alt Hacker NewsFor a smith to operate at all there has to be a level of societal stability that could well be too much of a starting assumption in this scenario.
For a smith to operate at all there has to be a level of societal stability that could well be too much of a starting assumption in this scenario.
Nah. Smiths literally came along with travelling war parties all the time.
In Europe, nearly every village had one (it was pretty required), and they operated even during active wartime. Because they had too.
All you really need is a skilled blacksmith, a forge, an anvil, and some hand tools. Well, and some fuel and iron.
All that can be transported by cart with a small team of people. In a village, even in wartime, you don’t need to move it, so it’s really just fuel and a few folks + metal feedstock, which is likely even more available from scavenged weapons and the like.