What does it mean by professional army?

[henyo10]

topic since HRE doesn't have professional armies and I'm not really sure what they lack from the rest?

[Mythic_Commodore]

Professional armies tend to be more disciplined. They are professional soldiers rather than knights, and as such tend to listen to your orders better, rather than, for example, charging without orders. Off-Topic: 200th post!!!

[Zeeky_Bomb]

Professional armies are also good-strength units recruitable in cities, so HRE will have to rely on castles even late-game for production.

[Celsius]

Non-Militia.

[Sodbuster]

The best example I can think of is English Demi-lancers. They are effective cavalry that are recruited in cities, and considered a professional army.

[Djûn]

I might be spinning off a completely irrelevant notion here, but a professional army is one in which its members are trained and paid specifically for war. In a medieval feudal system, a man was expected to fight for his lord in return for the land granted to him. Although he fought as a soldier, he was most usually a farmer.

Though I loathe to use it as an example, 300 shows an example of this in the scene involving the meeting of the Arcadians. It is shown that the Arcadian soldiers are only there in defence of their lands, and are actually potters and blacksmiths. Meanwhile, the Spartans' profession is to be a soldier. Thus, they have much more training and are altogether a better fighting unit.

In the game, professional troops are those which are more advanced and trained with more exotic weapons. As Field Marshall said, non-militia.

[Double A]

I might be spinning off a completely irrelevant notion here, but a professional army is one in which its members are trained and paid specifically for war. In a medieval feudal system, a man was expected to fight for his lord in return for the land granted to him. Although he fought as a soldier, he was most usually a farmer.

Though I loathe to use it as an example, 300 shows an example of this in the scene involving the meeting of the Arcadians. It is shown that the Arcadian soldiers are only there in defence of their lands, and are actually potters and blacksmiths. Meanwhile, the Spartans' profession is to be a soldier. Thus, they have much more training and are altogether a better fighting unit.

In the game, professional troops are those which are more advanced and trained with more exotic weapons. As Field Marshall said, non-militia.

Yeah I never understood the plot of that movie besides "We are Spartans and we kick Persia's ass!"

And what happened to those Arcadians? Did they just leave 'em or something? Oh well, I just check wikipedia. (Seems to answer all my questions...)

[Spartan90]

I might be spinning off a completely irrelevant notion here, but a professional army is one in which its members are trained and paid specifically for war. In a medieval feudal system, a man was expected to fight for his lord in return for the land granted to him. Although he fought as a soldier, he was most usually a farmer.

Though I loathe to use it as an example, 300 shows an example of this in the scene involving the meeting of the Arcadians. It is shown that the Arcadian soldiers are only there in defence of their lands, and are actually potters and blacksmiths. Meanwhile, the Spartans' profession is to be a soldier. Thus, they have much more training and are altogether a better fighting unit.

In the game, professional troops are those which are more advanced and trained with more exotic weapons. As Field Marshall said, non-militia.

Spot on. Professional armies are comprised of men that make a living by being a soldier. The majority of soldiers in the medieval era fought as the feudal system told them too.

I believe that "professional armies" generally have higher morale, and are more inclined to fight longer, stronger, and better than their militia or feudal counterpart.

[Damarus]

in the movie arcadians left on their on (low morale , routing something like peasant) in real only 700 thespians stayed with the spartans and fought to the last one.About the other Leonidas told them to leave to Corinth to defend that fort

[Engenberg]

in the movie arcadians left on their on (low morale , routing something like peasant) in real only 700 thespians stayed with the spartans and fought to the last one.About the other Leonidas told them to leave to Corinth to defend that fort

Yeah..and as we know, the numbers for the fight is reality based

[Panthera leo]

What it means by lacking late-period proffessional armies is that:

Their only pikes and halbeardiers are militia.(Excepting Landsknecht mercenaries, and why those are mercs is beyond me)

They only get Arbequesieurs(+Handgunners), and not musketeers.

Other than that, I can't think of what it means. Aside from of course that as the guys above say, proffessional armies are generally better than militia. Incidentally, a proffessional army: i.e one that was paid to fight, was also known as a mercenary army (though they were generally all soldiers of that state, and directly employed etc etc).

[cottontail]

Yes, the others have explained what a professional army is. The only real professional units I can think of for the Germans are zwei-handers and rieters, while the French have pikemen, adventuriers, Scots-guard, etc. and the Brits have retinue longbowmen, demi-lancers, heavy billmen, etc.

[dogukan]

and a modern example would be
conscript armies where miltiary service is mandatory:Israel, Turkey...etc
Professional:USA,England where being a soldiers is a job.

[D.B. Cooper]

As opposed to peasants/militiamen/levies, who are ordinary townspeople forced into service in times of war.