Ohnar West/Academy of Ohnar West
Contents
Introduction
You walk into the damnabley large Building at the Center of Ozrat's Intellectual District. After being struck in awe of the sheer size of the inner court chamber you suddenly realize... "Where the heck are all the Books? And the Teachers?"
"The Answer is simple young knight." A voice booms from a large pillar of fire that seems to house the outline an enourmous, yet distracingly beautiful face. "I am the Mentor, The Fantasical Mentor of Oz...rat." The booming deafens you and in your slight paining you notice a pair of very well made shoes tapping behind a curtain to the side of the room. "The Academy of Ohnar West is-HEY! what are you doing here? get OUT from behind this curtain and listen to the Pilla... Oh Nevermind. I am Mentor Fallin, The head teacher of the Academy at Ozrat. We have been at a slight loss of materials and im currently looking for additional members to employ the faculty. Well? your here to Learn? I have a few of my personal books over there on the side near the marble desk. Go give those a read and speak to me should you have any questions!"
The Curtain closes abruptly before you... Well, at least you like reading.
Starter's Guide to your Nobly Duties
Lesson 1 (Scribe Notes)
Your Scribe Notes, A Lesson in Codeing.
Your first official lesson will be the coding of the notes your scribe writes down. While normally this is the job of the scribe it is a basic knowledge that must be known in the case of well... your scribe being dead.
"Letter"- Standard note. No colors just basic print like this note itself.
"Report"- Blue scrolls. These signify a report given to a superior or allies who otherwise would do well with the report themselves of yourself, your unit, scouting and battle reports. a moderatly important note but not neccisary.
"Request"- Green Scrolls. Just what it sounds like, an official request wether it be to move out for refitting or anything else you deem falls in the same category. Used more often within your army.
"Orders"- Red Scrolls. Extremly important, this signifies an order from a superior whether it be your Marshal or your liege. you MUST follow these orders else be open for punishment. Without orders a realm would be nothing but a gaggle of Nobles sticking their thumbs to everyone else.
"Roleplay"- Gold Scrolls. Hard to explain, but these are the day to day listings of your personal actions as recorded by your personal scribe. These scribes in particular have the uncanny ability to be able to write down even your feelings as they see it. it stays in your personal files that noone can touch. (OOC:guh, its your character's personal experience. imagine it like your playing a book... Siege of avalon anyone? And personaly Roleplays are something only your character can know since hes the only one involved. eg: "Damn, another student? i guess ill give him all the wrong info and he can go jump in a lake with full armour!! HAHAHA!" That'd be Fallin talking or thinking to himself,, noone, not even Bruiantt has any idea of these thoughts. but dont worry, he doesnt think that... i think.)
"Out-Of-Character"- Grey scrolls. I have no idea what they are there for, i think the head teacher of the scribe's training school went daft and gave these out for diplomas or some such. I've never bothered to ask as ive never seen one used in my life. (OOC: GUESS what thats for!! OOC stuff! whatever you write OOC your character and the others in the world never know it wasput out. Soo, its me the player: Derek; talking to you the player... i fergot.. sorry^^! im bad with names.)
Lesson 2 (Heirarchy)
Heirarchy, who you are in the world
Alright, time to talk about Heirarchy. We'll start with the lowset link in the chain.
There are the Basics; peasants are of the lowest class, though an integral piece of a realm. Therefore a good strong heel on them is required to keep them content.
Next are the Minor Nobility of which you once were, they spend all their time feasting and playing around. there is little use of them except as the occasional captain of your troop. (OOC: not really part of your game but i wanted to cover everyone, these are nPc's [Non-Player-Characters])
Then the Nobles; also called Troop Leaders or TLs. An unaligned noble has no fief ceded to him in a duchy or region. They can recruit a limited number of troops but nominally cannot afford them without running family funds low. There are many classes of nobles.
Ceded Noble; also called a Knight of ----Region----. A Knight is a Noble who has sworn Fealty to a Lord and thereof given an estate and a percentage of the region's tax income.
