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Originally Posted by Nils_Lindeberg
Every professional soldier should have a balanced or very fine melee weapon. They cost, maybe ten weeks' wages, but make you 10-40% better at fighting. Who in their right mind wouldn't get that after years in the profession? And most likely they would have a +1 enchanted armor and shield too. Every other profession would invest heavily in their own equipment so why not soldiers.
If you are working as a Cab driver today, you would have a car, a piece of equipment that costs so you many months of earnings. A medieval fisherman probably bought a boat to use for fishing and expects to work it off after a few years. A farmer has bought land, a craftsman has his shop, and so on.
If your life was on the line how much would you pay to increase your survival chances and your efficiency by 20%?
And a truly professional rich noble, like a knight? I would be surprised if not most of them had a warhorse for like 5k, a Fine plate +2 for another 7k and a shield +3 for 4k, and a very fine sword +3DX for another 5k.
A hedge knight, down on his luck could spend less than a 1000 and ride a nag, but still. What level of equipment should people have if we go by the prices in The Lab. and the job tables there? Assuming that Weapon and armor enchantments are fairly common at IQ 14.
Take the knight above, he would have 13 points of armor in the front, and all of a sudden you would actually need a big 2H weapon to pierce that, or a very fine, and enchanted, weapon of your own. Or you would have to charge with a lance, wrestle them to the ground, stab them in the back or aim a dirk through the faceguard to take them down. All fairly historic. Is this intentional? That most weapons and armor should be made at fine quality level and often be a little bit enchanted?
Thoughts?
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I would think it depends on how the army is run.
Are the warriors sponsoring themselves and their equipment? If so, yes, they would spend as much as they could on weapons/armor. But my guess is that it would not be as great as a Fine Weapon. My guess is that they would harvest special weapons from the defeated or inherit them from relatives.
Is the government employing them and giving them their equipment? Like the modern army, they get Government Issued outfits, weapons, armor. You can't wear/use anything that is not regulation (unless your CO ignores it.) Elite forces might get better equipment. Officers might be able to upgrade if it isn't too outrageous.
Is the government sponsoring them and their equipment? The military is using guidelines, but allowing for non-standardized upgrades that might interfere with uniformity? Like the self-sponsored Warriors, I wouldn't expect a lot of them to upgrade because its expensive and causes jealousy.
Mercenary armies are different. They are a money making venture, where your loyalty is to your leader and yourself. By all means, they would try to upgrade whenever possible.
Rather than actual weapon/armor upgrades, I would think that the army would rather train batches of men in fighting styles, military tactics, and specialties like weaponsmiths, engineers, healers, etc. Raise the quaility of the man.
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And a truly professional rich noble, like a knight? I would be surprised if not most of them had a warhorse for like 5k, a Fine plate +2 for another 7k and a shield +3 for 4k, and a very fine sword +3DX for another 5k.
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Going off of ancient warfare concept of the victor gets the spoils, I would think that rather than buy a horse, the knight would try to kill a knight with a warhorse and take that. Of course, when you have to feed and care for a warhorse, that's probably 1 or two fighting men that you can't afford.
Anyway, I think that this thread is a good mental pondering.