Battle based on Blanchetaque (was: Scouting Missions)

[Mr. Mask]

Excellent stuff from Oni. I have nothing to add.

[SerenityFrost]

Oni, you're the best.

Also, I like Prelate too. I think I'll go with that.

[Brother Oni]

You're both welcome.

Awww, you didn't like my Chapter Master General Lucius suggestion.
I had a short snippet of dialogue all planned as well:

Protagonist: You're not what I was expecting when I heard Chapter Master General.
Lucius: Yes, the title does conjure up the image of an eight foot giant clad in armour, with the righteous fury of Althea burning in his eyes. We've toned it down over the years as it scares the common folk.
Protagonist: That's good to hear.
Lucius: I only wear the armour on holy days now.

Edit: I've been bouncing some other ideas around regarding the Althea Church (very) Militant and the bandit army and was wondering if you were interested?

[Rosstin]

You're both welcome.

Awww, you didn't like my Chapter Master General Lucius suggestion.
I had a short snippet of dialogue all planned as well:

Protagonist: You're not what I was expecting when I heard Chapter Master General.
Lucius: Yes, the title does conjure up the image of an eight foot giant clad in armour, with the righteous fury of Althea burning in his eyes. We've toned it down over the years as it scares the common folk.
Protagonist: That's good to hear.
Lucius: I only wear the armour on holy days now.

Edit: I've been bouncing some other ideas around regarding the Althea Church (very) Militant and the bandit army and was wondering if you were interested?

Hahaha...

Sure, go ahead. I'm interested in hearing any theories about the bandit army you might have.

[Rosstin]

Lineup of all our boys just finished by Lilin. We had the art before but now it has been resized and reproportioned so that everyone matches. See if you can figure out who is who?

Full resolution:

Spoiler: Full Resolution (Warning: HUUUUUGE)

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Smaller preview:

[Brother Oni]

Sure, go ahead. I'm interested in hearing any theories about the bandit army you might have.

Spoiler: Bandit army

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If you're planning to bring the bandits in as a credible threat to the army mentioned, they're going to need massive numbers.

The problem is, most bandits gangs are small groups, held together by the force of personality of the bandit leader. This means that the leader only has a couple men he trusts, who in turn only have a couple of men they trust, and so on, which tends to limit the size of organisation to a few hundred men at most, especially since they don't have an overall goal to unite them beyond 'satiate our desires'.

Contrast to a terrorist organisation which has a single unifying goal (e.g. the unification of their country or rights for the people) which holds the group together, even if each cell is held together by the leader's personality.

On a separate aspect, I believe you've set up traders to buy the loot that the bandits steal? How exactly are the bandits going to spend that money and on what? The chances are they're probably wanted men, so can't really wander into the nearest town to spend their ill gotten gains, so the raw loot they get, like food, clothing, slaves, farming tools, etc is actually more useful to them than cash.
If you put bandits into the direct pay of the Ortherans, then the chances are they'd probably take the money and run - there is no honour among thieves after all.

My suggestion would be two part - the bandits are in actuality loyalist remnants of the Montechrest army. This way they have no compunction against raiding Sylgardian or Ortheran villages and they could be paid directly in money through the guise of intermediaries who allegedly want to free Montechrest by funding a rebellion (in actuality, it's King Kendrick).
The reason why they'd want the gold is to hire mercenaries or obtain more weapons, armour and supplies to rebuild the troops required for the rebellion and raiding the villages is a good way to both gain experience and additional supplies.

The soldiers would form the backbone of the raiders and their numbers would be supplemented by deserters, thugs, mercenaries and other scum, but the central leadership would be trained disciplined soldiers in disguise.

This could be hinted at by the protagonist encountering a village under attack:

Spoiler: Scenario description

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The option of helping the villagers would result in a battle, where the bandits rapidly realise they're under attack and put up some brief resistance before they spot the heavy cavalry advancing into charging range, at which point they rout comprehensively.