Lord/Baron/Count/Marquis/Senator; A region Lord not of a city or stronghold. They deal with policy in their region, act as reigning judge, and deal with economic infastructure. Appointed by the Duke if region is within a dutchy or otherwise by the ruler if without, Though that is in a Monarchy. in Ohnar west the other region lords and officials appoint new lords as well as Dukes, even the Prime Minister!
Duke; Lord of a City or Stronghold region and therefore that cities' (normally) surrounding regions. The duke has the most economic clout of all position in the realm, while not only controlling the great deal of wealth a city/stronghold can provide, if a Duke decides to cede his City to another realm... the whole dutchy goes with it.
Ruler/Prime Minister/etc; The political leader of your realm, these are the people who tell us to go to war and and otherwise control the very life of the realm.
Government Officials; Placed here as they can be of any level withing the realm heirarchy. Your Banker, Judge, General, Marshal are all part of defferent sides of the government; military or economic. But their purposes are a bit more complicated than i care to spend talking about, if your a loyal and intelligent Troop leader you'll find out Yourself!
Lesson 3 (Rights)
Inaliable Rights
-NOONE has the right to tell you what unit to recruit, even "forced" suggestion is BAAAD too. -Noone has the right to tell you to change your class (OOC: Even beurocrats follow these rules now.) -Noone can force you to vote for something a certain way, Mind you your lord COULD ask you to vote for someone but its expected that you think ahead and find out who the lord is going to vote for yourself and well, act accordingly. though that depends on the type of person you are and how loyal you are to your liege.
(OOC: these are Fallin's version of the inaliable rights.)
Lesson 4 (Civil Work)
Why your not as efficient in Civil duties out of your Dutchy
A Dutchy? A duchy is an set of regions that are directly controlled by a City-region. For example: Nbasah, Larodais and Obtal all are regions in the Duchy of Sarshas not excluding the city of Sarshas herself. It has to do with the Control that the Duke's have over the realm itself. The easiest way to put it is that If the Duke of Akanos, we'll pretend that the city has Obtal as part of its dutchy, decides to change allegiance to another realm then Obtal will do with it as part of the dutchy of Akanos.
The biggest reason for it is to essentially divide up the power the Dukes have so that if any one of them decide that they want to, oh say, become the king of all Ohnar West. the competin of opposing Dukes would squash the first Dukes Attempt (Eh, well thats the RL Medieval times easy reason for it^^).
In your Particular situation when a region is not part of your dutchy, the civil work that your men do are not as effective because:
A. They simply dont know where anything is like lumber, masons and the government officials themselves, so time has to be taken to find and deal with everything.
B. The men are never comfortable dealing with Locals they are not accustomed to.
C. You yourself might just honestly not try as hard with the upkeep of a region that you are not apart of. I mean, your not going to profit out of it one bit right?
And those are the reasons why your work is not as effiecient outside of your home region or dutchy.
Lesson 5 (Troops)
Final Lesson, you and your troop
We will now learn about the army and your troops.
There are 5 discernable types of Military units.
Common Units Infantry (the guys that fight face to face.) Archers (The guys that shoot you from a distance) Cavalry (Guys on high horses((horse-type things))and attack you face to horse)
Not as common Mixed Infantry (They can shoot you and THEN stab you later, but theyre not as good in either as the specialized guys)
Holy carp we have 2 of them!!!??? Special Forces (Elitist Units, can be either Mellee or ranged depending on speciality but.)
Unit Statistics.
By now youve noticed those daily pages your scribe has ready for you every twelve hours about your troops. i can explain it all!
Well, not all. Since im hoping you underswtand what the "Number of men" part is ill just go to the %s
Morale: How content your men are. if it ever gets below 30% be prepared to lose a few men via desertion. if its even lower.. watch for a knife to the back! How happy your men are also effect how quickly the'yll panic and flee a fight (since they are commoners and therefore have little spine without proper guidance and training.). so keep it high and them happy. if you are outside your realm then Morale will start to drop the farther out you are.
