Gregor Relak's Collected Essays and Lectures on Leadership and Governance
Introduction
I suppose someone would wish me to say a few words here to those who might be reading this. For some time now there have been those in the Relak family who have hounded me to compile these essays, and lectures. I have been delaying any such action for equally as long. In the end I merely handed them over to my protege Boeth Relak. Since he left Hasland, and has returned from Arcaea he has had little to do; so rather than letting his great intellect goto waste I left it up to him to create this compendium.
I have not read this, I doubt I ever will for true knowledge is felt, and experienced. That was only possible for my many students by living with me for a time in whatever realm I happened to be in. A great number of them were in Fontan, though others were under my tuteldge in Falasan, and even Ibladesh before then. I suppose if I were to dedicate this massive tome it would be to them. They have all done me proud in their own way. There might be errors in this text, in fact I can think of a great number of things which might even be patently false, but do not let it deter you if you are ambitious. Some say I was the greatest there ever was, I personally find that to be rubbish.
Take what I write with a grain of salt, and make sure to wash it down with a nice cool ale. Make that several ales, I want you all to be quite drunk before you begin this. Now, if you can still read these words have a few more then we'll see if any of this doesn't make sense. There, much better. I doubt I will still be alive before anyone manages to finish this, but learn this if you learn nothing else. Destiny exists only if you make it. Reach out and grab history, bend it to your will and nothing will ever stop you. Well, except for your enemies host of arms, and possibly a few rebellious nobles, or a poisoned dagger. Cheers to the generations yet born!
~Signed, Gregor Relak, Guardian of the House of Relak
The Basics
Introduction
To begin every troop leader must first understand what their duty is. Their duty put simply is to their Chancellor/Prime Minister/King/etc. From here all things flow. Now this is not to say that one cannot disagree with their ruler, but that they must respect them. Having established this all else falls into place rather nicely. One must follow orders, one must take care of one's men, one must even risk ones own life in the defense of the realm. But this does not tell you how to be a good leader of men, merely the bare minimum which you must do. To start with many young nobles find themselves leading a group of arms-men around as if they owned the world. Quite simply this is not the case. There is an order to society which must strictly be adhered to. Nobility is no reason to shirk their duty.
Troop Unit:Basics
A leader must understand what is available to them. All too often the common nobleman will simply select the biggest looking brutes and call them a unit. This quite simply is not a good way to go about leading men. When in the capital and recruiting it is wise to understand first what one is looking at. Every man available came from one of the regions in the realm. In these regions are recruitment centers. This is where they are initially trained, and equiped. All men come out roughly equal from these places so we will not quibble on the individual characteristics of men, but instead discuss the three main attributes they possess. Morale, Training, and Equipment.
Their morale is exactly identical to that of their home region. Their training is a measure of how well they fight as a unit, how good they are at using their weapon, and what it will take to make them break and run. Training in its course then effects how added numbers of men will decrease the overall increase in estimated combat strength of a unit. For example adding 10 men of a low training will increase combat strength by 100, whereas higher trained 120. If we added 20 men you might only get 180 from the lesser trained and 235 from the better trained unit. In essence you get more for your money with better training. Equipment is broken down into two values, offensive equipment, and defensive equipment. The better the offensive equipment the more hits they will do. The better the defensive equipment the more hits it takes to wound/kill a man. As a general rule the better trained, and better equiped men are more expensive. Only training can be increased, never equipment so keep this in mind later when we discuss unit maintinance.
All unit types have these values in common. However, there are differences between the many unit types. Infantry can engage in close combat exclusively. Mixed Infantry carry with them some slings or crossbows, and will attack their enemy at range before engaging in close combat. Archers are almost useless against infantry, but deadly at range; especially against massed troops (very large units). Calvary are unique in that their ability to charge and inflict more damage as a multiplier of their usual damage is dependent on their training and equipment. It is still believed that they can do up to two times their normal damage if training and equipment were close to 100%.
Troop Unit:Maintinance
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Troop Unit:Settings
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The Realm Hierarchy
Introduction
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Outlaw
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Noble
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Knight
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Lord
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Royal
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Military Hierachy
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The Professions
Soldier
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Cavalier
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Hero
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Mentor
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Bureaucrat
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Trader
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Infiltraitor
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Priest
Give them your gold, along with your soul. They'll claim to own both anyways.
SpellCaster
Avoid if at all possible.
God-hood
Beware the ides of March.
