Yeah, spears in Banner Saga are MVP.
Mini-AnnouncementI'm waiting to hear back from DashaBlade as to whether or not he still wants to play. At the latest, Assuming we have no new volunteers, the first Adventure thread (485) will go up on Friday.
Alright, that out of the way, allow me to vomit some more knowledge at you at you.
Lore Dump 2: Electric BoogalooArmy OrganizationAs I'm preparing for the first adventure, I am reminded that there is a battle for the players in the first year, so I figured there was no time like the present to brush everyone up on how armies work in the Pendragon setting.
Part of the following has been taken other supplemental books, and part of it has been house-ruled in by yours truly. As before, much of this is likely to be outside of your general concern as a player, but it's here if you need it.
Squires and AttendantsThe largest divergence here from the supplemental books I'm drawing from, is that I'm trying out is 2 squires (or attendant commoners) per knight instead of 1, as a general rule, not an exception. Further down, when I make reference to "
Valets" and "
Armigers", know that I am just referring to squires (or attendant commoners) doing different jobs.
"Do as I say" phase: A
Valet is usually young, starting at age 14, and usually transitions into the job of Armiger between the age of 18-21, though this transition is not automatic and may never come to pass at all. There are exceptions to this, in fact it's not impossible to retain this job well into one's middle age, not all squires become knights after all. A valet (it's a hard 'T', pronounced as they do on downton abbey, val-it) does most of the menial work that a knight requires: cooking meals on campaign, polishing armor, cleaning weapons, saddling and tending to horses, helping the knight don his armor, etc. While not on campaign, and while not occupied with chores, if the Valet is also a Squire he will spend most of his time learning to ride and fight from horseback in a relatively safe environment. In battle, the valet usually waits back in camp, keeping an eye on the (several) horses and baggage, waiting to either attend their master as they return victoriously, or prepare to beat a hasty retreat should things go south.
"Do as I do" phase: An
Armiger usually begins as a relatively young adult, at least 18 years old. As he name might suggest, he functions in part as an arms-bearer, in addition to helping the valet out with any chores that need doing. He follows the knight into battle on a rouncy, wearing a padded arming coat and hardened leather over-top, with an iron helm, a shield, his own sword, and any of the knight's weapons that he isn't using at that particular moment, most importantly spare lances. Most of the fighting is done by the knights (who ride in front) but when the unit is tearing into a block of infrantry and hacking indiscriminately, or the unit becomes flanked, or the line falters, the Armiger does earn his keep fighting like everyone else. It's also the armiger's job to pull the knight from the field if he is incapacitated, though with ransom-taking being so popular, the knight being rescued is not a guaranteed outcome. You lot start the campaign as this kind of squire.
An Ordinary Knight will typically have 1 attendant of each kind. Vassal knights (you lot) can expect at least 1 of their attendants to be an actual squire training for knighthood, perhaps even both. A HouseHold Knight, or Knight Bachelor, will usually be attended by low-born servants; being given charge of another knight's son is a great honor for a household knight, whereas it is expected of a landed knight.
A Rich knight may have even more attendants, though usually no more than 2 armigers.
An exceptionally poor (or stingy, or distrusted) knight will usually only have a valet with him, carrying what few of his own weapons he has with him out of necessity.
The LanceA Lance (the capital L is important), in military terms, does not describe a stick with a piece of metal on the end. A Lance is the smallest unit by which feudal armies are assembled and Organized; in simplest terms, a Lance is comprised of 1 knight and those he brings with him to battle. This will invariably include the knight's valet, and in most cases an armiger, as well as any small number of accompanying non-knightly soldiers. The use of the term Lance is informal and colloquial, and yet is the word that is most often used. You can think of a WWI general ordering "get me a few rifles up on that hill" impersonally referring to soldiers, in the middle ages they used 'lance' much in the same way.
The composition of a Lance in the Kingdom of Logres varies wildly from baron to baron, and to some degree from knight to knight. The requirements that Uther places on his vassals are intentionally vague; record keeping and land surveying, pardon my french, suck donkey balls in this period. Evaluation of feudal grants is practiced, but it is an extremely inexact discipline. The implicit understanding is that a vassal will bring as large a force as he is reasonably able, but at the same time, a liegelord calling bullshit on what looks like a poor effort is rarely feasible. As with most things among nobles, it is essentially run off of the honor system.
In Logres, the smallest possible Lance, the basic requirement for one's liegelord to be unable to bitch and moan, the C- grade effort if you will, is 4 people, 3 of which are fighting men: 1 knight + 2 spearmen, +1 valet waiting with the baggage.
However, this is the minimum. Most knights also have an armiger and can afford a few more spearmen, rich knights can usually afford even more squires and spearmen, and usually bring along a few mounted mercenaries (called Sargeants here) as well.
