Craig Greeson
11-07-1998, 12:36 PM
darkstar wrote:
> Craig Greeson wrote:
> > Greetings all,
> > I've never liked the fact the BR Rulebook basically says a character can
> > hire an unlimited number of mercenary units as long as his gold holds out.
> > I'm creating some rules to somewhat limit the availability of "general"
> > mercenary units in my campaign and make standing mercenary companies more
> > in demand. I have a question for you military historians, and for anyone
> > else who would just like to throw their 2GB in. Of the various mercenary
> > units, which do you feel would be more readily available than others, and
> > which could be formed together quickly vs. requiring long training
> > together? Here's what I was thinking:
>
> What I have always done is only make a set number of mercenary armies
> avalible for hire at any one time. That way no-one can hire an unlimited
> number, only the currently avalible units.
> Below is the sort of information that I wrote up.
What Ian has described is pretty much what I'm doing IMC. I'm creating
both full mercenary companies with multiple units, and also I'm placing
some individual mercenary units in cities where I feel they'd be logically
based. The mercenary companies will be expensive, but many will feature
proper units (i.e. Anuirean infantry, with its high morale, rather than
mercenary infantry) and in most cases the group of units will be able to be
hired for less than the individual units could be. Sort of the "buying in
bulk" theory.
Not all men at arms, however, would be part of a standing mercenary unit.
I also want regents to be able to pull together individual soldiers and
form them into units. This was where my question of how much training
various unit types would require came in. For example, I was thinking
Merc. Irregulars could be formed into a unit in 1 War Move(1 week), while
pikes might take more like 3 War Moves (3 weeks). Obviously, the
individual men going into these newly formed units already have to know how
to handle their weapons. The time from when a call for mercenaries goes
out until a new unit is ready for combat would be spent training together,
learning to follow a new commander, etc... Forming these new units won't
be as effective as hiring existing units, but in some cases a regent may
have no other choice.
Regards
Craig
> Craig Greeson wrote:
> > Greetings all,
> > I've never liked the fact the BR Rulebook basically says a character can
> > hire an unlimited number of mercenary units as long as his gold holds out.
> > I'm creating some rules to somewhat limit the availability of "general"
> > mercenary units in my campaign and make standing mercenary companies more
> > in demand. I have a question for you military historians, and for anyone
> > else who would just like to throw their 2GB in. Of the various mercenary
> > units, which do you feel would be more readily available than others, and
> > which could be formed together quickly vs. requiring long training
> > together? Here's what I was thinking:
>
> What I have always done is only make a set number of mercenary armies
> avalible for hire at any one time. That way no-one can hire an unlimited
> number, only the currently avalible units.
> Below is the sort of information that I wrote up.
What Ian has described is pretty much what I'm doing IMC. I'm creating
both full mercenary companies with multiple units, and also I'm placing
some individual mercenary units in cities where I feel they'd be logically
based. The mercenary companies will be expensive, but many will feature
proper units (i.e. Anuirean infantry, with its high morale, rather than
mercenary infantry) and in most cases the group of units will be able to be
hired for less than the individual units could be. Sort of the "buying in
bulk" theory.
Not all men at arms, however, would be part of a standing mercenary unit.
I also want regents to be able to pull together individual soldiers and
form them into units. This was where my question of how much training
various unit types would require came in. For example, I was thinking
Merc. Irregulars could be formed into a unit in 1 War Move(1 week), while
pikes might take more like 3 War Moves (3 weeks). Obviously, the
individual men going into these newly formed units already have to know how
to handle their weapons. The time from when a call for mercenaries goes
out until a new unit is ready for combat would be spent training together,
learning to follow a new commander, etc... Forming these new units won't
be as effective as hiring existing units, but in some cases a regent may
have no other choice.
Regards
Craig