In my campaign the players had been granted a noble title and ruled over a village of about 5,000. They started a war with a neighboring nation
their village has been attacked by some lizard men and about 1/2 their guard died. The Country they are part of has around 50 village of the same size or smaller and 5 large cites.
I want to know how many men will need to be recruited for their part of the army for their lordly obligations
I guess a 100 men force as well as supplies to help feed them
That is based on real demographics from medieval Europe as I recall (it's a while since I read the document explaining the calculations). I would suppose this is "full-time" guards, so that a city that large can munster 100 people for a militia/army in times of war doesn't sound unreasonable. But it's a fun calculator anyway that can give some funny ideas of "life" in a medieval city.
Broadly speaking, the percentage of the population that would be professional military is under 1% in times of peace (and might be largely redundant with police), but might reach a couple percent during warfare, and the civilian militia could in principle be most of the adult male population, probably 20-25%, but wouldn't something that's practical to use in the field (even if they weren't needed for other works, the logistics don't exist). The details of how many would need to be provided to the crown in times as part of their duty depends heavily on the social model being used, and might require conscription (in which case most of the conscripts would be treated as commoners with weapons).
Note that a typical military has several commoners doing logistics stuff for each soldier.
So, assuming that half the population is a male, and half the population again is in the age range and shape to be in the military, I'd draft all of the males in that population.
That would be a total of 1,250 people in the military.
Sure, you're going to need more people working the farms, blacksmiths, and other shops, so you can have the elderly or women do so.
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For real world references, the battle of Crécy was 7-15,000 English against 20-30,000 French, representing perhaps 1/500 of the respective populations of those countries at the time (estimates on numbers, population, etc, are not very good).
Related to pant’s comments, France had a population of~40 million in 1911. They mobilized about 8 million soldiers during WW1. - 20% of the total population.
not a typical village stat though...pretty much every male under 45.
Depends on your setting. Maybe the person who rules over this village has beef with the local leader and they are sent way less than they should be. Or the opposite...
So about 500 people is more likely to be called up
That sounds like a very high number if you want to be "realistic" (it is a fantasy game after all). I think 1%-2% (50-100 men) would be more or less "historically" accurate. Especially since it is as part of their feudal obligation. If it was to defend the city, they could perhaps enlist 500 men to do that. Perhaps even for a very short campaign, but that would be a VERY high number.
Related to pant’s comments, France had a population of~40 million in 1911. They mobilized about 8 million soldiers during WW1. - 20% of the total population.
That's with 20th century logistics. Low tech logistics simply can't actually move that many people around, though 20% is reasonable as a militia call-up to respond to actions in the immediate vicinity of the town.
Related to pant’s comments, France had a population of~40 million in 1911. They mobilized about 8 million soldiers during WW1. - 20% of the total population.
They did so over the course of four years; total number under arms at any one time was much lower. The service model they had pre-war was 3 years of service for each young man, which corresponds to a maximum of about 3% of the population (how much less depends on demographic assumptions and exemption rate). Also, count of people in uniform for a 20th century army includes a lot of support people.
Related to pant’s comments, France had a population of~40 million in 1911. They mobilized about 8 million soldiers during WW1. - 20% of the total population.
They did so over the course of four years; total number under arms at any one time was much lower. The service model they had pre-war was 3 years of service for each young man, which corresponds to a maximum of about 3% of the population (how much less depends on demographic assumptions and exemption rate). Also, count of people in uniform for a 20th century army includes a lot of support people.
It’s a lot easier to mobilize the adult population of a single town than it is to do so for an entire country.
It’s a lot easier to mobilize the adult population of a single town than it is to do so for an entire country.
Yes, but the discussion was not about a local mobilization, it was about obligation to a central government. It's totally possible to assemble a thousand armed commoners to resist an attack on the town, it's just not possible to send those thousand people out on campaign, nor is it really relevant to feudal obligations, which is what the OP was asking about.
I'm not sure what weight a historical POV has here - villages in dungeons and dragons are under assault from monsters as well as people, so if anything they would have a much greater number of guards than any simulator of historic towns can generate to deal with persistent monster threats as well as human issues.
I'm not sure what weight a historical POV has here - villages in dungeons and dragons are under assault from monsters as well as people, so if anything they would have a much greater number of guards than any simulator of historic towns can generate to deal with persistent monster threats as well as human issues.
That just means you use a historical POV of a society under substantial external threat. Plenty of historical societies had problems with raiders, or were just outright at war with neighbors.
