You decide to throw some parties to celebrate the prosperity of the land.
6
Everyone celebrates heavily and many a young couple earn the scold of their more restrained parents on the mornings after.
1104 AD, Winter
The Agaresian caravan arrives on point, and salt is exchanged for money.
2to5
People are thankful for the Crown to provide them with salt, while the Treasury reports that it was able to get enough money to cover the payment for salt.
3to6
Unfortunately, the silver mines are at their end. There was little silver brought up this year and even less left down in the mines, the report from overseer says. He therefore closes the mines for good.
1104 AD, End of the Year
The autumn and winter has come and has gone without much incident. The northerners are exploring the wild, the east is warring, the west is quiet and the south is still debating on their unholy amalgamation of republican and imperial ideas.
And per usual, the Advisor comes by your study. He spreads the Scrolls of Kingdom Status on your desk.
Happiness: 6
Population: 6
Economy: 3
Army: 4
Half of these numbers are rather low, but there's naught you can do at the moment; the taxation is already going hard on the populace and the mercenaries seem few and scarce, even amongst Alldivine Cloisters, if the Advisor is to be believed.
1105 AD, Spring
7!*
The need for military reform is so dire that even your courtiers see that clearly, and has convened a council which you attend. The recent conquests of Methiant, Cydwyl and Eldrican has organized many local states under powerful overlords. But security is loose and patrols scarce; peasants tend to their farms with nary a guard to patrol their villages. Methiant neighbours grow strong day by day and who knows when they will turn their eyes upon the fertile meadows of Methiant?
Therefore, the Kingdom cannot anymore count on mercenaries, they're far too expensive yet unreliable source of military might. For the past century, it was okay, but the disastrous policies of non-draft by old warlords need to be either rescinded or replaced.
The council, unlike any other, continues for days and you're simply tired of the endless discussion. Fortunately, two schools of thought emerge:
The first of course believes that a Kingdom, like any Kingdom in this region did in the past, should press peasants into military service so that they die in wars of the monarch. While it might cause unhappiness, it would provide cheap and easy means of replenishing numbers, or even raise up troops en masse in times of emergency. Kingdom of Eldrican follows this philosophy, owing to large domain populated with numerous settlements and the dynasty's prosperous and non-oppresive rule that keeps the people docile.
The second follows the southern models of 'standing army', something that the old Kingdom of Luathbas has adopted too; the Crown provides arms, supplies and payment for soldiers that are conscripted at young age, trained and then employed in the field. Of course, this means that lots of money will need to be spend per year to maintain such a force, and Methiant isn't exactly abundant in money. Cydwyls, on other hand, took on this military way of life after their old Dahnian masters, as they are wealthy enough to afford this model.
The discussion could go on, but its obvious to you - and the court - that these are the only two viable alternatives. You cant have both.
Therefore, when the nobles ask you to support either of policies, you decide to...
A) Support the old, traditional ways of counting on peasant forces and massed mobilization.
B) Support the well-maintained but expensive model for standing, paid forces.
C) Turn both reforms down, we ain't need stinkin' reforms in my kingdom!
