Training and Specialization

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TH - The Hunt
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Training and Specialization

Post by TH - The Hunt » Fri Mar 29, 2019 7:07 pm

An idea with the ambition of saner and more interesting armies and battles, based on the unfounded assumption the next game might take place in a world where the majority of provinces have a maximum province level of 2 or less.

Training units would require one action, as normal. Instead of training points and training grounds capping the amount of training that can be done, it would instead be capped by the number and size of the law holdings and provinces involved.

With no law holdings, a regent would be unable to muster units at all. With at least a law 1, they can muster levies in that province. A Law 2 holding would allow training irregulars, a law 3 would allow training most basic units--meaning, most provinces would be unable to do so under normal circumstances--and a law 4 or 5 would allow training elite units and cavalry, meaning most regents could only dream of fielding these.

But, there'd be a workaround: A class-specific building for training armies would increase that province's effective law level for the purpose of training a specific type of unit by one, so that warrior regents (or anyone else who chose to specialize in training armies rather than ship-building, faith, or magic) would still be able to get a regular force together for later ambitions of raiding or invading more fertile lands. Since the building would be specialized and upgradeable, each regent would have their own niche, and good reason to work with others, but it wouldn't be as necessary.

The number of units that could be trained in one turn would be capped by levels of the provinces used for training, to ensure that gold alone wouldn't be able to produce an army without manpower. A realm with 5 province levels would be able to train one tier 5 unit in one turn (assuming it could train them at all), or a tier 3 and a tier 2. A realm with 15 province levels would be able to train 3 tier 4s and a tier 3, or 5 tier 3s. This means the value of the train units action would scale to the power of the regent doing the mustering. It also means only landed regents would be able to muster armies directly.

An option to allow non-landed regents to hire mercenary versions of units at an increased cost to muster and maintain them might be fair, though the supply of mercenary units available would have to be limited. This could also allow landed regents to raise a large force more quickly than they could by mustering methods. Dedicated mercenary/adventurer 'regents' could command and lead some of these units, but would still have to pay the extra costs. An advantage they might have is being able to construct buildings, first, so that their units are better than the others available.
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