Talk:Katze Plains/@comment-172.1.214.27-20180412201950/@comment-34666853-20180412203712

Not sure if the books ever explained this, but well it's really basic: the Kingdom is a feudalistic system. It's army is drawn from levies, aka peasants/farmhands. To not gimp their farm production, it's usually done in certain times of the year where not a lot of farm work is required. Also, you don't really want to do it in certain seasons. Imagine moving your logistics trains through mud. That's for the time aspect.

The place, well certain terrains confer advantages to certain tactics, formations, and doctrines. The plains simply offered both of them the best place to execute the kind of warfare they practice without getting bogged down by mud and whatnot. It also gives them clearer lines of communication for coordination-based formation warfare, whether visually via flag signals, or aurally via drums or horns. Forests and mountain areas screw that up.

Why the Empire, a state with what I imagine is a real standing army, is quietly agreeing to all this gets tricky. Maybe they just don't have the logistics or the manpower to keep an entire army group well feed throughout what could be a long drawn out campaign if they ever attempt to seriously invade the Kingdom. The Kingdom is huge. They'd need a larger army, draw out their reserves. Not only that, they'd get bogged down by sieges and diseases which will spread faster now that there are more vectors crowded. So instead they just keep a professional standing army and slowly whittle down the Kingdom's able-bodied farmhands every year and maybe cripple them come harvest season, slowly but surely over a decade. Something's gotta give.