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Nightstar The Bright
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! The following text is a collection of the information about the Alethi military !
{| class="infobox side" style="width: 22em; float:right; font-size: 88%;"▼
!colspan='3' style="text-align:center; background:#cce" |'''Chain of command'''▼
|-▼
! Unit▼
! Soldiers▼
! Typical Commander▼
|-▼
| subsquad▼
| 6–8▼
| sergeant▼
|-▼
| squad▼
| ~25▼
| squadleader▼
|-▼
| platoon▼
| ~50▼
| captain/captainlord▼
|-▼
| company▼
| ~100▼
| companylord▼
|-▼
| battalion▼
| ~1000▼
| battalionlord▼
|-▼
| division▼
| ~2000▼
| general▼
|-▼
| army▼
| —▼
| highprince▼
|-▼
|colspan='3' | <small>In companies made solely of lighteyes, the rank "lieutenant" is used as the equivalent of sergeant.</small>▼
|}▼
The modern Alethi military is one of the strongest armed forces on Roshar with well over 100,000 troops{{book ref|sa1|6}} and over thirty [[Shardbearer]]s.{{book ref|sa2|5}} The army employs most of its troops as spearmen and archers, as well as a very small amount of cavalry due to the rarity of horses on Roshar;{{book ref|sa1|6}} only the officers wield swords because, according to Vorin traditions, the sword is regarded as a lighteyed's weapon.{{book ref|sa1|prologue}} Soldiers are usually trained in one or two additional Skills, i.e. horse grooms.{{book ref|twok|28
Despite Alethkar being a monarchy, the king has very little actual say in how the military is run and does not directly command any force other than the 250-strong King's Guard. The troops are sworn to and led by their individual highprinces.{{book ref|sa2|5}} In that sense, Alethkar army is not truly a unified army, but a loose coalition between ten smaller armies. Indeed, even in wartime, there is constant in-fighting between the highprinces' armies,{{book ref|sa1|47}} and cooperation between the highprinces themselves is seen as a weakness;{{book ref|sa1|54}} this is bolstered by the tenets of Vorinism that say the purpose of life is to prepare in order to join the Heralds in the fight to regain the [[Tranquiline Halls]] and Alethi belief that everything is a competition in life.{{book ref|sa1|15}}
=== Command structure ===
▲{| class="infobox side" style="width: 22em; float:right; font-size: 88%;"
▲!colspan='3' style="text-align:center; background:#cce" |'''Chain of command'''
▲|-
▲! Unit
▲! Soldiers
▲! Typical Commander
▲|-
▲| subsquad
▲| 6–8
▲| sergeant
▲|-
▲| squad
▲| ~25
▲| squadleader
▲|-
▲| platoon
▲| ~50
▲| captain/captainlord
▲|-
▲| company
▲| ~100
▲| companylord
▲|-
▲| battalion
▲| ~1000
▲| battalionlord
▲|-
▲| division
▲| ~2000
▲| general
▲|-
▲| army
▲| —
▲| highprince
▲|-
▲|colspan='3' | <small>In companies made solely of lighteyes, the rank "lieutenant" is used as the equivalent of sergeant.</small>
▲|}
==== Ranks ====
If a commander, like a captain, isn’t in place to give commands, the most senior of his officers has command.{{book ref|sa3|73}}
==== Leadership ====
=== Equipment ===
==== Armor ====
Sometimes Open fronted helms. Also, plate armour made to resemble Shardplate. Poleaxes. Shortbows. {{book ref|sa3|3}} Some people put bird plumes on their helmet.{{book ref|sa3|11}} arming women just isn’t done, even scouts wear only knives.{{book ref|sa3|70}}
==== Uniforms ====
When it rains soldiers may choose to wear a stormcoat over their uniform, and there are often umbrellas ready for officers.{{book ref|sa2|81}}
==== Weaponry ====
Shortspears and longspears.{{book ref|sa2|81}} maces.{{book ref|sa2|6}} War axes and polearms.{{book ref|sa3|11}} shortsword and longsword.{{book ref|sa4|35}} also truncheons and small round shields, used with swords and large rectangular shields, used with pikes.{{book ref|sa3|73}}
=== Tactics ===
The Alethi have a wide range of tactics. A popular tactic is the hammer and anvil tactic.{{book ref|sa3|3}} The Alethi are also practiced at executing a fake rout, often leading to an ambush.{{book ref|sa4|41}} At the tail end of the Era of Solitude warfare started to include heavy cavalry more and more, although the use of heavily armoured and equipped horsemen was still a relatively new strategy.{{book ref|sa3|73}}
Each highprince has his own martial philosophy, and their army has it’s own strength, with the [[Kholin princedom|Kholin]] army having the best heavy infantry, the [[Roion princedom|Roion]] army the best archers and the [[Sadeas princedom|Sadeas]] army the fastest bridges.{{book ref|sa1|24}} Cavalry to fight shardbearers and lighteyed heavy infantry. Wooden mobile scouting towers in the camps. Canopy from shields to protect from arrows. Middle is heavy infantry, then to the sides mobile, lightly armoured but fast, archer units is new tactics. Infantry will try to reach the sides but the heavy infantry will beat their central block. Standard spearmen blocks engage enemies as much as to position them as to do harm. {{book ref|sa3|26}} also light infantry as fast harrying forces due to lack of horses. Despite their access to many soulcasters, small armies often have only one, to be used in emergencies only, this means that they still need to run supply trains. Some officers take their children with them to war, although never to the battlefield. Instead they usually stay at the town that serves as the army’s long-term command post.{{book ref|sa3|52}} In recent years the Alethi also began to make use of smaller more mobile teams, which have their own tactics.{{book ref|sa3|66}} Shardbearers can cause immense damage, and one suddenly hitting the rear of your army could destroy insanely much.{{book ref|sa3|71}} There is a known symbol for a truce.{{book ref|sa3|76}} The Alethi, like the other Rosharan militaries, have become incredibly dependent on spanreeds for communication. They use them to gather information about enemy movements and to spread commands.{{book ref|sa4|41}} The Alethi are excellent soldiers, each individual is far better then any given Azish or Veden soldier. The Alethi infantry blocks are extremely mobile, far more so then infantry blocks from other militaries.{{book ref|sa4|47}}
==== Formations ====
The Alethi make use of a wide variety of formations. They generally fight in a shield wall.{{book ref|sa1|65}} However, they also have many other formations. One such formation is called ‘pincer pattern’. This formation looks, as the name suggests, like a pincer, the formation is meant to distract and then destroy an enemy target. The troops at the side generally distract the target while the troops in the middle go for the kill. Pincer pattern is meant to be used by a large number of men, like a full squad or company.{{book ref|sa1|47}} Soldiers are also trained to assemble and function in pike blocks to counter heavy cavalry.{{book ref|sa3|73}}
Another formation is called the trident formation, this is a small-squad battlefield formation used by spearmen. The men, or man, in the middle hold(s) the target’s attention while those on the outside attack from the flanks.{{book ref|sa2|32}} There are also a number of formations which aren’t used on the battlefield. One such formation is used during an inspection, the men will stand in lines while the officer(s) check(s) their gear.{{book ref|sa3|78}}
==== Shardbearer tactics ====
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