Cost of Raising and Maintaining a Free Company

[FuryMaster]

Has anyone seen or developed a system that lays out the cost of raising, training, and maintaining a Free Company. I have the Free Companies book but didn't see anything about this, did I miss it? If anyone can direct me to a pg number, or perhaps a system you've developed, I would much appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[InfinityDoctor]

This is sort of covered on p.16 under Mercenary Pay, but you have to extrapolate a bit.

Native soldiers cost 8 silvers a day to maintain, they recieve 4 of these as salary, the remainder going towards food, supplies, equipment maintenance etc. Those serving in the Free Companies are generally paid 7 silvers a day (not including loot shares) and are considered more expensive to keep than a native soldier. You could say that each member of a Free Company costs 14 silvers a day to maintain, based on a 50/50 split like a Native soldier.

The same section suggests that 90% or more of all fees that a Company charges their employer are used up on this maintenance. You can slide the scale a bit, but assuming 90% as a base, you could say that the basic fee charged per day for a Free Company mercenary is 15 silvers a day.

A Free Company with 100 men would ideally like to charge 1500 silvers per day to deploy their entire unit, 1400 to pay and maintain the unit, 100 profit. Note, however, that the rules for Locating A Contract on p.63 will affect this figure in practice:

LOOT ONLY:
Running Costs per Mercenary - 7 silvers per day
Salary per Mercenary - None
Standard Fee to Employer - 7 silvers per mercenary per day.
Profit to Company Commander/Owner - None.

ONE HALF:
Running Costs per Mercenary - 7 silvers per day
Salary per Mercenary - 3 silvers per day
Standard Fee to Employer - 11 silvers per mercenary per day.
Profit to Company Commander/Owner - 1 silver per day.

NORMAL:
Running Costs per Mercenary - 7 silvers per day
Salary per Mercenary - 7 silvers per day
Standard Fee to Employer - 15 silvers per mercenary per day.
Profit to Company Commander/Owner - 1 silver per day.

HALF AGAIN:
Running Costs per Mercenary - 7 silvers per day
Salary per Mercenary - 10 silvers per day
Standard Fee to Employer - 18 silvers per mercenary per day.
Profit to Company Commander/Owner - 1 silvers per day.

DOUBLE:
Running Costs per Mercenary - 7 silvers per day
Salary per Mercenary - 14 silvers per day
Standard Fee to Employer - 23 silvers per mercenary per day.
Profit to Company Commander/Owner - 2 silvers per day.

The numbers seem to work on paper, although I haven't actually put them into practice in the game yet. What do you think?

(EDIT: Changed 50 men to 100 men to keep the numbers in line with a standard unit).

 

[FuryMaster]

Thanks Infinity...I did indeed miss this...I was looking in the buying contracts part of the book and missed this section..In fact its really the only section I havent yet read. This book is quite thorough, so i found it mystifying that i couldn't find a section on pay...I do so miss indexes that used to come in rpg books.

This is great info and should be quite useful for my campaign. I am actually running a Wheel of Time campaign but find myself using a lot of stuff from Conan RPG...this entire product line is really the best one out there, I do run Conan games, but it is awsome that this stuff is so usefull that the rules can be used for other settings. The Narative combat system, knowledge Warfare, and feats like Battle Mind will enable me to run a Wheel of Time military campaign that i've always wanted to run . Thanks again for the post and info.

 

[JamalloKreen]

This is sort of covered on p.16 under Mercenary Pay, but you have to extrapolate a bit.

(snip)

A Free Company with 100 men would ideally like to charge 1500 silvers per day to deploy their entire unit, 1400 to pay and maintain the unit, 100 profit.

(snip)

I developed a character for a Forgotten Realms campaign who I intended to develop into a condottierre. The amount of book-keeping necessary to run even a small mercenary company down to hardtack and brass tacks is considerable, but can be a source of pleasure for the detail-oriented. At mid-levels their is no question about who one's "followers" will be: they will be farriers, blacksmiths, cooks, laundresses, drovers, tailors, etc. Warriors? Who the heck can afford them? (Oh, yeah ... the customer....)

In the novels, Conan grumbles time and time again about the nuisances of administrative duties whenever he is put in a managerial position. One way to introduce a scholarly character might be to have him offer to take the book-keeping off the hands of those who believe that wars are won by the edge of an axe and not by a well-run quartermaster corps (but who grumble when their pay is late or the wine is watered down).