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Levies (Guide) - Crusader Kings II Wiki

Levies (Guide)
From Crusader Kings II Wiki
In Crusader Kings II, most of your military is based around levies. At the time few had anything resembling standing armies, instead drafting peasants in
times of war. As levies are core to your ability to defend yourself, understanding how to get as many as possible is important. I'll therefore be going into
how levies work, and what you can do to get more. As always, there's a summary at the end.

Contents
1 The Basics
2 Basic Levies
3 Laws and opinions
3.1 Feudal Levy Laws
3.2 City Levy Laws
3.3 Clergy
3.4 Iqta Levy Laws
4 Maximization
4.1 Nobles
4.2 Burghers
4.3 Clergy
5 Summary

The Basics
How many levies you can raise depend on three factors:
Holding levies
Levy and crown law
Opinion towards liege
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Basic Levies
The base levy consists of the sum of the levy of all buildings in a holding plus base levies of that holding. The base levies are 60 light infantry, 150 heavy
infantry, and 15 light cavalry for castles, 75 light infantry and 40 archers for cities, and 45 light infantry, 45 heavy infantry, and 40 archers for temples.
The total levy is then multiplied by any additional factors, most notably the buildings that increase levy size (such as the Castle Keep), but the Marshal
also has a mission that increases levy size, and certain events can increase it as well. Other modifiers, such as the "Recently Conquered" modifier, can
decrease levies.

Laws and opinions

You can always raise all of the troops from the holdings in your personal demense. Your vassals, however, are not obligated to give you all of their levies.
Maximizing the number of troops they are willing to give you is one of the keys to proper realm management.
The basic formula for the proportion of total levies that a liege can raise from a vassal's holding is:
Available Percentage = Maximum (Minimum Levy Percentage, ((Opinion Toward Liege} + 25)/125) x Maximum Levy Percentage).
where:
Minimum Levy Percentage is between 0% and 40%, depending on the active Crown Law. If there is no Crown Law (if you are an independent
duke, for example), it is considered to be 0%.
Opinion Toward Liege is the current attitude of your vassal to you, expressed as a number between -100 and 100. This applies even for indirect
vassals - the levies you can raise from a count under a duke under you only depend on the count's opinion of you.
Maximum Levy Percentage depends on the type of vassal and the realm laws in force. There are different laws for feudal, city and religious rulers.
Muslims have a combined Iqta Levy Law that affects both feudal and religious vassals.
The total percentage available cannot be below 0% or above 100%, of course.
Note that the minimum and maximum laws do not work in the same way. While the crown law sets a floor for the portion of levies supplied, the levy laws
do not set a ceiling. Instead, they act as a multiplier for the entire levy.

Feudal Levy Laws

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Min Feudal Levies - 60%

Small Feudal Levies - 70%
Normal Feudal Levies - 80%
Max Feudal Levies - 100%

City Levy Laws

Minimal City Levies - 50%
Normal City Levies - 65%
Large City Levies - 80%
Max City Levies - 95%

Clergy
Minimal Church Levies - 50%
Normal Church Levies - 60%
Large Church Levies - 70%
Max Church Levies - 80%

Iqta Levy Laws

Minimal Iqta Levies - 60%
Small Iqta Levies - 70%
Normal Iqta Levies - 80%
Max Iqta Levies - 100%

Maximization
With this understanding of how levies work we can figure out how to get the most out of it. First we can, as with taxes, construct buildings, which will
directly increase the levies of a holding, part of which you'll be able to raise. However, as with tax, you'll get a much higher return on investment if you
build in your own demesne, as then you can raise your full levy capacity. The drawback is of course that you then have to pay upkeep, but you won't be
pissing your vassals off.
Second, you can up the levy law to make your vassals pay more. However if their opinion is already low enough this will not pay off, with a full list here:
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Nobles
Min -> Small gives more as long as opinion is at 10 or above
Small -> Normal gives more as long as opinion is at 15 or above
Normal -> Max gives more as long as opinion is at -5 or above
Max -> Normal gives more as long as opinion is below -10
Normal -> Small gives more as long as opinion is below 10
Small -> Min gives more as long as opinion is below 5

Burghers
Min -> Small gives more as long as opinion is at 18 or above
Small -> Normal gives more as long as opinion is at 28 or above
Large-> Max gives more as long as opinion is at 38 or above
Max -> Normal gives more as long as opinion is below 28
Large -> Small gives more as long as opinion is below 18
Small -> Min gives more as long as opinion is below 8

Clergy
Min -> Small gives more as long as opinion is at 35 or above
Small -> Large gives more as long as opinion is at 45 or above
Large -> Max gives more as long as opinion is at 55 or above
Max -> Large gives more as long as opinion is below 45
Large -> Small gives more as long as opinion is below 35
Small -> Min gives more as long as opinion is below 25
As you can see, raising levy law will only ever help you if your vassals already like at least somewhat. As such, running high levy laws is not always a
good idea. However, at these opinion numbers you're unlikely to hurt any other aspect of your realm, so as long as you benefit levy-wise from raising
levy law, you probably should.
Third, you can do what you can to keep all vassals above -25 opinion. Granting them titles, running tournaments, granting their wishes, making them
councilors, etc. Each point of opinion will increase the percent they're willing to give by 4/5. Fourth, you will only ever benefit levy-wise from crown law
if you were already getting below the new minimum percent. For example if you're getting 25% at Medium Crown Authority, and raise it to high, the
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minimum will now be 30% and you'll be able to raise more levies. If on the other hand you were getting 35% before and you raise your Crown Authority,
you'll now be getting 5 percentage point less.

Summary
Levies are easy to get plenty of as long as you have a strong demesne or your vassals like you. Your priorities should therefore be:
Construct buildings. More info in the guide on construction
Don't put your levy laws high unless your vassals like you. You'll gain no benefit whatsoever.
You'll only benefit levy-wise from crown law if you're already getting less than the percentage the new crown law would demand.
Research relevant technology. This won't give you more levies, but it will make them stronger.
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