I'm not sure what weight a historical POV has here - villages... are under assault from monsters as well as people, .
pretty sure if you would have asked a frenchman in 1917, they would have laughed - if they had any laugh left in them. flu, dysentery, hypothermia, flamethrowers, a dozen different toxic gases, literally millions of artillery shells a day (not exaggerating), bullets (lots and lots of bullets), and an army within 50 clicks of paris... some battalions with soldiers in the front trench at verdun had a roughly 0% percent survival rate when germany tried rolling in.
i have no doubt they would have preferred a few dragons and monsters.
i can't think of very many monsters that are anywhere near the equivalent of what was seen in ww1....and it was an entire society at war, throwing every last resource they had in. i'd say 20% is a good number.
In my campaign the players had been granted a noble title and ruled over a village of about 5,000. They started a war with a neighboring nation
their village has been attacked by some lizard men and about 1/2 their guard died. The Country they are part of has around 50 village of the same size or smaller and 5 large cites.
I want to know how many men will need to be recruited for their part of the army for their lordly obligations
I guess a 100 men force as well as supplies to help feed them
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I think 100 full-time military personnel is reasonable, but most of the adult population could probably be called up as a militia when necessary.
38 according to this: https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/demographics/
That is based on real demographics from medieval Europe as I recall (it's a while since I read the document explaining the calculations). I would suppose this is "full-time" guards, so that a city that large can munster 100 people for a militia/army in times of war doesn't sound unreasonable. But it's a fun calculator anyway that can give some funny ideas of "life" in a medieval city.
Ludo ergo sum!
Broadly speaking, the percentage of the population that would be professional military is under 1% in times of peace (and might be largely redundant with police), but might reach a couple percent during warfare, and the civilian militia could in principle be most of the adult male population, probably 20-25%, but wouldn't something that's practical to use in the field (even if they weren't needed for other works, the logistics don't exist). The details of how many would need to be provided to the crown in times as part of their duty depends heavily on the social model being used, and might require conscription (in which case most of the conscripts would be treated as commoners with weapons).
Note that a typical military has several commoners doing logistics stuff for each soldier.
So, assuming that half the population is a male, and half the population again is in the age range and shape to be in the military, I'd draft all of the males in that population.
That would be a total of 1,250 people in the military.
Sure, you're going to need more people working the farms, blacksmiths, and other shops, so you can have the elderly or women do so.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
For real world references, the battle of Crécy was 7-15,000 English against 20-30,000 French, representing perhaps 1/500 of the respective populations of those countries at the time (estimates on numbers, population, etc, are not very good).
Related to pant’s comments, France had a population of~40 million in 1911. They mobilized about 8 million soldiers during WW1. - 20% of the total population.
not a typical village stat though...pretty much every male under 45.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
Depends on your setting. Maybe the person who rules over this village has beef with the local leader and they are sent way less than they should be. Or the opposite...
So about 500 people is more likely to be called up
Mostly nocturnal
help build a world here
That sounds like a very high number if you want to be "realistic" (it is a fantasy game after all). I think 1%-2% (50-100 men) would be more or less "historically" accurate. Especially since it is as part of their feudal obligation. If it was to defend the city, they could perhaps enlist 500 men to do that. Perhaps even for a very short campaign, but that would be a VERY high number.
Ludo ergo sum!
That's with 20th century logistics. Low tech logistics simply can't actually move that many people around, though 20% is reasonable as a militia call-up to respond to actions in the immediate vicinity of the town.
I'd say about 1000
They did so over the course of four years; total number under arms at any one time was much lower. The service model they had pre-war was 3 years of service for each young man, which corresponds to a maximum of about 3% of the population (how much less depends on demographic assumptions and exemption rate). Also, count of people in uniform for a 20th century army includes a lot of support people.
It’s a lot easier to mobilize the adult population of a single town than it is to do so for an entire country.
Yes, but the discussion was not about a local mobilization, it was about obligation to a central government. It's totally possible to assemble a thousand armed commoners to resist an attack on the town, it's just not possible to send those thousand people out on campaign, nor is it really relevant to feudal obligations, which is what the OP was asking about.
Of course, but it’s clear the discussion has drifted from the original point :p
I'm not sure what weight a historical POV has here - villages in dungeons and dragons are under assault from monsters as well as people, so if anything they would have a much greater number of guards than any simulator of historic towns can generate to deal with persistent monster threats as well as human issues.
That just means you use a historical POV of a society under substantial external threat. Plenty of historical societies had problems with raiders, or were just outright at war with neighbors.
pretty sure if you would have asked a frenchman in 1917, they would have laughed - if they had any laugh left in them. flu, dysentery, hypothermia, flamethrowers, a dozen different toxic gases, literally millions of artillery shells a day (not exaggerating), bullets (lots and lots of bullets), and an army within 50 clicks of paris... some battalions with soldiers in the front trench at verdun had a roughly 0% percent survival rate when germany tried rolling in.
i have no doubt they would have preferred a few dragons and monsters.
i can't think of very many monsters that are anywhere near the equivalent of what was seen in ww1....and it was an entire society at war, throwing every last resource they had in. i'd say 20% is a good number.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks