I wouldn't want my own personala rmy, this is an elder scrolls game and it's about your character, not your characters army

That can't be qualified as a "massive battle" by far. It's already too much to call that an skirmish.

In massive battles, both sides must be counted in hundreds, if not thousands. Not a dozen as much.

There are 2 Oblivion mods that come to mind.

The first was something that tried to recreate the Dungeon Keeper experience which as far as I know, never saw daylight. An awsome idea, having the ability to control your own "dungeon" and create rooms for each class of residents according to their needs. An amazing concept.
And the second was a mod named Minionz(at least I think it was called that) that let you easily command armies of, well, minions.
Why does everybody think of mercenaries when the word army pops up? Where is the necromancer that secretly raised an entire battlefield of undead to do his bidding? And where is the conjurer that made a pact with a daedric lord and gained the ability to call forth the armies of the planes of oblivion to lay waste to his foes?

Why not have the ability to recruit necromancers, establish a secret haven and have them raise legions upon legions of undead to serve you? Or convert an abandoned temple to make it your own gateway to oblivion from where you can command vast legions of daedra.

Stop being so narrow minded with the whole "ooh I haz 10 brigands at my side BOW DOWN BEFORE ME!!!!". Just think of the possibilities....

tell that bethesda!
but there is a civil war going on as we know
now the chances are higher that we see something like that...

This isn't Mount and Blade.


It's Skyrim. Your own army following you around all the time wouldn't exactly fit.

YES!
as you heard in the podcast
it will be realiseabel

Someone said having to many players in your area will cause problems and we could avoid this by officers. Only the player talks to say maybe 4-8 officers and give them instructions like "ambush this road, raid this village, etc.." then your character can join in on small raids instead of a huge army scale battle.

There will probably be companions. But I don't you can buy armies. However, if it is like Morrowind and Oblivion, there will be plenty of giant army mods.