Army

Work in progress

Introduction to the concept
The core idea behind the system is that manpower should cost to field and maintain; and not only the fraction in active duty. Broadly speaking, historically, manpower was not meant to be some farmer conscripted and given a weapon. Although this too happened, there was usually some training involved. The longer a soldier was trained and drilled, the better he performed both in battle but also in the various duties that life on campaign demands. The aim of the system is twofold. The first being to simulate the reality of states having to choose between the two extremes of a free but unprofessional army, loyal to local powerbrokers and an expensive army which is loyal to the central government. The second is to make such a system feel really rewarding by enabling the player to gather resources and invest in building up the military.

How it works
In MEIOU & Taxes 3.0, every province has four different sources that recruit and maintain a manpower pool: The Nobles, the Burghers, the Tribals and the State. They convert fighting age population into trained manpower, and maintain this trained manpower at a skill level appropriate for the country's army.

The powerbrokers' access to fighting age population is defined by their power and their rights. They spend a set portion, up to 4%, of their wealth to maintain trained manpower. If this is fully maintained, the rest is used to recruit new trained manpower from the fighting age population. The country can then tap into the powerbrokers' trained manpower through provincial levy laws.

State recruitment, like taxes, works by setting a quota for how much trained manpower is demanded, then fulfilling that as much as possible. The expected cost of this quota is shown as the army maintenance slider in the economy menu. Reducing army maintenance reduces available funds for manpower maintenance and recruitment.

If the maintenance cost cannot be met, skill will drop accordingly. Below 50% maintenance, trained manpower is released.

Cost per 1k manpower: Recruiting: Food 0.6 Salt 0.2 Fuel 0.2 Consumer Goods 0.4 Military Goods 2 Industrial Goods 0.4 Knowledge 0.1

Maintenance (yearly): Food 0.4 Salt 0.1 Fuel 0.1 Consumer Goods 0.1 Military Goods 0.4 Industrial Goods 0.1 Knowledge 0.025