One the lads (Prince Alastor is the best candidate as he's probably got the least experience) mocks the bandits for being snivelling cowards at which Nicholas points out that a small cluster of dead bandits on the main road fought to the last man in a rearguard action to let them escape, which is decidedly NOT the actions of a group of uncoordinated bandits.

Nicholas' suspicions are undermined by the fact that the surviving bandit prisoners are universally deserters and thugs, because the mercenary and soldier bandits focused on plunder and got the hell out as soon as the cavalry was spotted in comparison to the less disciplined lot who decided to have some fun and did the whole rape, pillage and burn method of sacking the village.

This way, you have a third army with both the capability and motive to pose a legitimate threat to both the Sylgardians and Ortheran armies.

Of course now you're going to tell me you have other plans for the Montechrestians and this idea doesn't work.

Lineup of all our boys just finished by Lilin. We had the art before but now it has been resized and reproportioned so that everyone matches. See if you can figure out who is who?

Spoiler: The lads

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From left to right, Rubus, Lucius, Fox, Alastor, Nicholas, James and Marcus?

Edit: forgot to ask, I assume they have family/last names? With the exception of Prince Alastor and Fox (which is probably a pseudonym), typically the family/surname would be used with titles.

[Rosstin]

You got it!! :D

They do have last names, I haven't mentioned them a lot because I'm trying to avoid confusing everyone. The artists have a hard enough time keeping the characters straight as it is, 7 main characters is quite a lot.

Honestly sometimes I think it would be easier for everyone to keep them straight if they ONLY had titles XD

[Mr. Mask]

Very nice drawings and character designs. I recognize all the characters except that tall first one. I guess he's your wizard?

Are all of those characters romanceable (excluding yourself of cour--.... actually, is MarcusxMarcus shippable?)?


Another Ren'py question if it's all right: Does everything in a Ren'py game need to be coded with Python? For example, if I wanted to have sections of gameplay like Advanced Wars inbetween, would I be able to code Advanced Wars with C# or JavaScript?



Bandits: Bandits could honestly be very large and organized groups. The Vikings were bandits, and would sometimes get together to take over Britain rather than simply raid it.

Like pirates, bandits are usually very democratic, and the leader will be replaced if the group feels he's under performing. What keeps them together is usually each other. Often, they know each other from when they deserted together, or from growing up together in their poor village or whichever. If they need more men, they can probably start recruiting vagabonds, thieves, deserters, etc., who will come to have some loyalty to each other. Still, bandits usually aren't very loyal (but they could be).


Pirate ports and bandit towns are where ill gotten gain is normally spent. Places which let the outlaws in and have plenty of the stuff they want. They could just send some people to towns to buy stuff, though, pawn the hotter items in seedy parts of a city. It's harder if you require everyone to have papers. If many of them are known, they'll get someone who isn't to join their gang.

That being said, large amounts of hot items being traded for enough food for two hundred men which you cart up into the hidden mountain base... that's very suspicious. As the group ges larger, its activities will draw more attention and it will want to keep further from places of power. Bandit towns aren't always available either, so some groups really did have to start stealing their own rice.


As for taking the money and running... they would be unlikely to do that. Bandits are professionals, career criminals, they understand you don't get paid till you've done what is asked. If all that is asked is to prey upon one side and not the other, and they'll be able to have somewhere to hang out and get paid for doing what they normally would, few would refuse that. That's basically an offer to be land privateers with less restrictions, all a bandit could ask for.

Making them up largely of remnants of Montechrest is still a strong possibility. That makes them more interesting than generic thieves. If some of them are loyalists, that'll mean they're loyal to Kendrick, which will make it easier to change them into an army.


Either way, it depends strongly on what sort of bandits Serenity and Ross want. How organized, how selfish, how loyal, how army-worthy, etc..

