How long will it take to raise my army?

[someblk]

Recently I had an issue where I ended a war, disbanded my army (quite far from home), then was declared on again right away. Went to raise my army next to the opponent (which was near my capital) and it was going to take something ridiculous like 2 months to raise them and screwed me over because they were attacked and defeated while raising (if I'd known it would take so long, I would have raised them in a less vulnerable position).

Well I've just had the exact same situation begin... Finished war, disbanded army not so close to home, now another nation has declared on me (well, on my liege, but for my land). So I WANT to raise my army close to their attack as at full strength I should be able to fend them off. But if it's going to take 2 months or something silly to raise them, then I need to change strategy and raise them further away from the current action so I don't get steamrolled while they are raising as happened last time.

So the question is: For the location I currently have my rally point set, how can I tell how long it will take to raise my armies BEFORE clicking the raise button and potentially screwing myself?

[UnCivilServant]

A recently disbanded army will have a few month delay before being raisable. If it's long enough you get a popup warning, but there will always be a delay between disband and re-raise.

No, I don't know the formula for the delay.

[someblk]

But no way to see it BEFORE pressing the raise button? If not, that doesn't make too much sense... It's not like a ruler would only be given some idea how long it would take to raise his army only after he gave the command to do so... Especially considering, if it will take an extended time, that information is critical to choosing the correct strategic location to raise them in the first place.

Just to add a further question: I haven't actually joined the war itself yet. The army is marked as hostile (not as enemy), but as I haven't joined the war would I be right in thinking that they likely won't attempt to attack me? If not then I can still raise them safely for this specific scenario... Although the basic issue I've mentioned is still a problem in other situations (if you're attacked directly).

[Ralek]

First of all, if you have the game paused, the only thing that actually happens when you click the raise army button is that your MaA are raised. It will also tell you how long it will take you to raise ALL your levies from ALL your and your vassal's holdings.
You can immediately disband that army, provided there's no hostile army nearby, and it is as if it was never raised. You can use that mechanic to check.

What's perhaps more useful is understanding how disbanding and gathering of levies works:

Each holding's levy is tracked independently. When you click gather, the game will create invisible "armies" in each holding with the number of levies available and start moving them (at a VERY HIGH speed ~13.33x faster than normal movement) towards the gathering point. They are completely invisible to everyone and everything and will only appear when they reach the gathering army.

When you disband, the reverse happens. The game will make an invisible army for each holding's levy and start moving them home. Important note, disbanding levies DO NOT get the gathering movement speed bonus. If you try to raise levies that are still moving home, that time is displayed in the gathering time display in the army panel.

It is important to note that you don't need to wait for ALL the levies to arrive. You can stop gathering at any time by pressing the X button next to the gathering time information. Whoever made it to the army in time is there, everyone else returns (or keeps heading) home.
You can raise the army, wait 4 or 5 days for the nearby levies to arrive and then start marching.
You can, for example, then use a secondary rally location, further away from the action, to raise the remainder of the levies.

[ste]

You dont always get a warning about disbanding.
That war would have been carried over from the war you just had because it was against the person you just defeated, and now you became the target, you dont have to wait until they are at full strength, sometimes you have to wait 20 days for another 50 people.

[Twelvefield]

The little green bar at the top right gives you a snapshot of how long it would take to rebuild your levees, and hovering over it gives you a ledger.

[someblk]

Thanks for replies, especially your nice detailed one about the underlying mechanics Ralek. Will help me get prepped for this war properly once I fire up the game again :)