SKM Development: More Strongholds

Now that we figured troop costs out (kind of), or think we did, we start on strongholds. As I said, we’re trying to figure out the basics and one of our aims  here is that the stronghold will pay for itself. So..

 Alright, we’ve established Light Infantry have an upkeep of 2gp per month. Let’s assume that we have 7 hexes, each with a population of 100. We’re doing this for simplicity’s sake. This means that we need 140 Light Infantry. So 280gp per month to provide security for the hex, just in Light Infantry, we chose LI because they’re worth 1 Defense Value, I’m using them as a standard.

So that means that it costs 3,360 per year to keep our realm secured with light infantry. Across five years, this means we’d have to expend 16,800. But our stronghold should provide a beneficial cost overall, so, let’s assume the stronghold costs 12,500. That’s about ¾ the cost that it would cost to just keep Light Infantry around. Ah, but it doesn’t end there.

I’ve decided to toss out all of the ‘additions.’ The laundry list of doorways, portcullises, heights of walls, and stuff that ACKs gave us, isn’t really necessary. We’ll have fewer strongholds, but nobody wants to get that granular in this campaign. I’m going to replace them with upgrades. So instead of needing to worry about every doorway, rock and portcullis, we’ll just focus on the big upgrades, like barracks, stables, and moats. Fun stuff. Essentially, like buildings in a 3X strategy game.

And that brings us to the Basic Fortress. The Fortress will cost 12,500 as decided above, have an upkeep of 40gp, and give a Defense Rating of 100. But Spook, I hear someone say, why 100? Didn’t we already decide that its equivalent to five years worth of the protection of 140 Light Infantry who have a Defense Rating of 140. This is about seventy percent of that. And I answer, yes, that’s entirely accurate.    

Remember back when we decided to have strongholds represent deferred costs? We suggested the concept of providing for covered upkeep through them, and that’s what I decided here. Since we built this facility for our patrol troops to live in, we defer their upkeep costs. So 50 Light Infantry, 100 peasants, or 8 cavalry can stay here for free. No monthly upkeep on those garrisoned units. Now, again, assuming our LI are 1 Defense Rating each, that means that the stronghold is effectively giving us a DR of 150 for an upkeep of 40 gp/mo, or 480 gp/year, which is a decided premium over paying 3,360 per year but did require the rather large up-front output of 12,500gp or 1250 resource, plus the cost of construction.