[Brother Oni]

They do have last names, I haven't mentioned them a lot because I'm trying to avoid confusing everyone. The artists have a hard enough time keeping the characters straight as it is, 7 main characters is quite a lot.

Try reading The Water Margin (108 protagonists) or The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (List 2).

7 two-part names aren't going to even remotely phase me.

Are all of those characters romanceable (excluding yourself of cour--.... actually, is MarcusxMarcus shippable?)?

MarcusxMarcus is much like Number 2 in Austin Powers - if it's with yourself, it not really cheating.

I'm more worried about MarcusxNicholas as that's heading well into one of those dating sims...

Bandits: Bandits could honestly be very large and organized groups. The Vikings were bandits, and would sometimes get together to take over Britain rather than simply raid it.

I think we're running into a terminology difference here as we're using the term 'bandits' to mean slightly different things.

The small raiding parties of vikings that raided monasteries and villages being bandits, I agree. When you're sending over a raiding party of 3-4 thousand vikings under the command of a viking king, they stop being bandits and more an organised army.

Like pirates, bandits are usually very democratic, and the leader will be replaced if the group feels he's under performing.

However on a ship, the crew can't go anywhere, so the discipline had to be strong to stop them from killing each other. Bandits dissatisfied with their leader but not strong enough to oppose him could always find a way to sneak off.

Pirate ports and bandit towns are where ill gotten gain is normally spent. Places which let the outlaws in and have plenty of the stuff they want.

Except that these bandit/pirate towns would have to be on Ortheran or Sylgardian territory and since they were nominally at peace before this outbreak of war, consolidating your power by removing any independent towns is one of the first things to do.

For an example, take a look at how vigorously the British pursued ending the slave trade (of which piracy was heavily involved with) after the Napoleonic War: Bomardment of Algiers.

I don't think there would be enough dodgy places for a large group of bandits to flog their loot without arousing suspicion by flooding the black market.

As for taking the money and running... they would be unlikely to do that. Bandits are professionals, career criminals, they understand you don't get paid till you've done what is asked. If all that is asked is to prey upon one side and not the other, and they'll be able to have somewhere to hang out and get paid for doing what they normally would, few would refuse that. That's basically an offer to be land privateers with less restrictions, all a bandit could ask for.

I would agree that it would depend on the character of the bandits, but in general pirates and bandits like easy prey. Raiding a few lightly defended villages is one thing, getting involved in a set piece battle against a professional army is another.

Making them up largely of remnants of Montechrest is still a strong possibility. That makes them more interesting than generic thieves. If some of them are loyalists, that'll mean they're loyal to Kendrick, which will make it easier to change them into an army.

Oops, forgot that Kendrick was the proper heir to the Montechrest throne. Loyal to the other successor then and/or people opposed to the Montechrest/Orthera union?

Edit: Thinking about it some more, you've hit upon a very logical way of King Kendrick of having a corp of fanatically loyal deniable assets that are willing to do all the underhanded skullduggery that typically goes on in a war. Since they're likely to be vilified for selling out their country to Orthera, service to King Kendrick is their own really viable option and given that he was quite a good king before he got hold of the crown, they have no real reason to doubt his loyalty to them.

[SerenityFrost]

Ha ha, yes they're all romancable except the last one, which is the protag. Though, I suppose technically, the protag is romanceable as she can be in a romance with the rest of the guys. d:


Yeah, it's gotta be python. Now it does have something that lets you use pygame via a framework, but I haven't a clue how it works and just assume it also uses python.

http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/Frameworks

There's you a starting point on all that if you want to look into it yourself. Coding isn't really my forte, however. So I could be wrong on my python assumption.

[Brother Oni]

Ha ha, yes they're all romancable except the last one, which is the protag.

Even Nicholas?

Well I suppose royalty only marrying other royalty was the done thing and thus cousins were acceptable, but brother is well into House Targaryen level of incest.

Though, I suppose technically, the protag is romanceable as she can be in a romance with the rest of the guys. d:

Including all of them at once?

