I’m partial to Sacha, Baron Cohen, myself.

But seriously, while you are right that the primary duty of a baron is not to fight, but to maintain a military establishment, the bottom line is that a baron’s duties are defined by fighting and maintaining/building fighting capability. Mayors are about trade and economic growth. Barons are about military logistics, defense, and power projection.

Further, personal fighting ability has always been part of the charisma package that supports that role. For instance, one way a baron can do the job is to recruit the best team of PvPers out there — and that usually requires that they be a very good PvPer in their own right.

Posted By Beathan at 6:14 PM - Fri Jan 18 2019

I’m partial to Sacha, Baron Cohen, myself.

But seriously, while you are right that the primary duty of a baron is not to fight, but to maintain a military establishment, the bottom line is that a baron’s duties are defined by fighting and maintaining/building fighting capability. Mayors are about trade and economic growth. Barons are about military logistics, defense, and power projection.

Further, personal fighting ability has always been part of the charisma package that supports that role. For instance, one way a baron can do the job is to recruit the best team of PvPers out there — and that usually requires that they be a very good PvPer in their own right.

For some barons (the Dras based on their write up) they will be the main trade hubs with the outside world as well as the defenders of the people, so they better have good economic acumen or delegate well!

People want PvPers as barons because PvPers understand the logistics behind PvP (or at least hopefully do).

Personally I look for raid experience in other MMOs for my barons.

I'd think a Duke would want PVP capable people simply because having troops in a given location isn't especially valuable if you can't project force with them.

Absolutely the lion's share of a Barony should be managing the troop buildup but if a Duke wants the commander to have good affinity with the troops they need to be there forming bonds with those NPCs. If a Baron can't fight effectively leading troops the Duke has a few options:

1) Send the troops the Duke has invested (I'm assuming) a great deal of resources in with an incompetent Baron commander. 2) Take a PVP resource from somewhere else to sit around managing relationships with the Baron's troops so when he/she needs to project force with them, the Duke can. 3) Not allocate a PVP resource to the Barony and run the risk that someone can impersonate the troop commander because no one (npcs) knows who they are.

None of these are an issue if the Baron knows how to fight and can effectively lead troops.

So I see the role of of a CoE baron as being a mix between the historical role of a medieval baron and the modern role of a regimental commander.

The CoE baron is an administrator yes, but like his medieval ancestor he’s a military administrator. He rules a settlement but the focus of the settlement is force projection and domestic security. He administers the logistics and deployments of his force and the workings of justice within the duchy. If his settlement develops in such a way that he can fund himself he becomes a powerful baron.

In war the baron acts as a regimental commander, he’s the link between his men and the general, in local command and able to act semi-independently to changing situations but beholden to the operational objectives of the generals. The baron maintains his logistical role in war but has less independence of supply.

Do you need a pvper? Well yes, does it need to be the best fighter in the game? No, what you need for a baron is a fighting administrator.

A baron who is loyal, can keep a set standard, keeps peace in the valley with neighbors (if it can be helped), follow orders, follow the law, stay supplied, armed, fight well with others against other, scouts, patrols the area, keeps travel or trade flowing, and responds to threats in a reasonable timeframe to me is a good start for a baron.

As a Countess, trust. I want there to be trust between me and any Baron assigned in my grand county. If I can't trust my Baron, how can I trust anyone in the administration?

We'll be working together to make sure our slice of the Duchy and Kingdom is a safe and pleasant place to live. Gotta have trust for that.

Not mainly but also because I am not recruiting and also a count besides being a baron, I may have diverging ideas of how to be a baron.

A baron is in my eyes more in a leading/administrative position than an engaging one, so my duty would be to assure there are enough barracks and infrastructure to properly support the military presence in my county.

By being a baron & count I can skip the demands a baron would need to ask a count and simply do it. Like building outposts and reinforcing supply routes.

I consider a commander or a right-hand to the baron would have the most interaction with soldiers and guards, especially when it comes to training routines and other more individual aspects.

In that regard, while a baron is more military oriented, I still see alot of mayor/builder activity happening.