I am new here and hope this question is well received.
The rules for the fielding of militia state:
‘In addition to conscripting peasants, the leader of a domain can also
levy a peasant militia. Up to 2 additional peasants per 10 families
can be levied into the militia. For each peasant levied, domain
revenues are reduced by one family, from loss of able-bodied
manpower. Domain morale is also reduced by 1 point by levying
1 or fewer peasants per 10 families, and by 2 points by levying 2
peasants per 10 families. These penalties remain until the militia is
sent home.’
p.432 ACKSii
It goes on to explain how the militia can be equipped, trained and returned to the population, and when called up have same stats as mercenaries of the same type. It also explains how they are self-perpetuating (father to son).
Given that morale and income penalties seem to apply to militia only when levied, would it be possible for a player to raise, equip, train and release a militia soldier from EVERY family in the domain training each at a time in rotation? This obviously comes with enormous risk, should the domain rebel, but it seems to allow for a player to “play-tall” in a defensive way.
Though a small nation could not hope to field such an army at once due to logistical/pay/morale limitations, it would allow it to draw on vast reserves should a war prove attrition. I am reminded of the seemingly unlimited manpower Rome kept throwing at Hannibal, or of the reserves systems of many early-modern states. Done at a more limited scale it would also be a useful reflection of the Byzantine pronoia system and it’s later Ottoman analogue.
Am I interpreting the rules correctly, or perhaps more importantly, with verisimilitude?
No, because the limit of 2 peasants per 10 families is a hard limit. If you call those people up and they die, you don’t get to then recruit 2 peasants per 10 remaining families - you’ve killed off everyone eligible for the militia and no longer have anyone that can be enlisted. See further down RR p432:
If militia are killed, they can only be replaced through population growth, so leaders should track militia casualties.
Typical ACKS domains have mobilization rates of up to 6% (one conscript and two militia per 10 families/50 people). Republican Rome typically remains within that limit, but periodically spikes to around 10%, such as during the Punic Wars as you reference; it is worth noting that this is anomalously high by comparison to all of its peers, not a baseline. There are a few answers that come to mind to explain that:
Potentially, while properly Roman territories on their own were too small to support so many people, they are conscripting at the scale of all the socii and provinces, which provides a much larger population base. Small Roman veteran settlements ensure that there are proper Romans to conscript wherever you go (though this somewhat overstates their extent).
Potentially, freeholding domains gain an additional potential conscript if at least 1/3 of the land is peasant-held, and two additional conscripts if 2/3 of the land is peasant-held.
The ACKS Patreon recently released rules for Republican City-States, tuned to representing Republican Rome, Athens, and other high mobilization domains of this type. Eventually those will make it into an Axioms article, though likely not for some time yet.
Ah I see, much appreciated Arbrethil for taking the time to explain the underlying rationale. I’ve had a look at the Republic rules on the Patreon and it indeed fills in the remaining blanks for me. It’s very satisfying to see how relatively small changes in a few ACKS rules can be used to reflect quite profoundly different societies, especially as someone coming from 5e where rules are often quite abstract or ‘gameified’ in their logic.