[Mr. Mask]

Brother: I'm hoping Nicholas isn't a blood brother.



The thing with the Vikings is they're the same group of people--they don't change who they are when they're acting as bandits from when they're acting as an army. If the Vikings are brave and loyal to each other when they're fighting a war, you can bet the same when they're fighting a raid.


I'm afraid the point about ships and discipline went over my head.


Bandit towns depends on the exact geography and political situation, but yes they don't tend to be popular with the powers that be (in this specific case, the king will arrange a couple of bandit towns). Generally, powers are less willing to bomb places under their own jurisdiction as it can be a political incident, some places are too hard to fight so that it's easier to pick off the bandits than to fight the town, etc.. So you might get bandit towns in Orthera and Slygard, or you might have none--depends on precise factors.


It is a very good question as to whether they'll be willing to play mercenary and solider. Most people do get into that life because they don't like hard fighting. It's not impossible to get thugs to play soldier--but you need to convince them of very high gains for very little resistance, and/or business needs to be bad enough that they're willing to play mercenary. It depends a lot on the particular bandits, whether they're a warrior culture or just thieves, and what they think of you, as well.


Kendrick might have some fanatics who betrayed their country, it depends on how exactly he did it. Whether these traitors are despised depends on how they're perceived (if no one is the wiser, you can't hate them for what you don't know), and opinions of both the previous ruler and the current ruler. You'd figure a lot of the most loyal Montechrest soldiers would act as personal guards and soldiers for the King, in case anything should go awry with his power base in Ortheran. The bandits might still be primarily Montechrestans(Montechrestees? Montechrestos?), just depending on who Kendrick was able to recruit the most soldiers from and who is left and most willing to become bandits.

[SerenityFrost]

Ha ha, no, Nick isn't your brother by blood. You were adopted. He's older than you by a couple years, and while the MC considers him her brother, he doesn't really see her that way.

Also, there are no current plans for a harem ending.

[Mr. Mask]

Thought that was probably how it'd be. That's a good way of handling it.

Suggestion: Would be neat to have a variant Nicholas ending, where you strengthen your sibling bond rather than a romantic one. Could only be a few lines different.

Feel free to disregard that. I'm not sure how you're handling the story or their characters, so it might be unsuitable or be too hard to implement.


A harem ending would be pretty difficult when the romance options are such high ranking individuals. It could work if there are precedents within the setting, similar to how some of the generals of China were wives of the emperor--but unless that's already the way the culture works you're unlikely to be able to get away with it even if you are Queen (if you had a really strong position you can do basically anything you want--but your position isn't likely to very strong).


EDIT: Oops... I got too enthralled talking about bandits, and forgot to thank Serenity for answering my question. Sorry about that. Thanks for the link, Serenity, it's very helpful. Will have to consider how python will work with such a project.

[SerenityFrost]

The stronger sibling tie is one of the ending options, yeah. Also, you're welcome! There are other engines out there you could make a VN on. Ren'Py is just the one I'm familiar with.

[Mr. Mask]

Thought you may have considered the option. Will be fun to get different endings.


I'm not very familiar with Python code. I'll try it out later, and see what I think. For now, I've nearly finished off combat ranges for the tabletop RPG.

[Brother Oni]

The thing with the Vikings is they're the same group of people--they don't change who they are when they're acting as bandits from when they're acting as an army. If the Vikings are brave and loyal to each other when they're fighting a war, you can bet the same when they're fighting a raid.

Which is why I don't really think of them as bandits even when they're engaging in banditry, due to their external bonds and chain of command.

Checking up some descriptions of bandits, one phrase that comes up is 'proscribed or outlawed'. Vikings didn't belong to any of the saxon kingdoms, thus aren't really outlaws - they're just plain raiders and foreign warriors.

I'm afraid the point about ships and discipline went over my head.

