(TFT) Armies and special gear

[Mark Tapley <mtapley@swri.edu>]

All,
	I read back through part of the archives. Good stuff in there about
castles, my apologies for not doing my homework before posting. Of course,
you guys have been there ahead of me in many cases. Haven't found the Gates
discussion yet, but I will.

	On the subject of equipping armies - the argument was made that a
king likely wouldn't buy +1 swords for his armies, preferring to spend the
money other ways. True from the king's point of view, imho, but also think
how it looks to the soldier.
	An Army recruit makes $50/week (ITL, jobs table) and signs on for a
6-month (minimum) hitch (ITL, p25, Leaving on an Adventure). At the end of
that period, he'd have earned $1200, less maybe $60 for taxes. If he blew
less than $140 on wine, women, and song, he'd then be able to buy his *own*
+1 sword.
	Actually, it's better than this. If he were smart, he'd probably
buy a +2 hits Fine Cutlass (since his ST is probably not greater than 10,
as a 30-point NPC) for the same money, then save up for another 6 months
and have it enchanted to +1 Dex. 6 months later, he'd have +1 armor. Then a
+1 Shield. Of course, by the end of this time, he'd probably have gotten
more attributes via one or more bonus job rolls as well (if he survived).
	The point is that if the soldiers intend to continue in their
professions, odds are they will equip themselves with items which will give
them advantages, since some of those items actually are within their means
if they are frugal with their pay.
	That implies that the kings and generals would be much wiser to
spend their money on "force multiplier" type things that are not so often
within reach of the average soldier. That in turn points at high-powered
magic items as well as siege engines, castles, etc., and/or at extended
"military reserve" training for high-IQ wizards.
	One other observation; individual soldiers would not be likely to
buy "expendables" of their own. This includes Dazzle gems, Exploding gems,
Sleep Arrows, Gems of Summoning, etc. Those too are items the
Kings/generals would be likely to have to supply.
	As always, comments welcome and in fact solicited.
								- Mark
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"