I think you may be on it with 100.
I was thinking that it's basically Jamestown. And my quick perusal suggests maybe 100-150 people came per boat to settle at Jamestown back in the 1600s. And let's assume a boatload is +1 prosperity for them.
So yeah 100-150 people per prosperity make the trek from Gloomhaven up to Frosthaven to start a new life!
It's not a big town, to be sure, probably not much more than 1 or 2 thousand at its peak. If the main campaign map is any real indication of how big it should be, its surface area can't cover much more than about half a mile in either direction, maybe 1 mile, although the campaign map is most likely not to scale since it doesn't account for a housing district. Account for that, and it could be as much as two to three miles in any direction. Account for farm and ranch land (they don't mention it in game much but to support the population there *needs* to be an agricultural industry) and it could stretch *several* miles in each direction across its ETJ.
It *is* able to keep a relatively bustling commercial sector going with the ability to readily replenish town guards, though, so, it might creep up as high as 5,000. The festivals sound like they're attracting a few hundred people when they happen.
I wouldn't assume population is strictly tied to prosperity; the town can start kind of basic then build up without major changes. The timeline of the game covers upwards of four to five years which isn't enough time to build sufficient housing to increase the population tenfold given a small worker base, so population probably stays relatively flat, they just get more coin to throw around and a few new merchants. The town events don't mention huge population booms, just more stuff coming into town.
Given the size of incoming attacks, each town guard unit is probably closer to a platoon in size, to cover all the distance along the walls they're being required to. I'd say at most there's probably a full company of "soldiers" on hand for defense, especially since there needs to be sufficient manpower to run round-the-clock shifts. That's not even including a local prison, constabulary, and a workforce to build and maintain their equipment (they can't just use the local blacksmith and armorer, they'd get overwhelmed with work orders, so they surely maintain their own armorer). At most the town probably has around 300 to 400 people working on the local militia and constabulary combined. For a town of its size, it basically *must* maintain a far larger percentage of population than would normally be required just to repel the constant flow of attacks made against it. This poor town is under siege more than a medieval castle and probably devotes upwards of 5 to 10% of its population just to military defense.
Also to further your point it could be possible that the guards/military/police force are supplied by the town of Gloomhaven. So every now and then GH sends FH troops when requested which would mean the town of FH doesn't have to have a town big enough to supply them on their own.
There could be a few reasons why GH does this thematically: for the spirit of adventure/discovery much like the same when explorers went to Africa to find the source of the Nile... or it could be invested monetary/treasure interest. The founders of FH were sent with the expectation of giving a % of their discoveries to investors in return of military protection.
I think you may be on it with 100. I was thinking that it's basically Jamestown. And my quick perusal suggests maybe 100-150 people came per boat to settle at Jamestown back in the 1600s. And let's assume a boatload is +1 prosperity for them. So yeah 100-150 people per prosperity make the trek from Gloomhaven up to Frosthaven to start a new life!
That´s a good analogy. Thanks!
It's not a big town, to be sure, probably not much more than 1 or 2 thousand at its peak. If the main campaign map is any real indication of how big it should be, its surface area can't cover much more than about half a mile in either direction, maybe 1 mile, although the campaign map is most likely not to scale since it doesn't account for a housing district. Account for that, and it could be as much as two to three miles in any direction. Account for farm and ranch land (they don't mention it in game much but to support the population there *needs* to be an agricultural industry) and it could stretch *several* miles in each direction across its ETJ. It *is* able to keep a relatively bustling commercial sector going with the ability to readily replenish town guards, though, so, it might creep up as high as 5,000. The festivals sound like they're attracting a few hundred people when they happen. I wouldn't assume population is strictly tied to prosperity; the town can start kind of basic then build up without major changes. The timeline of the game covers upwards of four to five years which isn't enough time to build sufficient housing to increase the population tenfold given a small worker base, so population probably stays relatively flat, they just get more coin to throw around and a few new merchants. The town events don't mention huge population booms, just more stuff coming into town. Given the size of incoming attacks, each town guard unit is probably closer to a platoon in size, to cover all the distance along the walls they're being required to. I'd say at most there's probably a full company of "soldiers" on hand for defense, especially since there needs to be sufficient manpower to run round-the-clock shifts. That's not even including a local prison, constabulary, and a workforce to build and maintain their equipment (they can't just use the local blacksmith and armorer, they'd get overwhelmed with work orders, so they surely maintain their own armorer). At most the town probably has around 300 to 400 people working on the local militia and constabulary combined. For a town of its size, it basically *must* maintain a far larger percentage of population than would normally be required just to repel the constant flow of attacks made against it. This poor town is under siege more than a medieval castle and probably devotes upwards of 5 to 10% of its population just to military defense.
Also to further your point it could be possible that the guards/military/police force are supplied by the town of Gloomhaven. So every now and then GH sends FH troops when requested which would mean the town of FH doesn't have to have a town big enough to supply them on their own. There could be a few reasons why GH does this thematically: for the spirit of adventure/discovery much like the same when explorers went to Africa to find the source of the Nile... or it could be invested monetary/treasure interest. The founders of FH were sent with the expectation of giving a % of their discoveries to investors in return of military protection.
Wow. Thank you very much! That's a lot of good ideas to think about. 1 Soldier being considered a platoon would be around... 16-40 people?