Samantha's School of K-nighthood/Chapter 4: Orders

Different Kinds of Orders

Once you're in command of a unit, it is up to you to maintain the whole kit n' kaboodle. (No, I don't know what kind of kit, or what a kaboodle is either, so don't ask.)

Unit Settings: This is where you give the orders for how your men are to march into the battle. You'll usually get orders from your marshal that will resemble something like this:

• Inf/SF with Siege engines: Front aggressive line
• Inf/SF without Siege engines: Middle normal line
• LR Archer: Middle defensive line
• SR Archers/MI: Front defensive line
• Cav: rear defensive wedge

Basically, they are telling the individual types of units how to move into battle. Looking under Unit Settings will show you all the options available, and you follow the orders for your particular type of unit. This is also where you can set the autopayment settings for your unit. Autopayment is how often your stewards will pay your unit without you having to tell them.

Loot Some People: This is when you turn your soldiers loose in enemy territory. There are all sorts of different types of looting available, which will allow you to do everything from robbing tax collectors to get gold, to burning and pillaging farms, damaging the infrastructure or military fortifications...to just plain burning everything to the ground and murdering people. This is a very, Very, VERY, VEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYY bad thing to do. And you should only do it if you are specifically ordered to.

Training: Getting your soldiers in shape. The more you train, the higher their cohesion and training becomes. However, you're gonna beat on their gear doing all this, so their equipment is going to have to be repaired. Also, when you train a lot, your men are going to grumpy and whiny. Don't worry, they always do that. Take them out for some entertainment or just give them some time off and they'll recover their morale sooner or later.

Pay Your Men: Always a favorite for the troops. You can pay everybody, just pay your soldiers, or pay your paraphernalia. Whichever you choose. If you don't pay your troops for more than 5 or 6 days, they'll start bitching about this too. You can usually let them go unpaid for about 9 days if you have to, but try not to let it go on for too long. If you do, they can desert you when you need them the most, and will sometimes spread really bad rumors about you while doing it. This can hurt your honor or prestige.

Civil Work/Police Work: Your unit doesn't just fight in battles. They can be told to perform Civil Work, which can help repair the production of a region. But 99 times out of 100, they will hate doing this and it will result in some morale loss. Tough cookies. If your unit is set to the Police Designation (see Chapter 1: Your Unit), you can have them perform some of the duties of that unit style.

Hang Rebels: When your realm takes over a region, they countryside is just brimming with rebels. If you send your men out to hunt them down and hang them, you crush the rebellion and the people's spirits. However...most units won't like doing this and the region you are in will suffer morale loss, but you will restore the region control. ONLY DO THIS WHEN DIRECTLY ORDERED TO BY SOMEBODY IN CHARGE!!!!!

Rest Your Troops: Exactly what it says. This allows you to let your soldiers have some time off to just enjoy whatever they can find. This will get your unit back some of its morale, but not a lot. But hey...it's free...so no bitchin'.

Entertainment: When your men are suffering from a huge morale loss, you can take them out and pay for a night on the town. WOO-HOO!!! You can either just take them out for an okay time, which will cost a little gold and a couple of hours but will get back some morale, or you can go for an ALL OUT PARTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!! This will cost twice as much and take up all the time you have, but then you can really really raise their spirits. Go to a Dance Hall, go to a brewery, take em to a pub, Pick up some whores...go all out! But you can only do this when in a town, city or stronghold.

Repair Equipment: Training, battle...heck...even travel can damage your equipment. To repair them, you need to be in a region with an armour or weapon smith. You can usually find where these are under your Banker's Bulletin.

Arrest an Adventurer/Priest: Does exactly what it says. You can have your unit looking for adventurers, who are just commoners with swords that are out looking for a gold or two, or arrest a priest. Haven't had much experience with this, but I do know that arresting priests can upset the populace if the priest or religion is popular. But hey...that's why we're armed and armored...right?

Dig In: Have your soldiers pick up picks and shovels and start building earthworks and fortifications to protect your camp. They're not as good as regularly built castles and the like, but they're better than nothing. However, this can affect how your unit will position and react in battle.

Hunt Enemies: After a battle, you can send your soldiers out in hunting parties to capture or kill the remaining enemy troops. However, in order to do this, you need at least 20 unwounded men in your unit. And your unit can't have retreated from the battlefield. Hunting takes at least 3 hours and you won't get the results until sunrise or sunset. Also, you can't send your men out hunting and then do things like dig in or travel.

Forage Battlefield: Every time you're in combat, your armor gets banged up, weapons get broken and things get lost. If your unit lasted through the entire battle without retreating or being wiped out, you can send the remaining soldiers out to pick over the corpses and wounded soldiers that are still on the battlefield. They can usually find replacement gear and it will lower your current equipment damage, normally by 2%-5%. However, if a lot of people have already done this, you may not find anything at all.

Abandon Your Unit: Bored with the unit you have? Want to try something different? Does your realm need to have some at home defense? This is where you can either just get rid of your unit and send the soldiers home or deploy your unit as militia. If you want to get rid of your unit, be sure to ask to see if any lords want you to leave your unit in their region as defense. If nobody does, then just let 'em go and go recruit some more troops.

Recruit: This can only be done when in the capital of your realm. It allows you to add troops to your current unit, or to recruit a new unit. You cannot mix unit types. If you already have an infantry unit, you can only recruit infantry; If you already have an archery unit, you can only recruit archers.

Rename Your Unit: Change the name of your unit to whatever you want. You can only do this in cities and townsland areas. Your unit might suffer some small morale loss when this happens, but they get over it pretty quickly.

Leave Wounded: If you have a bunch of wounded with you, you can leave them behind if you are in a city or a townsland area, so this way they won't die. However, you will not get these soldiers back. But, if you leave them behind, you might be able to move faster if you have to travel somewhere.

Send Out Scouts / Scout Ahead: If you are stationary in a region, you can send out scouts to get reports of the region you are in or surrounding areas. If you are traveling, then you can send scouts ahead to see what awaits you at your destination.