The Hobgoblin Homefront

[AceOfFools]

So I've been thinking about this whole Hobgoblin thing. 30,000 of their soldiers just up and left their homeland, seriously affecting its ability to defend itself. Did they just leave their homes undefended? Given the way humanoids feel about goblinoids (see Start of Darkness for details), that seems to be a bad plan.

I believe there are still hobgobs in that land, mostly because we haven't seen a single female hobgoblin (based on the difference between male and female goblin designs, i.e. hair). This says nothing about how the majority of humanoid settlements are not warriors because these are hobgoblins after all.

So what's the deal with this half of their population?

Have they been attacked? Will they be attacked? Will they rejoin the rest of the Supreme Commander's forces? Do they even exist?

I'm not sure about any of this.

SoD spoilers:

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We know Xykon's got not trouble using goblin women and children as soldiers, and even watching them die for his own amusement.

I was impressed early in the comic when Rich made sure to include more than cut and paste minions, especially in the splash pages. He continued this practice with the orcs in a subsequent to War and XPs, not to mention the mixed gendered Azure City units, so it's something he generally cares about. Yet, he kept the entire hobgoblin army copy and paste.

It could be that was a function of the various creatures position on the Law-Chaos axis.

Anyway, thoughts on the Hobgoblin Homefront?

[Steveio]

Well, Redcloak's army is most likely made up of just the trained warriors from the entire legion. While Xykon is perfectly fine with sending women and children to their deaths, Redcloak isn't. And who's the supreme leader of the Hobgoblins? Redcloak.

The women and children are probably still in the city, with city guards and Hobgoblin men that weren't trained for war. The city itself looks like it's in the middle of the mountains, so I don't see why anyone would attack it, let alone know where it is.

[An Enemy Spy]

What does it really matter? In D&D both sexes are exactly the same except for height/weight

[AceOfFools]

See, Xykon doesn't give two cp about what Redcloak thinks, and is more than happy with forcing his will on the green guy. Redcloak being the supreme commander isn't really relevant.

As to how people know where it is, numerous explanations exist from scrying to backtracking the army that just took out one of your neighboring nations and is likely not to stop there.

Why you'd want to attack the home of a marauding horde with its eye on world domination when the horde isn't there (especially considering the nature of goblinoid-humanoid relations), is, well obvious. Supply lines to cut and all that.

As to significance, well, it seems significant. Two armies one containing mixed gendered units, the other conspicuously entirely male in a world where gender has no bearing of physical capability. It almost has to be deliberate, even if it is just to save on the sprite count.

Assuming that's not the reason, I'd bet the issue of hobgoblin non-combatants will come up again. The goblins had children, after all.

[NENAD]

Redcloak was rather anti-hobbo when he was massing his legions. Still, even if his Xykon period, he may have had many more limits than Xykon did.

[factotum]

The hobgoblin city was WAY up in the mountains in an area that I'm guessing hadn't been visited for ages...I doubt anyone is likely to attack it. Also, hobgoblins are generally a very martial people, so I think the women would be quite capable of defending themselves if it came down to it.

[Borris]

I don't think Redcloak would have left the women and children behind out of kindness, or lack of. He's much more practical than that, especially regarding a race he didn't care about. It's just that when you move an army acros the land, you need to be concerned with things like building suplly lines to make sure you can feed your soldiers until the real fighting can begin. In that sense, there's no reason to bring low-level commoners or experts, or plain noncombattants (which may make the majority of the hobgoblin population) on the march with you. Stick with those who can stand for themselves in a fight and leave the rest behind.

And I don't think the hobgoblin city is in any danger with its legions gone. It's so far out of the way from everything, and in such a harsh terrain that no one else would want it, which is pretty much why the hongoblins had been forced to live there in the first place.