Interregnum | Low Fantasy RP [OOC]

[Arlye Austros]

Wait so the founder of your house married a Larmassard and his descendant decided to work with house Hadria? What an absolute mad lad. If he has a good relationship with house Hadria and/or married someone from one of House Hadria's cadet or main branch, then if you ever wish to press claims on Lambassard land, you'll have house Hadria's support As long as the city is damaged, the prince is happy. Also FYI, house Hadria hates house Larmassard.

Well, that might have been a miss on my part. B.U.T., it does align with the general trend in the family, which is to both be resourceful and form bonds when necessary (as in, when you need the Larmassards to be ok with a bunch of mercs taking an island), and to put personal loyalties made by common service before family bonds (a trend which comes from the general backstabbing in the family and abroad military service, and of which Hanno is the ultimate embodyment).

[Lotrisia]

If you really want to flesh out the app, go crazy, but as long as the app can provide the basics of location and stuff like that, it's all good. I can definitely understand wanting to flesh that stuff out early in the IC, just as long as it isn't left until too far later on


Quickly reviewing this, interesting basic concept, and I like the description of the house. However, I feel like the city of Grey Water needs to be in greater depth, as do all of your holdings to be honest. What's the population of Grey Water? Why is it called Grey Water in the first place, and what's the city's history? You're definitely a sea-based polity, so does that do anything to your land armies? You catch my drift, the initial idea is good, but you need to have the concept in greater depth for me to properly accept. At the very least, I'd want city population, army size and strength, along with a little bit about what the army's made up of, and then your economy, mostly how strong it is relative to the rest of the Empire and what its primary drivers are.

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As for everyone else, I've got some time free to review apps if anyone else would like me to

Co op is my app accepted? I decreased population and I wrote more,about the economy on page 7. I'm planning on doing military at a later time.

Well, everything seems to be pretty balanced and in order, so, yes, you're accepted. Welcome aboard! You can still add things to your app if you want that as a repository for your information, but your app is more than good enough to be accepted

[Strala]

Co op is my app accepted? I decreased population and I wrote more,about the economy on page 7. I'm planning on doing military at a later time.

Well, everything seems to be pretty balanced and in order, so, yes, you're accepted. Welcome aboard! You can still add things to your app if you want that as a repository for your information, but your app is more than good enough to be accepted

Okay. Would a military of 3,000 work? This is excluding the navy which would employ at least double as many men. The navy also doubles as a merchant fleet during peacetime so part of the costs would be recuperated.

[Lotrisia]

House Name: House Stahlbieger
snip

This app's quite extensive, so it took me a hot minute to get through. In general, the problem I see right now is just your character. He feels a bit too strong, in that his feats in battle aren't very realistic and don't actually add much to his advancement. Helping hold a line and stopping it from breaking would be one thing, but personally breaking the enemy line feels like something out of epic fantasy, not low fantasy. Rescuing his commander in another is also a bit odd, since your writing style implies that he did all that alone. It'd work far better if he performed those deeds at the head of a unit, since it'd help demonstrate leadership rather than simply a talent for killing others, which would potentially merit the awarding of the Northern March to him. You've focused on making him seem almost unreasonably powerful in battles, but that wouldn't help his case for the awarding of a title. That'd require a demonstration of leadership and the ability to lead forces, which your feats don't really showcase anyway. Another problem you might run into is that the Triumvate are implied to be a new threat rather than an old one. I'd recommend changing your conflicts with them to simply being warring with various Northern kingdoms, since it's implied that they did not present a unified front beforehand. More than that, you've gone too far in building up your faction as being more powerful than others, to the point where it'd be unplayable, and little fun in the long term. The Triumvate are supposed to be a threat to the entirety of the Empire, you included. You going to war wouldn't end in victory against the North, it'd be a crushing defeat, since their forces are intended to be massive compared to those of any one house, when they eventually do make an appearance. I hesitate to be too harsh, but you write House Stahlbieger as something of a power fantasy rather than a nuanced addition to the Empire, and it's going to hurt gameplay without some pretty substantial changes

Other than that, the idea of the Empire having a Northern March is an interesting one. I think you've focused far too much on the physical achievements of your characters, and haven't showcased any important abilities in leadership for them. The things that'll win battles won't be personal skill and bravery, it's the collective skill, willpower and bravery of your whole army, as well as the strategies by which they campaign and fight. That's the job of a leader, not a foot soldier, and I worry that by focusing so heavily on your characters being able to fight well, you've neglected the rest, especially their relations with the rest of the Empire. Two important points are how they interact with the Empire at large, specifically why the Empire didn't come to their aid in the wars with the North, and the non-martial qualities of your characters. What're they like at parties? Heavy drinkers? How well do they take jokes? Is there any sort of friction between them over influence?

