Artemesia Family/Samael/Lessons

An Introduction to Politics, Economics, and Warfare

Introduction

There have been many great teachers in this world before me and who are yet to come. Their lessons are immortalized within the archives, and they are all worth looking over. My text is a basic set of lessons meant for the young noble to get a good foundation for a future life in the nobility.

First Priority Acts

Likely the most important thing a new noble should do is to make a realmwide introduction. This will allow his fellow nobles to be aware of his presence, and to get the attention of any mentors of the realm. As well, he should ask if any landed nobles would be his potential liege. This is important to provide him with a steady income, as well as a home within the realm.

Once the noble is granted a plot of land and an estate by his liege, the lord will likely instruct the knight regarding the estate settings. A new option will appear, called the "Command" and it will allow the knight, so long as he is in the region of his estate, to enlarge the estate from small to medium and from medium to large, and to switch the estate's activities from aiding production to aiding authority.

Travel

The new noble will undoubtedly travel many places in his lifetime. He probably even traveled far to find a potential liege. The travel options lists only those regions that border the location of the noble. It also lists the estimated time of arrival in that region. Factors, such as scouts, unit type, unit size, unit health, season, infiltrator actions, and some other factors, will result in a longer or shorter trip. These are uncontrollable.

Travel time is calculated at each turn of the sun, meaning sunrise and sunset. There is a total of 12 hours that can be accumulated for use. At each turn, the travel hours are deducted from the time pool before any more time is added. When the noble is young, he will find himself willing and able to work 8 hours after the sun rises or sets. If the travel time requires more than the current amount of accumulated time, then all hours in the timepool will be used and camp will be set somewhere in between the two regions. Eight hours are still granted.

Finances

The next step in the practical world of the noble is to secure finances. Hopefully by this time there has already been an oath offer given, thus securing a stable source of income. The noble who is newly entered into the greater world will gain financial support from his family three times over a week. Depending on the realm's tax policies, one might consider dismissing the personal guard that was initially hired by one's family, as they are usually not the best of fighters anyway, and it will save some money.

After familial contributions to finance have concluded, then it is usually a good idea to start ones military career in earnest.

Basic Military Matters

I will first go into an introduction of the types of units, and the various relevant statistics regarding their effectiveness.

There are infantry, archers, mixed infantry, cavalry, and special forces. Infantry fight in close quarters and thus would benefit from the presence of banners. Cavalry and some special forces are also melee soldiers, and would also benefit from banners, although in a large battle where banners become useful, the infantry will often have enough banners. Archers shoot from a range, from 100 yards to 400 yards.

Note that only half the maximum amount of troops as allowed by one's honor in cavalry and special forces may be recruited. Cavalry requires at least 5 prestige, and special forces requires at least 10.

Now, I will discuss the relevant statistics of the unit. First, comes the name, which is self-explanatory. Then you will be informed of your captain's name, if any, and his skill. This is a veteran soldier, whose experience will help the noble and his troops greatly in battle.

Next comes the type of unit, and underneath that, the range, if any. Descending in order, are number of men, training, weapons and armor, damage, morale, cohesion, estimated combat strength, unit designation, and date of last payment.

The number of men is self-explanatory. Training refers to how much experience the men have with combat, 100% being the elite troops, and 0% being a bunch of peasants who know nothing of battle. Weapons and armor refer to the quality of the weapons and armor. 100% is the best any human smith can offer, and 0% means the men are unarmed and naked. This is a set value, unless men with different weaponry and armor are recruited, in which case the weapons and armor of the unit are magically converted to all be equal. Do not ask me how this occurs, as I have no rational explanation for this, despite my knowledge of the latest alchemical discoveries.

Damage percentage refers to how much of the equipment is damaged. At 100% damage, the men are unarmed and naked. This is bad because unarmed and naked soldiers do not contribute much to battle. Of course, if they were unarmed and naked beautiful women, then perhaps they might serve as a useful distraction. This tactic has not been documented and I do not recommend trying this as it is an unnecessary risk on the lives of beautiful women.

So moving along, morale refers to how happy the men are. 100% means that they are as happy as can be, although my cousin Jared, the philosophical one, has pointed out to me that there is no possible way that anyone can be classified as being in the best happiness, because such a standard would require that one has discovered the pure form of...I do not understand what he was writing about, but I am sure that it was something logical. Anyway, at 0%, the men are really depressed and will likely have begun slitting their wrists, hanging themselves, drinking poison, etc. That is not a good thing, so it is best to keep them happy by paying them or by taking them to drink a lot, dance a lot, or have a large orgy with a bunch of whores. The astute noble will discover what his men enjoy and do not enjoy. Spending a long time doing something enjoyable will increase cohesion as well, which brings us to the next point: Cohesion.

Cohesion refers to how much the unit fights as a team rather than as individuals. At 100%, the entire unit is one big family, where each man cares dearly for the other as if his or her teammates' lives were his or her own. One might find such a unit drinking together, dancing together, fishing together, hunting together, killing together, picking up whores together, etc. At 0%, the men hate each other and are all concealing daggers behind their backs, ready to kill the next man. Fortunately, I have never heard of 0% cohesion, as the simple fact of being in the same realm's military makes most people at least have a semblance of unity. This does not hold for heroes who pick up volunteers, because some people might like killing peasants.

Unit designation truly deserves its own section, but I will discuss that in Basic Tactics. Usually it will simply be "regular army". The date of last payment should also be self-explanatory.