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As you suspected the Stratiokas, whilst an elite backbone to the mainstay Cathagi battleline, but they are so highly specialized in this role that they are inevitably heavily reliant on mercenaries and other levy troops to flesh out the shortcomings when faced with combined arms opponents. Man for man, the Cathagi warrior caste could probably endure and grind down the frontal charge of any infantry formation in the world. Even the fierce Norsikaan huscarls, once the fury of their initial wild charge and reaping longaxes were stalled, would inevitably be ground down by the tight discipline and silent determination of the Stratiokas. The typical strategy of the Stratiokas involves doing just that, relying more on the mercenaries and levies to at the very least balance out the other elements until the core of the enemy army has been broken. But sometimes, depending on the quantity or quality of the mercenaries bought and paid for, these enlisted sellswords cannot do even that and melt away leaving the isolated Caste core vulnerable.
Unsupported, the Stratiokas have no answer for a stampede of Azir Bloodpact lancers taking their rear or a thunderous charge of heavily armoured Cantonian knights in their flank. As a result, To your shock, Kyria Helena outright tells you the elderly Autarch Maia recognised your heraldry immediately as belonging to one of those knights that had been at the forefront of the charge that did just that to their ‘expeditionary force’ that you recognise as the War of Borders many years ago.
Calvary is not their only point of vulnerability. The Caste’s skirmishers, mainly youngbloods seeking to earn their place in the phalanx, would prove little match for the legendary range and accuracy of the Summer Isles archers. Raised shields of the phalanxes themselves might endure, but for how long? Apparently the nomads of the steppes and dunes that border the fertile vassal cities of Cathagi are not to be discounted either, they have at times formed great hordes that threaten to sweep into Cathagi itself in times past. While the Cathagi Stratiokas is usually on campaign somewhere in the remnants of the Empire, garrisoning vassal states or exacting ‘tribute’ from lesser neighbors, it is these nomadic uprisings that have typically been the main grounds for pitched battles in living memory.
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