• Estate : Silverhand (Thomas)
• Networth : $50,224
• Jobs : Danson – Knight
• Names : Danson (Age:27)
  • Lorcan (Age:15)
  • Duncan (Age:12)
  • Quillen (Age:12)
  • Joseph (Age:12)
  • Aiden (Age:11)
  • Alistair (Age:8)
• Tax’s – None

Lorcan is now old enough to go to university however i’m going to hold off for another 3 years because sending the boy’s to university is a troublesome process have to organise a ship to send them to the mainland. For this reason teen’s tend to go in batches rather than simply as soon as they age up.

It would be possible for Valdermar to privately charter a ship to send Lorcan and it’s possible other noblemen might do this however with no marriage plan’s for his little brother i can’t imagine Valdermar is in much rush to get it sorted out especially not at his own expense.

At the moment i foresee two University batches, the first will be in about 4 years and will have Loran,Duncan, Aiden and Dawn, Joseph and Quillen.

After that there will be a 2nd batch a few years later which will have Hadrien (Peter hamduns son), Possibly Danica(Tarik’s Daughter), Possibly Eleua (Peter Hamduns Daughter), Alistair, Emma and possibly Adam (Bran Howards Son) depending on who can afford it.

The Barracks it’s self is a tad overfull at the moment, in that after i split it into apartments i didn’t really make the “training school” apartment big enough to house this many children at once. Over the years i don’t think it will be so much of a problem as i anticipate the number of children sent will lessen as the novelty wear’s off.

The reason Knight school is so popular but expensive is because, Although the first son of a nobleman get’s his own land by birthright inheriting from his father, furthe sons are not so lucky and will generally just be granted a nice house on their brother’s estate. Becoming a Knight however is a way of these second son’s to earn an estate of their own making it a popular choice for noble fathers after all the more estates their family control’s the more power the family has. For this reason Knight’s Training is limited to Noblemen and Son’s of the Service Class.

For this reason Danson is classed as a nobleman, i haven’t really written any background for this sim yet but he is starting to feature more and more into the story, not bad for a sim who was promoted to playable for a tempory measure. Danson will certainly for a foreseeable future remain in the barrack’s if he ever manages to wriggle himself fully into the plot i might consider things like wives and children but for now i sort of see him the way Vince Bendett was for Henry his friend and advice though im sure Thomas isn’t very happy with him at the moment haha.

The round it’s self is quite peaceful no major incidents other that lack of bed space.

• Estate : Silverhand
• Networth : $39,855
• Jobs : Danson – Knight
• Names : Danson (age: 32)
  • Lorcan Beaumont (age: 14)
  • Joseph Bendett (age: 11)
  • Duncan Silverhand (age: 11)
  • Adin Shaw (age: 10)
  • Alistair Silverhand (age: 7)
• Tax’s – None
• Schooling paid by Parents and King.

The cost of the knight’s training fall’s squarely on the shoulders of the King and the Parents of the children, meaning relatively speaking the barracks has no real outgoing.

Knight’s training begins at age 6, this is strict and unwavering parent’s can’t choose to send children later in order to save money. Once a son arrives at the Barracks he is sent to “boarding school” this represents the time he is off in the field as a squire to a fully trained knight, returning at the weekend for further training from the head of the barracks Danson shieldsmith.

At 15 young knights are sent to university where they take the knights major and after 3 years return to the barracks moving into one of the small apartments on the lot (the lot is split into 1 large apartment where Danson and the children live, and 2 small apartments) Here they start the Knight’s career path only leaving the barracks when their parents finally arrange a prestigious marriage for them.

At the moment we have 5 children at the barracks, and 2 young adults at university (Daniel Silverhand – King Thomas’s youngest brother and Abel Hamdun – Gabriel/Peters youngest brother).

This is a fairly straight forward lot, the boys are at school for most of the time and running a round with just one sim isn’t exactly complicated.

