RE: Merc Guild

K.H.Ranitzsch wrote:

>But there are also "legitimate" military operations, and in the high
days 
>of
>the mercenaries (from the Condottieri, Swiss and Landsknechts to the
>Hessians employed by the British against the American Rebels) most of
the
>use of mercenaries was official and acknowledged. The main reason for
their
>use was that governments could not afford to maintain such expensive
forces
>in peacetime. So they were employed only when a war was up. If peace
broke
>out somewhere, they would move to some other war.
>The loyalties of such mercenary groups lay with their (temporay)
employer,
>not with their nation. While they properly paid, they fought well (at
least
>the beter units did). But if their paymaster went bankrupt - "No Money,
No
>Swiss".
>
>Could well be a model for the Tuffleyverse, especially for the smaller
>powers.
>
>Greetings
>Karl Heinz
>

This is exactly the model I was thinking of.

As an ironic OT aside, I read somewhere that most of the gold plundered
by 
the Spanish in the Americas went to hire mercenaries necessary to fight 
European wars because the Spanish Army wasn't available to fight, they
were 
off in the americas plundering gold.  Talk about a bloody viscious
circle.

Brian B2

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