Medieval Domains in ACKS
The default rules of ACKS assume a peasantry that is kept in squalor by the confiscation of the majority of their income, a large standing military, and rich, decadent nobles. This is accurate to ACKS’s chosen time period of the Later Roman Empire. However, many fantasy milieus are closer to a medieval theme, which features often-parsimonious nobles, small standing armies, large militia systems, and relatively prosperous peasantry. This supplement is meant to adjust the ACKS rules to permit domain-level play in a medieval setting. These rules are NOT intended to be cross-compatible with traditional ACKS domains, and GMs should use one set of rules or the other.
In keeping with approximate medieval trends, we will say that the Lord receives 4 gp per month per family in corvee labor, and 2 gp per month per family in cash taxes. Meanwhile, the peasant family likely earns an after-tax cash equivalent (overwhelmingly NOT in cash) of the land value of the domain in income, or a typical result of 6 gp. This lesser total income reflects both ACKS’s underestimation of the difficulty of subsistence farming, a more realistic estimate of the value of a day of miscellaneous unskilled labor (1d. per day would be only during harvest), and a mixed crop of beans, barley, rye, lettuce, and other crops not as lucrative as wheat, made by the farmers to hedge their bets. (Further elaboration of these issues available if interested, briefly, a field would need to be plowed multiple times, not merely once, etc.)
From the Lord’s total income of 6 gp (equivalent), we set the Lord as being assessed a “house tax” due to the King of 1 gp cash per family per month. This is used to support the King’s court, pay for his standing army, construct defensive works, pay Danegeld, and other necessities of state. A like amount in cash is given to the Church, for religious services, education, charity to orphans and widows, etc. Of the corvee labor, we shall say that the custom is for 1 gp of it to be excused on holidays (equivalent to ACKS festivities expense), and another 1 gp is used to maintain the road infrastructure of the domain (not the castle, as stone doesn’t rot easily). The remaining labor is used to farm the Lord’s fields, which he runs as cash crops for export to urban centers, using the rules for mercantile ventures. It should be noted that much of the peasants’ crops will likely be stored in the Lord’s keep, but stealing from this will incur the peasant’s wrath.
But what of garrison expense? Simply put, the basic militia rules in ACKS are sufficient for civilized domains. Assume the maximum number of trainable persons is trained (2 per 10 families), with all qualifying for Longbowman status being trained as such, those qualifying as either bowmen or Heavy Infantry but not the other being trained as best they can be (but as medieval-appropriate Heavy Infantry C/D, which might more appropriately be called Medium Infantry), and the remained being trained as Light Infantry. The total garrison expense comes to 2.1 gp per family. Round off the stray 0.1 to allow for rust literal and metaphorical, and we have a sedate civilized realm. The peasants are, by custom, required to provide their own arms out of pocket, freeing the Lord from making these expenditures. Likewise, when called up, the militia does not require pay (as clanhold warriors), being bound by feudal contract. In borderlands or outlands domains, of course, more troops are needed, meaning that the Lords of these lands are often either poor, or else owe many favors to the King (a historical outcome).
These rules are set by custom, and a domain observing them will have a base morale of 0. Domain rules are well-advised to gain the Leadership general proficiency, which gives +1 base morale. Likewise, a Charisma modifier affects base morale directly. In fact, the various penalties and modifiers to base morale and morale rolls should be assumed to be the same, provided that they are not replaced by rules for similar situations. Any attempt to extract more wealth from the peasants will incur a penalty to base morale equal to the number of excess gp per month per family extracted, as the peasants grumble against this outrage. Reduction in levies likewise boosts base morale. Actually raising troops from the militia imposes a penalty on current morale checks equal to the gp value per family of troops raised (troops raised for only part of the month cost a proportional part of their gp value), +1 per 8 leagues (round down) distant the militia was deployed (weighted average of troop’s location during the month). These rules replace the ACKS rules for militia morale penalties. Rulers are advised to keep their deployments short and nearby!
With regards to personal authority, the existing table of modifiers should have the gp value row’s values read as regarding their domain income, not their net revenue. This gives a ruler of a domain with the same number of families the same personal authority as a ruler in a classic ACKS game. However, the campaign exp thresholds should NOT be adjusted. The medieval time is one of great kings going on great crusades, clan-lords leading daring raids, and other such bravery. There is no well-trod cursus honorum for medieval rulers to follow!
