"An army is a beast with a thousand teeth. Feed it, or it will feed on you."
In Heilbronn, armies are not merely gathered but grown—watered with coin, fertilized with promises, and harvested through the precise application of fear, loyalty, and necessity.
The Royal Levy: Official crown writs demanding each province provide soldiers proportionate to population—those sent often the troublemakers nobles wish to be rid of
The Gold Call: Mercenary recruitment requiring immediate payment and promises of plunder—loyalty lasting precisely as long as wealth flows
The Blood Obligation: Ancestral oaths binding noble houses to provide trained knights and men-at-arms—quality varying with the house's loyalty
The Desperate Recruitment: Emptying prisons and offering criminals freedom for service—creating expendable front-line troops
The Hunger Draft: Deliberately creating food scarcity in target regions, then offering military rations to those who enlist
The Core and Chaff Approach: Small elite force surrounded by expendable masses—professionals protected by human shields
The Specialist Structure: Forces built around unique units like Blackwound hunters, siege engineers, or monster handlers
The Allied Contingent: Army comprised of multiple noble house forces—politically balanced but tactically complicated
The Foreign Solution: Hiring complete mercenary companies from beyond borders—effective but potentially disloyal
The Quantity Doctrine: Overwhelming numbers of poorly-trained conscripts—high casualties accepted as necessity
The Payment Schedule: Strategic timing of soldier compensation—never enough to desert, never so little they mutiny
The Hostage Insurance: Families of officers held in "protective custody" during campaigns—ensuring commanders don't retreat
The Example Discipline: Public punishment of deserters—one executed to control a hundred
The Religious Fervor: Army chaplains instilling divine purpose—soldiers fearing eternal punishment more than enemy blades
The Divided Command: Officers selected from rival factions—each reporting on others, none powerful enough to seize control
The Stripped Path: Armies consuming all resources along march routes—leaving nothing for pursuers or retreat
The Supply Chain: Network of wagons, river barges, and mountain pack animals—often more valuable than the soldiers they feed
The Winter Problem: Armies traditionally disbanded during cold months—unless leader seeks to eliminate excess population
The Disease Management: Camp followers including plague doctors with authority to isolate or eliminate infection vectors
The Local Procurement: Formalized systems for seizing civilian resources—maintaining illusion of compensation
The Loyalty Rituals: Blood oaths, hostage exchanges, and magical bindings ensuring troops cannot betray their lord
The Morale Maintenance: Controlled atrocities against enemy civilians provided as rewards to maintain fighting spirit
The Expendable Calculations: Strategic sacrifice of units considered politically problematic or demographically undesirable
The Blackwound Corruption: Deliberate exposure of select troops to Blackwound energies—creating berserker units for suicide missions
The Victory Insurance: Poisoned rations prepared for distribution if defeat seems inevitable—denying enemy the opportunity to capture troops
You need generals, spies, and scapegoats.
The General: A veteran (or a fool you can blame if things go wrong).
The Spy: A thief, a noble’s bastard, or a dark lord’s eyes.
The Torturer: To keep discipline (and extract confessions).
The Scapegoat: A noble you can execute if the battle is lost.
When players seek to raise military forces, present these options based on their current influence and resources:
Core Armies Available to All Players:
• <M:14724545|The Player's Army> - Personal forces requiring minimal political standing but significant gold
• <M:14724534|Mercenary Company> - Professional soldiers available to anyone with sufficient coin
• <M:14724514|Army of Goblins> - Requires diplomatic relations with Bone Lords and adherence to their cultural practices
• <M:14724546|The Unseen Legion> - Rare spectral forces that appear under specific circumstances rather than being conventionally "raised"
Kingdom Forces (Require Significant Influence):
• Eldorian Army - Available only to those with royal elven favor or bloodline connection
• Vega Imperial Legion - Requires imperial commission or high standing in Vega's court
• Knights of Regin - Demands formal recognition from Regin's nobility or direct royal decree
Remember: In Heilbronn, raising an army is less about inspiring followers than calculating acceptable losses. The wise commander understands that soldiers are resources to be spent like coin—some for show, some for practical purpose, and some deliberately sacrificed to purchase advantage.
The most successful army-builders balance the practical necessity of maintaining fighting force with the political reality that any army capable of securing victory is equally capable of turning against its creator. When describing armies, emphasize their unique cultural characteristics, resource demands, and the political consequences of deploying them. Each force should feel distinct in both capabilities and the burdens they place upon commanders.