>> Are we *really* saying that 95% of Heortling >> men and women aged 15+ are "fit for military >> service"?
> Great-grandpa may have retired a decade ago, but
> you can bet that he'll break out the old wargear
> when them damn trolls come a-calling. :)
I agree that great-grandpa may be able to fight in an emergency.
I do *not* agree that great-grandpa is "fit for military service".
TR p.44 is clearer than Ian's note: "In the case of local disasters, all able-bodied men and women will turn out to fight, but such emergencies are uncommon." I can't find a source for the "95% of adults" figure from his notes.
TR p.212: "[On Sword Day, when the fyrd musters], the warband leader fines those who ... cannot perform simple tests due to their girth, lack of breath, or laziness." We've already established that the fyrd includes all able-bodied men / c.20% of the population. Even given that "we are talking about a robust people whose lives require them to be strong and able" (MS), the system includes penalties for fat lazy slobs among this subset of the populace. So I don't think every Heortling great-grandpa is still pumping iron.
Let's drop the 95% figure and run with 20%: c.16 fyrd in a stead with 80 members; c.14 fyrd in a stead with 70 members. The kind of emergency described in TR p.44 (swarming trollkin, Char-Un patrol, player characters out of control) would likely have a *serious* impact on the stead's viability, so don't let's go planning for the worst at this point.
Cheers, Nick
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