• Estate : Silverhand
• Networth : $89,000
• Names : Thomas (age:22), Holly (age:24)
  • Daniel (age:15)
  • Abel (age:15)
  • Joseph (age:8 )
  • Locan (age:11 )
  • Duncan (age:8 )
  • Quillen (age:8 )
• Job’s : Thomas (Military),Deonte (Military)
• Tax’s in : 820 (Vince Bendett)
  • Knight School fees – ($2000 Each)
    • Vince Bendett
    • Gabriel Hamdun
    • Valdemar Baumont
• School Fee’s – $10,000
  • Boarding School – 4 X 2000 (Joseph,Locan,Duncan and Quillen)
  • Prep School – 2 X 2000 (Abel and Daniel)

It’s all change at the Barracks this round, the new Barracks is complete and it’s finally time to split up the Soldier and Knights.

It is Thomas and Holly to leave the barracks, as head of the army Thomas would be the perfect choice to move up the the new barracks to run it, however with the king dead it’s time for Thomas to take the crown and move with Holly Back to the palace.

Deonte has moved out this round, as a solider is place is up on the Beaumont estate in the new barracks, and although i debated making him captain, i decided after much contemplation that story line wise and age wise he really wasn’t ready for the post. At only 18 i don’t feel he’s yet earned the rank of captain.

However the new Barracks does need a captain and although either Orion or Forrest would make a good choices both have families i want to maintain at this point so instead i have resorted to a townie no-name… but more on that in a future post.

These changes however leave the current barracks without someone in control. At present the only adult knight i have is Vince Bendett,how currently story line wise is already in charge of training the younglings. However that doesn’t take away the fact that i need someone living in the building permanently especially as Duncan and Abel are due to head off to university next round.

As an elder i feel Vince is getting to old to leave his home and family to go off and move into the barracks, so again as a temporary measure i’v had to move in a townie, and in this case it REALLY is a temporary measure the townie will disappear as soon as Daniel and Able return from uni and Daniel takes control.

• Net Worth : $86,171
• Adults : Thomas (age:21), Holly (age:24)
  • Deonte Gawen (age:17)
  • Abel Hamdun(age:14)
  • Daniel Silverhand(age:14)
  • Joseph Bendett (age:7)
  • Lorcan Beaumont (age:10)
  • Duncan Silverhand (age:7)
  • Quillen Darkfire (age:7)
• Job’s : Thomas (Military),Deonte (Military)
  • Abel (Teen Knight)
  • Daniel (Teen Knight)
• Tax’s in : 820 (Vince Bendett)
  • Knight School fees – ($2000)
    • Vince Bendett
    • Gabriel Hamdun
    • Valdemar Baumont
• School Fee’s – $10,000
  • Boarding School – 4 X 2000
  • Prep School – 2 X 1000

Ok issues … as usual.

I have just 2 people who are part of the military in the barracks atm the rest are all knights in training.

Thomas and Holly will eventually go and live in the castle with the king but not untill there is someone able to take over as head of the knights. My plan is to send the 2 oldest boys to uni next year.

When they come back Daniel will become the head of the knights and in charge of training the others … its not perfect ideally id like someone older and experienced but all my knights died in the darkfire mountains … damn you book of death.

Deonte will go and start a new barracks on the Baeumont estate at that time, along with Persia Vinces daughter as the live in help and wife… not that he knows this yet mwhaaa haaa haaa, Four years seems along time atm because every round is taking so long to play… there are very few upcomming boys i can turn into soilders so it seems pointless to do it sooner, besides i have a storyline i want Deonte for first.

Money wise, most of the parents of the wannabe knights are paying thier school fee’s the exeptions are the royals, the barracks pay’s for them and only having 2 people in the military career i am struggling to find the money each day, however im surviving, uni is going to kill me next year though and i can’t afford to allow Daniel to flunk out because the barracks can’t afford to support him….

• Net Worth : $120,000
• Adults :
  • Thomas Silverhand (age:19)
  • Holly Silverhand (age:22)
  • Forrest Londen (age:25)
  • Deonte Gawen (age:15)
• Children :
  • Abel Hamdun (age:12)
  • Daniel Silverhand (age:12)
  • Lorcan Beaumont (age:8)
  • Quillan Darkfire (age:5)
• Live in Servants: None
• Job’s : Thomas / Forrest / Deonte – Militar
• Tax’s in : 1,630

This lot works differently to most lots, the tax’s Thomas gain come from the military personal living outside the barracks but on Silverhand land, namely Vince Bendett and and Orion Carpenter.

