Paraphernalia

Paraphernalia refers to all the "optional" staff and equipment which a troop leader may choose to bring along, but must pay extra for. Different regions will offer different types of paraphernalia depending on whether the required Building has been built in the region. Certain kinds of region cannot support certain kinds of paraphernalia building: for example, Scouts Guilds can never be built in cities. Many realms' Generals put information about the realm's paraphernalia on their General's Bulletin, or you can check what's available on the Infrastructure tab of the information page for a particular region. When you've decided what you want, buying some is one of your options of Orders.

People

There is more to a troop leader's personal retinue than scribes and soldiers. Often it is necessary to hire specialised people to perform certain tasks, and so make the whole unit more effective.

Scouts

Cost: 2 gold. Weekly Pay: 1 gold.
Trained scouts just plain make your life easier, and make your unit more versatile and effective. Their first and most obvious use is in the collection of trained scout reports. They also make it less likely that you'll get lost when travelling and can allow you to arrive more quickly than the expected travel time.

Healers

Cost: 0 gold. Weekly Pay: 5 gold.
Healers tend to your wounded troops, when you're on the road. Having one or two around will ensure that your wounded men get the best possible care when you're away from towns or cities. Of course, some wounds are simply beyond help, and overworked healers often have to prioritise their cases and let troops die who might otherwise live.

Equipment

Your unit carries lots of equipment: weapons, armour, pots, pans, saddles, tents, etc. That's all taken care of, as are the mules, and the small equipment wagons, as part of your soldiers' pay. There are a few things, however, which belong to the whole unit -- and which, therefore, you must pay for yourself. Each item of equipment needs a number of men to operate it; if you have too few able-bodied men in your troop to operate all your equipment, some of it will be automatically abandoned.

Carts

Cost: 3 gold. Weekly Pay: 0 gold. Needs 2 men per cart to operate.
The next best thing to a healer when you have wounded men is a good sturdy cart. Let the wounded travel in style at the expense of a healthy couple of soldiers! It won't really help them get better, but it will help them travel much more quickly. Of course, you can't pile them too high; if you have lots of wounded men, you'll need lots of carts.

Banners

Cost: 5 gold. Weekly Pay: 0 gold. Needs 1 man per banner to operate.
During the chaos of battle, it can become easy to get disoriented, confused, and even lost. Confused troops are more likely to panic and flee. By the use of brightly coloured banners with the insignia of your unit and your realm, you can direct the eyes of your troops in battle -- keep them together. Archers don't usually see the use, but cavalry and infantry live and die by their banners.

Siege Engines

Cost: 10 gold. Weekly Pay: 0 gold. Needs 5 men per siege engine to operate.
It is likely that at some point you will find yourself facing fortifications: whether the dirt and wood fortifications of a rural command post, or the tall granite walls of a citadel. Sure, you could tell your men to climb with their hands and ropes, but that's not always going to work. Siege engines will do the trick of providing some means of helping your troops climb in a group, making it harder to throw them back from the walls, and doing some damage to the fortifications to boot.

Unfortunately, siege engines are incredibly heavy and hard to maneuver -- they'll slow you down something terrible. Most units don't consider these standard equipment. Siege engines are reusable, meaning that you can use them in several attacks on different (or the same) walls without losing them. However, once your unit drops below the 5 man per siege engine limit, you will lose it.

Caravans

Cost: 20 gold. Weekly Pay: 2 gold.
Need to carry some food or wood? Caravans are the only way for a troopleader to do this. Traders can manage at least half a dozen caravans at a time and perhaps more; soldiers and other classes are lucky to be able to handle just two. A single caravan carries up to 100 bushels of food. In addition to carrying goods, caravans are good at slowing you and your unit down considerably.

Caravans may have some limited use to normal soldiers. If you have food in the caravans you have with you, and there is starvation in the region you are in, your men will eat the food carried in your caravans. This will protect them from getting sick due to lack of food.

Demolition Tools

Cost: 10 gold. Weekly Pay: 0 gold.
Very little is known about demolition tools so far. All that has been confirmed is that they can be used to destroy recruitment centers, far more quickly than looting. Cavaliers can make use of demolition tools, as they are considered legitimate methods of war-making. Demolition tools are quite dangerous, as they are temperamental and poorly understood, and may explode while being placed with unfortunate consequences if too many are being used at once. Using two or three demolition tools seems like a safe amount so far.