Re: Winter Phase

[Arne]

Ummm, regarding Arne and Valka's starting equipment.  In our back story, I had our "captured" possessions in a series of slavers' wooden chests as a way for us to keep our starting equipment.  Or is our starting equipment all going to be Saxon-made?

[GM Craig]

You two have wuatever equipment you started with. The Saxons don't only use saxon equipment.

[Arne]

Cool!  Okay, that's definitely a good thing.

[Arne]

Do we have a rough estimate of A) How many fighters we can field come spring (that number not including warriors for home defense), and B) What equipment they'd need?

[GM Craig]

Armour and weapon, at a minimum. You could put most of your people into the field if you wanted. Trained warriors would onyl number ~ 20 or so.

[Arne]

I really don't have a handle here on how many warriors I should be taking into battle (ie. taking into account the need for a "home guard" as well as people working to create food and shelter as well as paying off our debt).  Would 50 warriors for the spring campaign be considered too few?


Also:  A number of the Nords took captured gear from their Saxon captors . . . but was that only for the purposes of our back-story (seeing as we didn't actually have to roll for battle success/failure)? 

[GM Craig]

Between the two of you, you have the following:

Middle-aged warriors:  7
Young warriors:  8
Other:  29
Thralls roll:  47

Thralls are not really fighting types - they are craftsmen, hunters and farmers. They can be pressed into service in a pinch, but they are not trained fighters.
The "Other Kinsmen" are people who could hold their own in a fight, but they are not actually warriors.
Actual trained warriors, you have 15 (7 of those are veterans).
You could realistically field 44 soldiers (and thus earn ?44).

You have full war gear for 20, scavenged from captured Saxon equipment, not counting mounts.

[Arne]

Not bad.  Okay, so unless there's any objection, I'd like to have 43 plus Arne (see # 1) sent out for the spring campaign.  A few steps here that I'd suggest:

1)  Interview the warriors, and pick out two good candidates for seconds-in-command.  One would be Arne's second for the campaign, and another would be in charge of home defense (at least for this particular mission).  The home defense guy would be in charge of, well, home defenses as well as training some of the thralls the basics of combat.  He'd answer only to Valka, Arne and the priestess.

2)  All of the trained warriors would have the task of improving the combat skills of the 29 kinsmen prior to the spring.  I'm thinking that training them first in the spear would be good, since it's a fairly straightforward weapon to learn.  For closer range, either the hand axe or dagger.

3)  So, we have 20 sets of war gear, and 43 soldiers (Arne already has his own stuff).  That means that we'll need another 23 sets of gear.  I have no idea what an average Nord soldier's set of gear consists of (or how much it costs).  Also, are we all expected to have horses?

[GM Craig]

Not expected to have horses, but if any of your people have horses, they'll be treated more as knights than soldiers. Might be worthwhile for the veteran warriors to have horses.

Also, you (and maybe Valka) are going to want squires / aids. It'll be important if you are involved in any battles.

[GM Craig]

Librum, plural libra (?) = 20s. = 240 d.
Shilling, plural shillings (s.) = 12 d. = ? 1/20
Denarius, plural denarii* (d.) = 1/12 s. = ? 1/240
* Also called penny (plural, pence).

Armor
Padded armor 7 d.
Leather armor 15 d.
Hard leather 60 d.
Chainmail 180 d.
Chainmail, reinforced ?5

Shields
Common (unmarked) 3 d.
Knightly (painted) 5 d.

Weapons
Axe 25 d.
Dagger 5 d.
Great Axe 50 d.
Great Spear 2 d.
Javelin 1 d.
Mace 30 d.
Spear 1 d.
Sword 75 d.

[GM Craig]

So Valka is not going to join the Earl's forces?

[Arne]

I wasn't sure if she was, with the pregnancy and all.  I didn't want to speak for her on this one.  I'm guessing there'd be no shortage of nannies available if she chose to take to field?   

[Arne]

Not expected to have horses, but if any of your people have horses, they'll be treated more as knights than soldiers. Might be worthwhile for the veteran warriors to have horses.

Also, you (and maybe Valka) are going to want squires / aids. It'll be important if you are involved in any battles.

Good call.  Would the aides usually be drawn from the "other" pool, or from the warriors?  I'm guessing from the "others" . . .

[GM Craig]

Others or young warriors. Their job is to support you in battle, carry spare weapons, or give up their horse in case yours goes down. They can fight, but their primary job is to support you.

[GM Craig]

For Valka, she'll be done baking by the time the muster is called, and there is no shortage of nurses willing to look after the wee babee.

Up to her though. You guys might not even see combat - that depends on what the Earl (and the King) does.