Out of Character thread

[Lucjan]

First off I'd like to say congratulations to GeneralHankerchief, this is a long overdue position for him and he deserves it.

I have the following comments/suggestions.

- I agree with the mod proposals.

- I would be acceptable to a 2 turns per year mod, just so that our avatars age properly. (From my understanding, they age 1 year per two turns, which in vanilla is a total of 4 game years, and throws things really out of whack in regards to roleplaying.) Unless the game mechanics somehow manage to completely botch logic and don't allow such a mod to control their actual aging.

- The Emperor may opt to create a new Duchy from conquered lands rather than delegating these lands to existing ones, as Imperial conquest is not guaranteed to proceed in such a manner as to equally balance the power of the four currently existing Ducal houses. (We musn't forget, influence of the individual houses in this game will be key to passing or negating many an edict, and a vastly too powerful house could potentially use their influence to steamroll that of smaller houses, and the emperor's own inclinations.)

- As far as army composition, I have no knowledge of ancient HRE army composition, but my suggestion for the game would be as follows.

Divide army composition into catagories with maximum allowances for a well balanced army. Something like this (I've included the actual specific unit allowances in regards to the percentages for those who don't like the percentage idea, although the percentages are critical for forming a smaller army, and some notes regarding my calculations).

Using a Full Stack Army (20 units)

General = 5-10% (1-2 Units)
Cavalry Elites = 0-15% (0-2 Units)
Cavalry = 0-20% (0-4 Units) *
Missiles and Support = 15-30% (3-6 units) **
Mercenaries = 30% (6 units) ***
Infantry or Missile Elites = 15% (3 units)
Infantry Regulars = No Maximum Allowance

* - Overall Cavalry involvement is limited to 25% (five units). Cavalry deployment is restricted to a 2:1 ratio of elites over regulars. For every elite cavalry you have beyond the 1 general unit required to fight the battle, you must have 2 regular cavalry, unless you take an additional elite. A second general counts towards the first unit of your elite cavalry spot, as well the second unit of your general spot. So the possible combinations are as follows.
1 General, 4 regular cav.
1 General, 2 elite cav.
1 General, 1 elite cav, 2 regular cav.
2 Generals, 2 regular cav.
2 Generals, 1 elite cav.

** - Artillery is included in this catagory, and restricted to 15% (3 units).

*** - Native troops must be deployed in an overall 2:1 ratio to mercenaries, and mercenaries occupy a unit slot of their appropriate type.

Remember, these are maximum percentages, not minimum.

So, an example of a well balanced full stack army early on in the game might look like this.

Cavalry
1 General (5%)
1 Mailed Knights (5%)
2 Mounted Sargeants (10%)

Missiles and Support
3 Militia Crossbowmen (15%)
2 Catapults (10%)

Infantry
2 Dismounted Knights (10%)
7 Armoured Spearmen ( 35%)
2 Spear Mercenaries (10%)

----

Looking at my army composition idea from a different perspective would place it something like this. This perspective displays a minimum/maximum allowance depending on the number of units in the army. Our definition of an army being a group of units at least 7 units in size.

7-10 Unit Army
1 General
1-2 Cavalry (or 1 elite)
1-2 Missile (up to 1 artillery)
4-9 Infantry (up to 1 elite infantry or missile)

11-15 Unit Army
1-2 Generals
1-3 Cavalry (up to 1 elite)
1-4 Missile (up to 2 artillery)
6-10 Infantry (up to 2 elite infantry or missile)

16-20 Unit Army
1-2 Generals
1-4 Cavalry (up to 2 elites)
1-6 Missile (up to 3 artillery)
8-19 Infantry (up to 3 elite infantry or missile)

EDIT - Not sure about traits, but I noticed ancillaries can be moved around the same way. Also, I like TinCow's ideas on giving the dukes some more power, but we should be careful with exactly how much we give them for the sake of game speed.