Why hire mercenaries?

[Morien]

4 hours ago, fulk said:

So perhaps the lower RW costs reflect availability of knights who previously would have responded to a feudal summons. In the KAP world most knights and soldiers are already obligated, so you have to pay significantly more for mercenaries?  

I suspect that what you said earlier about people returning back home has a ring of truth to it, in RW. Like most of the people who hired on to English armies for the HYW were yeomen and such, who had their homes to return to, and the mercenary pay was extra on top to their upkeep. There would have been very few actual mercenary knights, knights who would not have had their own lands or anything else. Most of the knights would have been part-time mercenaries: having their own lands or following their lord into war, again the money would have been extra. Lord Lazy is staying home and paying scutage for his SD, but Lord Hotspur is spending the whole campaigning season fighting with his men, supported by the scutage paid to the King by the lazy lords. King gets an army that will actually stay on the field for an extended time (a big plus when campaigning overseas and planning sieges), Lord Hotspur is earning some money (and probably paying bonuses to his knights to keep them happy, too, especially if things get tough and there is no good looting), and Lord Lazy stays comfy in his hall with just a couple of knights around since he intends to go on paying scutage. Everyone wins, and Lord Hotspur's men don't have to live from the mercenary wages alone, since they already have their upkeep from Lord Hotspur's lands. Those knights who were true mercenaries were probably leaders of larger mercenary companies, captains of their own men, and thus able to negotiate a larger salary for themselves (and their men, in order to keep them alive as well). Or indeed, were hired for longer periods, household troops in all but name (Mercadier comes to mind). The profusion of Free Companies during HYW hints that not all mercenaries had a home to return to, either.

However, in KAP we do have actual mercenary knights, masterless men who live by warfare alone. Indeed, if one does random character generation, it is possible to end up as an esquire mercenary (K&L, p. 38): "Become a mercenary (sergeant). Many live this way, earning money when war is in season and paying for a place to live when not working." That K&L write-up strongly hints that the mercenary ought to be able to make enough money during the campaigning session that it will support him for the rest of the year, too, and it is a career that a Player-character might have.

So yeah, your reasoning that in KAP we would see many more lords answering the call to muster, and hence have less available household/vassal knights as mercenaries, could explain why the 'extra' mercenaries cost so much. Of course, the price might go down (to half? £4 for the whole campaigning season) during peacetime, as there are plenty of household/vassal knights willing to earn a bit of extra cash, and the mercenaries are willing to risk it rather than starve or go rogue.

[fulk]

It would be good to figure out what the rates are for KAP6.  All the costs in BoCastles use the lower rate. 

[Atgxtg]

On 4/6/2020 at 6:59 PM, fulk said:

It would be good to figure out what the rates are for KAP6.  All the costs in BoCastles use the lower rate. 

Yes, but I think KAP6 has to come out first.

One of the reasons why KAP is muddled is because many ideas are carryovers from earlier editions and have yet to be updated to the current rules. 

[fulk]

Absolutely.  I don't think it is even an Edition problem. It has been every subsequent publication.  I think KAP would do well from a full KAP6 with all the supplements brought up-to-date and inline in a coherent manner.  I don't know if people would buy all that, but I probably would. 

[Atgxtg]

1 hour ago, fulk said:

Absolutely.  I don't think it is even an Edition problem. It has been every subsequent publication.  I think KAP would do well from a full KAP6 with all the supplements brought up-to-date and inline in a coherent manner.  I don't know if people would buy all that, but I probably would. 

Yup. 

Part of the problem is that we really don't know all that much about medieval economics. For instance try and find out just how much a knight's fee actually was. Even if you find a value it is only good for a specific location at a specific time period. So there are some holes the economics that kind of make mercs impractical. The latter supplements help somewhat with this, but still probably shortchange knights a bit, compared to the footsoldier pay.