The ideal Lance, which as luck would have it (because I'm God in this game after all) is also what Earl Roderick requires from his knights,
has 7 people, 6 of which are fighters (or 5, or 5.5 depending on how you count the armiger), 1 knight + 1 Armiger + 4 Spearmen + 1 Valet.
Because of these disparities, when a Lord calls his vassal to bring a Lance to battle, anywhere between 3-12 fighting men could be what shows up. The only real common thread between all lances is that they all contain a knight. Since Knight is the name of the game, the BAMF movers and shakers of war (at least as the legends describe them), this usually isn't too much of an issue.
In the years to come, wars will go farther abroad than lazy barons are accustomed, and lances of mercenaries will rule the field, hired and dismissed on an individual basis. Large bands of mercenaries are referred to as "Free Companies", and an individual mounted and well-armored mercenary with his own valet will be known as a "free lances", the origin of the word freelancer.
The EschilleNow, the battlefield isn't just a bunch of roaming knights getting into personal scraps with their haggard and breathless foot soldiers jogging behind them, much like any kind of soldier the knight (and by extension the Lance) is grouped into a squadron called an Eschille. The name is derived from an older form of the french word Echelle, which means ladder. This might seem a little nonsensical at first, but it sort of makes sense when you think of a Lance being a literal lance, and think of the lances coming together parallel to form the rungs of a ladder.
An Eschille is comprised of anywhere between 5 and 15 Lances, with 10 being ordinary.
You may notice that an ordinary eschille comprised of ordinary lances comes out to 60 fighting men, the same of a typical roman century. This isn't an accident.
Although the knight supplies the other men of his Lance, HE DOES NOT COMMAND THEM IN BATTLE IF HE IS NOT THE LEADER OF THE ESCHILLE. Sorry for shouting, but in this massive wall of text, if there's one thing that needs to stick out it's that. The knights and assorted cavalry are all lined up, with the best armored and the best horsed in front rank, and the lesser armed men in the second rank. Behind the cavalry, the spearmen are formed up into a single formation, commanded usually by 1 officer in 20. How these two formations work in conjunction during battle is not really well known to historians, and is not delt with in any capacity in the rule books so I'm unfortunately in the dark ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
A Knight who suplies his own Eschille, is a Banneret. Sir Elad is one of these knights, he supplies 7 lances including his own to the earl, and likewise leads this unit in battle under his own banner, hence the term.
The commander of an eschille who is not a banneret is usually just called "commander", but in some contexts the title 'decurion' may be used, a holdover from the roman days.
The knights of an eschille train together, maneuver together and fight together, as a cohesive unit under the same leader. The knights of an eschille, and even the more senior footmen, will know and recognize their peers on sight. Several of the knigts were probably squired together. Think of an Eschille in terms of a modern Platoon if it helps. When you are knighted, spoiler alert I suppose, you will all be incorporated into one of Roderick's eschilles.
The Eschille is the unit by which a baron's feudal contract is defined. Earl Roderick is not legally bound to supply 150 knights and 600 spearmen to King Uther, he is legally required to field 15 eschilles.
Just as with the Lance, because of the variability in an Eschille's size, the king really might be playing 'luck of the draw' when he summons one. This is compacted with the variability of the Lance, to the RIDICULOUS point where an eschille could comprise anywhere between 15 (5 lances of 3) and 120 (15 lances of 12) fighting men, but in most cases will number
around 60 total.
No one who is known to be capable of supplying a full eschille of 60, or even more, makes a point of sending just 15 men unless he has an itching to climb right to the top on Uther's shit list.
Companies, Archers, Battalions, And So ForthAll of the eschilles supplied by a Baron are grouped together into a company, and lead by that Baron, or a Captain, who is also individually the leader of one of the company's eschilles.
It's at the company level that Archers are usually hired. Archers are usually not brought along in a lance, nor are they components of an eschille. It is the Lord who, when going to war, hires a contingent of archers, usually either common farmers inbetween planting and harvest, paid an honest wage for a little seasonal work, or in many cases these men could be career soldiers, selling their bow-arms wherever they can be bought. In any case, archers tend to all be massed into one long block at the company level, blotting out the sun in one general area rather than picking out individual targets.
An army's companies are divided into rough battallions, of which there are usually 3: The vanguard, the center, and the rearguard. As the names would suggest, when traveling the van is in the front, and the rear is in back, but on the battlefield, they simply file out into the three sections right left and center. The commander of a battalion is is commissioned on a battle-by-battle basis, as a battallions is just a third of a given army rather than a fixed unit. Regardless of any ability, the battallion commanders are usually the three most senior nobles present, regardless of training or experience. A 20 year old earl takes precedence of command over a grizzled 50 year old baron.
So, in summary, the chain of command goes thus: Army > Battalion > Company > Eschille > Lance (you are here).
It's 2AM right now and that's all I can think to write. Ciao.