men at arms seem too large tbh

[Sir Snuffles]

they're suppose to be your standing army. which in medieval times wasnt that big i thought? it gets ridiculous even in the mid game where you can field 5k+ heavy footman. just insta kills everything.

I wonder if paradox will nerf them in the future so you can't get as many. and have to rely on smaller more elite men at arm units combined with levies

[VoiD]

That or make it so levies are useful

[fakemon64]

once you can afford to field 5k+ heavy footman, you pretty much have the power to take on anybody regardless of how strong heavy footman are.

Even if they get hit with the nerf hammer, you could just replace them with the next unit in line to be the meta or just use your money for mercenaries.

My point is that if anything, player economies are whats OP. it seems like i can start as any county in whatever part of the world and by the time i reach my 2nd or 3rd generation, im pretty much always one of the wealthiest people in the region

[Rex is back, baby!]

It is theorized that larger battles had about 30k-40k men fighting
The smaller battles only about a few 100.

According to
https://neutralhistory.com/the-size-of-medieval-armies-a-complete-guide/

Early Middle Ages could see up to 10k - 20k, with the Carolingian armies
About year 1000, we saw the first crusade which consisted of 30k - 40k.
The late periods, we saw armies starting to shrink and get more specialized.

How many were trained MaA versus Levies is hard to tell.
I'm comfortable with the amount of MaA we have in game.

But what is discussed, it's when the player becomes a hegemony, and basically can beat everyone with their economic power and buffed armies. Shrinking army size won't change that.

[spasti696969]

They already nerfed heavy footman with the newest patch. Now they only get bonuses from 1 county instead of all of them together so you can't spam Barracks and get +300% to attack.

The whole thing with "I only use Men At Arms because Levies are expensive and bad" is one of the points at which new players "beat the game" by unlocking the deep hidden knowledge that actually isn't that hidden.

In regards to flavor and all that, the difference between "levies" and "men at arms" is somewhat of an abstraction. In the game for example they refer to knights of the Byzantine Empire as "Hetaria" or whatever because it's more middle eastern sounding than "knight". In real life they were a corps of specialized bodyguards who were disbanded right before the Ottomans took over (which is probably the reason they ended up winning). Many "levies" were comprised of "men at arms" back in their home counties. Sometimes a levy was just a desperate rush of any man that could be found, like Alfred in Wessex. It varied depending on the region and time period, but in the game it's all just distilled into "levies" and "men at arms". They try their best to represent it with a universal system, but it does end up becoming an abstraction to a certain extent. They try to represent the transition in army composition through Mustering Grounds, Scutage, etc.

[The Former]

As an earl with one or two counties you numbers will cap out around 1,500 absolute max. That's about right.