#ThoughtsInMyOtin (wine)
Ugh, I have mixed feelings about retinues. On the plus side, they take away a lot of the micro of managing an empire or large kingdom. The levy system is pretty awkward, though arguably by design. Raising levies for a dozen rebellions a year is tedious, but there's always a reason for those rebellions. In a way, the levy system is supposed to make wars more of a hassle for the player.
But really only in a meta way. Lords don't care if you raise and lower their levies a hundred times in an instant. The troops don't care either, even though their teleporting (as long as they're in friendly lands).
* There ought to be a flat relations cost for raising the levies, and meager gold cost for raising personal levies (a fee for deputies going out to summon the men, and shrinkage on their equipment)
** Declaring war should totally be possible with raised levies
** Relations hit and gold fee for having levies over time would be balanced to match
Then there are retinues. They charge absolutely no upkeep, only hiring fees. And they can magically hire reinforcements in the middle of fuckmenistan. It's fine to declare war with them "raised", heck even if they're on the border (and 1 day from entering the enemy country).
They are, essentially, "Good job being a king, here's a time and effort saver on your world conquest attempt". And they're kinda all backwards. Professional soldiers should cost over time as opposed to on-hire. To misquote the Imperial Guard: "Training a man is easy, retaining him will be hard".
* Recruiting into the retinue should be cheap, but slow
* Retinues should charge more upkeep than levies.
** I don't see why there should be some magic cap on how many men I'm allowed to pay, if I have the gold.
Just some thoughts, back to drinking.