How much detail do you want for the grogs?
Since they will likely face combat, any and all grogs used should be fully stated and sheeted in the grogs thread.
Probably not the best time to ask this, but what arms and armour does the covenant provide their turb? (Deykin is a member of the turb, but I'm not sure what he would have been given)
Hey, jebrick. I apologize. I was confused. I thought you were talking about the grogs for The Lost Boys.
I only need stats for those who will be used in combat relatively soonish. Everyone else can be a sketch.
Since Alexei hasn't made an issue of it yet, probably just Standard cost equipment from Covenants -- partial armor and a Std weapon. Have the uniforms arrived yet? Do we know what they look like?
(Note that Alexei is the one to answer this, not me)
One thing I would like to see is for most, if not all, of the turb to learn Latin - at least to level 3 ("Haltingly functional. Can hold a conversation on everyday topics"). Especially the sergeants and the shield grogs, if no one else. I'd hate for anyone to die because they didn't know how to say "Duck!" in Latin.
I'm going to wade into this again shortly. Work has hammered me this last week.
Okay, the detail view seems to be causing some trouble for people. How about if we talk about the larger scope for a bit? In broad terms, how many members of the turb are there and what are their archetypes? How long have they been trained, and by whom?
We have Alexei's "small party" -- a dozen? Half dozen? Well-trained soldiers under Gunnar or someone of equal skill for most of their lives? How old are they? Can we just call them "standard soldiers" out of the MRB?
Then there's Astingani's turb.
Lion and Lily, pg 78 calls them young and middle aged Barbranters, so in other words they're 36 mounted brigands, ranging in ages from 15-25? There's a sample "experienced Barbranter" in that sidebar, does he exist in our game? Can we use him as a baseline? By 1222, they have 1 year's experience training under Gunner?
We also have Deykin and the shield grogs (which would be a horrible name for a band). That's another dozen, roughly, with specialized "meat shield" training?
Since nobody has requested additional funding, we can assume that these guys have standard equipment - partial armor, melee weapon, bow. That's 16 points of weapons and armor for 960 "Points of W&A", or 3 pounds per annum to maintain, not including the discounts we get for any specialists we have.
Regarding the armoury, I've been looking things over, but the main tool I have is the Covenants book for how much everything costs. I figured I'd try to come up with 50 (2 score and 10) 'kits' which would be some kind of armor, a hand weapon, and a shield. Then some additional specialty weapons like bows and arrows and maybe some great weapons. Alexei is perfectly willing to put his money in to buy this gear. Plus no doubt many will have their own kits already.
I'd also like to contribute by having Alexei (or someone suitable) design this spell. It's actually a spell I designed and put in the Net Grimoire. It would need to be approved of course:
http://spellswiki.wikidot.com/creo-terram
[i]The Invisible Journeyman
CrTe 35 (Req: Pe, An, He, Aq, Co)
R: Touch D: Ring T: Circle
This spell can save a Covenant on the salary of blacksmiths and the maintenance of equipment. The caster will typically choose the storage chamber for the equipment and draws a circle almost flush to the walls (a round room is preferred). The spell will then maintain armor and weapons placed within the circle, keeping them polished, gleaming and oiled. The CrTe keeps the materials from rusting and decaying. The requisites for An and He are to maintain those materials, while the Pe destroys dirt and debris (Te) and even blood and viscera (An and Co). Finally the Aquam makes a thin layer of protective oil on weapons and armor, much as a journeyman smith would do to maintain his lord's kit. With this enchantment cost savings can be applied as per the rules in the Covenants book.
(Base: 5, +1 Touch, +2 Ring, +2 Requisites (creating oil, destroying dirt), +1 for special effect on multiple items)
Contributor: Qcipher[/i]
Problem with that is, even if the math is correct, that spell would only affect items in the circle at the time of the casting and would cease to affect them when they leave the circle. Even with repeated castings, it would prevent decay from happening while items are stored, but it would not repair damage incurred in the field (which is what a blacksmith would spend most of his time caring for).
