Old idea, but I was discussing it again with a couple others and ultimately we came upon two options that might make it work without any opportunity to unbalance the game.


1) Several of the old options included mercenaries or retainers drawn from the fief. One of the old objections was that older players would thus gain even more of an advantage as silver and time to develop these retainers would make the separation between large and small nations even more striking.

a) in this version retainers would not be purchased, they would be created by the knight. Who would select their make up, genders, armor, clothing, weapons from among basic choices, and the uniform would match their crest. Perhaps even additional cosmetic enhancements could be available to premium members or for purchase through silver, but have no game impact on battles.

b) do address the unbalancing issues an "enlistment" time, of 2 KH years (2 real world months) after which time the experienced retainer is replaced by a new recruit, meaning that the retainers of a 17 year old knight and that of a 40 year old knight have no difference in changes on the battles themselves.

c) Size of the "unit" should be kept small, 5-10 retainers per knight.

2) remove the retainers from battles at all. What would be the point then you ask? You could train them similarly, start a mock battle/duel system similar to the "street brawls" where knights can take and pit themselves and their retainers against each other for silver bets or fun.

Customizable features for the look of them and perhaps a page viewable by other players that would enable you to show off the accomplishments of your retainers in these mock battles beside you.

In this system the retainers would gain continuing experience (but your knight wouldn't) from these fights making your development of them an ongoing project dependent on the time investment of the individual player and a point of pride. Such experience could even be used to "unlock" certain customize features... For example when a retainer gets to a certain level he can become a mounted "man-at-arms" , or a specialized form of archer, pikeman etc, allowing you to pick and chose the type of force you want.

Obviously there are issues that would have to addressed under either of these ideas, but I think they both would give everyone a project to work on, discuss, compete with and in general another way to increase interaction between knights of various nations.