The Burlami Basher is a native weapon variant, and it is a four-foot-long, two-handed mace with a long head that is studded with diamond-shaped brass studs. The basher is slow and heavy, which limits it to those warriors strong enough to bear it, but in their hands it can crack through armor, walls, oak doors, skulls, ship hulls, etc.

Armor

For armor, common Burlami troops wear stuffed gambesons under maille hauberks; kite or heater shields; and conical steel helmets with nasals and integral maille aventails. High-profile troops wear padded gambesons, and full suits of maille (long sleeves, chausses, mittens, etc). They wield kite or heater shields, and great helms over basinets, maille, and padded coifs.

Specialized Skills

Above all, Burlam’s military is known as mariners and for successful sea-to-land assaults. Besides effective amphibious assaults, these soldiers are celebrated for their ingenuity winching horses with cranes onto transports and shipping their cavalry to wherever needed. This army is respected for its discipline and tenacity.

Command Structure

Burlam has the standard military hierarchy with an earl marshal for the country; a marshal for each army; a captain for each unit; and assorted lieutenants for internal divisions. They also have the reputation of capturing enemies, ransoming them for top price, and executing all the prisoners who cannot be ransomed outright. This is a business-like state of affairs, and Burlam military men are quite impersonal about it. They rarely take ransoms at face value, and will bargain hard for the right price. Sometimes they will assign, lease, or sell prisoners to each other, treating them like the moveable wealth they are.

Army

Burlam can field an army of 12,000 to 18,000 troops, and its infantry is 25% light spear and 5% heavy man-catcher; its cavalry is 25% heavy lancers, and 20% light lancers; and its ballistic contingent is 25% light crossbow. All Burlami troops are trained marines, able to fight at sea and on land.

Sea Lions

The country’s standing navy, called the Sea Lions, is 35 to 45 heavily armed, fortified ships, each with a crew of 80 and up to 1,000 marines, and their fleet’s home ports are Enlith City and St. Gilleanus-by-the Sea. The navy also includes 20 to 40 heavy transports, each with one or two cranes, and with crews of about 20 sailors each.

Siege Warfare

Burlam has excellent siege capacities, both in terms of siege engineers and technology. They usually take +10% pioneers, +15% siege engineers, and +5% scouts.

Mercenaries

Burlami soldiers are more likely to hire out as specialist mercenaries than to hire outside mercenaries to supplement their army.

Burlami Destriers

Very much like Thallic Destriers, the Burlami variant is about a hand larger and more brutish. The Burlami horses are noteworthy for their gentler, less bloodthirsty character, and they are well-trained to endure naval transports, including boarding and disembarking from ships.