With respect to rulers who rule over other domains, they only owe their feudal lord the tax for their own peasants, plus half their receipts from their subfeudal realms. Tribute inefficiency for too many vassals is per ACKS. All feudal rulers must send troops when such a favor is called in, but many such rulers will not be the henchmen of their liege’s (as the liege needs to have several local officials be henchmen, per ACKS). Unsurprisingly, many Kings find themselves forced by the parsimony and unruliness of their barons into granting the rights that ACKS considers a Senatorial Realm. In a medieval context, this would be called a Parliamentary Realm. As in ACKS, this gives +1 to base morale in each sub-realm, and sets nonhenchman base loyalty to 0 instead of -2. In a clarification of the ACKS rules, the King gets one extra free favor per month, provided it is approved by Parliament, and his direct vassals may “share the burden” of this favor down the feudal chain, provided it is the same favor (i.e. a vassal asked to call up 1 gp of troops per family in his total domain may demand the same of each of his vassals, shifting the blame onto Parliament). However, medieval rulers do not benefit from the reduced penalties for calling up militia.
In medieval realms, especial the quasi-medieval realms of many fantasy settings, not all potentially croppable land is occupied. Therefore, domain population growth is not so much a matter of shopping for the nicest ruler, as a factor of the richness of the land and gentleness of the taxes. In medieval realms, therefore, current morale does not affect population growth. Rather, the difference in the land value of the domain from 6 gp, plus or minus any variation in the amount of wealth extracted by the ruler from the standard levies, is treated as the current morale score for the sole purpose of determining population growth. A 9 gp territory thus grows at an extra 3d10! families per thousand per month, or a shocking 18-20% year over year! However, this additional growth does bring a downside: plague. For each 30 persons (6 families) per square mile, rounded down, reduce a domains adjusted land value by 1 gp. As such, 9 gp (base) land can sustainably support a population of 119 persons per square mile. However, land may per improved, per the rules for improving land value, without limit (some might call this the Dutch Dikes Memorial Rule). As usual, warfare devastates realms with improved land value. Littoral domains can also gain additional population capacity from the sea, as per ACKS.
Classification of domains into outland, borderlands, and civilized, in a medieval milieu, works on the reverse principle from ACKS. After all, a large city like Paris or Rome might still find itself on the edge of the wild in medieval times! Simply, if a hex is within 8 leagues of wilderlands or lands populated by Chaos (beastman or human, it makes no difference), it is outlands. If it is not outlands and is with 16 leagues from said wilderlands/Chaos, or within 8 leagues of a Neutral foreign realm, it is borderlands. If it is neither, it is civilized. Note that Lawful realms make for good neighbors; however, most medieval realms are Neutral, even if they follow a Lawful religion (the lure of glory tempts many hearts!).
With regards to land value, random values should be generated for each hex, using the terrain-variable expressions in By This Axe. The lands of the medieval realm should be settled only if they are capable of maintaining their population levels, leaving patches of unsettled land amid civilized terrain. However, some of these lands should also be settled by the neighboring lords, with land improvements made to bring them to bare habitability. This expense allows lords to potentially improve the classification of their lands and potentially reduce their garrison expenses.
When a lord makes cash crops, the amount of crop the Lord gets is modified by the local demand modifier. Use the rules for determining the adjustments to demand modifiers found the JJ, excluding the age factor and the neighboring markets step. This sets the local supply value for each good. When producing goods as cash crops, the Lord gets a quantity of goods equal to the base cash value of 4 gp, divided by the price per stone, then multiplied by 1+(-(local supply modifier)/10). That is, if the local supply modifier is -2, the Lord should receive 20% more bulk of goods than the base value would indicate. To sell for profit, the crop must be moved to a market capable of adsorbing the sale, and the actual gold received is based on the rules for mercantile ventures. Having a Venturer henchman is worth considering for any lord intent on pursuing this route to riches. Note that improving land value can be done by corvee labor without the intermediate step of selling cash crops; likewise, stronghold values can be improved (to allow expansion into neighboring lands), and land improvements can be made, without needing to obtain cash.
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