The Fireseed Wars

"That makes sense," Kalvan said, remembering all the problems the French encountered in the Italian Wars, trying to get their Italian allies to stop using crossbows and arm themselves with matchlock arquebuses.

Tortha shook his head. "The crossbowmen as a matter of faith believe their weapons are far superior to the local handguns and in the main are loathe to use the new arquebuses. To make matters worse, there's a severe shortage of gunsmiths, which means most of their handguns are imported 'seconds' or 'used' weapons from the Five Kingdoms. I've seen guards with arquebuses with gunlocks that looked older than Theovacar's grandfather!"

"That's good information," Kalvan said, although he had suspected this was the case. It was hard to get good intelligence on Grefftscharr this far away. Not a lot of Grefftscharri ships traded regularly at Ulthor Port due to the high tariffs instituted by Prince Kestophes. If he'd had a good crystal ball and known how important this part of Hos-Hostigos would turn out to be, he'd have kept Kestophes on a much tighter rein.

He nodded. "As long as the War of the Great Kings is still in progress, I don't see many gunsmiths relocating to the Middle Kingdoms, nor any gun mills exporting many firearms, except at very high prices."

Tortha nodded, pointing his pipe stem at Kalvan: "King Theovacar has already been after the Verkan Fireseed Works to start turning out reliable smoothbores. Verkan never had time to found the musket factory he wanted to build since he spent so much time here in Hos-Hostigos, which is just as well. The King also complained about the problems enticing Great Kingdom gunsmiths to relocate to Greffa when there was so much business at home."

Kalvan said, "Locally, the gunsmiths are loathe to take on apprentices, and from what I've heard this is true throughout the Great Kingdoms. I've had to create a Royal Riflemakers Guild to get more rifles made. The gun makers have tradition behind their reluctance to expand their guilds. In the past, when they have let too many new gunsmiths into the Guild, they were faced with a surplus of masters and apprentices once the war ended. And, that's bad for business."

"True," Tortha replied, "which leaves only antiques and broken handguns for export to the Upper Middle Kingdoms, usually at ridiculous prices. Which means, regardless of what Theovacar or any other ruler desires, Hostigos is not going to face very many fireseed weapons. But, don't discount those crossbows; they can shoot a Zarthani Knight right out of his saddle!"

Kalvan's own military situation was unique in that he brought with him his own gunsmiths and Royal Riflemakers. Unfortunately, he couldn't sell-or make guns-until he established a stable base or colony somewhere, either at Thagnor or somewhere else. However, he did bring with him a lot of firepower, since the Royal Hostigi Armory had been stacked to the roof with the loot of Fyk, the Chothros Heights and Phyrax, most of which he'd brought with him in his wagon train. Maybe he could trade the older smoothbores to cement future alliances?

"One thing you have to remember, Your Majesty, is that the Middle Kingdoms are much more populous than the Zarthani Kingdoms. Also, they have a long history of frequent wars between competing princedoms and petty-kingdoms. Still, wars have been limited in scope and fought mostly for reasons of trade, not conquest. Therefore in the Upper Middle Kingdoms a two to three thousand man standing army is large. Most princes depend upon mercenaries to fight their battles. Armies have grown considerably larger since the Fireseed Wars but those large armies have almost exclusively been confined to the Great Kingdoms. With the Army of Hostigos bringing some thirty thousand seasoned veterans into the area, things are going to change-and in a hurry."

"You're right, Tortha. That means we need to take advantage of our military superiority while it lasts. As we've seen, things can change very quickly, especially since the Army of Hostigos would be outnumbered were all of the Upper Middle Kingdoms to mobilize their vassals and band together."

"Not much chance of that, Sire. Some of these states have been warring against each other for a thousand years. Despite a lot of efforts over the centuries, no one warlord or prince has ever got them all to band against their common enemy-Grefftscharr, the biggest and most bellicose of the Upper Middle Kingdoms. You, however, may be able to use some of that historical enmity for our own purposes."

"I plan to. If my subjects are going to survive and ever return to our lands, we will need to establish a refuge, or should I say a Hostigi colony, so that we'll have a base of operations to work out of when the Styphoni come. And come they will."

"Agreed, Your Majesty. The current Styphoni stalemate is more a question of operational tactics, than grand strategy-which is to destroy yourself and the Hostigi people."