Armies of Greyhawk – Baklunish

Today I start off a new series, as part of the ever-growing line of articles from that alternate universe D&D periodical, Dragonne Magazine.

This time around I examine the various military forces of the World of Greyhawk. This was a project that Gary had announced his intention to do way back in the early pages of Dragon magazine, but never got to do. In this alternate universe, the project got published as a series of articles.

We begin with the Baklunish west, from well-known lands such as Ket and Tusmit, through the lands of the fierce Paynims, and all the way to distant Mur on the far side of the Gulf of Ghayar. It covers not only the order of battle, but little tidbits about the various lands and armies, and suggestions for using historical figures in your Greyhawk Battles.

You can download the file here. Enjoy!

Written by 

Wargamer and RPG'er since the 1970's, author of Adventures Dark and Deep, Castle of the Mad Archmage, and other things, and proprietor of the Greyhawk Grognard blog.

6 thoughts on “Armies of Greyhawk – Baklunish

  1. Neat. This sort of thing always fascinated me, I spent hours poring over Legions of the Petal Throne and the Armies of Tekumel books back in the day.

    That is a *lot* of Paynim. They’d better stay divided or everyone’s in trouble. 🙂

    1. Yeah, the Gazetteer and the Guide give the population as half a million, so the only possibility is that they’re usually busy fighting each other. Otherwise they’d roll over the more civilized, but less populous, neighbors.

  2. Hello

    Great work. I believe you are inspired by the cards from Greyhawk Wars. Ull and the Paynims were not described. I find the numbers of Paynims and Ull very important. Do you consider all Paynim and Ulli to be mercenary fighters?
    In the Paynims, some are descendants of the Bakluni Empire and others of the Horde. They often have to fight each other and have no common interest. Can’t we separate them ?
    No ship in Ekbir and Zeif?

    1. I use the Greyhawk Wars cards as a guide to overall troop strengths, but a lot of the details come from the “Greyhawk’s World” articles in Dragon magazine back in the early 80’s, plus the Adventurer’s Guide book in the GH Wars boxed set, and various other bits and pieces here and there.

      I would imagine that most Paynims are mercenaries at one time or another in their lives. For them it would be an easy way to make some coin, indulge in “civilized” pleasures, and then take off when the whim strikes.

      No ships. These articles are all about ground troops. I might do a separate article on naval strengths.

  3. Nifty. Makes me wish I had a decent set of miniatures for wargaming!

    I like the heraldry, too… is this the first time you’ve published them for the western Basin and Dramidj nations?

    Any ideas on the symbology? Seems to me the scimitar and the cross likely represent some aspect of the Baklunish faith or possibly the original Empire, much like the crescent in flags of modern Islamic nations, and the “scriptures” written on them are a nice touch– would be fun to offer a “translation”.

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