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[GreatWyrmGold]

I'm also not that excited about mentioning war spoils, We don't want to encourage pillaging. Finally, Technically these people are on our land and thus our serfs. We shouldn't compensate them more than we compensate our other levies.

what we can do is grant their village aid for their service.

Sounds like a plan.

[tryrar]

Aid to the village for services rendered I can agree to

[Origami_Psycho]

I concur with Tryrar and Talvara

[Gervassen]

Well, we're leaving with those men, one way or another. A small village has needs, iron goods, beer, clothing, so let's make a deal for the men that we need. If that fails, simply tell him that his village is still a part of the kingdom, and he is required to gather said militia. Either way, let's move on to more important matters.

hold off on offering him knighthood until we have the rat verify his story.

Meh, the irony is that if he were a more dangerous man, he'd be better material for knighthood. Knights were not village administators but specifically granted land in order to arm themselves for war. This guy simply isn't bloodthirsty enough.

[evilcherry]

He is much smarter than a man of muscular brains. For his organization skills hire him as a sergeant of the guard as our militia will soon swell in ranks.

[Talvara]

...

hold off on offering him knighthood until we have the rat verify his story.

Meh, the irony is that if he were a more dangerous man, he'd be better material for knighthood. Knights were not village administators but specifically granted land in order to arm themselves for war. This guy simply isn't bloodthirsty enough.

My main concern is alienating the population and our already established vassals by appointing a 'bloodthirsty bandit king' to nobility.

He is much smarter than a man of muscular brains. For his organization skills hire him as a sergeant of the guard as our militia will soon swell in ranks.

If the Rat doesn't come with anything to make us look at the man again, I agree that we should definitely give him a suitable position. I see no problem with bumping him up to a landed Knight. with Pigsend as his domain. but first have the Rat do a background check.


anyway, Hows this?

---------------------------

"It is true that I was hoping for a little more , But 30 good men with a bow is still an addition of force that cannot be ignored. To tell you the truth I am mostly just glad that the county doesn't have to deal with an 'actual bandit king', Times are still dire with all of us recovering from the plague and with the seawolves at our gates. If Pigsend men answer the call of the county, then I'll formally recognise Pigsend as part of the county. and you shall not be forgotten in the rebuilding efforts"

[Gervassen]

That is eminently serviceable, but I'm against knighting him. He's mayor material. A knight must relish being called to arms, and this man is too weary by far.

[Urist McDwarfFortress]

Maybe we could offer them homes in Curbiston. There are probably lots of empty houses and farms there.

Also, we need to find out what happened to Uriel Lope.

[Maldevious]

You play off the lack of an army, stating that every man will be needed in the upcoming fight. You glance around at your surroundings, before indicating that Pigsend could perhaps use some material assistance. You state that you are willing to recognize him as mayor of the town, and send support in the way of iron, food, building materials, and the like, if he brings every able-bodied man he has at his disposal with you.

He sighs again, looking forlornly at your plate armor and the two imposing men with you. "Sam... er... Count Stone... If I am nothing, I am a man who knows when to accept an offer that shouldn't be refused. You'll have my 30 archers, plus another... I'd say around 20 men who aren't formally trained but could make acceptable skirmishers if you can arm them with slings or javelins. In return, I simply ask that you do as you say and help us make Pigsend a viable place to raise our... raise a child."

With that, he stands up, shakes your hand, and tells you to wait at the edge of town for him to gather his troops. You do so, and are not disappointed when the fifty men arrive by the early afternoon. One carries a black banner with a crowned skull on it, presumably for the "Bandit King." Uther sees you looking at it, and shrugs. "No sense in wasting my time trying to dissuade them at this point. Well, Count Stone, where are we off to?"

[Origami_Psycho]

Tell him we march on Torchester, after we meet up with the rest of the forces necessary to oust the invaders.
And if we win we then march to the capital.

[kaian-a-coel]

That may be a bit early... We need to scout, formalize things, raise our own levies...

[Urist McDwarfFortress]

Tell him we march on Torchester, after we meet up with the rest of the forces necessary to oust the invaders.
And if we win we then march to the capital.

I'd leave out that last part, we don't know what the plan is after rescuing Torchester. With almost everyone rebuilding from the plague, I'd guess our duchy's combined forces are going to be rather small, maybe as small as a thousand or two depending how hard the other cities in the duchy have been hit. That might simply not going to be enough to even attempt to break the siege of the capitol city. We'll almost certainly need help from the other duchies, but we have no idea what state they are in, and we have no authority to call them to arms anyway.

[Gervassen]

Hard to plan without knowing the map. I piece this together.



FB is Fallsberg; TC is Torchester; RS is raider settlement.

FB is near a massive waterfall, and the main river, at the mouth of which TC is situated, is a massive river. The only place to have a massive waterfall is on a massive river. FB is upstream of TC. However, the raiders accessed FB not by the main river, but through the lands of the neighbouring Duchy. Therefore the main river must bend in that way, and road must lead across the countryside in an easily followed route to FB.

Along this route are question marks because the ducal capital and intervening settlements must have fallen, or at least be heavily invested. Near TC but on the other side of the river would be a good place for the new raider settlement, NRS. That location is effectively guarded by a very wide natural moat from TC-based attacks during its building phase, yet is close enough to give control of the river mouth.

--

So far, so good, hopefully. I recommend firstly that we give those unarmed men bills and maybe javelins. Bills are quick to make--being an agricultural tool only in need of a longer wooden handle to truly weaponise it--and almost as good as halberds. Next, we marshal forces in Curbiston, then ferry across the main river and march down the side opposite Torchester, which is almost surely part of the other duchy. We can rally the forces along the route of advance. Let it be noted that no raider fleet has been spotted on the main river yet. While the capital of the neighbour duchy is almost assuredly fallen, the riverine towns likely are merely disorganised and leaderless. We can collect these as we go down the river toward the NRS.

How many men does NRS have? Not many, I speculate, if they are focused on FB and think the other duchy is theirs. We take NRS, and then give our uncle good news.

--

The rest is dependent on outcomes, but the capital should not be an objective. The enemy has progressed too inland too fast, and we'd be fools to meet them on their terms.

[tryrar]

I was thinking about arming them with something a little more easy to swing...something like a pick? We don't have much time to drill them in weapons handling and formation fighting, so yeah thye'll need something that has a good amount of power in an easy swing. We'll also need to get them armored in whatever leftover bits and pieces of armor we got, just so they live longer.

Other than that, yeah I agree, the way to break this siege is to cut their supply lines and counter-siege them. This is actually pretty effective(moreso if we manage to pull it off pretty quickly) since the capital probably has a lot of stores, while the siegers are likely being resupplied rather than bringing a massive amount of supplies with them

[GreatWyrmGold]

Picks are rarer, have shorter reach, and if you miss you need longer to ready the next swing.