Post by Admin on May 5, 2016 17:30:06 GMT
Generals
You should make clear during war, and must make clear before a battle, who is in overall command of your participating armies. This can either be one of your marshalls, a magister militum, etc. or your ruler or heir. Up until Royal Bureaucracy you only have a royal army, but can place an underling in charge, or a vassal king, to protect the life of your ruler. This will give your army less of an edge, but means you won't risk a dead king. Above this, you will have military officials that may be extremely competent commanders, or can choose to lead the army in person, or send in your heir. A ruler in the battle will gain a great deal of popularity from victory, but may die.
A general's skill is based a little on luck and background, but otherwise is almost entirely derived from their power and honours. Granting military positions to a man (the higher the better), or honours such as the Consulship or co-regency, will vastly improve his military ability. While the ability of a general will only have a small percentile increase to the chance of victory (maybe 10% either way) this can often be enough to change the balance. The choice will always be between defeating foreign threats (for which you will sometimes need to empower great generals) or maintaining your own grip on power and internal stability (for which an able general is a ready thorn).
Field Armies and Movement Limits
To add some importance to protecting your empire, and leaving provinces unguarded, there are limits to how many field armies you may operate, and how far you may move in one year/turn.
Tribal Confederations: Up to 1 army, per tribe.
Tribal Confederations consist of one ruling tribe, which your character is the king of. This is your one and only field army, although your subject tribes have their own chiefs and kings and each subject tribe can act as an extra field army. You may send your retinue with any army you wish.
Overkings and Underkings: Up to 1 army, plus subjects.
Once you are a settled kingdom, you still have one royal field army to defend your kingdom, but you can also request aid from those NPC rulers that have accepted your suzerainty.
Royal Bureaucracy: Up to 2 armies.
Once you have established a Royal Bureaucracy you are large and organised enough to appoint a Marshall, allowing for a second field army in addition to the King's army.
Imperial Administration: Up to 4 armies.
Large empires with sophisticated state apparatus can recruit two field armies as standard, with relevant military commanders. In addition, they will have a faction that allows for the maintenance of an additional field army, and can also have an additional field army commanded by a co-regent of some sort.
NOTE: You can freely move units between your field armies that are in the same province, so long as they are not currently in combat. This does not effect your movement range and can be done at any stage of the year.
Moving by Land
Each board on the forums represents a province. Any field army may fight in one province and in any bordering province within a year. If an army is unopposed in its movement, it can move from its current province, through a neighbouring province, to one that neighbours that. Effectively, an army in Hispania may travel through Gaul and into Italy within one year, so long as they are not blocked by anyone with an army in Gaul, and are not attacked in Hispania. However, if they are fight a battle in Hispania, or are attacked on their way through Gaul, they will not reach Italy that year.
Moving by Sea
Moving by sea is a lot quicker, but takes a great deal of preparation. An army that borders the Mediterranean coast can travel to any other location on the Mediterranean coast in a year, but will be able to do anything else. If landing in a hostile region, even undefended, they will not be able to occupy it or force battle, as they will only have time to establish a beachhead and organise supplies. This means that the owner of the province landed in has time to move their armies in to counterattack. Naval invasions cost you the initiative.
Battles
If you move your army into a hostile region, you will be expected to defeat what local resistence rises up, and if there is a hostile army present, you will be expected to defeat that too.
Battles work on a general system of being divided into Skirmish, Combat and Flight. The Skirmish phase is an early chance for armies with lots of Horse Archers, or other ranged units (often specialised), to deal some damage before battle actually begins. Damage will usually be small but can be significant if faced with very mobile ranged units (the dreaded Huns, for instance). If losses are high during skirmishish, an army will already be at a morale disadvantage upon combat.
The combat phase happens when the two opposing forces finally crash into one another, be it in a contest of shield walls or mobs of ill-armed peasants trying to mob mounted lancers, this is where most battles are resolved. More professional or experienced troops with good discipline will be more effective, but weight is also important. If you significantly outnumber an opponent with superior units, you may easily flank and dishearten them, and the sheer force of men in your lines may break their lines. Decent losses are experienced during this phase, until one side breaks. Professional troops have a high base morale, foederati and retinues have slightly lower, and levies have much less. Factors that may effect morale at the start of battle are:
-Having one previous battles will increase morale, having already suffered a defeat will lower it.
-If you are defending your last territories, or for some other reason there is no escaping, your morale will be greatly increased.
-Being far from home will lower units morale. Foederati are less effected by this.
-Being undersupplied will decrease morale, depending on the level of severity.
-Being the victim of an ambush will decrease morale.
Once one side reaches 0 morale, it will begin to rout. Sometimes only one section of troops will rout, if they are of differing quality or loyalty to other troops, but this will impact on those who stay and will normally be enough to trigger full-scale retreat. While fleeing the battlefield the winning army will be able to pursue the fleeing enemy. This is potentially the deadliest phase of battle, as formations are broken, weapons are dropped, and men panicked. The percentage cavalry and light units in your army will increase your deadliness during this phase, so having a solid block of heavy infantry may be great in battle, but more of the enemy will live to fight again.
