Military of the Grand Duchy of Karelia

The military of the Grand Duchy of Karelia is a varied force, consisting of a blend of professional, militia, and levy soldiers depending on the location they are recruited from. However, Karelian military doctrines and fighting styles can be broadly divided into three categories: Karjalainen, Saarlane, and Saksan.

Basic Structure
In most of the Grand Duchy, the military is based on a core of heavily armoured yet mobile mounted infantry, largely comprised of nobles and their huskarls, supported by light cavalry made up of levies or militia. Archers and other missile soldiers are typically drawn from militia as well.

Karelian infantry tactics focus heavily on the shield wall, with most other elements of an army existing to support this. Karelian nobles in all areas are required to maintain a retinue of huskarls, with the size depending on their status. These retinues form most of the infantry core of a Karelian army, and their experience and heavy armour allow them to withstand cavalry charges incredibly well. Their use of horses for mobility also vastly increase their effectiveness, resulting in a fighting force that tires slowly and can move quickly while remaining adaptable. Depending on the situation, Karelian huskarls are capable of mounting their horses and fighting as standard heavy cavalry, but this is a task typically left to more lightly armoured cavalrymen.

Karelian cavalry is often light, and in most places, every landowning man is required by law to own a horse and to train with it once a month. While typically not particularly well-trained, their tactics largely focus on outmanoeuvring enemy forces and repeatedly charging in exposed areas, rather than full-frontal charges. They may also be used to engage enemy cavalry.

Naval structure varies wildly across the Grand Duchy, and depends almost entirely on the location that the naval forces are being drawn from.

Karjalainen
Karjalainen is used to refer to the military forces of Karelia and Livonia, which form the most experienced core of the Grand Duchy's military. Decades of fighting Obotrites have forced military commanders in Karelia and Livonia to develop more advanced cavalry and infantry tactics, as well as provide their soldiers with better equipment.

Land
Military forces in Karelia largely follow and formed the standard structure of the Karelian military, focusing on experienced heavy infantry supported by light cavalry. In Karelia and Livonia, these light cavalrymen are called savanorat, from the Livonian word for "volunteer", reflecting the fact that the vast majority of them are formed from local militias, led by landowners or ambitious merchants, rather than levies. However, in Karelia proper, some cavalry units are still formed from levies. The system has often served well in combatting the southern Obotrites.

Some nobles in Karelia and Livonia maintain forces of valtavi cavalry. While rare and expensive, these hulking, hairy beasts make for an intimidating force on the battlefield. However, the animals' population dwindled when a plague struck their species in the 500s, and their population has yet to completely recover.

Sea
Naval forces in Karelia and Livonia are not nearly as prominent as they are in the island duchies, but remain a formidable force. Rather than being formed by the Karelian and Livonian nobility, most of whom would rather seek glory on land, naval forces are largely formed and maintained by the merchant class, who have often had years of experience at sea. As such, the vessels in Karelia and Livonia are far different than the galleys of the islands and are instead more similar to the cogs and holks utilised in merchant shipping. Oftentimes, Karelian and Livonian warships are simply just repurposed merchant vessels, crewed by merchants, or the occasional traditionalist noble, and defended by mercenaries or militiamen.

Equipment
Soldiers in Livonia and Karelia are often some of the best equipped warriors in the Archipelago, out of a necessity to protect against raids from Obotrites and Magyars. Among the infantry, heavy armours sucb as maille, scale, and lamellar are common. Cavalrymen typically are equipped with much lighter attire, mostly consisting of gambesons, lamellar cuirasses, and occasional maille shirts. Archers, slingers, and other ranged units have similar light equipment.

In weaponry, the infantry make use of a variety of tools, including spears, two-handed axes, and the tühjus, a type of polearm native to Karelia. Swords, war knives, and hand axes are also ubiquitous among infantrymen. Some nobles and huskarls are also proficient archers, making use of the Karelian longbow. Cavalry typically make use of the lance as their primary tool, utilising a mix of hand axes, sabres, and maces in close melee. Short bows are also used, but are not particularly common. Both the infantry and cavalry make extensive use of javelins.

Shields in Livonia and Karelia largely consist of kite-shaped Manteli shields or the Livonian pavise. Manteli shields have become nearly uniform among Karelian infantry due to their more efficient protection of the user, but many Livonian nobles continue to equip themselves and their huskarls with pavise shields. Cavalrymen maintain much more of a mix in both Livonia and Karelia, depending on the personal preference of the cavalryman.

Saarlane
Saarlane refers to the military forces of the Karelian Island duchies, chiefly Saaremaa, Hiiumaa, Muhu, Ruhno, and Jormu. Having the largest and most skilled navy, but relying on militia and levy soldiers who are more eager to raid than fight, and as such can be somewhat unruly when carrying out campaigns.

Land
Similar to the structure in Karelia and Livonia, island nobles are required to maintain a retinue of huskarls who fight as mounted infantry, and the focus of an army is usually on the shield wall. Unlike their mainland cousins, they are lacking in cavalry forces. Some areas, notably Saaremaa, have adopted the Karjalainen system of light cavalry, but most of the islands continue to maintain their own system. Instead of cavalry militia, they levy their soldiers, who equip themselves and join their lord on campaign. They serve as archers, infantry, slingers, and sailors, depending on what their lord requires. As such, infantry in the islands are a mixed bunch, and often not as reliable as in Karelia and Livonia. An exception to this are the phalangites of Siensaari, a small but well-trained force that continue the the Imperial tradition of the pike, and are exclusive to the island.

The island duchies are not completely devoid of cavalry, however. As previously mentioned, Saaremaa maintains a small force of Karjalainen-style light cavalry. Merchants may also be called to war, and will typically equip themselves as medium-cavalry, but are often fickle and unreliable. Although the campaigns of Niklas II Saarelainen in Serkland are mostly well-known for their cavalry manouevers, his mounted forces largely consisted of experienced Tatar and Cuman mercenaries.

Sea
The navy of the Island Duchies is one of, if not the most experienced and powerful navy in the Archipelago. Every landowner in the islands is required to maintain at least one warship, more depending on their status. Oarsmen are required to train at least once a week, and Karelian naval navigators are often explorers or merchants during peacetime, continuing to maintain and enhance their skills. Unlike on the mainland, military vessels in the islands are galleys, which are often faster and much easier to use in ship-to-ship combat. Naval fighting in the islands, however, is typically done at range, either with arrows, artillery, or the destructive Bolonesian fire, which is either thrown in pots onto enemy vessels or shot through a tube in the front of the ship.

Equipment
Individual equipment in the islands is largely the same as that seen in Karelia and Livonia. Shields are an exception to this, as warriors in the islands mostly utilise round shields. Manteli shields have begun to become more common amongst the nobility and their huskarls, but the older style continues to be the most prominent type used by both commoners and their lords.