The rules for raising militia state that each militiaman raised results in the loss of one family’s revenue for the domain and that this loss of revenue is permanent if the militiaman is killed. This implies to me that the family is still there, still counts against the domain’s maximum population, still requires a garrison to protect it, etc.
The accompanying example, however, says that, after raising 240 militia from his 1200-family domain and losing them all, “[Marcus’] domain is permanently reduced to 960 families.”
Which is correct? When a militiaman is lost in battle, does one family permanently stop producing revenue (in which case Marcus would still have 1,200 families, but only collect income from 960 of them) or do you lose the family completely?
IANAA, but my understanding is that one is correct, then the other, but they’re functionally identical.
A family stops producing revenue while their main provider is at war, and if their main provider dies, they can no longer function as a family, and so the wife/children all starve or move to be with relatives in another domain or something.
I disagree about them being “functionally identical”. If you have, say, a 4-hex wilderness domain with 500 families (the maximum possible), raise 100 militia, and get the militia all killed, there’s a very big difference between having 400 families afterward (1,600gp garrison required, 100 new families can move in) and having 500 families of which 100 produce nothing (2,000gp garrison required, no new families can move in because you’re at max population), even though revenues are the same in both cases.
Completely correct. I actually picked up on that immediately after posting it, but this forum lacks an edit button. I guess I should proofread earlier.
Actually, I’ll agree with susan_brindle’s original comment: they are functionally identical. When the family stops producing revenue, it’s no longer a family. You are trying to track something ACKS just doesn’t care about, namely, the actual composition of all those families. Whether the families of the 100 killed militia men leave, starve, or move in with relatives, it makes no difference. They no longer count as families for our purposes. Similarly, we really don’t care what each “family” looks like; is it 2 people? 1? 4? 13? It just doesn’t matter, and worrying about this really doesn’t provide any material benefit to the game. Consider maximum population as the number of productive families, and the 100 no longer part of that, otherwise you now need to come up with an entire subsystem for managing and tracking the bereaved families while turning them over into productive families again. That starts sounding more like The Sims than ACKS.
Having said all that, I expect Alex will now enter the thread to disagree and provide us with a completely developed subsystem for doing exactly that; that’s just the way he rolls.
Tragically I cannot improve upon the succinct explanation you provided above.
I HAVE been tinkering with a HARN Manor-like system for ACKS that would enable you to drill down to run manor-sized domains with details on every family but this thread is premature and so I don’t have the subsystems written.
Please bring up the issue in about six months and I’ll be ready.
Alex said: Tragically I cannot improve upon the succinct explanation you provided above.
Hey, there’s a first time for everything. I’ll try and be more incoherent next time, I don’t wanna steal your thunder.
Alex said: I HAVE been tinkering with a HARN Manor-like system for ACKS that would enable you to drill down to run manor-sized domains with details on every family but this thread is premature and so I don’t have the subsystems written.
Please bring up the issue in about six months and I’ll be ready.
I knew it! Marking my calendar…now!
So…the table doesn’t exist yet, but it will in the future.