[Strala]

How did House Stahlbieger finance their mines? They could request a loan from the bank of Hadriana of which we can work out the terms. Or are the mines privately opened by merchants across the Empire? If so, then you can expect house Hadria and the merchants of house Hadriana opening mines there.

[Lotrisia]

Well, everything seems to be pretty balanced and in order, so, yes, you're accepted. Welcome aboard! You can still add things to your app if you want that as a repository for your information, but your app is more than good enough to be accepted

Okay. Would a military of 3,000 work? This is excluding the navy which would employ at least double as many men. The navy also doubles as a merchant fleet during peacetime so part of the costs would be recuperated.

3000? That seems awfully small for a city of 200 000, especially since you'd have extensive lands alongside that. I wouldn't recommend exact numbers, since those are generally iffy, but I think you can raise a pretty massive army, in the low-mid 10s of thousands, though that army may well be comprised more of lower-end levy as opposed to primarily professional troops. You should also be able to support a large mercenary force on account of your high trade income. That said, 3000 as a normal standing army isn't bad, though still a tad small for a holding of your size

[Strala]

Okay. Would a military of 3,000 work? This is excluding the navy which would employ at least double as many men. The navy also doubles as a merchant fleet during peacetime so part of the costs would be recuperated.

3000? That seems awfully small for a city of 200 000, especially since you'd have extensive lands alongside that. I wouldn't recommend exact numbers, since those are generally iffy, but I think you can raise a pretty massive army, in the low-mid 10s of thousands, though that army may well be comprised more of lower-end levy as opposed to primarily professional troops. You should also be able to support a large mercenary force on account of your high trade income. That said, 3000 as a normal standing army isn't bad, though still a tad small for a holding of your size

Maybe more. I don't really know how many men a medieval army could field. What would you recommend for a standing army? 5,000? more?

[Lotrisia]

3000? That seems awfully small for a city of 200 000, especially since you'd have extensive lands alongside that. I wouldn't recommend exact numbers, since those are generally iffy, but I think you can raise a pretty massive army, in the low-mid 10s of thousands, though that army may well be comprised more of lower-end levy as opposed to primarily professional troops. You should also be able to support a large mercenary force on account of your high trade income. That said, 3000 as a normal standing army isn't bad, though still a tad small for a holding of your size

Maybe more. I don't really know how many men a medieval army could field. What would you recommend for a standing army? 5,000? more?

Standing, you'd want enough to defend the assets that absolutely require manning, and then a quick reaction force for when a revolt or something crops up, in situations where you can't afford to wait for levy to be gathered. Maybe 5000-6000? Small enough that you can support it on your tax budget fairly happily, but big enough that it's a respectable force. For reference, House Wassenburg's standing army is about 3000, but we're busy manning one of the Empire's big border castles, so it's an active, mobile force of more like 1000-1200 men standing, with the ability to scale up to probably in the range of 12000 high-quality troops in times of war, more if we start taking in the lower-quality levied troops

[Strala]

Maybe more. I don't really know how many men a medieval army could field. What would you recommend for a standing army? 5,000? more?

Standing, you'd want enough to defend the assets that absolutely require manning, and then a quick reaction force for when a revolt or something crops up, in situations where you can't afford to wait for levy to be gathered. Maybe 5000-6000? Small enough that you can support it on your tax budget fairly happily, but big enough that it's a respectable force. For reference, House Wassenburg's standing army is about 3000, but we're busy manning one of the Empire's big border castles, so it's an active, mobile force of more like 1000-1200 men standing, with the ability to scale up to probably in the range of 12000 high-quality troops in times of war, more if we start taking in the lower-quality levied troops

Okay, so 6,000 or maybe more and maybe even more if war breaks out. Would 10,000 work? I plan on house Hadria spending a lot more on the military recently due to the ambitious nature of the current Prince and the further decline of imperial influence. I personally enjoy more concrete numbers so I don't forget and become inconsistent in my writing.

[Oblivion2]

Reposting my question about the Map and family seat placement again here, because it seems that it’s been buried under a page of posts without an OP or Co-OP to answer it for me. Soon as I get an ok, I can post up an App

Alright so I’ve gotten the vast majority of my app together on a draft; what I’m wondering however is whether or not my House’s seat could be on a northern isle off map to the east or something. I think something out of the way like that would make for an accurate area to have usurped away from my character without the mainland Empire being too interested in intervening right away.

