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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 6582546" data-attributes="member: 6779310">I'm seeing an awful lot of 19th-20th C assertions that don't really fit medieval troop standards.Such as "Everyone scouts" - not historically true even into the early 18th C. Many battles were in fact entirely without scouting of note, arranged by simple sending of a message to a known location - the nearest castle. Raids benefit highly from scouting, but as often as not, were done as recon-in-force rather than scouting proper. (As in, you send enough to fight a winning battle if they're not home, and pray they are not home.)Given the typical tech level portrayed (late medieval to early renaissance; 14th to 15th C)...There won't be a standing army of any note. There may be a castle guard or city guard, but those will only fight at their hired location. The army will be 755 to 95% infantry. The officers will almost all be cavalry.  Most of the infantry will be light infantry, mostly peasant levies. Artillery will typically be rare - few armies had them; mercenary artillerists were constantly sought for the summer fighting seasons... and starving in winter.Wizards are likely less than 1 per 500 troops. A wizard is an ammo-limited artillery piece. A typical army should look like about 5-20 men at arms and sergeants (mounted MAA) per officer-type (noble and knights).About 3-15 knights per nobleman (many had more, but appointed knights as leaders, and they basically count as noblemen except heraldically)About 150-500 peasant levies per nobleman or knight - this represents as much as 40% of the overall population, tho typically closer to 25%maybe 10 to 50 archers per nobleman; they replace men at arms and peasant levies.1-2 heralds per noblemanNote that the classical period (Roman) saw standing armies of about 5%-20% of the non-slave population. A Roman legion was mostly heavy infantry. 4000-5000 infantry, 120-300 horse and archers combined.Wizards should be fewer still than noblemen... tho each noble might have a hired wizard, probably of level 1-3... tho the level would climb with the rank of nobleman...</blockquote>

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