I've been churning data working out the basic background for a county. Part of this is figuring out the garrisons at the various towns and castles - with both what the minimum foot soldier requirement is, as well as expected "normal" foot soldier and knight garrisons might be.

I don't have the Nobles Book, so my base information is the KAP5 rulebook (the data on the Salisbury castle and town garrisons), Lordly Domains (which had some figures on garrison numbers), and the base statement in Book of the Manor that a fortified manor required at least five foot soldiers to be defended to its full DV value.

So, my terminology and reasoning first, and then my adopted house rule for estimating garrisons.

From Lordly Domains these minimum garrison numbers are supplied:

Type KtFoot
Manor 12
Motte & B 416
Lrg M&B 525
Sm Castle 46
Med Castle 515
Lrg Castle 515
Fort Town 1770


The KAP5 book (page 61) supplied data on the Salisbury garrisons, which also includes the minimum foot soldier garrisons. (I am ignoring the full garrison numbers since these reflect excess knights or foot potentially there for patrols, escort for the Earl, etc.)

The motte and bailey castles at DuPlains, Ebble, and Devizes have minimum garrisons of 5 soldiers. This threw me initially, but I have an explanation for it. Sarum has a minimum garrison of 34 soldiers, but is garrison for both the city and castle presumably. Vagon is a reinforced motte and bailey requiring 19 soldiers. The others; Tilshead (14), Warminster (11), and Wilton (24) are fortified towns.

First, note that these numbers are well under the Lordly Domains numbers for a fortified town. This is the main area where my house rule breaks from the supplied data; the large requirement for foot soldiers for a town indicated there.

Lordly Domains and older materials refer to AREA values for towns and castles. Since I am working with KAP5 and Book of the Manor I have a rough conversion of AREA values to matching village and manor sizes from BotM.

AREA 1 = Manor, small castle, motte area of a M&B
AREA 2 = Small town, bailey of a motte and bailey or medium castle
AREA 3 = Medium town, large bailey or hill fort
AREA 4 = Large town or small city

Two additional factors come into play:

Is it a castle/defensive work or a town?
How many gates does the town have?
Is the town laid out efficiently for defense?


Garrison requirements (minimum foot soldiers) then use these rules:
A. Castle or defensive work = 5 soldiers per AREA + 1 soldier per large gate
B. Fortified Town = 7 soldiers per AREA + 2 soldiers per large gate
If the town is vulnerable or inefficiently laid out there is a 10-20% penalty added to the AREA requirement.

Some Examples:

1. Standard Motte & Bailey
AREA 1 Motte inside AREA 2 Bailey
5 soldiers for the motte part
10 soldiers for the bailey palisade
1 soldier for the bailey gate
[16 soldiers total - matching the Lordly Domains requirement]
[Note: And for the minimum with the Salisbury M&B castles - they strip the foot and just leave enough to defend the inner tower - 5 soldiers, leaving the outer palisade vulnerable and undefended.]

2. Small Castle
AREA 1 castle
5 soldiers for the castle
1 soldier for the castle gate
[6 soldiers total - matching Lordly Domains total for a small castle]

3. Small Town
AREA 2 town with three gates
14 soldiers for the town
6 soldiers for the gates
2 soldiers for an vulnerable layout - docks or something
[22 soldiers for the town - fewer than a motte and bailey, but not a layered defense either]

4. Large Town
AREA 4 town with four gates - former Roman city maybe
28 soldiers for the town
8 soldiers for the gates
[36 soldiers for the town]

Lower numbers than Lordly Domains, but even these will eat into a lord's purse given that a Large Town in BotM is only generating something in the range of 12-15 librum in extra income. My personal offset for this is having the town or city offset at least part of the garrison with town militia.

As a supplement I also have a rough estimate for "normal" knightly garrison for these locations. Base rule is 2 knights/AREA + 1 knight/Gate (towns only). So a M&B would have 4 knights, a small castle 2 knights, and our large town above needing 12 knights.

More expenses in order to keep order. But it also makes towns an obvious place to have fighting men gathered to repel raids or prepare for campaign.

In both Lordly Domains and the Nobles book, I believe the requirement is 10 soldiers per AREA.

In both Lordly Domains and the Nobles book, I believe the requirement is 10 soldiers per AREA.




And in Lordly Domains hiring 5 of them only cost 1 Librum a year. With a manor being able to effectively hire three or less per year for free.

In both Lordly Domains and the Nobles book, I believe the requirement is 10 soldiers per AREA.

And in Lordly Domains hiring 5 of them only cost 1 Librum a year. With a manor being able to effectively hire three or less per year for free.

...one of the reasons I do not like its economics.

In both Lordly Domains and the Nobles book, I believe the requirement is 10 soldiers per AREA.

And in Lordly Domains hiring 5 of them only cost 1 Librum a year. With a manor being able to effectively hire three or less per year for free.

...one of the reasons I do not like its economics.


I think in LD the idea was that 1L of food would feed 5 people for a year, which equated with a peasant family needing 1L per year to live.

As an aside, historically the daily wage for a foot soldier tended to be about the same as a daily laborer -- little higher, little lower. 1L per soldier is probably too high, 0.5 might be more reasonable, but it doesn't really matter. Pendragon is only pseudo-history..the wage just has to fit within the Pendragon world.

NT