Employing Free Lancers

At some point you’re gonna want to hire lots and lots of men. Especially in the case of Fighting-Men, the topic and procedures inspext to commanding units of soldiers will come up sooner or later. To a more limited degree, this is true for the other classes as well. 

Perhaps the several PCs will want to clear out an area of the wilderlands in preparation for a new settlement. A 6-mile hex is gymungous: 32 square miles! For this or other reasons, they will want to hire mercenaries to make such a campaign feasible in a realistic amount of time. 

Mercenaries will generally have three functions. One is as a garrison to man keeps and forts. Two is to form the bulk of armies or navies. Three is to go into a dungeon as henchmen. 

In Garrison 

In the first case, garrison, each man will cost 20gp per month. This figure pays for their horse, meals, and board, and averages in the cost of their sergeants and lieutenants and so forth. For instance, a unit of ten figures will have eight 0-level men, two 0-level squad leaders, and a 1st-level sergeant. (Yes I know that’s 11 guys. It counts as a unit of ten.)

Such a unit will cost 200gp per month. During a month they are not paid, 25% of men will desert and all morale will lower by 1. More generous pay and better treatment will raise morale, but no higher than 9. 

As garrison costs are between 2 and 4 GP per family per month, a garrison of ten soldiers will satisfy 50-100 families. 

On Campaign

When on campaign, which broadly speaking means a formal military action, fielding troops costs an additional 25% to account for extended supply lines. In the example of the previous ten-man unit, that means 250gp per month.

Additionally, the army in total requires 50% of all plunder taken during the campaign. Waging war is expensive! 

On its face, this means a unit will have to net 250 GP of takings per month in order for the PC to break even. Over long campaigns with hundreds of troops, this is likely to be impossible. But in the short term (a month or two) as a fixed expense in the low thousands of GP, mid level PCs should be able to put together a force capable of clearing a six-mile hex. 

Units which do not receive this base pay plus combat pay plus spoils will check morale at the start of that month. Those which do not pass will desert; any critical failure results in the unit deserting and turning on the PCs. 

Rather than checking for the whole army or for the individual, check for approximately 20% of units at a time or a similar break point as the Referee determines. 

In The Dungeon

In the case of a dungeon, it is unlikely that you would hire ten men at a time; the space is too limited. It will usually be better to hire men for specific purposes, as detailed in this post. That can be significantly more expensive, but also much more lucrative. And lucrative is the name of the game.