Maintaining an Army

You need money to raise an army, and money to maintain it from season to season. There is also attrition from exposure and lack of food when moving an army. Larger armies have more trouble with this, especially when moving into fiefs that have low populations. The troops lived off the land and if the land was not well populated they went hungry and hungry troops got sick or just quit. There is a ten percent chance, each time you move from one fief to another, that attrition will occur. It is worst in Winter and Spring and for armies with more than 20,000 troops, you can lose the entire force if you enter a very low population fief in the Winter (the troops simply head for home rather than follow you to frostbite and starvation).

Remember, when logging off you should always be outside of a keep. If you are inside without an army, you are subject to easy capture if the fief is besieged. If you are inside with an army, you are still subject to the dangers of siege , with the added problem that the army advertises your presence. The safest place to spend your offline time is always outside the keep. If you have an army, set the standing order to RETREAT. If you have no army, you should hide in a nearby non-active fief. If you stand outside the keep in one of your own fiefs, and the fief is taken, you are subject to seizure.

You can recruit in fiefs you speak the same language as or that you own. Thus you have to come home, if you are English, or get some one to transfer you some troops for battle. Another advantage of recruiting is that no one knows you are doing it. but it will take you a while to assemble a large army. Maybe 20 - 200 men per fief, and 2-3 days for each fief recruited from..

If you are English, you have to deal with the hassle of moving an army across the English Channel. You have to assemble a fleet and you have to be at the port when you do this. Also there will be a HIGH cost to ship them expect about 5000 Kducats for a 10,000 man army. Each season you will be charged two KDucat for each man you have. If you have 10,000 men, it will cost you 20,000 Kducats for that season.

Remember that there is a chance that a cross channel move will fail. It is VERY difficult for the French to move across the Channel (a combination of weather and a superior English fleet).

One should have an army the size of his income. That is, if you bring in one million Ducats can have an army of 500 men. If your income goes down, then so does your army. Players tend to accumulate money so they can raise a larger army for a season or two. Historically, nobles tended to raise an army in the Spring or Summer, use it for a season or two and then disband it before Winter. It was very difficult to maintain an army in Winter and few players will do it.

Maintaining a Profitable Fief During Combat