Getting And Keeping An Army
Getting and Keeping an Army
There are two major methods of recruiting soldiers- volunteers and conscripting. Volunteer troops almost uniformly have higher morale and are more responsive to orders, but are also more flighty- harder to recruit and keep, generally requiring either higher pay or serving some sort of a percieved cause. On the other hand, troops can also simply be pressed into service. Conscripts are functionally slaves- they are forced to fight on penelty of pain, or the deaths of their families, or something similiar. Their morale is terrible, and they are always among the first to break- but they're the easiest to aquire in a hurry or in vast numbers. The majority and most famous of armies in Exalted are volunteer forces.
Anywhere there's people, a leader can try and get more troops. However, the number of people, the local culture, and the reputation of the army and Commander all impact the number of available troops. An Army's numbers and morale are both measured in Health Levels, which is what is recruited. (See Table 1: Recruitment)
Table 1: Recruitment Population Density Conscripting Recruitment Very Poor - Less than 10 people per mile- wasteland or virtually unsettled 1 HL / month (Conscripts) 1 HL / 3 months (Volunteers) Poor - 11 to 50 people per mile- small, scattered villages 1 HL / 2 weeks (Conscripts) 1 HL / 2 months (Volunteers) Average - 51 to 200 people per mile- large villages, small towns 2 HL / week (Conscripts) 1 HL / month (Volunteers) Good - 201 to 500 people per mile- large towns, small cities 4 HL / week (Conscripts) 1 HL / 2 weeks (Volunteers) Very Good - 501 to 1000 people per mile- large cities 8 HL / week (Conscripts) 1 HL / week (Volunteers) Excellent - More than 1000 people per mile- the largest cities in Creation 16 HL / week (Conscripts) 2 HL / week (Volunteers) ----
Each time period in which an area is being recruited in decreases the use of that area- it's like going over and over the same patch of sand with an ever finer sieve. The next recruitment effort at it is treated as one lower. Each point of Reputation shifts the table up by one level for purposes of Recruitment- if it's shifted beyond Excellent, then conditions are Excellent for Recruiting for a number of weeks equal to the degree it's over by. Reputation doesn't help with Conscription at all. These reduced levels are restored at a rate of one per recruiting period the populace goes untouched.
Training: After an army, wither new or replacing casualities, has it's new recruits, they'll have to be brought up to trooping speed. This training period varies, based on how many new soldiers there are, and how far they have to go.
Additional training can be done after recruits are trained, but takes much longer. The rewards of such labors are Elite troops- men and women that will crush comparably sized forces with a spirit that will see them through the worst adversity. Conscripts gain no benefit from such additional training- they don't wanna be there in the first place. Further details on training are furnished in the section Elite, Super Elite, and Unusal Units.
Mechanics: An army's numbers and morale are measured in HLs. They can heal up to half their lost HLs through recruiting- once this loss is made up, only the training is left.
The army, if not fully healthy, has the Commander make a Charisma+Tactics check once a month it trains. It heals up to the number of 'recruited' HLs as the commander got successes. Training can also be rushed- Training reduced to two weeks incurs a Difficulty 3, while training reduced to one week is Difficulty 6. This process can not give an army more HLs than it was when fully finished.
