"Dogs of War"

[Burton Choinski]

Just a small snippit regarding this posting.  I gave it to my brother
last night (the Marentian Baron I have been basing examples on :)  Since
he had the time to accumulate the troops, I allowed his 10 high-level
troops.

He wanted 10 Soldier III's, who are also archers (and get archer pay),
and also heavy cavalry.  In addition he wanted them to be slightly
stronger (upping the S just enough to get the +2 SB), so I charged him
an additional 20% premium.

His 10-man lance is costing him 39GC per month in wages, plus an
additional 5GC per month in food and horse care.

His quote, after even a relatively profitable night of work, about 2
game weeks:
   "I'm afraid I'm going to have to let some of the boys go".

His elite fighting force (of 10) is costing him 94% of what he makes per
year from his lands. *heh*
This does not even consider the character-class officer he has, which I
have not figured out, but probably adds at least 5GC more per month (or
60GC per year), which puts him well over the top.

And we have not even considered his other expenses for himself and the
other two players he has "hired". :)


A comment from everyone -- do these prices seem reasonable?
Historically, archers have been more expensive due to their rarity (more
difficult to train, etc).  This itself can be seen in the culture book
where you might have hundreds of archers, but many thousands of foot
troops.  I could probably simplify the rule set by just using the
crossbowman prices for ALL missile weapon troops.  The prices per level
of man are fairly close (and a bit cheaper in som ways) then the cost
specified in book 1.

The formula I used for per-level costs:
    AHP = baseline AHP, AHPn = new level AHP
    OCV = baseline OCV, OCVn = new level OCV
    DCV = baseline DCV, DCVn = new level DCV

    Cost multiple = (OCVn-OCV)*0.05 + (DCVn-DCV)*0.05 + SQRT(AHPn/AHP)
[rounded to nearest 0.05]
    final cost rounded to a "nice" coinage.

EXAMPLE:
    Soldier I to Soldier II -- Soldier I makes 2SC
    0.1 for OCV difference, + 0.05 for DCV difference, + 1.1 (rounded)
for AHP difference = 1.25x

    2 x 1.25 = 2.5; 25CC

I did this process from level to level, I should have done it for each
lever to the baseline, which will produce slightly different prices.  I
will probably post a corrected posting soon, with some clean ups and
better formatting.
     -- Burton

--
_____________________________________________________________
Burton Choinski
Principle Software Engineer, Quality Engineering
email: burton.choinski at matrixone.com

phone: 978-322-2135
fax  : 978-452-5764

MatrixOne, Inc.
Two Executive Drive
Chelmsford, Ma 01824
www.matrixone.com

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