[Arlye Austros]

@Strala. I hope my APP doesn't conflict with yours, considering the ammount of times I referenced House Hadria?
Also, I have named an island in the far right of the map as Tyrua, but I am all for changing that on my APP if its conflicting.

[Strala]

@Strala. I hope my APP doesn't conflict with yours, considering the ammount of times I referenced House Hadria?
Also, I have named an island in the far right of the map as Tyrua, but I am all for changing that on my APP if its conflicting.

It wouldn't be too conflicting, though just exactly how high Hanno rose and how much information was given to him must be determined by both of us. This is mainly due to the Larmassard lineage

[Strala]

Hadrianan Military
The Hadrian army is one of the largest and best-equipped within the empire. With a force of 10,000, the cost of equipping and paying such a force would bankrupt most houses. Even for house Hadria arming and paying this amount of men is considered expensive. The taxes coming in from residents and merchants, along with the revenue from businesses sponsored or opened by House Hadria, give the princes more than enough money to pay for such a force. Even an emergency increase would not be ruining for the princes of Hadriana, though most princes would not choose to do such a thing, as the walls of Hadriana provide more than enough protection and deterrence from any possible invaders or raiders.

The origin of the Hadrian army goes back to the days of the early republic when the first legiones were formed by the Hadrian senate in response to growing threats towards the city. Before the legiones were first formed, the city was defended and fought along tribal lines, with the overall commander being chosen among the various tribes that made up the city's population. Normally, one tribe would contribute half of its warriors to defend the city and nominate its own leader, with the overall commander being rotated yearly among the tribes. However, with the formation of the Hadrian legiones, the commanders of each legio would be appointed by the Senate, and the overall commander would be one of the senators. In the early days, that worked fine because each senator could also act as a military leader due to the tribal past of the city, but as time passed, and the people became more civilized and senators becoming less militarized, the true commander of a legio would the first centurion. In theory, the first centurion would be subordinate to the senator, but in actual conflict, the senator would be forced by the common soldiery to give control to the first centurion. Only on rare occasions would the senator retain control over their assigned legio.

By the mid-republic, the size of the Hadrian Republic became far too large to governor successfully from Hadrianan itself, the senate ultimately decided to appoint certain members of the senate to act as governors of the newly acquired provinces, with the legiones already stationed in each newly created province falling under the command of the governor. However, an individual legio was still under the command of a senator, many being friends or allies of the governor. It was also during this time that governors were given the authority to raise their own legiones if the situation called for it, shifting power away from the senate to the various governors. In the late republic, the Hadrian legiones had fully matured with each legio consisting of 5,000 men, of which 800 served non-combatant roles such as aides, cooks, slaves, and other jobs that did not require them to fight. A legionary was equipped with a scutum shield, stabbing sword, two pila, the famed lorica segmentata, which was formed by metal strips fashioned into circular bands, fastened to internal leather straps, and the Hadrianic helmet (Gaelic helmet).

The organization and equipment of the Hadrian military would stay the same until the reclamation wars, where the costs and defeat of the second reclamation war forced Brutus and later his son, Quintus to enact military reforms that changed the way the Hadrian legiones were composed and organized. The legions became less infantry focused and more cavalry focused with the introduction of the famed Hadrian Cataphracts, which, unlike traditional Hadrian cavalry, were heavily armored and armed, acting as a shock force instead of being used for scouting or chasing fleeing soldiers.

Currently, Hadriana fields ten legiones, with 4 being created under the reign of Prince Gnaeus. The oldest two legiones, Legio III Hadria being founded during the creation of the first legiones by the Hadrian senate during the early days of the Republic, and Legio iV Gemina being created from the combination of two legions founded during the reign of Emperor Quintus. Together, they form the elite scholae that guard the princes of Hadriana. Unlike the other legions, they are primarily composed of elite Hadrian cataphracts, with the lowest unit being a kentarchia, comprised of 8 men. Their commanding officer is a kentarchos. 5 kentarchia forms a bandon led by a komes. 20 banda form the tagma, with the domestikos being in control of each tagma. Each half of the tagma also has their own topoteretes who serves as the right-hand man of the domestikos in each half of the tagma. Both the rider and horse are equipped with metal lamellar armor. A cataphract is armed with a lance, bow, shield, and mace or another blunt weapon. There also exists lighter cavalry more reminiscent of tradition Hadrian cavalry, that act as skirmishers and scouts, though they are not part of the scholae. These skirmishers are armored in lamellar and carry throwing javelins and rounded shield along with a sword. The infantry is also armored in lamellar, with their primary weapon being a spear. The shield they carry is a rounded one instead of the Scutum used by the mid and late republic legionaries. They also have a sword as a backup. Archers and crossbowmen wear brigantine and carry a sword or dagger as a backup weapon. Some crossbowmen also carry large wooden pavise shields. The city guards are armored and armed similarly, though the leader is the commander of the first gate, with the youngest legio being commanded by the commander of the tenth wall. The city guard also employs light skirmishers that wear a ridged helmet like all legionaries but wear little to no armor. They are armed with javelins, a shield, and a sword. The modern legions are excellently trained, organized, and disciplined, as modern Hadrian princes rely more on well-organized and disciplined troops more than peasant levies of earlier princes.

