Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Gotdamnmiracle]

our (standing) military needs to grow in proportion to our population. we already have a fair portion of our town population as professional soldiers. If we want to increase our military potency we could look into a levy system, untrained conscripts in a time of great need.

want a bigger standing military? invest in our town make it grow, make it prosper.

I suggest training and profiteering. If our country is anything like Europes at the time wars for profit and sport were super common. Let's ask our duke where it would be profitable to send a party of our rangers, mounted archers, and halberdiers (not all of them!), to raid and bring back some sweet stuff. as well as get trained. I also say we resolve to bring Alan off of the bullshit garrison duty and let him tour with this party, eventually coming to lead them. Also give him our old brigandine armor and short sword, he should have his own shield. 

[Gervassen]

I think we should send our rangers to track potential enemy movement and dig up clues in the wilderness.

If we go ourselves, surrounded by all our men-at-arms and do reconnaissance-in-force, then we can react that much faster to something unexpected, rather than sitting back days away from news and reacting slowly. A burnt down string of villages on the riverside is a major threat, no matter how dryly Maldevious mentions it in passing. Remember the "might be poachers or bandits" that were actually the Count's men scouting out our mines?

Villages being destroyed is not a "ho-hum kinda troubling" situation. This force could be moving toward us, so we don't treat it lightly. It's not a matter of "yawn, send a few scouts" and wait a month. Villages are being destroyed within a few days ride. That requires immediate action, starting daybreak of July 1st. We are the knight, we are the military, so let's get on our horse and lead from the front.

Also, we do have every able man in a levy. I just suggested we mobilize that peasant levy that while we scout.

[Mlamlah]

I think we should send our rangers to track potential enemy movement and dig up clues in the wilderness.

If we go ourselves, surrounded by all our men-at-arms and do reconnaissance-in-force, then we can react that much faster to something unexpected, rather than sitting back days away from news and reacting slowly. A burnt down string of villages on the riverside is a major threat, no matter how dryly Maldevious mentions it in passing. Remember the "might be poachers or bandits" that were actually the Count's men scouting out our mines?

Villages being destroyed is not a "ho-hum kinda troubling" situation. This force could be moving toward us, so we don't treat it lightly. It's not a matter of "yawn, send a few scouts" and wait a month. Villages are being destroyed within a few days ride. That requires immediate action, starting daybreak of July 1st. We are the knight, we are the military, so let's get on our horse and lead from the front.

Also, we do have every able man in a levy. I just suggested we mobilize that peasant levy that while we scout.

You bear a very good point.

[kaian-a-coel]

I repeat it, we are an underling in these matters. I'm pretty sure it's borderline illegal to get our army and move out (of our domain) without anyone's saying. We need to contact our superiors about this matter and wait for the call to arms, AND THAT'S ALL. Good god, I thought one of you was in the army, what would they say if a sergeant took his unit and went to the frontlines before receiving the order to?

[Gervassen]

I repeat it, we are an underling in these matters. I'm pretty sure it's borderline illegal to get our army and move out (of our domain) without anyone's saying. We need to contact our superiors about this matter and wait for the call to arms, AND THAT'S ALL. Good god, I thought one of you was in the army, what would they say if a sergeant took his unit and went to the frontlines before receiving the order to?

That's not feudalism. We are sworn to protect our lord, and his villages are burning. There's no C3 node telling us what to do.

[Mlamlah]

Y'know, i think i'm with Kaian on this one. I think we should send word to any and all appropriate authorities. We should also have our military at high readiness, capable of mobilizing on short notice. We should at least have our rangers scour our own lands for suspicious signs however.

[Gervassen]

Y'know, i think i'm with Kaian on this one. I think we should send word to any and all appropriate authorities. We should also have our military at high readiness, capable of mobilizing on short notice. We should at least have our rangers scour our own lands for suspicious signs however.

Back to this nonsense where people think the middle ages were a bureaucracy?

Look, as a vassal, we're not an officer in a strict command structure. We have obligation of honor to react, but we are not a modern military. The moment kaian began talking about modern militaries, he invalidated everything afterward.

[Gervassen]

Half the lords in the kingdom are illiterate. You think written commands for basic common sense things are going to come dow the pike, and the more humorous part is... the villages are burning on the path of communication from the Count's capital. Ain't no radio to receive commands. The threat is potentially between you and your lines of communication, this is the middle ages, what do you do?

[kaian-a-coel]

I repeat it, we are an underling in these matters. I'm pretty sure it's borderline illegal to get our army and move out (of our domain) without anyone's saying. We need to contact our superiors about this matter and wait for the call to arms, AND THAT'S ALL. Good god, I thought one of you was in the army, what would they say if a sergeant took his unit and went to the frontlines before receiving the order to?

That's not feudalism. We are sworn to protect our lord, and his villages are burning. There's no C3 node telling us what to do.

