Military strength of the Free Cities

[Nihlus]

I'm just curious. Do we know anything substantial about the military power of the nine Free Cities, other than that Braavos is the most powerful and Lorath the weakest? How would you rate their militaries, and how do you think they stack up compared to the Westerosi?

Stuff we know:

Qohor: the city watch is entirely composed of Unsullied. Used to have a regular city watch and even some cavalry units (maybe they still do). The city is famous for having blacksmiths that can reforge Valyrian steel.

Volantis: the "tiger cloaks", slave soldiers of unknown composition and armament, are the main soldiers. They have a fleet of ~400 war galleys crewed mostly by slaves. Often have other

states ganging up on them to keep their power in check.

Pentos: is forbidden from maintaining an army besides the city watch, but can afford to double the size of the watch if need be.

Braavos: the strongest naval power. Has an arsenal that can produce one galley per day (hyperbole?).

Myr: constantly at war with Lys and Tyrosh. Primarily uses mercenaries. Famed for its crossbows; Stannis hires 40 Myrish war galleys (crewed by ~4,000 guys) and 1,500 Myrish crossbowmen at the start of the WOTFK. Their galleys are smaller than Westerosi ones, with none of the Myrish ships having more than 80 oars. Was unable to stop the Band of Nine from conquering the Disputed Lands prior to the WOT9PK.

Tyrosh: constantly at war with Lys and Tyrosh. Primarily uses mercenaries. During the War of the Ninepenny Kings, Tyrosh together with the Disputed Lands and the armies of the Band (which were evidently already stronger than Lys + Myr)

Lys : constantly at war with Lys and Tyrosh. Primarily uses mercenaries. Was unable to stop the Band of Nine from conquering the Disputed Lands prior to the WOT9PK.

Lorath: ?

Norvos: ?

[Leonardo]

Their entire government structure is very removed from Westeros. I don't think they could muster anything comparable in numbers to what we see in the series, though they likely all have better navies than the great houses themselves (not their vassals)

Slave soldiers are going to be even worse than freshly levied troops, and unsullied are going to be fodder against the Westerosi.

Aside from numbers, they are probably better armed and trained as the free cities in general seem richer than almost all of the great houses overall.

Invading is a whole nother business, but when it comes to being on the battlefield, Westeros would completely annihilate forces of the free cities.

[Free Northman Reborn]

I like to reduce it to a one on one comparison with individual realms within the Seven Kingdoms. For example: Which is more powerful? The Stormlands or Pentos? The Vale or Tyrosh? The North or Lys?

In most cases I end up going with the inidividual members of the Seven Kingdoms. Braavos would have to be compared to the Westerlands (richest), and Volantis with the Reach (most populous). In each case I give it to the Westerosi Kingdoms.

[Balerion the kitten]

Separate, good but not excellent. Combined, possibly unimaginable.

The triarchy was myr, lys and tyrosh and that was pretty powerful. And it seems their trying to re-forge it cause (not sure which cities have joined together but I think it's) lys and tyrsoh have made common cause. Seems like their trying to reunite to take dany down.

So alone not amazing. I think they care more about keeping and protecting their lands.

[TheSovereignGrave]

In regards to the Braavosi Arsenal, in real life the Venetian arsenal could pump out about a ship a day at its heyday. Granted, this was during the 16th century but considering how Braavos seem based upon Venice the one ship a day production may very well not be hyperbole.

EDIT: And Lorath seems to be the weakest of the Free Cities by far, so they're probably not that powerful at all.

[Bennis of the Brown Shield]

I don't think the "producing one galley a day" bit about Braavos is hyperbole.

The same thing was said about the Arsenal of Venice, which Braavos is clearly inspired by. Being able to produce one ship a day and routinely doing it are two completely different things of course.

Edit: Whoops, too late.

[Leonardo]

Braavos is more powerful than any one of the seven kingdoms I'd say, just not militarily. Overall though, they definitely wield far more influence and power aside from House Lannister at the beginning of the series. They essentially control the throne even before the death of Jon Arryn

[Free Northman Reborn]

Well, lord Manderly built one ship a week, for a year, and did so largely in secret. So I think if you applied the full resources of the entire North to the effort, that could quite feasibly come close to one ship a day too. And they aren't even the richest or most industrial of the Seven Kingdoms.

And unlike Braavos they actually have the materials to keep up that pace for a long period of time. Without Northern wood Braavos will struggle to keep popping them out at one per day.

[Free Northman Reborn]

Braavos is more powerful than any one of the seven kingdoms I'd say, just not militarily. Overall though, they definitely wield far more influence and power aside from House Lannister at the beginning of the series. They essentially control the throne even before the death of Jon Arryn

However much money the Iron Bank has, Tywin has more. He just pulls gold from the ground in endless supply.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

They are not comparable.

The Free Cities rely mostly on mercenaries, mostly on Wessosi mercenaries at that. Those are incredibly efficient in combat and very cheap in the long run (you don't need to pay them during peacetime).

