Campaigning Question

Are Lords expected to respond to Call To Arms personally, or do they merely send their garrison? I’m assuming it’s merely to send their garrison, because otherwise you’d have enough highish level lords to end up with every single unit having a lieutenant.

In the example on ACKS 133 for the effects of absent garrison forces on morale, “When Marcus receives a call to arms from his lord, he sends 20 heavy cavalry to join his lord in fighting in a distant realm… To avoid [morale penalties when beastmen later attack his domain], Marcus petitions his lord to allow him to bring his forces home.

While it doesn’t state a direct answer to your question, the most natural reading of that example is that Marcus remained at home while his heavy cav responded to the call to arms.

I think how deeply you want to get immersed into the campaign should ultimately determine if the leader of a domain accompanies his troops on a call to arms, or delegates a henchman, or hires a mercenary leader, or sends them without a leader.

I would guess the default scenario is that a lord doesn’t accompany his troops.

In the absence of roleplaying the situation, a 2d6 chart for who (if anyone at all) gets sent with the troops on a call to arms would be pretty nice.