Weapons/Armour: The quality of your troops equipment. With sharper, well balanced weapons you can get many more stabs in (hits in battle) your fight. Armour is how well protected the men are. Good armour can not only block a blade from piercing flesh but it can also keep the pierced part from being a fatal part. (less casualties and more casualties will be wounds instead of deaths.)
Cohesion: The difference between your men fighting as a solid unit or a tangled mess. Higher is of course better, more cohesive units do their job better, take less hits and deal more. Properly "Solid" or "Brick" Units also have a better chance of breaking an enemies front line allowing a few units to get in and destroy any archery support.
Training: Possibly the most important. With excellent training your men will stay in formation better, train better, not run from battle, hit more, take less hits,have a better chance of breaking an enemies front line and even staying with your through those overtime unpaid days (Imagine the 30% being cut by 5-15 at about 70+ training) The higher the skill of the men are the harder it is to improve them through normal or light training.(more on that later). and even the hardest training may do naught but break a shield or so.
Damage: The destroyer of units, with high damage your men cant fight as well as they should (imagine a spear with a broken tip), morale can decrease through fights over equipment. Men can become injured during the fighting which could lead to death. Or the worst. if the equipment is completly damaged (100%) its unrepairable. (Your units now has a 0%/0% Weapon/Armour rating)
WAR! abridged; Training, Tactics and how to be a better TL
Lesson 1 (Unit Training)
Training your Men: There are three types of training: Light, Normal, and Hard; each one can improve your units cohesion, skill level. Or on the otherhand Lower Morale and damage equipment. Training costs money to get everything set up and supplies like bales and planks purchased. Light training will cost you 1 gold per 40 men in your unit. Normal will cost you 1 Gold per 20, and Hard will cost 1 per 10 men. (This deals in a curve, after 50 men it will cost more for training lightly, moderately or hard at different intervals.) As you can guess, light training(4 hours) is the least damaging to the unit's overall well-being, but you wont get much improvement (If you need the hours only use light train until 50% tops). With Normal (6 hours)training you can get improvement without much damage to equipment or Morale. (If you want use until 70-75%, higher is possible but not as likely.) Hard training gets the best results but only with moderatly skilled units to start with (50%+, lower is do-able but about as effective as normal). It of course has the best increases in skill level and cohesion and does the most damage to Morale and your equipment.. not to mention it takes 8 hours of the day up.
Lesson 2 (Unit Duties)
Unit Settings: Lastly is your unit settings in the field, Both Line, Formation and designation. I'll start With Designation.
Regular Army: Exactly what it sounds like, standard unit settings. Police: Used more properly for Civil work and the only formation able to do normal police work; Terrible in battle (imagine your stats being halved). Sentry: Gains a fighting bonus within your realm, otherwise cannot leave the realm(just a BAD idea). Unit moves slower than regular army because of the extra equipment (btw none of the extra stats are shown) and unit pay is about 20% more. Mercenary: Perfect for fighting outside of realm borders, men dont miss home as much so they dont lose Morale nearly as quickly. great for long distance fighting. cost quite a bit more (ive seen people say both 20% and 50% more, never checked myself.) Vangaurd: These men are the fastest for covering distances because they leave all their equipment behind (reduced fighting ability but in battle better chance to run away and not die).
Lesson 3 (On the Battlefield)
Battlefield Settings
Line Settings: Front, Middle, Back, Reargaurd; where you are on the field. reargaurd archers in particular have a higher survival rate if faced alone vs enemies they cannot beat. since they are close to the back the can escape easier.
Formation: Box, Line, Wedge and skirmish,
The key to winning a battle is to have your men survive longer than the other guy's and Formation is how its done.
Box setting: Boxed units do better against melee enemies and stay together easier slightly increasing the chance they wont turn and run; Used mostly for infantry.
Line setting: Standard setting, doesn't fair worse or better in general.
Wedge Setting: Improves Offensive power and better possiblility to break the front lines, though fares a little worse against archers; used mostly for cavalry.
Skirmish: Your unit becomes much more difficult to damage via archer fire as its all spread out but when met by any melee troop you get destroyed; Used Primarily for Archers if used at all. Its much easier to retreat as well.
