This thread got me thinking, so I've been brainstorming some ideas over the past few days while bored at work. So, instead of derailing that thread, it might be easiest to just make a new thread about it and see what everyone thinks. I haven't figured out exact numbers yet, but so far the ideas are just conceptual.
First, remove a fair few of the current 'Military' National Ideas (Horse Lords, Professional Soldiers, etc), and add the following Ideas. All are assigned to specific countries from the start, but any country can potentially gain that army type through a specific set of Laws and Decisions (more on this later).
Then, introduce a number of laws to reflect those introduced in history that allowed the known military conversions (eg, Marius' agrarian bill, inclusion of the capti censi into the armies, etc etc) so that the player can change military type if they so choose, and those laws would have a further effect on how the armies would perform in the end as well.
Finally, when all prerequesites are met, the army type can then be changed to whatever the player wants.
Thoughts?
First, remove a fair few of the current 'Military' National Ideas (Horse Lords, Professional Soldiers, etc), and add the following Ideas. All are assigned to specific countries from the start, but any country can potentially gain that army type through a specific set of Laws and Decisions (more on this later).
- Citizen Levy. Citizen armies, such as pre-Marian Roman armies and many Greek states, consist of property-owning citizens who are called forth in times of war. They are not paid as a labourer is paid for his work; instead, they are conscripted into the army and are only allowed some limited pay in the form of loot from defeated enemies. They are only expected to fight on the basis that if they don't, their land will likely be under threat from the enemy, which is why the soldiers were only drawn from the propertied class as they had some stakes in the outcome of any particular war.
Bonuses: -Recruitment cost; -Loyalty chance (ie they're less likely to become loyal to a general).
Penalties: -Manpower; +War Exhaustion.
Who: Rome, Achaeans, Aetolians, Lycians; maybe others. - Mercenary Army (open). Armies that consist of relatively few citizens and mostly mercenaries were common amongst multicultural empires like the Carthaginians, who used all sorts of soldiers in their armies, from Celts, Libyans and Iberians. Such armies would be costly to field and would have a tendancy to revolt when there isn't much money flowing into their purses, but would alleviate all sorts of stress from the state's citizens, increasing overall manpower.
Bonuses: +Manpower; +Citizen growth?
Penalties: +Recruitment & Upkeep costs; +Civil war risk?
Who: Carthage, Pontus, maybe others. - Mercenary Army (closed). Armies that consist of a very limited pool of mercenaries, such as the Ptolemaic phalanxes that consisted almost exclusively of Hellenic mercenaries, since the local Egyptians were untrusted by their Macedonian rulers. As time went on, the Hellenic mercenary pool dwindled, and the Ptolemies were forced to recruit from locals as well; while this proved to be useful in the Battle of Raphia in 217BC, it also gave the local Egyptians a newfound confidence in their strength of arms against their foreign oppressive government.
Bonuses: +Heavy Infantry Discipline; -Loyalty chance.
Penalties: -Manpower; +Recruitment & Upkeep costs.
Who: Egypt. - Professional Army. Most full-time professional armies, such as the Marian Roman legions and the troops from Hellenic cleruchies, were 'paid' a pension of land after their service. In the case of the Romans, the non-propertied class was allowed entrance to the Roman army, vastly increasing her manpower reserves. In the case of Greeks, many soldiers were given farming land in return for continued service; they'd normally live as private citizens, but would be required to go to war when the state called for them.
Bonuses: +Manpower; +Heavy Infantry Discipline
Penalties: +Unit Cost; +Loyalty Chance; +Civil War risk?
Who: Post-Marian Rome, Macedon? (I know the Macedonian army was 'professional' by the time of Philip II, I just don't remember if the Antigonids kept it that way.) - Tribal Armies. Tribal armies would have been pretty similar to the 'citizen levy' of Rome in concept, but a greater emphasis would have been placed on basic militia types rather than heavy infantry. In desperate times, all able-bodied men of a tribe would have been able to pick up a sword and fight in defense of their tribe or while their tribe was migrating elsewhere.
Bonuses: +Manpower; -Militia Cost; +Land Organisation
Penalties: +Heavy Infantry Cost
Who: Most Tribes. - Cavalry Armies. Some states preferred a heavy use of cavalry, particularly cavalry archers and javelineers. Parthia and Numidia are famous for such armies, though as Numidia became a more centralised state, its armies became more infantry-based to match. The main disadvantage of such armies was the time it took for sieges to be completed and their relatively limited numbers, though they otherwise proved to be extremely efficient.
Bonuses: -Cavalry & Horse Archer Cost; +Cavalry & Horse Archer Discipline.
Penalties: +Siege Time; -Manpower.
Who: Parthia, Numidia (early). - Mixed Armies. Some states were able to draw upon a large number of varied troops from their vast realms, most notably the Seleucids, whose armies consisted of Hellenic and Persian phalangites, Arabic infantry, Bedouin mercenaries, Asian elephants, etc. Despite the presumed language barrier, such armies had enough strengths to counter their weaknesses and vice versa through their sheer versatility.
Bonuses: None.
Penalties: None.
Who: Seleucids (and anyone else who doesn't really fit into any other major category). - Naval Ethos. Some states had a natural predisposition towards maintaining a large fleet, usually in order to protect a large, overseas empire.
Bonuses: +Naval Organisation
Penalties: -Land Organisation
Who: Carthage, Rhodes, etc. - Martial Ethos. Other states were more advantaged on land, such as Rome, who even turned their naval battles into virtual land battles through the use of the corvus during the Punic Wars.
Bonuses: +Land Organisation
Penalties: -Naval Organisation
Who: Basically everyone else. Both this and the Naval Ethos ideas should be fairly easy to change and not require extensive reforms through laws and decisions.
Then, introduce a number of laws to reflect those introduced in history that allowed the known military conversions (eg, Marius' agrarian bill, inclusion of the capti censi into the armies, etc etc) so that the player can change military type if they so choose, and those laws would have a further effect on how the armies would perform in the end as well.
Finally, when all prerequesites are met, the army type can then be changed to whatever the player wants.
Thoughts?
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