DariusSolluman/Training

Training Getting the troops to fight together as an Army

Once you've gotten a loyal bunch of raw recruits, you still don't have an army. What you've got is a mob that needs to be taught to move and fight as a single graceful extension of the Commander's will. This sort of drilling is vital. And training doesn't neccesarily end once a troop is working well together- most armies will train longer so as to fight better on the field.

Training comes in two distinct varieties; either turning recruits into soldiers, or teaching soldiers to fight better.

Basic Training recruits into soldiers typically takes one month of down time. At the end of the training period, the Commander (or whomever has been training the troops) makes a Manipulation+Lore check at Difficulty 1- the Army heals the number of success, up to the number of recruited HLs, regardless of the difficulty.

Basic Training can also be sped up, but it's not easy. Taking only two weeks raises the difficulty to 3, while trying to cram in a full month of training in just a week is Difficulty 5. Most non-Exalt headed armies muster on the monthly standard- it's simply more efficent.

Once an army is finished and polished, training doesn't typically end. Most armies drill constantly when not fighting, improving themselves and learning to kill people and break things better. A Realm proverb, often repeated to laboring soldiers on drill, claims that all soldiers pay a drop of sweat or a drop of blood, as they choose.

Additional, Supplemental Training with a regular (volunteer) army gives them a Manipulation+Lore check, difficulty equal to the Command size of the Army. Success (degree of success is irrelevant to this check) provides the army a +1 bonus. This training takes a number of months of downtime equal to the total bonus the army will have on completion- so, 1 month, then two months, then three months.

This +1 bonus can be applied to either Communication (increasing it by 4), Training, Equipment or Spirit (increasing any of them by 2) or Health Levels (providing either an additional -0 HL, two -1 HLs, or 1 -1 and 2 -2 HLs). Mortal troops are limited to a total +3 bonus, while troops capable of weilding Essence are typically able to rise to +6. An army composed entirely of Dragonblooded, as designed as they were from the very inception to work well together as soldiers, can ultimately rise as high as +9. Very few pure Dragonblooded Armies exist, and none now larger than a Scale- but such troops are highly regarded and have tipped the scales of a war before.

Conscript armies are unable to gain such benefits from training until they've been regularized. This Regularization Training requires a training check, as though they were gaining their +3 bonus, but provides no direct bonus. Instead, on success, the army is treated as regulars, and gains it's -0 HLs. They are also capable of benefiting from further training.

Comments

You've distinguished three kinds of training here - Regularization, which turns conscripts into soldiers, the kind that turns recruits into soldiers, and the kind that makes soldiers better. In response to your call for ideas, I suggest Basic Training for the second type of training and Supplemental Training (or some such; Elite Training?) for the third type. - FourWillowsWeeping

Thanks. New names implemented :) - DariusSolluman

I basically doubled the ability gain from training- I realized while writing the Dragonblooded army example, that with the step increase, a fully maxed out +9 army was /almost/ the equal to a command step up. That seemed not right- 25 mortals should be MOWED through by 5 Dragonblooded that've trained to the best that Dragonblooded troops can be trained to.

I'll see how well the doubled bonuses go. We shall see :) - DariusSolluman Reran with the doubled training bonuses, and it went much better. The Fang of +9 Dragons ATE a Regular Scale, and fought 125 man army on even terms. That seems about right :)