My reading of the rules is that you make a squire roll at the end of each battle round whether or not you are using his services in order to see if he is still with the unit. Is this correct?

If so, I find that few knights retain their squires by the end of a ~6 round battle. Have others found this?

I'm tempted to give the squire a bonus to his roll when he is following his master but not rushing in to change weapons or horses or whatnot.

How do others feel about this? I've just been running a battle with four green knights and four green squires, so perhaps this is just an artifact of rolling for 15's instead of higher numbers.

Thanks

It's partly an artefact of having young knights, and partly the fact that being separated from your squire is one of those things that will happen to you every now and then. The knights can withdraw to get their squires back, remember.

When you have a range of knights of different ages, with squires ranging from 15-20+, you'll see it happen less often - but it will probably still happen when the owning player most needs him. :)

My reading of the rules is that you make a squire roll at the end of each battle round whether or not you are using his services in order to see if he is still with the unit. Is this correct?

If so, I find that few knights retain their squires by the end of a ~6 round battle. Have others found this?

I'm tempted to give the squire a bonus to his roll when he is following his master but not rushing in to change weapons or horses or whatnot.

How do others feel about this? I've just been running a battle with four green knights and four green squires, so perhaps this is just an artifact of rolling for 15's instead of higher numbers.

Thanks


It still leaves at least a 75% chance that your squire remains with you every round.. Thats pretty decent. I wonder in a real mideaval battle how often squires did get seperated from their knights during a 4-6 hour fight. Interestimng to think about. I mean if i asked a 15 year old boy ( even a trained one) to stay beside me in battle, he might have a hard time, ya know? But at 20 years old the chance of him being beside you is 100%. That is 5 years of training instead of NEWLY Trained, and 5 years of maturity. Now he is 20 years old and more on equal terms with the men he is fiighting, since their average age is between 21-27 mostly. I just have a silly image of a 15 year old boy stuck in battle behind his knight trying to fight a 23 year old warrior. It would be MIGHTY intimidating for an average 15 year old. Not to mention that keeping up with his knight would be harder because he is not as good of a rider as the knight , etc. etc.. So I find the system to be fair and realistic the way it is. Is it a bummer when you lose him? Definitely. ( And I should know. There was a runniing joke in our group about how much my knight must BEAT his squires because they tried to leave me in battle whenever they could!) I just COULD not make a squire roll for the longest time.

I agree that it must be hard to keep up with the knights--I certainly wouldn't want the job! Do any of you scholars know how squires fought? Did they stay together in a group with the squires of other knights in their eschille? Did they stay close, entering the melee themselves, or were they a distance apart?

Now I know why the young squires are not keeping up. For a six round battle, .75^6 = 18%. So it will be the rare, devoted squire who is with his master at the end of the fight!

Did they stay together in a group with the squires of other knights in their eschille? Did they stay close, entering the melee themselves, or were they a distance apart?


I understand that they fought as the later sargeants did: in a line, behind which the knights could retreat to regroup, just as they do with their infantry.

I found no creative value in trying to have subunits beneath the eschille.

In KAP, squires are to help knights survive, loyal servants to the end.

I found no creative value in trying to have subunits beneath the eschille.

In KAP, squires are to help knights survive, loyal servants to the end.

Quite right. I was just curious, not trying to turn this into a game of Squires & Pages.

I found no creative value in trying to have subunits beneath the eschille.

In KAP, squires are to help knights survive, loyal servants to the end.

Quite right. I was just curious, not trying to turn this into a game of Squires & Pages.


It was a good question :)

Now you might understand why a rich knight might have more than one squire. After all, if you only have about 18% of one sticking around, having two or three squires ups the probability one will last throughout the battle. Of course, as they squires age, they will want to become knights themselves, so I have found it a balancing act between ages and numbers.

Bob

Now you might understand why a rich knight might have more than one squire. After all, if you only have about 18% of one sticking around, having two or three squires ups the probability one will last throughout the battle. Of course, as they squires age, they will want to become knights themselves, so I have found it a balancing act between ages and numbers.

Bob

Also, in our group we use the rule that might be in the BoM (manor book)? I think it states that after age 20, the squire MAY leave if you roll a 19-20 on a d20 each year? i believe this is correct? Im going from memory here! But , with that being the case, Every player in our group generally tried to keep his squire PAST 20 years of age. That was ctually fairly common as the majority of squires didnt become knights at 21 years of age , but often served their entire lifes as as squires. we had one player that had a squire that was a legend! the squires name was Cardamon, and he served well into hios 30's!! You can imagine how many criticals he would get in battle, and guess what?..... never a failure on the squire roll!!! ding! So i encourage all players to do this. It actually may make a good squire " come to Life " in your game. We have had several players that died and had no sons, and so they had NO problem playing their squire, who was a legend!!!!! hahahah :P