During times of war, the Hadrian princes can expect to raise an army of nearly 36,000 men, with 15,000 being levies of various quality. 3 legiones would remain in the city to maintain order and defend the walls if the prince decides to campaign outside the city walls. A portion of the levies will also be left behind to help defend the walls. If the city was ever attacked, all members of the order of the black and white would also come to the defense of the city.

The Hadrian navy is also extremely important to the city with 15,000 men working aboard Hadrian ships. Officially, the Hadrian navy has 120 galleys of 500 men on each, and countless Drummonds of varying crew sizes that are used in the defense of the city. The galleys also double as a merchant fleet for the prince of Hadria during times of peace to help pay for itself during peacetimes. Traditionally, the navy has been neglected due to the local population being weary of the sea, though, after the annexation of the Hadrian Empire, the navy has grown increasingly important and crucial to the defense of the city. The most important weapon of the navy is its famed Hadrianan fire which can burn underwater and able to be shot out of handheld devices called the siphon.

Scholae:

Legio III Hadria:
-100 legionary
-50 archers
-50 crossbowmen
-800 Cataphracts

Legio IV Gemina:
-100 legionary
-50 archers
-50 crossbowmen
-800 Cataphracts

City guard:

Legio V Felix:
-400 legionary
-200 archers
-100 crossbowmen
-50 skirmishers
-150 light horsemen
-100 cataphracts

Legio X Rapax:
-400 legionary
-200 archers
-100 crossbowmen
-50 skirmishers
-150 light horsemen
-100 cataphracts

Legio XII Victrix:
-400 legionary
-200 archers
-100 crossbowmen
-50 skirmishers
-150 light horsemen
-100 cataphracts

Legio XIII Gemina:
-400 legionary
-200 archers
-100 crossbowmen
-50 skirmishers
-150 light horsemen
-100 cataphracts

Legio XX Fretensis:
-400 legionary
-200 archers
-100 crossbowmen
-50 skirmishers
-150 light horsemen
-100 cataphracts

Legio XXI Sabina:
-500 legionary
-250 archers
-150 crossbowmen
-50 skirmishers
-50 light horsemen
-50 cataphracts

Legio XXX Triumphalis :
-500 legionary
-250 archers
-150 crossbowmen
-50 skirmishers
-50 light horsemen
-50 cataphracts

Legio XXXIV Ferrata:
-500 legionary
-250 archers
-150 crossbowmen
-50 skirmishers
-50 light horsemen
-50 cataphracts

[Lotrisia]

Standing, you'd want enough to defend the assets that absolutely require manning, and then a quick reaction force for when a revolt or something crops up, in situations where you can't afford to wait for levy to be gathered. Maybe 5000-6000? Small enough that you can support it on your tax budget fairly happily, but big enough that it's a respectable force. For reference, House Wassenburg's standing army is about 3000, but we're busy manning one of the Empire's big border castles, so it's an active, mobile force of more like 1000-1200 men standing, with the ability to scale up to probably in the range of 12000 high-quality troops in times of war, more if we start taking in the lower-quality levied troops

Okay, so 6,000 or maybe more and maybe even more if war breaks out. Would 10,000 work? I plan on house Hadria spending a lot more on the military recently due to the ambitious nature of the current Prince and the further decline of imperial influence. I personally enjoy more concrete numbers so I don't forget and become inconsistent in my writing.

Waaaaaaay more if war breaks out. The whole idea behind a leviable force is that you don't have to pay for upkeep on the army all year round, and only have to start burning money during actual wars. I'd say your force, if you levy up some of your better troops, could go anywhere up to 40 000 troops, though a good portion will have poor training and gear. 10 000 as a permanent force also works, but that's definitely on the larger side, so maybe include reference to the fact that it stretches your coffers a bit

[The Twelve Isles]

I'm back. Any word on an IC?

[Strala]

I'm back. Any word on an IC?

IDK. The OP hasn't replied for a while