However the first thing you may notice is that they don’t pay tax. As all the tax’s go upward and end up in the kings pocket, Henry pay’s the tax’s to support the military.

This doesn’t mean however that the barracks gets to keep their hard earned money however. Currently we have 4 boys living at the barracks, 3 of which are currently under going knights training as the sons of nobles.

The 4th is Quillen Thomas’s son, who aged to child this round, heres a picky.

He will probably start knights training next year as long as he’s still with Thomas that is.

All children undergoing Knights training come here to the barracks, as my kingdom expands I may need a barracks on each estate, however for the moment this is it.

While they are on knights training I send them to boarding school using a hack, at simlogical. Which in story line terms means they are off with Vince somewhere learning to fight.

However like all my school options this costs money, a whooping 2,000 per day, per child, which is paid to the grim reaper effectively removing the money from the game, so as you can imagine the barracks money doesn’t stay around for long.

Next year im going to have a problem as Duncan Silverhand ( Alistair and Kaitlyn’s son ) will be due to start knight training, taking me over the 8 sim limit, granted i have a hack that allows this limit to be ignored but i don’t like doing it, as I find large households hard to manage.

However Forrest is doing well in the military, and hopefully soon he’ll be granted his own house, solving the problem. Either that or he’ll end up dead… hehe.

Ok back the Holly and Thomas, tragedy has stuck this house this round, I know im evil sorry and although I can’t physically stop holly wandering around * grumble grumble *, i can fix it so she doesn’t get pregnant.

So I’ve over ridden her normal pregnancy chance leaving he pretty much in the same stat as Gabriel a mear 3%. However unlike Gabriel i may or may not raise this as time go’s on, i doubt she’s ever going to be compleatly fixed, unless she visits Bellari of course.

However because its been caused by an injury i might decide to be nice and let her heal very slowly allowing the possibility she’ll get pregnant in the future.. even it its only a slim hope… but no promises there.

Ok a short word on Jobs and skills, i have a hack from Maty that makes it harder for sims to get promotions, and limits the number of sims i can have in the higher ranks.

It’s worth noting that because i play on a different time scale to the normal default ( ie i make my sims wait an entire year before aging ) it would be very easy to max their skills out while they where still children, and get them promoted to the max level while they where still very young.

Therefore i make a conscious effort not to let that happen i limit how much skilling time my sims have, especially as children. Then generally i try and limit my sims to only one promotion a year, this is often hard in the early ranks as they already have all the skills required for promotion.

However as soon as they get to a point where they need to actively skill up to progress in their career I can “hold” sims at a rank pretty much indefinitely, how long i hold them depends on alot of things, how the familys doing financially, how lazy the sim is, how evil im feeling blaaaa blaaaa

It very much depends on the sim and what the story line is doing at the time, for example because Deonte is already a junior officer but is only 15 I’m holding him there till he hits at least 18, (he needs 1 body point to progress) because lets face it he’s still technically a teen, so i don’t want him getting too high too fast.

Forrest however is also a Junior officer, because he’s working so damn hard to get his house, so he can marry Taye. I’m making sure he’s all skilled up asap. Because he needs 3 more ranks till he becomes Senior Officer and can get it and tbh i really need him out of the way.

• Net Worth : $114,304
• Adults : Thomas(age:20 ), Holly (age:23)
• Children :
  • Deonte (age:16)
  • Abel (age:13)
  • Daniel (age:13)
  • Lorcan (age:9)
  • Quillen (age:6)
  • Duncan (age:6)
• Live in Servants: none
• Job’s : Military
• Boarding School Fees : 3 X 2000 = $6000per day.
• Prep School Fees : 2 X 1000 = $2000per day

Duncan, Kaitlyn and Alistair’s son moved into the barracks this round taking Forrests old space. Both Abel and Daniel reached teenage and I decided that the “knights in Training” would stop boarding school and would go to prep school when they hit teenage this way they can start a “teen career” is if they are getting some “in the field training”.

Still things are getting very costly at the barracks, school fee’s are hurting, i changed things around and decided that they shouldn’t receive the tax’s from men living on Silverhand land at the barracks so Vince money now go’s straight to king.

