The medieval army ratio

[MKSheppard]

in ww2, the US marine training for drafted conscripts was varying between 4 and 8 weeks, averaging at 6 weeks.

That was for just basic training. Actually becoming a useful person took much longer.

[Elheru Aran]

in ww2, the US marine training for drafted conscripts was varying between 4 and 8 weeks, averaging at 6 weeks.

That was for just basic training. Actually becoming a useful person took much longer.

Yeah, basic training is basically to weed out the scrubs (the fatties, the runts, and the idiots... and not so many of the latter than you'd think), teach them how to march in formation and shoot a gun, look nice in uniform, all that. Actual MOS training takes a bit longer. I don't think that even in 1944 or 1945 they were taking pure boots and putting them on the front lines, but I could be wrong.

[Simon_Jester]

On the other hand, you don't have to teach your medieval troops much except marching and formation and a few basic combat moves.

All the stuff like "this is how you pitch your tents, this is how you wear your uniform" is either irrelevant (no uniforms) or a routine part of medieval peasant survival skills (digging holes). Plus you aren't even trying to maintain camp sanitation and so on, so precise regulation of soldiers' hygiene and so on is a non-factor.

Eight weeks wouldn't give you good soldiers under those circumstances, even for purposes of holding a shield wall with spears. But it might actually give you something that wouldn't just shatter the first time it was attacked seriously.