Igelfeld Family/Von Igelfeld family Memoirs/The Wisdom of Moritz/Unit Maintenance and Recruitment

"Or possibly talk about your men?"

My eyes open and I sit up in my chair, "Ah, finally we get to a topic I am interested in!"

"Good!" Replied Moritz, "Because learning the principles of maintenance and proper recruitment are essential to being a successful troopleader, and since everyone starts out as such, it is simply important to everyone."

"I plan on being a troopleader for some time, so it would be truly wonderful if we could discuss it in great detail."

"Very well Cousin, I shall tell you all I know, but before going into the details of unit maintenance, we need to talk about recruiting. First, Units can only be recruited from the capital of the realm as that is where all the units gather so that you can compare them and their prices to make an informed decision as to what units you want to recruit. At the start of your career you will only be able to choose between three types of units, archers, infantry, and mixed infantry, and after you gain some experience and prestige you will be able to recruit cavalry and special forces. Each of these troop types have their own advantages, except mixed infantry, they are truly awful and seem quite confused when on the battlefield. Infantry is the backbone of any army as they charge into certain death to backup the cavalry and protect the archers, they also tend to cause the most damage to the enemy and absorb the most from them. Archers stand away from the battle and therefore receive less honour and prestige than do infantry commanders but that doesn't mean they are less important, for thinning the infantry before they are able to confront yours is paramount to success. Cavalry can be called javelin of an army, not necessary but damn useful, they are able to break apart the enemy ranks spreading panic and deliver copious amounts of damage. Special forces are ether archers or more likely infantry and are typically far better equipped and trained than are regular units. Furthermore, special forces also have abilities that normal troops do not, some of them can climb walls, some can fire arrows incredible distances, some have unbelievable armor and weapons, and that is just what I have come across. Mixed infantry in principle are meant to be a middle ground between infantry and archers, but that is 'in principle' for in reality they are horrible, do not recruit them if you value your life." Moritz subconsciously traced his fingers around the outline of a small and old scar.

"Are you speaking from personal experience?" I asked.

Moritz closed his eyes and grimaced, "Yes, and please on this one, learn from my mistake Moria."

"Mixed infantry equal bad for personal safety. Noted."

"Very good, anyway there are five characteristics of your unit to which you need to pay attention; training, equipment quality, equipment damage, morale, and cohesion, which we shall discuss in detail. But all of those are concerned with one primary characteristic; combat strength. Combat strength is the measure of how effective you men are when fighting and this number is your primary concern. Thankfully, your scribe can give you a really good idea of what that number is, and that number gives you a good idea about how well you can support your unit. A good combat strength for a unit is between 350 and 450, which can easily be maintained given an income of 45 to 60 gold with plenty to spare for training and repairs. If you are feeling ambitious or have a considerable income, aim for around 450 to 650 combat strength and you can be one of the stronger units in your army, but don't try that unless you have an income of at least 70 to 80 gold. Again, this goes back to finding an appropriate liege willing to properly support his knights. Personally as the Marshal of my army I feel the need to have the strongest unit and as I currently receive around 80 gold, I am able to do just that." Moritz Smiled, "My archers are the envy of many a troopleader. So again, when you are looking for a liege, be careful to insist on a proper income. In fact I think you should use that as your mantra, let’s try it."

Moritz waves his hands in the manner of a conductor, "when looking for a liege, repeat after me."

With a contemplative stare I resolutely replied, "No."

Momentarily taken aback then returning my stare, "very well then ... but do not forget. Anyway, on to training. How well trained your men are, is from my experience the main means of increasing their combat strength as they tend to start out poorly trained. Once I had a unit with a base strength of about 350, but with considerable training I was able to nearly double that number. Of course our first lesson was what end of the sword to hold, if that gives you any indication as to how well trained they were when I started. Many times when you first recruit a unit their training will be considerably low and you should begin working with them to increase it. A good goal to aim for is around 80% as anything beyond that is hard to attain and costs considerably more. Also, keep in mind that your men are greedy, and those fools that I worked on day and night turned around after I had made them into an elite fighting force and demanded elite pay, ingrates. Units always do this, as they get better they must be paid more so it is advisable to start with a unit with a combat strength about 100 to 150 below your goal, that is unless your battle is in the very near future.

When recruiting it is very important to consider carefully the quality of your future units equipment, because unlike training and morale, you cannot increase the equipment quality. As we all know, the quality of one’s weapon determines the amount of damage that can be inflicted and the quality of one’s armor determine how much damage one can sustain. So do not underestimate the importance of either. For infantry and cavalry both armor and weapons are of great importance as much hand to hand combat is expected. However, for archers you mainly want to take note of the weapon quality and range, because if your army works properly, your archers should not have to use their armor and given their incredibly poor hand to hand skills good armor makes little difference for they shall still be obliterated. One note on range, having a range of four is preferable as it means your men will be more accurate at shorter ranges. One way to keep recruitment costs down and keep the long range is to recruit three fourths of however many men you want with range four, then recruit one fourth with a range of three. The men with longer range will be the majority and peer pressure will enable the other men to shoot from that range as well. Overtime, your equipment shall become damaged from training, travel, battle, and even from just sitting around. When, not if but when, it gets damaged you can get it repaired in most cities and towns. Your scribe is able to calculate the damage level for your equipment and one should always try to keep the damage bellow 40% and if it reaches 60% or more your men might start hurting themselves while using it."

"I thought these where professional soldiers, surely they are not daft enough to injure themselves with their own equipment?"

"On the contrary, one of my men was innocently practicing his with his sword when the strap of his boot broke causing him to fall forward flailing, he threw the sword in order to catch himself, and its trajectory ended up greatly interfering with another man who was in the process of ... ah ... watering a tree to put it politely. The sword ricocheted off the tree and swung preciously close to his ... precious before it stabbed him in the foot, and from now on he always walks at least a half mile away from camp to do his business. Your men may be professional soldiers but that doesn't mean they possess the quality of intellect."

"That is truly remarkable" I said with my eyes wide open and mouth slightly ajar.

Moritz laughed, "It was so humorous that morale increased, except for the injured party of course, for he had to spend some time with the healers before he could walk again."

"Poor fellow, how is he doing?"

"Oh he died long ago fighting monsters, but it's time we continued as death is after all a continuum and precious few soldiers last beyond a few months. Speaking of death, we need to talk about morale, because if your men are not happy, chances are they might just run away from the battlefield instead of dieing honourably. There are a few things that will lower morale, being away from your realm, training sessions, not being paid, and having badly damaged equipment to name a few, but for the most part they will be happy because they have the honour of following a noble. If for any reason morale sinks bellow 605 you can raise it by paying for entertainment, paying them, or taking care of whatever is bothering them such as going back to your realm if that has been an issue. Along those same lines, cohesion is an indication of how well your men know and get along with each other. As it increases they will fight better as a unit and be less likely to retreat from battle. In truth perfect cohesion is easily attainable and should be aimed for. Now my mouth is getting a bit dry from all this talking so I think we should call it a night, I am going to drink some wine and go to sleep. Tomorrow we shall continue as paraphernalia is a topic I almost forgot."

As he called his manservant in for drinks I stood from my chair, "Very well cousin, it seems the sun has set and so shall I, I bid you goodnight."

"Goodnight cousin. I look forward to tomorrow with much anticipation."