House Fuor/Missives/Unit Cost
When looking to recruit a unit, the first choice is what unit type to employ. This choice is yours, but if you choose a unit which you cannot lead effectively, the House of Lords reserves the right to deny you funding unless and until you select a more appropriate unit type. Young and inexperienced nobles are wise to select either infantry or archers to start with, as they are effective and reliable battlefield tools. Cavalry and special forces are powerful weapons in the hands of an experienced leader, but they require excellent training and appropriate numbers in order to be effective.
With this choice made, the next step is to consult your military advisor to determine how many men of your chosen unit type you are presently capable of leading. Your advisor can be accessed through the ‘Information’ link on the left sidebar. He is listed under ‘Personal Information’ on the right side of that screen. Your military advisor will present you with a bullet-point list of Recruitment Limits. This will give you an estimate of how many men you can lead with your present honor. Also take note of the ‘Weekly Pay’ report he can provide, as that will be necessary in a later step.
Now that you know how many men you can lead into battle, check in with the recruitment center in Westmoor city. The officials there have listed every available unit for recruitment, along with their associated statistics and costs. It is listed at the bottom of their table, but it bears repeating: the cost listed in the table is the recruitment cost for 10 men. That does not include weekly payment or repair costs, it simply indicates the cost to hire 10 of those men. Here there is a bit of math involved: if you can lead about 45 men, you would then multiply the cost of your chosen unit type by 4.5. If the cost of 10 infantry was 37, this would mean that to recruit a full 45 infantry, I would require 167 gold (37 x 4.5 = 166.5, rounded up).
Once you’ve determined the recruitment cost of your chosen unit type, you then take note of their statistics: type, weapons, armour, training, and quantity. These are needed for your advisor to calculate the unit’s weekly pay. My 45 infantry have 60 weapons, 80 armour, and 40 training. Putting these numbers into the military advisor’s worksheet, I am told that I need approximately 50 gold to pay these men for a week.*
Putting these two figures together, 167 gold to recruit 45 men, and 50 gold to pay them for a week, we arrive at a figure of 217 gold. Thus, you would request 250 gold from the House of Lords, and use any excess for the purchase or maintenance of appropriate peripherals, such as scouts, banners, and healers, or siege engines if they are called for.
- The advisor works in tens for the strength, and fives for the training. Thus, since my 45 men do not fall on a ten, the strength is automatically rounded up to 50 in the worksheet. However, the difference in weekly pay for five men is small enough that this level of accuracy is acceptable.