Pirate crews have strict discipline because it's the only way to function in an enclosed environment like a ship without descending into complete anarchy over unresolved grudges.
Pirates were democratic because their own code said they were: pirate code examples. This freedom to vote was probably intentional to lure men away from military service for national powers.

Bandits on the other hand have considerably more space to roam when they get fed up of each other, so discipline didn't need to be as strict - at least I can't find any examples of a large bandit gang's code of conduct.

Vikings and other raiders had their own culture, with their own system of laws to enforce order and discipline, thus why I don't think of them as bandits.

I'm of the opinion that for a large bandit gang (more than a few hundred members) to survive without fracturing into lots of smaller gangs, there needs to be a code of conduct or some other unifying cause to hold them all together.
Whether that evolves organically or is in place already doesn't really matter, but when it does, are they really bandits any more or are they something more akin to freedom fighters/rebels?

Ha ha, no, Nick isn't your brother by blood. You were adopted. He's older than you by a couple years, and while the MC considers him her brother, he doesn't really see her that way.

Oh good, that means I can play this game in front of my children without them asking awkward questions.

A harem ending would be pretty difficult when the romance options are such high ranking individuals. It could work if there are precedents within the setting, similar to how some of the generals of China were wives of the emperor--but unless that's already the way the culture works you're unlikely to be able to get away with it even if you are Queen (if you had a really strong position you can do basically anything you want--but your position isn't likely to very strong).

It depends on how Marcus has a claim to the throne, the strength of it and whether she is able or willing to usurp it from King Kendrick's line.

Assuming that she's also not related to Alastor (and we're back to the squick), Orthera becoming a Queendom like Sylgardia might help to smooth over relations.
Depending on how Orthera views polygamy, as Queen, Marcus could choose to take any number of Prince Consorts.

Edit: Ooo, sneaky backhanded political trick:

Spoiler

Show

As part of the negotiation, King Kendrick would abdicate and his successors would swear fealty to Sylgardia.
Played correctly, that's a massive concession that could net some very nice ones back from Sylgardia. After the treaty is signed, King Alastor abdicates suddenly with no heirs, thus an alternate line must be found... who is Marcus.

Since the treaty was for King Kendrick's line only, it's no longer valid for Marcus, who now rules Orthera.

Whether Marcus knows about this plan is entirely optional.

[Mr. Mask]

The line between bandits, pirates, freedom fighters, rebels, Vikings, mercenaries and soldiers is a thin and blurry one. All types can and have raped, looted, pillaged, burned, and pointlessly tortured (obviously, not everyone who becomes one of these things is a looting raping pillaging burning pointlessly torturing psychosociopath, but any group under one of those titles is capable of performing these activities with consistency).

So, it depends on what kind of violent men Serenity and Ross want for their bandits. Ex-soldiers, soldiers hired to play bandit, raider culture, fanatics, etc..


Pirates weren't democratic due to strictness but due to laxness. If they liked strictness, they'd have stuck with the navy or privateer life.

Historically, a lot of raider/bandit groups have been democratic in nature. The less organized and structured such a group, the more likely they are to be democratic. It really depends on the specifics of this group.

It is indeed true that the bigger the group gets, the more structured they'll need to get. They can get away with looser structure if they're a conglomeration of smaller groups, but it still needs to increase. They may well also give themselves a more impressive titles, and may play to politics by presenting themselves as freedom fighters or rebels (when their behaviour does not change even slightly).

[Rosstin]

Not Really Your Brother:
When Serenity pitched this game to me and mentioned this "brother" character I was like "noooooooooo!"

But everyone else on the team was like "yessss!" As the only straight male on the team, I felt that I should probably just shut up and go with it. The "not really your brother" character must be some kind of appealing archetype that I just don't understand.

He's already really popular with the players. Most of the players mention him as one of their favorite characters. There's a complex dynamic between him and the protagonist that even I think is very interesting. She remembers him as a very different person than he is now, and their pre-existing relationship makes their scenes feel very intimate but also a bit sad and wistful.