It's the reverse. Our lord is sworn to protect us and us to serve him. And I bet the Count will be extremely happy to call treason the second we cross his land with men at arms. Because you know how crossing a border with an army without permission is called? A declaration of war, that's how.
Feudalism was NOT a freaking anarchy. There was rules, and laws, and people (usually) followed them. Lords weren't normally allowed to take their armies and go to other people's land. They were doing that only because there was no one powerful enough (and who was caring) to stop them. The second the king became more than a backwater noble (yes, the nobles were choosing as a king the less powerful of them, specifically so they can continue being d*cks.), war between high nobles pretty much instantly stopped. War between lesser knights still happened from time to time, only because no count or duke cared enough to prevent it.

Ninja'd: The other half is not, there is other communication means, and the villages burning are NOT between us and the count, because there is like two of them and last time I checked there was no drakkar pillaging our own docks. They are further downstream, meaning the count is between us and them.

[Gervassen]

That's not feudalism. We are sworn to protect our lord, and his villages are burning. There's no C3 node telling us what to do.

It's the reverse. Our lord is sworn to protect us and us to serve him. And I bet the Count will be extremely happy to call treason the second we cross his land with men at arms. Because you know how crossing a border with an army without permission is called? A declaration of war, that's how.

We're a frigging armigero, not a peasant receiving protection in exchange for passively plowing fields. That nonsense might be apt for a commoner, but it does not describe the relationship between an armed knight and his liege lord. Try again.

Also, his territory is held in fee from the Duke, and thence the King himself. We can claim, rightly and legitimately, to be defending his and the Duke's lands. We'd be more remiss to sit passively like old women, than to venture forth like a knight who loyals guards his lord. I can't stress enough that your view of the feudal relationship is a muddle that confuses us for the disarmed peasantry rather than armigers.

Ninja'd: The other half is not, there is other communication means, and the villages burning are NOT between us and the count, because there is like two of them and last time I checked there was no drakkar pillaging our own docks. They are further downstream, meaning the count is between us and them.

The count lives at the fork where the Parlon meets the Main river and stops. There's four days of riding between our town and the Count's capital, and the burning villages are between us. Send messengers through that! Or just use the radio transmitter, since this is a modern military, you probably have one of those.

You say we're breaking a law. Cite it. There are books of medieval law. Medieval Law and the Foundation of the State by Alan harding might help. I actively encourage you to find these laws and cite them.

[tryrar]

I'm with Gerv on this one, we cannot just sit and wait for whatever it is to knock on our door before going out and finind what the fucking hell is going on. We need to act decisively, and not timidly like what happened whith the merchant. Remember, pussyfooting around is what let the count cover his tracks, because we were too afraid of hurting sensibilities to act boldly

[Urist McDwarfFortress]

I'm with kaian. Marching on the Count's land could EASILY be construed as rebellion, especially since the guy already is ACTIVELY TRYING TO KILL US!! He's not going to give us the benefit of the doubt here!

[Truean]

....

So there are allegedly burning towns in the count's lands? And, you'd like to take a small army into his lands to deal with it?

Tell me again how giving the count who is actively trying to kill us a reason to say we're invading him is good?

....

You wanna act until somebody can cite some literal medieval law to stop you? How about common sense, because what the law is and what the count will do are probably two different things, and I'm pretty sure the duke can't bring us back from the dead. This count bastard is actively gunning for us, has sent assassins, tried to screw us out of everything we own, tried to get us killed and make it look like a jousting accident, murdered his co conspirators against us when they got inconvenient for him (wool merchant), and a host of other things. Let's not forget he has way more troops than we do and is way better equipped to deal with this than we are.

You think he's above planting a false rumor or two and letting us hear about it through the grapevine so we act upon it and get put in a compromising position?

Maybe it's actually big enough to the point where we can't handle it alone anyhow, so why are we considering acting unilaterally

Recon; gather allies; inform all proper parties (the duke, the count and our allies); go with a joint force.

Need more info, need more help, then act. There's no reason to go alone and then our friends make it so we don't have to go alone.

Going alone is potentially dangerous and makes it easier for the count to paint us as a lone rebellious underling who doesn't know his place. If three lords were to go instead of one, then that crap would be harder for the count to pull off. Do we even have quick response units?

Care about the actual people displaced by this travesty? Offer them safe haven. I find it odd how rarely that gets mentioned. Tactically, what a great way to get loyal followers. Morally, what a great thing to do.

[ansontan2000]

It's a common sense thing. Kaian has got my vote in this case. Just look at Truean's port to see why.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

What? Help the count? Are you guys mad?  Never! (unless called, even then we must try to find a way to avoid it...  Don't you understand that Count will use our forces as cannon-fodder? )

Our duty is to protect our land and our people first.  Aren't we interested in undermining count's economical and political strength?

Fortificate our own land as fast as we can! All resources in that. And let them come. And be ready for an open rebellion against the count when he'll fail to defend his land