Batallions!!

[Misfit]

So I pitched this idea the staff's way awhile ago and got some promising responses - with the introduction of new nobles and the threat of war on the Charali plane and/or the Daravi Front looming large, I thought I'd share what I had in mind:

General Proposal: My idea is to include 'Battalions' - units that represent the armies of various baronies, counties and marches. For Gold and/or XP, Nobles and Certain GL's can recruit stringable NPC units (Battalions) and store them in their 'Barracks'.

The units have an upkeep cost associated with them, as well they have a certain level of 'training'. Units are rated from tier 0-100, with 0 being angry peasants, and 100 being Elite soldiers. Every OOC week, a unit can be selected to 'train', with a higher cost associated to training and maintaining a higher tier unit. Tier 0 units have the chance of becoming angry peasants, and may degrade into 'bandits.' Units that do not receive training in an OOC Month will degrade 1 level.

Counties, Baronies and Marches have access to a maximum of 5 units, while Marches get 1 free base unit since they are expected to maintain an army. Some GL's - Knights, Reeves, and Brotherhood - have access to Battalions, but only a maximum of 2.

The units can engage with one another, similar to our current combat system, with attack (enemy) (emote), gaining XP and possibly moving up a tier slot if they are victorious as they gain real world experience.

With low city stats, certain guilds may get access to free units, such as brigands for the Brotherhood if there is low lawfulness, and free Cultists for the Sanctum.

More peaceful counties and baronies who don't need standing armies are under no obligation to maintain them, only raising banners when necessary, whereas more war torn areas such as the Marches may be wise to maintain armies in case of Staff-owned units of Daravi or Bandits attacking their borders.

Units take IRL time to move - this is mostly so nobody gets blitzed without some time to mount a defence. Armies are slow and big and scouts will report them moving through large, mostly empty lands.

This allows a different type of political RP to occur - as IC power blocs form, smaller nobles banding together to form defensive pacts, and rival nobles perhaps engaging in land disputes or false flag attacks.

The majority of the RP will be grid side, as this is a minigame, and not a way to turn this into a text version of Civ V. This also stops every Noble from claiming they have elite armies without finding a way to back it up.

Possible abuses:

- People stringing their armies to look like another Nobles.

- Bullying smaller nobles

- Nobody having standing armies and bandits running amok

- Armies are large, so tying it to land ownership? (you're not going to be able to hide an army in Lithmore City.)

Possible additions:

- Coded skills that impact training/skill degradation/skill gain/coded combat

- mercenary battalions (merchant/mercenary guild addition?)

- upgrades to barracks (possibly having to stock the barracks with food and/or booze)

- Involving other guilds in meaningful ways (Physicians providing battlefield medicine, troubadours to increase morale?)

[Misfit]

It would also be neat for there to be a couple of new skills and new uses for other skills:

Tactics - to increase the effectiveness of your units in combat, and decrease move time between areas

Command - Increase defensive abilities of units, and lower the rate of skill degradation for units in your barracks.

Teach - gets an added use in that a higher teach increases the rate at which your units get experience from combat/training.

[Sparkles]

If brand new skills were introduced what would that mean for existing folks who might not have slots for them?

[Misfit]

If brand new skills were introduced what would that mean for existing folks who might not have slots for them?

Ya know, you're not wrong, I hadn't thought of that. Maybe new skills are over optimistic. How was it handled when new skills were added before?

[Deedee]

If something like this is implemented, I'd like to see it open to mercenaries as well. Either through re-adding it as a coded guild, or allowing anyone to participate in the system independently.

[Misfit]

If something like this is implemented, I'd like to see it open to mercenaries as well. Either through re-adding it as a coded guild, or allowing anyone to participate in the system independently.

I thought about this myself - maybe having 'mercenaries' tied to the merchants? I don't know if it'd be very thematic if everyone had the capability to field an army.

[BlackSoul566]

If brand new skills were introduced what would that mean for existing folks who might not have slots for them?

Give them a one time chance to trade an existing skill, slotted, for the new skills if they believe it fits their character better than something they currently possess? A free, full transfer of all XP invested in that skill, along with slot, to the new skill?