What does professional army mean?

[henyo10]

Some factions have their weaknesses as "lacks pro army". What does it mean?

[Caesar Clivus]

Professional units are the units that aren't militia...i.e. troops drawn from the local population to serve only in times of need. Professional units are made of of soldiers who's only job is to fight. As a rough distinction, professional units are recruited from castles, militia from cities. But there are some exceptions to this rule.

[delra]

Don't look at those descriptions. They make no sense most of the time.

Look at units. http://totalwar.honga.net/faction.php?v=ss6&f=portugal

Portugal is said to lack pro armies and still their roster is far more "pro" than for example Seljuk one.

[marceror]

I think the comment about lacking professional armies is technically referring to those that can be trained from cities in the later game (e.g. demi-lancers for england, gendarmes for france, etc). That said, yes, I agree that the wording on those descriptions could be a whole lot more clear.

[Point Blank]

In terms of RR, professional troops are those such as the following:

Early Professionals
Pool Size: Low
Pool Priority: Medium; First Early Pro in the Pool does not count toward TFP limit
Replacement Rate: Low
Training Time: Next Turn
Recruitment Cost: All Training and Equipment/Mounts Discounted
Upkeep Cost: Increased
Special: Also in it for the loot, but no way (yet) to simulate this
This category encompasses all those types of men, who live solely by waging war in the pay of either some noble or the crown on the base of contracts for a specific amount of time or a campaign. Although they are full-time soldiers, their regular pay, while of significant size, is often just complementary to them getting a chance to loot and as they are regularly dismissed, after they served their purpose in a specific campaign, they often invest their money in a second base of fortune or have to look for another mission by another employer. This and the relatively easy going recruitement criteria mean that the numbers of professionals in a kingdom´s service are extremely volatile. They represent hard-bitten individuals or small groups of men, who are trying their best to profit from the ongoing feuds and major campaigns of the medieval world, which leads to a surprising high fighting morale, while their discipline and equipment is generally of good to moderate. The more efficient and better equipped units of this category are supposed to be that part of this class that found a regular employment in a noble´s or the crown´s service. For the first half of the game´s timeline early professionals are the core of the melee infantry part of an army supplemented by militias, while the noble heavy infantry is either used at critical points or kept in reserve. Sergeant spearmen are a stereotype of this category. The poor Replacement Rate of Early Professionals leads to the result that short and properly prepared campaigns would see a good amount of them, but ad-hoc fights and prolonged campaigns will quickly eat up the reserves of trained men. Note that it is recommended, when using Early Professionals, to disband them in the settlement from where they were hired if they are not immediately needed. This keeps upkeep costs down and they will appear in the Recruiting Pool again next turn. This is a reasonably good abstract simulation of what happened historically. If the dividing line between Early Pros and Mercenaries seems somewhat blurred, that's because it is.

Late Professionals
Pool Size: Average
Pool Priority: High
Replacement Rate: High
Training Time: Varies
Recruitment Cost: Increased
Upkeep Cost: Normal
Special: Training Time varies based on Unit Type and Quality; higher proportion of disciplined units
Contrary to their early counterparts late professionals have much clearer dependencies, which come along with the development of the stronger central powers of the medieval states. Instead of being assigned for service for a specific campaign the crown now tended to keep a significant amount of those full-time soldiers in regular pay and founded something similar to a standing army, which encompassed the most reliable (which means loyal to the realm´s gouverment, not well behaving) companies of armed men, whose core stayed the same for a considerable amount of time, even as still a good part them had a fluctuating staff. They have a specially trained officer corps (in which, as a novelty, even some minor nobles make career) and the more advanced states even sport regular recruitment institutions (like the military academy). Their equipment is usually among the best available, as the states wanted to profit from their considerable investment they put into their training and more often used the threat of the power, which they represented, to ensure the loyality of the major nobles of the realm, than in actual battles against foreign powers. Going along with this and the technological development the kings of europe made sure that almost every tactical role on the battlefield (especially that of the heavy cavalry) now could be brought to bear by a class, whose primary dependency was to the crown, instead of local nobles. This is represented by units as Lancers, Demi-Lancers, Pikemen and Arquebusiers, which are all part of this category. Due to the infrastructure and training time required to field units in this category, recruiting cost is increased.

Urban Professionals
Pool Size: Average
Pool Priority: High
Replacement Rate: Average
Training Time: Varies
Recruitment Cost: Increased
Upkeep Cost: Normal
Special: Training Time varies based on Unit Type and Quality
Similar to Late Professionals, but the units are recruited and trained in a city.

Late and Urban Pros also tend to have larger units due to their more formal training in command and maneuver. Aside from that they replenish very fast but due to their increased training times require some planning of how best utilise the space in the training queue.