The army (Composition and training)

Version 4.1

In Lands & Lords, armies are trained in castles. Every castle can only train one army at any given time. The time needed for training (4) depends on the number of units in the army (3), and the expansion level of the castle (1). The castle's level also increases the quality of the training quality; this means, in a level I castle only green recruits are trained while higher level castle result in the training of more experienced veterans.

A part of the population of the surrounding 18 fields is sent into the castle to form a pool of recruits for training armies. Up to 10% of the population from regular fields, 15% from towns and harbors and 20% from castles can be drafted into the recruitment pool.Each turn the pool of recruits is regenerated by 0.15%; this means it takes 66 turns until 10% of the population can be drafted again. The number of available recruits for each castle is shown in the menu "Train army" (2).

Training armies requires gold, weapons, logs, and bread. The training of each unit type costs different amounts. Horsemen and siege equipment also need horses, that can be bred on paddocks. Of course, the individual unit types also have different strengths during attack and defence. If a ressource is not available (5), the army cannot be trained. However, you might buy the necessary ressource in the marketplace. If all necessary ressources are available, you ony have to name the army (7) and the training can be started (6). If the training is canceled, 90% of the spent ressources will be refunded. The training costs of the armies include all logs, weapons, horses, and bread needed by the units for the rest of their lives. However, the armies have to be paied in gold every turn. The pay is 1/20 of the gold paid for training the unit. If troops don't receive their pay because the realm does not have enough gold, parts of the troops will desert the army.

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On the map armies are displayed as a picture showing the most abundant unit. Above the picture, a symbol is shown that reflects the size and experience of the army. For small armies, the size of the army picture on the map is an approximate indication ofthe army size. The colour of the symbol changes from bronze to silver, and finally gold with increasing army experience.

Examples for the various army symbols:

Small army with low level of experience	Medium-sized army with low level of experience	Slightly larger army with medium level of experience	Big army with lots of experience	Very big army with low level of experience	Enormous army with medium level experience	Unbelievably big army with high level of experience.

Under each army the number of armies on the field and their diplomatic stance to you is shown. The following colors are used:

Own armies	blue
Allied armies	pink
Neutral armies	gray
Friendly army (Peace/NAP):	green
Enemies (War):	red

In the following example, three armies owned by yourself and an allied army oppose one hostile army.

• The army to the left consists mainly of swordsman and has a numeric advantage (3 stripes) over your armies standing southwest of the castle. Also they are fairly experienced soldates (silver symbol).
• Your own and your allies armies stainding southwest of the castle, are inexperienced troops (bronze symbol) and much lower in numbers (1 caret).
• South of your castle, a large army (3 stripes) consisting mainly of horsemen is waiting. However this army is quite inexperienced (bronze symbol).

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When you click a field with an army, additional informations will be shown:

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1. All armies are captained by a leader of experience level 10. This leader is not explicitly shown (no hero) and can be substituted with a hero.
2. In addition, all units of the same type (swordsmen, spearmen, archers, horsemen) are led by their own general. Generals gain experience and are promoted due to won combats. The harder a combat was won, the more experience a general will get. A high-ranked general can be a deciding factor during combat. Inapt generals often lead their numerically superiour troups into defeat. The rank of a general is displayed as a sign in front of his name. All rank signs and a more detailed explanation can be found under Generals.
3. Victories increase the moral of an army and by that increase the combat value.
4. On the other side, losses have a negative impact on the combat strength.
5. Victories also increase the experience of armies. Experience is an important factor for the combat value.
6. Moving an army increases its exhaustion. Mountains and woods exhaust armies more than for example plains; fields with a high expansion level cause less exhaustion. The highest increase in exhaustion is caused by combats and "passive resistance" of the populace when conquering field. How fast exhaustion of armies is reduced, depends on the research status. Without "Field Kitchen" (research path "Military") a resting army on any field will lose one point of exhaustion per turn; with "Field Kitchen" the army will lose two points. In castles exhaustion is reduced faster - precise numbers can be found in the Formulary.
7. Armies conisiting only of horsemen can move two fiels per turn. All other units only move one field per turn.
8. Up to 8 moves for each army can be entered in advance. These moves are than performed in the entered order.
9. Alternatively, you can enter a target field for your army. Your army will then try to find the shortest way to its target field on its own. Details about how to move armies can be found under Army movement.