Mask's Game:
Mask, this really could go either way for you. I would figure out whether the core of your game was the "novel" aspect or the "game" aspect. If the game aspect is core and you're an experienced coder, don't build in Ren'Py. Just build the visual novel engine into your game engine of choice.

If the visual novel aspect is core, build it first and then build the game aspect as a simple thing in Python.

Although I think my best advice is to start reaaaaally simple. Build a game that's smaller and simpler than you think you want to make. I'd even cut one of those aspects: the game or the VN. Just focus on one and see what happens before you build the other.

That's why I decided not to make a war minigame for Queen At Arms. I wanted to focus on one core aspect of gameplay to the exclusion of all else. Even with that restriction, Queen is still bigger and more complex than I would have liked.

[Mr. Mask]

That's a pretty funny story.

One thing to watch out for, is that the not your blood sibling arc has been covered before. I have reason to believe you've done a good job and it will add to your story.


Very good advise, I follow design philosophies much like you describe.

Currently, I'm not sure how big the game aspect will be since I haven't worked out the mechanics, but it would be an RPG style combat system. The main challenge with it will probably be design, as I might be trying for something impossible with that project (for now, I better finish my current impossible project).

[Rosstin]

Hm.. in that case my instincts say definitely just pick one thing, and stick with it. Try the simplest thing first, and do that.

My first complete games were very simple, devastatingly simple. Incredibly simple. Even then, there were huge unforeseen problems at every turn and I barely got them out.

I think that success breeds success. It feels a lot better to make a very simple project, complete it, and then say "Wow, look at that! I did it! Even though it's silly and simple, it's done " than to look at an ambitious half-done project, and think "I'll never be able to finish this "

Making all those silly little games built my confidence a lot, and gave me the courage to push through the dark times you see in big projects like Queen At Arms. And believe me, there are bad days. The schedule gets pushed back, you get a bad review from someone you thought you could rely on, someone completely misunderstands a deliverable and you have to redo it, a hard drive gets totalled and you have to redo work. Without experience, I would have despaired and quit. With experience, you realize: "Yes, it will take 10+ hours of work to overcome this setback. But, I've already put 400 hours of work into the project. My teammates are relying on me. People expect this to come out. I have to succeed no matter what." And you face these kinds of crises all the time... it's part of game development.

I have a few favorite examples of minimal games...
Love Letter: http://axcho.deviantart.com/art/The-...tter-289182364
You Have To Burn The Rope: http://www.kongregate.com/games/maza...-burn-the-rope

On my end, my most successful minimal game was Queer Catboy. And that still took months. @_@
We got a script done in only a few weeks, and got most of the art, then the artist quit, destroying the project. It was awful.
But I got a coder friend and a new artist to join me for a game jam, and wham-bam we fixed it and put it out.
http://rosstin.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/kitty-love-3/
It's a silly game, really. It's extremely short and kind of weird. But damn, it made some people very happy. And I got to read all these forum "let's plays" of the game and whatnot. This ridiculous game is one of the big experiences for me as a game producer, where my work was appreciated. And it really drove home "make it simple, complete it, get it out" for me.

[Mr. Mask]

Yeah, I very much agree with that. Half-finished works have plagued me for some time..

This tabletop game ended up being bigger than I originally planned, but I seem to be capable of finishing it. If I do finish it, it will be good design practice and good confidence building for my next projects.

Hey... I've played those two games! I actually enjoyed them quite thoroughly (the song at the end of burn the rope was excellent). Haven't heard of that cat one.

[Rosstin]

Oh, I didn't make the two minimal games I linked, only the cat one. But both those games were made on the time scale of a week/long-weekend

[Mr. Mask]

Misread that. Will have to try a weeklong project sometime.

[SerenityFrost]

Week long projects can be fun, but you gotta be careful about over planning. I've had ideas that were meant to be simple week longs and they always end up developing into something that can't be finished in a week. d:

[Mr. Mask]

Most of my projects are like that. End up making them bigger than the original design.