To do what it seems you want it to do, you'd have to cast that ring around the training yard before every training session, and around a battlefield before every fight. And you'd still incur rust and damage whenever your grogs are travelling.
Well it's mainly for the long term storage of the weapons. But maybe an item placed in a room with a constant effect, rather than a ring/circle. So the Target would be Room, with a Sun duration, and the effect has an Environmental trigger. It's not designed to hammer out dents or broken links, but mainly to keep them in good working order. If it seems that the real maintenance comes from actively hammering the dents, then instead of a room or circle item with constant effect we'd be better off with an item or spell that basically heals one item using Rego Terram (Creo wouldn't be necessary as Rego magic can do a craftsman's job). If we make it a wand or something we'd potentially save on materials and labour.
Storage doesn't incur much maintenance requirement; usage does. A sword only loses its edge because the people it cuts usually have shields 
Oh, and I imagine Western style swordplay involves hacking through armor and bone (that's speculation). A lesser item that restores an edge would achieve this; a few daily usages should be plenty to upkeep everything, I think. We'd need separate effects, one Creo effect to sharpen weapons, and one Rego effect for getting dents out of armour.
By 5th ed guidelines it would be a Creo effect to improve the target, even though realistically it should be Perdo (shaving down to a sharp edge is only the removal of some of your steel; steel shavings are the grey crap on your rags whenever you wipe down a blade you've just sharpened).
Why yes, as a matter of fact, I DO think it's ridiculous that guidelines state perdo can only make things worse and Creo must be used to inprove things. Especially when it's totally inconsistent with canon spells. Gleam of the Freshly Polished Glass is a Perdo Terram, and there's some spell somewhere that's a Perdo Animal to sharpen quills.
Ok, off the soapbox for now.
Actually-- since 5E doesn't allow Perdo to improve things, weapon sharpening can't be done in an item at all as a Creo effect because it would require a ritual. Elsewise the magical sharpening would have a duration and then the weapons would be subject to MR.
This is one of the stupidest bits in 5th Ed, and they're not even consistent about it, which just adds insult to injury.
Doesn't allow is such a strong statement. If you want to use PeTe to improve a sword, I'm fine with it. shrug It needs some finesse, though, and it changes the target to Part, so it becomes slightly more difficult. Gleam of the Fresh Polished Glass works because it is targeting dirt(Base 3) on the glass, not the glass, and it's not improving it, it's just removing the gunk.
So, that's a good seque into another question related to the Spotless lab virtue. What exactly does it take to maintain the virtue Spotless? I'm inclined to think it's the same as maintaining Highly Organized, but I dunno.
Only 8 are trained per season. I'm going to make them very thin with Flaws and virtues, Single weapon, ride, crossbows ( as per L&L). then make the combat rolls.
IIRC, Those are rolls when organizing the lab. They should not be much to keep up (PeTe5 spell to clean dirt). You could have rolls per year when working in the lab to maintain it.
Comparing Highly Organized an Spotless, both of which can be gained through Refining one's lab, Highly Organized has rules for maintaining it. Spotless does not. Except that there is a spell later on that does this for the magus. I'm inclined to make the rules for maintaining a Spotless lab the same as for Highly Organized. And yes, these can be gained through refinement. That's well laid out. Maintaining the virtue is not.
Sounds fantastic on all fronts
Just making one more stab at Rego as the defining technique for maintaining gear as it would mimic the action that a mundane craftsman would do to achieve the end; sharp blades, clean armor, dents undone, etc. I've dropped the idea of the chamber for the armoury, which it seems would only be good for long term storage and not maintenance.
But perhaps a ReTe effect of about base 4 that sharpens and maintains the gear. The Rego description on pg 78 pretty much backs this up.
Yeah, Rego sound the way to go.
Arya: Redefining perdo is, in a way, more logical, mystically-wise, and it avoids the "creating through perdo" loophole of 4th ed. If you think about perdo and creo as "make worse" / "make better", this makes sense. You're just having a hard time because you're used to old (sometimes lack of) definitions. Not saying this is perfect, but trying to highlight another point of view so you can feel better about it.