Soldiers
Every soldier fights by the same rules as the player: the same blows, blocks, horse, slopes and falls. Half of recruits and of the field’s unnamed soldiers are women, under every rule the same. Each has one of sixteen faces.
Troop types
Section titled “Troop types”A man’s gear decides his type. A man with a horse is a horseman whatever he carries. On foot, a bow makes him an archer and anything else a spearman.
| Type | HP | Fights |
|---|---|---|
| Spearman | 100 | Longest reach; braces, so horses do not trample him and a charging horseman gets no speed bonus on him; does 4.25x to horsemen |
| Archer | 80 | Shoots the nearest enemy within 40 m every 1.8 s, 90% point blank down to 40% at full range, 30 harm before armour; a poor sword up close |
| Horseman | 200 | Rides the player’s horse; hits harder the faster it closes, up to 3x; tramples men on foot over 9 m/s |
| Type | Starts with | Weighs |
|---|---|---|
| Spearman | Poor helmet, common padded coat, poor shoes, common spear and shield | 15.5 kg |
| Archer | Common padded coat, poor shoes, poor sword, common bow | 8.5 kg |
| Horseman | Common helmet, padded coat, mail, leg mail and shoes, fine sword, common shield, poor barding | 28 kg, 20 on the horse |
Each man keeps his kit as he moves between armies. The dead leave theirs on the field, and deserters walk off in theirs.
Moving
Section titled “Moving”| Walk | Sprint | |
|---|---|---|
| Man | 6 m/s | 10 m/s |
| Horse | 8 m/s | 20 m/s |
A man charging on foot walks up and sprints the last 12 m. Riders gallop all the way, and rein in to half their walk to fight. Soldiers keep their places on the march, facing the march, and close with the enemy when their army is engaged.
Soldiers cross water too deep to wade by a bridge or ford within 500 m, and walls by an open gate. They go round hedges, walls and buildings by the gates. Nobody walks off a cliff or the rim, but enemies and horses can shove a man over.
Fighting the player
Section titled “Fighting the player”Soldiers wind up from all four sides, each with its own windup, so you can read and block it. When you swing within 3 m, 40% block the right side, 15% guess wrong, and the rest swing back.
A soldier’s blow on you does far less than on another soldier: 12 from a common sword, scaled by his weapon and speed, before your armour. Friendly soldiers leave you alone.
Without orders
Section titled “Without orders”Armies with nobody commanding them fight by doctrine. On the march they keep a column four abreast, horse ahead and archers last. Seeing an enemy within 400 m, they form up:
| Army | Battle order |
|---|---|
| Lord’s host | Spears in a line three deep, archers two deep behind, horse on the right |
| Knight’s retinue, raid | A wedge, the rest behind |
| Patrol, caravan guards | One line two deep |
| Levies | One line three deep |
| Bandits | A crowd |
The worse the army’s warfare, the wider its gaps. At 1.5 to one it charges if it is out for a fight. Below 0.6 to one it runs for its own town or castle within 3 km, but only from a slower enemy.
Raiders and folk
Section titled “Raiders and folk”A raiding army’s man with nobody to fight sprints after the nearest grown man or woman of a hostile kingdom within 25 m and cuts them down. Children are never struck. See Folk.
In camp
Section titled “In camp”At night in a camp that is up, soldiers sleep six to a tent, one in ten keeping watch, weapons laid by. Riders stay mounted.
A soldier brought down is dead, or lightly or badly wounded, by the blow that felled him. A man taken alive becomes a prisoner. What follows is on Battles.