CK3 Dev Diary #18 - Men-at-Arms, Mercenaries and CBs

[Denkt]

Also these militias could be quite effective, like in Battle of Hemmingstedt year 1500 in which a peasant milita defeated a more numerous and more well equipped enemy. In the battle of Golden Spurs a militia defeated Heavy cavalry.

Yes, and they were armed.
My point is that the stereotypical image of Medieval armies composed of civilians armed with forks is a myth, conscripted levies came from the peasantry but they were expected to come with military equipment, even if it was definitely on the cheaper end.

There seems to be alot of misconceptions about the medieval era that don't make much sense once logic is applied. Using forks don't make much sense, it is more costly to lose peasant than it is to produce more effective weapons so even if better weapons was somehow unaffordable for the peasent it don't make much sense for the higher ups not to produce better weapons for them, like cities during the time had armories with weapons for defence.

And if the peasants know they can be conscripted one day, in fact these most likely would train every year so to be combat ready whenever it was needed, like why would they not purchase better equipment, in fact it was probably legal required to have decent weapons and even armor to some degree, which also mean these stuff was affordable.

I suspect what have been done is to look at the most expensive stuff, like what wealthy nobles would use and say this was the normal price of military equipment of the day. But thats like saying an super expensive sports car is the normal car today and that car was somehow unaffordable to everyone else.

 

[TheDarkMaster]

I don't get why it has to be "improvised polearms" rather than just polearms? Swords were, somewhat surprisingly, not necessarily very expensive either in munition grades: in 14th century (England?) you could get one for six pence (or half a shilling) about the same those days as two day's salary for an archer.

We're actually talking about very different time periods. You're bringing up 14th century, I was thinking of what you'd be looking at closer to the start of the game when realms will be relying much more on levies. As for 'improvised polearms', that's stuff like war scythes. Lots of them are essentially farming implements tied to the ends of quarterstaves. My list is stuff that peasants would be able to get their hands on no matter what, they don't need their lord's money or access to armories to get basic weapons and armor. So even in the most dire of circumstances, a peasant levy (or revolt for that matter) will have weapons and armor.

 

[Denkt]

I think spear was the most common primary weapon during much of the time period, basically used by everyone from the vikings to the Byzantines. A war scythe is not the same thing as a farming scythe.

Keep in mind that there is alot of quite outdated ideas about the middle ages which have started to be dispelled by actually using the sources of the time and archelogical evidence. Real Crusader History said that western europe at the time of the first crusade about 30 years Before the 1066 start date was on equal technological level to the Byzantines and the muslism, so not primitve barbarians with undisicplined armies, actually far from it as can be seen in their military performance during the first crusade.

 

[TheDarkMaster]

I think spear was the most common primary weapon during much of the time period, basically used by everyone from the vikings to the Byzantines. A war scythe is not the same thing as a farming scythe.

Keep in mind that there is alot of quite outdated ideas about the middle ages which have started to be dispelled by actually using the sources of the time and archelogical evidence. Real Crusader History said that western europe at the time of the first crusade about 30 years Before the 1066 start date was on equal technological level to the Byzantines and the muslism, so not primitve barbarians with undisicplined armies, actually far from it as can be seen in their military performance during the first crusade.

facepalm

You're missing the point. There's nothing here about technology. My post is purely about what weapons and armor that peasants can easily get their hands on. A war scythe is just an example. It is a scythe blade turned vertically and tied to the end of a quarterstaff, it functions almost identically to a spear. There's a multitude of ways you can make a spear-like weapon, that was the point I was trying to make. That peasants would have no problems getting weapons or armor even without money or their lord's help.

 

[General Von Trapp]

Great... I can now keep both eyes focused on the action instead of keeping one eye watching my gold plummet into the pockets of unloyal Mercs, hoping for the battle to end in time before it goes negative.

 

[Farfour]

The retinue system combined with the levy system makes far, far more sense than having this half-assed "unwashed masses" nonsense combined with what is essentially a retinue system. You can't tell me this is how feudalism works!

Well, no because retinues in Medieval Europe were more of a mobile court, not an elite military unit. That's more unique to the Byzantines, but even by 867 the old retinues (like the Optimatoi or Boucellarians) had become themes, and one of them was even downgraded.

 

[Dmitrius]

It feels like this is a step towards a more basic system in most regards.

I'm starting to wonder whether the devs have forgotten that the RPG element of ck2 helped make a deep strategy game fun, not the other way around.

I retract this statement made a while back. I was probably still bitter after imperator. This game is awesome.