Dogs of War

Soldier and Mercenary Units in the Lands Perilous

"Warriors" are represent heavy weapon or those used for front-line combat while "Scouts", with improved intelligence and empathy, are lighter troops used for couriers, archers or forward reconnaissance. "Marines" are combat troops used onboard ships, while "Fighters" are general use troops. When dealing with secondary weapon ELs, remember that the maximum is always limited by the attributes (i.e. Warriors make poor archers and are limited to EL3 in any bow skill).

Unit Upkeep

Rate of pay for the basic Warrior I is based on the book 1 rate of 2SC/month for a "soldier". However, I felt that adding "5CC per OCV-2" was a bit too simplistic -- too much pay for minimal gain. Upon using a formula based on CEL and AHP differences, it was found that all units had pretty much the same increases per level, and as a simplification has been normalized to easy factors of 5CC. Short-term hires should be used when hiring guards while in a city or town for the duration of the stay. For simplicity, all costs include wages, appropriate food and drink, lodgings, equipment repair and replacement, animal care, etc.

NOTE: If characters or character-class NPCs are working as soldiers, find the appropriate ranking for them, If they diverge widely from any of the ranked statistics, you may allow them to bargain for better pay. As a rule of thumb, allow 2CC/month per OCV or DCV improvement, 1CC/month per EL or MDV improvement and 1CC/month per 5 HPV above the listed value.

*As a rough guideline, use (Cost to learn/5), rounded up. Thus, a blacksmith or brewer is valued at +2CC, while a healer has a value of +24CC. This should only be paid if the skill has a value in combat or for the military unit as a whole. Skill level is assumed to be at EL4 (or EL20 for /2 skills and EL40 for undivided skills). Master level skills, at EL8 (or EL40 for /2 skills and EL80 for undivided skills), have a cost multiplier of (Cost to learn/2), rounded up.

Archers and cavalry are generally not available on a weekly basis. If a unit has more then one specialization, (i.e. both Heavy Cavalry and Archers), a "premium" of +10% to total cost per additional specialty should be applied due to the rarity of such troops.

EXAMPLE - A Warrior IV, specialized in Heavy Cavalry and Arbalest has a cost of 32, plus 15 for the arbalest and 75 for the heavy cavalry, for a total of 122CC per month. The premium adds an additional 13CC, for a grand total of 135CC per month, i.e. a very expensive unit.

Troop Quality

In addition to troop strength, there is a level of troop quality (used for the Mass Combat rules). One can hire lesser or better quality troops, if so required:

*Veteran and Elite troops cannot usually be hired, they must be blooded and improved through battle.

Recruiting

In general, the number of mercenaries readily available for hire per month will be 1d6 per 4000 inhabitants for any city (round up). For fortress towns it is a 50% chance that one is available, 25% in towns along a road and 10% for other towns (roll for success - if successful you may roll again. Continue to roll until you fail). It will take a number of days to put out the word and get applicants equal to 1d6 for each level of recruit you desire. For example, if you wish to hire up to level II troops, roll 2d6. If looking for short-term, local hires, it takes ONE-THIRD the determined time in days.

A simple way to determine percentages of troop types reporting is to line up the day dice in low-to-high order. The highest ranking has a share equal to the lowest die; the next highest ranging has a share equal to the lowest two dice, etc. Continue until you get to the type I's which have a share equal to the total of all the dice. Add all the shares together and divide by the share per type to determine percentage of that type.

EXAMPLE - The word goes out in a city of 20,000 for type III or better, taking 11 days (a 2, a 3 and a 6). The III's have 2 shares, the II's have 5 shares (2+3) and the I's have 11 shares (2+3+6). Total shares are 18 -- the reply is therefore 11% III's, 28% II's and 61% I's. The roll for soldiers is 3, 2, 5, 2 and 4 -- a total of 16. Multiplying reply percentages by the count, working from the highest to the lowest (rounding down fractions) this gives a reply of 1 type III, 4 type II and 11 type I.

These availabilities assume average quality troops. Double the number if you are willing to accept green troops (making up 50% of the count). Seasoned troops may make up about 1d6x5% of the total. You cannot mass-recruit veteran or elite troops -- the PC must do that himself on an individual basis, or lead the troops through enough battles to increase in experience.

If an area is flush with released soldiers, DOUBLE or TRIPLE the number of soldiers responding to the call. Also DOUBLE it if the culture is question is highly military or frequented by mercenaries.

For long-term recruits (one month or more) the cost to recruit equals one month's pay, two months if they will be travelling into battle in hostile lands. The available number previously found may be increased by 50% if you pay DOUBLE the recruitment cost. All soldiers are considered equipped with their primary cultural weapon and reasonable armor for their status.

Archers are only commonly available in cultures where their weapon is one of the preferred weapons and cost DOUBLE to recruit if the preferred weapons of the area of hire are not what you are looking for.

Nonhuman troops (see Appendix A) count as 2 Ranks higher when determining shares. Specialized human troops count as 1 level higher. In these cases, round determined numbers down.

EXAMPLE - Looking for a few Rank I dwarves in Caldo. Rolling the three dice (1 for rank 1, plus 2 for non-human) we get values of 2, 4 and 5. Determining shares we have 2 for the dwarves, 2+4 of "nothing" and 2+4+5 of "nothing" - total 19 shares. 2/19 is 10.53%. Unless the total quantity rolled is 10 or more, not a single dwarf will respond to the request.

Keep in mind that if you are attempting to hire a large quantity of troops it may take several months to fill up a company. Troops that are hired but waiting may be held at 80% cost per month "in garrison".

Large Quantities

When hiring an army, as opposed to just a small band of guards, one generally works in terms of 100-man "companies" or 10-man "lines" (or "lances", if dealing with cavalry). A Company is lead by a single Captain who gets QUADRUPLE pay. Under him will be 9 lieutenants who each get DOUBLE pay. The Captain and the lieutenants personally command their own line of 9 soldiers. The cost of a Company is x112 the cost of a single soldier of the stated quality, while the cost of a line is x11 the cost of a single soldier.

NOTE - this does not mean you cannot have mixed levels of quality within a company, but the logistical nightmare is not worth the effort when you need to deal with large numbers of men.

EXAMPLE - A local lord is trying to raise a company for a strike at enemy lands. It takes several months, but he manages to gather a company of footmen 100 strong that suits his needs. The Company is rated as Average Fighter I, so the upkeep cost is 224SC per month and the recruitment cost is 448SC (doubled since they are going into hostile lands). With luck, what plunder the lord gets will be enough to pay back the initial recruitment as well as the monthly costs for the campaign. PBR/> The lord can recruit 1 man per 1000 city inhabitants per month or 1 man per 5 towns under his control All other modifiers for recruitment apply.

EXAMPLE - If he has access to only a 20,000 inhabitant city that is heavy with mercenaries he can recruit 40 troops per month. If he can recruit from multiple cities he may be able to fill his requirements in a single month.

Mass Combat Conversions

For those who plan to use the mass combat rules I posted a while ago that were based on the GURPS rules, the following can be used to determine the TS of your troops.

EXAMPLE - The 100 man fighter company above will be equipped with heavy weapons and medium armor. It will have a troop strength of TS450.

EXAMPLE - A baron has hired 10 Warrior IV's, all crossbowmen (arbalesters) and heavy cavalry, with heavy armor and weapons. The troop strength of this bunch is TS130.

APPENDIX A - Other Templates

Burton Choinski