Bandits

Many of the foes in Warsim are **Bandits**, who will try to steal your Gold if you don't wipe them out first.

## The Troop Type

Bandits are one of the fixed types of Men you can always acquire in Warsim. The others are Peasants, Soldiers, Knights, Slaves and Slave Soldiers (from The Slavers), Tribal Goblins and Goblin Berserkers (from the Goblin Slaver), and Demons (from some other rare sources).

Bandits are roughly between Peasants and Soldiers in terms of utility. They are Men with a **Battlescore** of **75**, halfway between that of a Peasant and that of a Soldier. They also provide Gold income for you, by Pillaging other factions. On the other hand, having Bandits in your army may lower your Public Opinion, through visitors to your Throne Room and end-of-year events. Sources of Bandits include:

* Converting your Prisoners into Bandits (costs 10 Gold per Bandit)
* Hiring them from various locations in the North
* Accepting them as visitors of the Throne Room (requires either a negative Public Opinion, Forgiveness of Outlaws, or not having a Prison)

## The Factions

There are up to six Bandit Factions active at the start of the game, and there can be seven later on:

* **The Bandit Horde**, led by Phenor, is one of the four preset opposing factions (though it's possible for them to not exist at the game's start).
* **The Minor Bandit Groups**, or just "Bandit Groups" in the Diplomacy menu, are five randomly-generated Bandit factions that tend to be small-ish but can vary wildly.
* **The Outlaws**, also known as "the Pests", are a randomly-occurring faction that **will not be present at the start of the game.**

All Bandit factions can **pillage** you, stealing Gold from you in the end-of-year report, *after* the Income events. Your Defense Palisades are meant to prevent pillaging, and not standard attacks. Even if you don't have Palisades, your Militia may scare pillagers off.

* **The Deserters** may *also* pillage you, but they are largely composed of Soldiers, not Bandits.
* Independent Territories with certain Prefixes may *also* pillage.

### Peace

Unlike with Independent Territories, your default state towards Bandit Factions is War. Acquiring Peace varies with the importance of the faction:

* Unlike with the Rebellion, you cannot pay for Peace with the Bandit Horde, but you may *still* buy them off to have them disband. The rate is 500 Gold per head.
	+ **If you have 0 or lower Public Opinion, however, a representative from the Bandit Horde will come to the Throne Room and offer Peace!**
* The Minor Bandit Groups can *only* be bribed for Peace. While they have a Truce with you, they can be hired like Mercenaries. Since Minor Bandit Groups have such variety, along with a special **Bandit Warlord** troop (which the Bandit Horde also has) that has **125 Battlescore**, this might be useful. A few Minor Bandit Groups can be traded with, too. Independent Territories don't seem to make Peace deals with Minor Bandit Groups.

## Bandit Level

The Bandit Level shows the level of pervasiveness of banditry in your realm. Its starting value is random, with few or no Minor Bandit Groups appearing at the start of the game if it starts below 10. Bandit Level doesn't lower without outside action, such as paying for downward pressure on the Bandit Level via the Bandit Scourge Law (or just destroying the Bandit Groups), and it naturally goes up at a vaguely-exponential (if slow) rate:

* If 0 - 9, it doesn't increase. Bandit Groups also recruit **half** as many new Bandits and Warlords as normal.
* If 10 - 24, it has a 1/6 chance to increase at the end of each year.
* If 25 - 49, it has a 1/3 chance to increase at the end of each year. Bandit Groups also recruit **50% more** new Bandits and Warlords than normal.
* If 50 - 69, it has a 1/2 chance to increase at the end of each year. Bandit Groups also recruit **twice** as many new Bandits and Warlords as normal.
* If 70 - 89, it has a 2/3 chance to increase at the end of each year. Bandit Groups also recruit **150% more** new Bandits and Warlords than normal.
* If 90 - 100, it has a 5/6 chance to increase at the end of each year. Bandit Groups also recruit **thrice** as many new Bandits and Warlords as normal.

On top of these mechanics, there are also ten tiers for determining the likelihood that an "empty" (defeated) Minor Bandit Group slot is replaced/refilled at the end of each year:

* 0 - 9: EXTINCT (no chance)
* 10 - 24: PETTY (1/9 chance)
* 25 - 29: VERY MINOR (1/8 chance)
* 30 - 39: MINOR (1/7 chance)
* 40 - 49: EMERGENT (1/6 chance)
* 50 - 59: HORDE-LIKE (1/5 chance)
* 60 - 69: MANY HORDES (1/4 chance)
* 70 - 79: ENDEMIC (1/3 chance)
* 80 - 89: INFESTED (1/2 chance)
* 90 - 100: COMPLETELY INFESTED (1/1 chance - "Instantaneous")

Note that new Minor Bandit Groups always appear with 1 Land... They have to start somewhere!