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

By now you should have a unit of some men, perhaps infantry or archers. With a fighting group following behind you there are several things one must consider. The most important of these is of course payment. Men fighting far afield will never accept bonds, only golds. Keep this in mind when setting off from a city. It is usually recommended that you keep enough golds to pay your men for a week or two; those who tell you otherwise are foolish, and are setting up your realm for disaster. Besides they can't really know how much gold you kept in reserve now can they? Units expect to be paid every five days, you can string them along for a while if they have good morale, or a high cohesion, but eventually their morale will fall to the point where they will simply rob you of what you have and walk off. Of course if your men love you and are wholely devoted to you it has not been unheard of that they will go for 10 days without being paid. Not that one should ever consider doing such for sport, for if they do walk off you will lose honor. Another thing to consider is that even dead men are paid, if they fall in battle their consorts or wives will collect the golds to feed their children till they can sell them off to a tradesmen. Bear this in mind if you think suiciding your men will do you financial situation any good, because it won't; honor demands that all debts be paid.

In a previous lecture I probably hinted that simply paying your men is not all that you must do. No, far from it, for equipment gets damaged, morale is hurt, and sometimes you are forced to recruit a unit that is less than desirable. There are ways to fix, combat, or generally negate all of these things. In no particular order they are visiting a blacksmith, a cheery pub, or even the excercise yard.

For every point of damage to a man's sword, or his armor, there is a blacksmith (generally only found in cities) who given enough time and golds will repair damage to your mens equipment. The number of men you have, the equipment quality, and the level of equipment all factors into how much time it will take, and how many golds he will charge to repair your equipment. As damage accumulates your men's effectiveness at fighting diminishes. So take every opportunity to repair. As a general rule do not let your damage get much over 35-40 as your men are probably fighting with long sticks of rust. Most generals will want to keep you in the field for much longer. Unless you can honestly see the reason why to stay don't, doctor a report and go back to the city. Now of course, after many a great battle some people will have died, leaving behind that beautiful sword you admired shortly before you chopped the unlucky sods arm off. You are capable of searching a battlefield (assuming you did not retreat or were defeated), for that beautiful sword, or any other equipment. This will generally lower your damage by a healty 4-5%, but as many other leaders do so, the pickings become slim and it isn't worth your time anymore. So if you have a habit of being late, don't bother searching.

Unit morale is a tricky buisness. It falls when nobody dies in battle, falls because they get homesick for their beds, or their wives, and is generally fairly fickle. The more you make men work the more it will fall. Now to refresh your men's spirits all you must do is visit a friendly bar, whore-house, or whatever passes for entertainment. It is a little known secret that some units prefer one type of entertainment over another. I myself have had a good hunch as to what determines it. When you first recruit a new unit see where they are coming from. Cities might prefer the drunken brawls, and whoring of a city, whereas a country boy might prefer the rough-quayside bar he grew up with. Ponder this over if you will. Keep a record of who likes what, and you'll have yourself saving a few golds and hours. Be wary of how far you journey from your own realm's boarders. For unless you are paying them a mercenaries wages they will grow angry and their morale will drop like an anvil on Doc's foot, though that story is for another time. If you were wondering, because I see you all furiously searching your notes, a mercenary is paid 1.5x as much as a normal unit.

I discussed briefly about training, and cohesion. There are two ways to raise this. The first is in battle, and the second is by paying time to rent a wide yard and doing it yourself. It is generally recommended to not bother. Unless there is peace, and you have been training as a leader (leadership skill) you will do little that most do not already know. However, if you are headstrong have golds to waste, and generally find it amusing to make men sweat; feel free to torment your men. Light training does little, unless what you have is barely above the rabble of the peasantry. Heavy training is often the best, as you will get generally both a small increase in training, and cohesion. Be wary of falling morale though, give them a break after you work them like dogs. They will come to appreciate you more if you are understanding of their needs. While this may also seem like instructions for treating ones mistress, it is not, so please young noblemen, act and think more as a noble should.

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.