However with only two people ( Thomas and Deonte) with jobs its going to quickly wittle away the “barracks” money, however its only 2 years before the oldest boys go to university to finish there training and while there their parents get to foot the bill for the privilege and the barracks can afford to soak up the cost for now.

I’ve decided to let holly heal a little, giving her 1% chance of getting pregnant, undoubtedly the king will soon be putting pressure on Thomas to produce a royal heir soon enough.

Thomas already has Quillen, however he’s a child born out of wedlock to a peasant and certainly not what the king would consider a suitable heir to the throne, so we better hope holly gets very lucky or perhaps the king will have reason to annull Thomas marriage like he threatened when Alistair was first killed.

Deonte is still only 16 but he has risen well in the ranks of the military and will soon be entitled to an “officer” home, Deonte originated on the Beaumont estate which means thats where he’ll get his house, however im debating building a second barracks there instead with him in charge, i have quite a few young boys floating about i could recruit into the army in a while leaving my main Silverhand barracks for the sole purpose of training my knights.

No matter what I decide I can still look at the options of wives for him. I think I may wait a few years yet but there is no harm in looking at the options open to him. there are a few playable options Daisy and Muirean are currently involved in story line relationships however neither is ever likely to result in anything permanent so they are good options.

There is also Persia Bendett, she’s only 12 at the moment but being Vince’s ( head of the knights ) daughter she’s very accessible to Deonte, and if she where to move into the new barracks as part of her ” royal service” her and Deonte would have a good opportunity to meet each other and possibly fall in love and Deonte being a military man would meet her requirement for a “servant” husband allowing her and their children retain the Bendetts servant class.

However after getting this pair together during the course of the session i find they have no chemistry which is a shame, however that doesn’t necessarily mean my plan is is dead.

The Bendett’s are traditionalists and i can see Vince being in favor of arranged marriages, and wanting to keep his family’s status as servants of the crown secure. He knows Deonte well, having close contacts with the barracks and will know the Deonte is a good man, and as he rises though the ranks and gets his own barracks to command he’ll become a very attractive marriage option, certainly better then simply marrying Persia into a regular merchant or peasant household where she’ll lose her status as a royal servant, so i don’t think its unbelievable for Vince to approach Deonte with the suggestion.

Deonte however isn’t from a family who value arranged marriages or traditional values as a whole. Personally i have a real soft spot for the Gawen family and Deonte in particular and really want to see him do well, even though he hasn’t been in the story much i still have a very clear personality for him in my mind.

He’s not had much luck with girls have relationships with both Muirean and Daisy in the past neither of which panned out, but he’s a real hard worker very eager to please and i think if Vince was to suggested that a position commanding a barracks may come available if Deonte was married to the right girl i think he might be swayed.

However lets see if godly intervention can help the relationship along… they are both popularity sims so i can see no real reasons why they shouldn’t get along.

Taking a quick look at their turn ons and off .. i can see there are some things that are fixable, Persia likes facial hair and fitness .. well Deonte is already fit so i give him some rather fetching sideburns. Deonte likes makeup so with a quick trip to the local mirror i fix Persia up im not sure daddy would approve but hey and it seems to work suddenly a negative lighting bolt becomes 1 lighting bolt with is much better and things look good to go.

Persia and Deonte are a match and plans now need making I don’t really real bad about telling you about this.. i have enough main characters in Grimstead atm so these two aren’t very likely to make a big appearance so im not really ruining anything… i just need to wait till next year move Deonte into a new barracks and move in Persia as a maid and soon enough we should be ready for marriage and little baby Deontes.

Long term for the barracks involves Daniel Henry’s youngest son becoming head on the knights and taking over from Vince and staying there, while eventually Thomas ( with or without holly ) will go and become king up at the castle, but this is all away in the future Daniel has 2 more years and the barracks and then 4 years at uni, while Thomas could get called to be king at any time depending on how mean the death calc with poor King Henry who is not only an elder but has a few illness tokens next to him.

Staying all this, as with anything in this game when the death calcs involved things can change very rapidly…. Thomas or Deonte could be the next to go and that could scupper all my best intentions.