Furthermore, the Free Cities have a lot of coin at hand, to pay for the mercenaries.

But in an drawn-out war, trade suffers, coin is spent, mercenaries are gone. All while the Westerosi realms could raise army after army after army after army after army.

Yes, each new one would be smaller and of decreasing quality, but they never stop.

[EastTymor]

They are not comparable.

The Free Cities rely mostly on mercenaries, mostly on Wessosi mercenaries at that. Those are incredibly efficient in combat and very cheap in the long run (you don't need to pay them during peacetime).

Furthermore, the Free Cities have a lot of coin at hand, to pay for the mercenaries.

But in an drawn-out war, trade suffers, coin is spent, mercenaries are gone. All while the Westerosi realms could raise army after army after army after army after army.

Yes, each new one would be smaller and of decreasing quality, but they never stop.

Do we actually know that the Free Cities rely mostly on mercenaries, or is that just conjecture? Cat comments that the Free Cities have standing armies, which I took to mean something more loyal and permanent than mercenaries.

This host her son had assembled was not a standing army such as the Free Cities were accustomed to maintain, nor a force of guardsmen paid in coin.

AGOT

[hodorisfaclessman]

Well lets see

bravos:

http://towerofthehand.com/blog/2014/08/25-laboratory-of-politics-part-iii/index.html

''the true wonder is the Arsenal. There, one of the purple-hulled war galleys of Braavos can be built in a day. All the vessels are constructed following the same design, so that all the many parts can be prepared in advance, and skilled shipbuilders work upon different sections of the vessel simultaneously to hasten the labor. To organize such a feat of engineering is unprecedented; one need only look at the raucous, confused construction in the shipyards of Oldtown to see the truth of this.''

I kinda agree with the articles premise about bravoos production making it potentialy master of the seas of planetos, mix in it has a culture of unarmoured combat with the bravoosi which would be useful in shipboard combat and the extra advantages of being able to call on the facless men and the headquarters of the ironbank.

Geography + the arsenal + titan make it nightmare to attack even without its fleet too.

They prob have some form of land based troops too

Volantis:

As big as any city in westeros and with a few towns around it that many in westeros would call cities (volon therys,selhorys ) , id say their potetial manpower pool would be impressive

Numbers wise we know that they have a fleet of 400-500 warships and a huge harbour and that the triach malaquo was able to quickly assemble 5k foot and 1k cavalry to block the delta road to the golden company.

We know they seem to have many dwarf and regualr sized elephants in the city so its probable that they may employ some of them in combat too (jon con seemed to think elephants would be good in westeros) but maybe not.

Tyrion seems to mention their tiger cloaks are spearmen and have helms and steel gauntlets so prob decently armed and armoured.

Overall they can prob field a decent sized force of lifetime professional slave soilders on top of producing waves of sword fodder from their huge civillian slave population to fight if needs be.

A reasonable assumption on numbers would be given their city is KL sized and theres about 2k tiger guards (2k was KL peactime numbers) and maybe another 2-3k to police the neighbouring 2 city sized towns

and maybe given their triach ruling structure we can assume that each of the 3 rulers can command 5k foot and 1k cavalry (as malaquo did) for a total of 15k foot and 3k cavalry.

On top of the huge numbers of slave marines + freeman captains for its huge navy.

qohor : About KL sized so lets say 2- 3k unsullied as its famous city watch , weapon makers 2nd to none

Its economy has wood sales as a staple so its prob gotta lot of strong guys handy at swinging an axe it can call on in desperate times as well as guys familiar with a bow (big forrest and famed as hunters)

We know they used fire galleys to break volantis bid for empiredom on the rhoyne so may have some decent brownwater navy

Novos: Prob one of the least well known of the free cities, may have decent brownwater navy in that they helped qohor beat back volantis

Bearded priests prob allow it to field a small force of very talented fighters similar to hotah but who knows about the rest of its forces

Lorath: economicaly insignificant but said to have a few warships (10 at most maybe?)

its merchants hire sellswords and guards , overall they prob couldnt field more than a semi large house of westeros if that.

Pentos: not allowed more than 20 warships or hiring anything more than its city watch (again going by KL we'l say about 2-3k)

Seems to have become an economic powerhouse though due to not having to spend on military (sorta like japan was for a while) so maybe able to hire huge sellsword forces if allowed.

myr, tyrosh and lys: all 3 war over the stepstones and all 3 seem to mainly employ large mixes of selsword and sellsail companies to do so rather than any large standing armies of their own.

How they stack up against westerosi military? well the bulk of the free companies men will be essosi born and bred so theyl pretty much be identical to their westeros counterparts

their naval power vastly outstrips westeros as does their production facilities there ..thats one big advantage they have.

They have standing paid armies (city guard forces, maybe bravos forces , some of volantis troops etc) and we know the volantis forces are slaves ..but unlike the fresh poor quality levies the clanker lords raise in slavers bay they are prob lifetime professionals skilled at their job and prob reasonably reliable.

Overall a united free city military has serious potential