Main Page » Domain action summary » Disband action

This action is summarized in Domain action descriptions. This page expands upon the basic BRCS description and adds various alternative interpretations and options.

[top]Basic


You unmake a single asset, holding, or army (any number of units in a single friendly province). A regent is always free to dismiss army units or mercenaries from his service. Arrangements must be made, however, for mustering out payment, transport home, the collection of issued equipment, and other logistical details. The domain action check DC is 0 for regular army units and 10 for mercenary units. If the check fails, some individuals become brigands and begin raiding the province in which they disbanded. (Refer to the Brigands Event).

A regent can also choose to disband any holding or asset (such as a fortification) by razing it. Unless the regent personally oversees this event, however, there is a significant chance that the local agents employed by the holding or asset will assume that the order is a mistake, the act of a traitor, or some other hoax. The DC for disbanding a holding or asset is 20, unless the regent is personally present during the destruction (in which case no domain check need be made).

As holdings and assets are valuable, disbanding is rare; the only advantage to this action is saving maintenance costs. Also, destroying a holding (even by choice) may result in a minor loss of regency as the regent's supporters in the area are left to fend for themselves. In general, regents should look at all possible solutions before disbanding armies or holdings. While the disband action is free, recruiting new troops or building up new assets is not.


[top]Expanded


Disbanding an asset means either ceasing to maintain an asset, or actively destroying it. Where the asset represents the loyalty of people (such as military units or most holdings) then disbanding the asset reflects ceasing to maintain the people and refusing to accept them as followers, employees, etc. This is likely to be seen as a breach of feudal duties in many cases, unless the regent makes provision for an orderly disbanding (i.e. returning levies to their home province before disbanding the militia) or transfers the loyalty to another (who may be a noble below the domain system level thus making the action disbanding rather than investiture).
Where the asset is a structure, road, etc then the regent is ceasing to claim ownership of or control over the asset. This may be seen as a sign of weakness, poverty, or simply lack of interest in the province in question. Very few nobles ever willingly relinquish control over property, while guilds and temples are equally reluctant to surrender what is theirs, accordingly surrendering significant property may result in formation of a great captain who will 'care for the domain', involuntary transfer of the asset to another local regent, loss of regency, etc.

[top]Variants

[top]Deliberate brigandage


Sometimes a regent doesn't want to spend time paying off troops and arranging for them to go home, in fact they explicitly want the troops to be abandoned with no option but to turn to looting to survive. If the regent is of this intent, then the DC is 1 for mercenaries, 5 for irregular units, 10 for regular units, and 15 for elite units (15), increasing further if the unit in question is famous or especially beloved by the court for some reason - there is always a chance that some subordinate will always find a way of passing at least minimal resources to native troops.

A regent who regularly dumps locally raised troops without making provision for an orderly exit is likely to get a poor reputation in their realm, dumping mercenaries is more acceptable and unlikely to bother the regent's domain, but may make future hires more difficult.

The ruler of the province in which troops are left to turn to brigandage is unlikely to be happy at the action, non-landed regents may also be aggrieved if they are targeted by the brigands. In some cases however dumped troops may 'sign on' with another regent rather than become bandits - some commanders will negotiate with local nobles and the like to win service rather than turning to brigandage or seeing their command collapse.

[top]Denial


When an enemy invades some regents may be tempted to destroy structures, holdings etc in order to prevent them from being captured or invested. Although destruction may seem easy, in a feudal world most subordinates would prefer to swear fealty to a new regent, than see their assets destroyed, and of course the invading regent may also have other ideas - even specifically ordering the capture of the asset to prevent any attempt to raze it.
Denial requires 1 month per level of the holding unless multiple units are present to raze the structure in which case the time is reduced proportionately. As a variant to the odds of success above, the DC could be 20 plus 2 per level of the holding (or per 10 GB of the structure cost) reduced by 10 if the regent is present (5 for a lieutenant) less 1 per allied military unit present plus 2 per military unit present that will oppose the razing, a final modifier to represent local pride should be also made - destroying a cathedral is far harder than destroying a castle used to collect tolls for fishing and river passage!


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