[Rosstin]

OK, so I'm trying to wrap up dependencies to the battle, and I have one more big point that I have to work out.

Right before the Battle based on Blanchetaque in Chapter 2, you have a free day. There are 6 available events, and you can pick 3 to do. We've got most of them figured out:

* Hang out with the Prince (raises relationship with Prince)
* Cheer up Sir Nick (raises relationship with Nick)
* Go hunting with the soldiers to raise their morale (most directly raises soldier relationship)
* Study Ice Magic with Archmagus Rubus (helps you raise the ice bridge)
* Treat Wounded Soldiers with Head Cleric Lucius
* Upgrade soldier equipment with James the Mechanist

These last, two, I'm trying to figure something clever that will have an effect on the battle. I've tried to provide a mix of events that purely raise relationships and have very little effect on troop morale (spending time with the Prince-- he basically takes you on a little picnic that has no interaction with the men) and events that are very focused on raising troop morale (going hunting with the soldiers, no interaction with boys) and events focused on upgrading your military capacity (studying ice magic with the Archmagus, no positive effect on morale but gives you a great benefit during the battle.)

For both Head Cleric Lucius and James's event, I'm thinking troop morale will also be raised, but I also want to provide some strategic benefit for the battle. I can't make it super obviously connected directly with the bridge blowing out, because no one knows that will happen. So I have to think of some kind of logical equipment upgrade that they could work on that would have a clever interaction with the battle, and some kind of medical advance that could prevent loss of life during the river battle.

[Mr. Mask]

I'm rather curious about the effects of helping with the ice bridge. Fewer soldier casualties?

Onto the topic you want help with...


Treating Wounded: This should raise morale. It won't necessarily raise morale as much for the army as a whole as if you went hunting with soldiers. But, those who take notice of your actions, lowering yourself to suck the puss from their ulcers so that they live--some of those men will die for you gladly. There was a woman who mourned when she heard a general had sucked the puss from an abscess her son suffered from--because the general had done the same for her husband, and he fought until he died for that general.

This could be a mixture of a morale bonus and a combat bonus. You could also have a minor increase in your number of soldiers--not because of medical skill on your part having a noticeable effect; but because seeing you attending to them made some of the soldiers decide they weren't so injured they couldn't help.


Upgrade Equipment: There are a number of ways equipment can be improved. The changes can be small or large, and small and large changes alike can have small or extreme effects. What sort of change you want depends on what equipment and tactics they currently have. Able to give details on that?

[Brother Oni]

For a battle based benefit for treating the wounded, have an increased number of reserves, since you'd have more walking wounded available to fight.

With regard to the equipment, why not simple repairs? There's not really much you can do in a day except hammer out dents and resharpen swords.
This would give a minor bonus to damage and defence.
Alternately they can manufacture more specialist ammunition for the artillery/archers.

There was a woman who mourned when she heard a general had sucked the puss from an abscess her son suffered from--because the general had done the same for her husband, and he fought until he died for that general.

Do you have a source for that? The story I heard didn't involve the son and was an anecdotal story to support Sun Tzu's maxim of "Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death."

Sucking pus out of wounds by mouth sounds ridiculous. Removal of purulent material was done either by leech or by incision and use of an animal bladder to provide suction.

[Mr. Mask]

Oni: If it was based off your medical skill, you'll be lucky to have twenty guys recover due to your efforts in time for the battle--which is almost nothing to an army unless they're very impressive individuals (which would be a little convenient).

The commander hammering out dents and sharpening a few swords won't raise an army's attack and defence power... If the soldiers weren't keeping proper care of their weapons and you acted to make them decide to start keeping them, that could have an effect.


He didn't necessarily suck it with his mouth. I don't think the account actually said how he did it. The story is attributed to Wu Qi: http://suntzusaid.com/book/10/25/