[Discuss] Strategies with Small Army Groups

[Anthony Cerqueira]

On 5/16/07, James <TheKobald at tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
>
> Anthony Cerqueira wrote:
> >
> >
> > There are lots of realms that have small forces for the second
> > purpose, but the first point is not really a problem. As of right now
> > there is no reason not to grab the biggest hammer you can, because the
> > detrimental effects don't outweigh the benifits. Example:
> > 1) Feeding an army isn't easy, in BM it's automatic. You only have to
> > bring your own food when the enemy regions are starving. Possible
> > Change: Make foraging in enemy territory less certain, so if you want
> > to invade you'd best bring your own food. Now food stocks determine
> > army size not gold reserves.
> > 2) Equiping an army took time, again BM handles that automatically.
> > Possible Change: no ideas so far.
> > 3) Armies are peasants, if you want the harvest collected best make
> > sure you send the army home at the right time. Possible Change: no
> > idea how to do this one effectivly. I guess you could thrown in
> > seasons and make it so if you don't disband during autum you get less
> > food?
> > 4) Winter wars are a bad plan. Fighting in winter is a no, and while
> > we're at it spring is for planting. War flowes with the ebb of the
> > seasons.
> > Possible Change: put in a season clock of some form (like on FE) and
> > make it so most troop types, with the exception of the super elite,
> > are not available during winter (or whatever season you want) That way
> > if people want to keep fighting the biggest hammer is now small.
> > (Possible Problems: climate types, not all places have four seasons of
> > equal length)
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 1)  It's not hard when you have the weapons to tell a farmer to give you
> his food.  Now, if the enemy really wants they can pull all the food out
> of the region, but this is unlikely to happen.  Yes, you would probably
> bring some of your own food, but not a vast amount would be needed.


"Right lads we have swords and they have food lets get some grub!"
"Uh boss....?"
"What is it?"
"Where's the nearest group of people with food?"
"Um...... wait I'm sure I have a map here somewhere....."

Just because you can demand the food doesn't mean you can find every place
that has it, hence why it's harder to forage but not impossible.


2)  Raising an army does take time.  Regions run out of soldiers and you
> have to wait for more to be trained.


 Well recruitment centers run out of soldiers sure, but regions? I mean even
during the height of the Defensive Alliance war my kingdom didn't manage to
burn through 65000 soldiers in the capitol. (We tried though we /really/
did) And as far as the time constraint, how long does it take to get an
extra 20 soldiers in all honesty? I mean if you've got say 5 regions 2
centers per region and maybe 3 in the capitol you're looking at a day or
two? By the time you get back from the fight you've got, some men to recruit
at least. I agree you can still runout over a long war, but compair how long
it takes to get a new group of soldiers in BM and the time it takes to
outfit that many men for your standard ancient nation. (note I'm not saying
that mimicing RL is the best answer for our problem, just that you can see
how much faster BM is)


3)  Armies aren't just peasants.  Professional soldiers have been around
> for a long time.  When they are originally trained they are taken from a
> region, but replaced, so the damage is really minimal unless a lord
> orders a draft.


Professional soldiers, peasants.... hard to see a difference from my nice
noble high horse. They must be inferior to me, they can die. :) Seriously
now, considering the rapid birth rate of the average peasant does make
sending the army home for the harvest rather pointless, but it does seem
rather strange for such a large number of professional soldiers to be just
kicking around. I mean think about how big the hammers people use are, is it
really that wise to have so many armed lessers kicking around all the time?
The might get /ideas/ and then what will we do? No much better to demand
some basic training for all peasants in a region and then draft out a few
hundred as needed, that way we get to control the weapons. (example: See
british longbowmen for training example) I mean sure there must be some
professional soldeirs, but I don't think every small county would have it's
own legion of them.


4)  There is a clock with seasons, however, it is not fully active, I
> believe at some point Tom plans to implement this into the game.  Your
> troops would die more often as they traveled during winter time.


Ya I remember something like that, I hardly know what Tom has in store of
course.
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