Sub-Roman Britain (Cavalry etc)

[Conal]

Yes, a united nation with a decent social and agricultural infrastructure is able to field and support armed forces with a ratio of 25:1. However, a fragemented nation, where no one area controls sufficient quantities of all the resources needed to equip and support a large number of dedicated warriors, would have trouble getting to, let alone sustaining anything like that level.

But we are not talking anywhere near that are we, at 25:1 a population of say 1 million (to keep Robert happy) would churn out 40,000 potentials ... we are looking for only 300 mounted

The Zulu population (I use them as an iron age society in 1879) of 3 million (est) managed a fighting force of 40-60,000 (est) ... Ceasars campaign in Gaul faced a population of 3 Million (est) with a fighting force of 90,000+ (est). No if the Romano-British could not pull together a couple of thousand .... they deserved a drubbing.