Both!

Kingdoms vill have standing armies of players and NPC´s to protect its people.

Guards and the Military will be primarily NPCs with PC officers/Champions.

I cant imagine many PCs wanting to be Guards or Sentries unless they are hardcore RP or just enjoy it.

The military will have some units made up of only PCs...they like to call themselves elites but we shall see lol

Mostly NPCs ;) Train them well and they will march and fight well.

“We’re men! We’re men in tights! We run around the taiga looking for fights!”

It will be a mixed bag really. From what I’ve read, the game will be kinda a mix between rts and MMO. So maybe the generals will control armies on the field RTS style, while PC’s run around fighting between the ranks.

In an RTS you micro manage NPCS, that's not how COE works, you wont have a UI anything like an RTS or Banner lord. You will have to train your troops to respond to horns...drums...flags...yelling commands. You the Commander must be just as well trained as they are in order to lead well.

Posted By TheCoz at 10:34 AM - Tue Apr 02 2019

In an RTS you micro manage NPCS, that's not how COE works, you wont have a UI anything like an RTS or Banner lord. You will have to train your troops to respond to horns...drums...flags...yelling commands. You the Commander must be just as well trained as they are in order to lead well.

Eh, I’m not so sure. With what I’ve read, a lot of the kingdom/town management stuff will be done via tables in specific buildings. Managing everything from zoning, to taxation, to assigned jobs.

But that’s just my interpretation, and I’ve been wrong before, lol. So who knows.

I think the popular set up will be npc guards with a PC guard captain. Leadership is suppose to be a stat for players and we are suppose to be able to give formations orders. This was from a Q&A, not sure if this will be in the base game though.

Yes exactly Deftly.

Daniel, yes there is a land use table and a war table but that doesn't mean you can micromanage, maybe you can give orders from the table but those orders will be relayed to your CO in the field and that CO would in turn raise banners...blow horns or yell commands. It will not be close to RTS control. During KOE the game will run like a top down game...but that's KOE not EXPO and certainly not post launch.

I know personally going around settlement to settlement I want a decent amount of players as Guards, not stationary unless vital but more patrols and on roads where anything can happen. NPC's will probably be harder to interact with and based on title (town guard) might not be able to leave territory. I'll be giving those players a steady paycheck and benefits lol.

Posted By TheCoz at 4:34 PM - Tue Apr 02 2019

In an RTS you micro manage NPCS, that's not how COE works, you wont have a UI anything like an RTS or Banner lord. You will have to train your troops to respond to horns...drums...flags...yelling commands. You the Commander must be just as well trained as they are in order to lead well.

There will be a battle table so there could be a UI for pitched battles