Ambush
An ambush may be attempted if an army is moving through a province you have control in, or one that borders it. It does not matter if this is the origin, destination or simply a stepping stone, so long as the army is moving in that turn. You can simply post in the forum relevant to ambush site (and post a link to this on the movement post, if in a separate province, just to help the other player see) and declare what armies and what troops you are using in the ambush. You don't need to use your full army, even if you only have one field army, and can hold some back if you wish, but they will combine back together immediately after the battle.
Ambushes work exactly like normal battles, except the ambushed become far more disorganised, and the ambusher becomes slightly disorganised (due to the complexities of ambush, and the possibility of it being at night time or difficult terrain and weather). This effectively makes them less disciplined. Though discipline is a loose figure that depends on the category of your troops (professional, semi-professional, levied) it can play an important role, so ambushes can help a less disciplined force to slaughter a better disciplined one by catching them off guard. Ambushes can backfire however, and the chance of success is dependent on the following:
-The quality of troops. Professional soldiers are better at keeping quiet in large numbers, and following complex orders.
-The environment. A foreign army far from home will be much easier to ambush, and employing local populace will make it much easier to ambush. (i.e. ambushing the Sassanids in the Syrian desert will be much easier if you recruit large numbers of Arabs into your ambushing force)
-Percentage of cavalry. The composition of your army, and the percentage of it that is mounted. It is therefore advised to have a slightly more cavalry-heavy army to be able to swiftly outmanoeuvre your victim.
-The size of your army. Though a large ambush can work, it becomes increasingly difficult as the size of your army increases, particularly if you vastly outnumber your enemy. This is less of a problem for professional and semi-professional soldiers, but every additional unit is an additional chance for a slip-up. It is also true for the enemy, though, as a large and ill disciplined force can drag out for miles and be split into fun-sized chunks.
All these qualities also assist an enemy, so be wary of compact forces of local professional troops, they know what they are doing and where they are.
You are free to ambush armies that are returning from a defeat. This will grant you a huge advantage in your success chance for an ambush. F.e. The Franks are retreating into Gaul from a massacre in Italy and the Burgundians see this as an opportunity to strike, stalking the dregs of the Frankish army through to choke points before striking and adding an additional massacre to their shame.
You should make clear during war, and must make clear before a battle, who is in overall command of your participating armies. This can either be one of your marshalls, a magister militum, etc. or your ruler or heir. Up until Royal Bureaucracy you only have a royal army, but can place an underling in charge, or a vassal king, to protect the life of your ruler. This will give your army less of an edge, but means you won't risk a dead king. Above this, you will have military officials that may be extremely competent commanders, or can choose to lead the army in person, or send in your heir. A ruler in the battle will gain a great deal of popularity from victory, but may die.
A general's skill is based a little on luck and background, but otherwise is almost entirely derived from their power and honours. Granting military positions to a man (the higher the better), or honours such as the Consulship or co-regency, will vastly improve his military ability. While the ability of a general will only have a small percentile increase to the chance of victory (maybe 10% either way) this can often be enough to change the balance. The choice will always be between defeating foreign threats (for which you will sometimes need to empower great generals) or maintaining your own grip on power and internal stability (for which an able general is a ready thorn).
Field Armies and Movement Limits
To add some importance to protecting your empire, and leaving provinces unguarded, there are limits to how many field armies you may operate, and how far you may move in one year/turn.
Tribal Confederations: Up to 1 army, per tribe.
Tribal Confederations consist of one ruling tribe, which your character is the king of. This is your one and only field army, although your subject tribes have their own chiefs and kings and each subject tribe can act as an extra field army. You may send your retinue with any army you wish.
Overkings and Underkings: Up to 1 army, plus subjects.
Once you are a settled kingdom, you still have one royal field army to defend your kingdom, but you can also request aid from those NPC rulers that have accepted your suzerainty.
Royal Bureaucracy: Up to 2 armies.
Once you have established a Royal Bureaucracy you are large and organised enough to appoint a Marshall, allowing for a second field army in addition to the King's army.
Imperial Administration: Up to 4 armies.
Large empires with sophisticated state apparatus can recruit two field armies as standard, with relevant military commanders. In addition, they will have a faction that allows for the maintenance of an additional field army, and can also have an additional field army commanded by a co-regent of some sort.
NOTE: You can freely move units between your field armies that are in the same province, so long as they are not currently in combat. This does not effect your movement range and can be done at any stage of the year.
Moving by Land
Each board on the forums represents a province. Any field army may fight in one province and in any bordering province within a year. If an army is unopposed in its movement, it can move from its current province, through a neighbouring province, to one that neighbours that. Effectively, an army in Hispania may travel through Gaul and into Italy within one year, so long as they are not blocked by anyone with an army in Gaul, and are not attacked in Hispania. However, if they are fight a battle in Hispania, or are attacked on their way through Gaul, they will not reach Italy that year.
Moving by Sea
Moving by sea is a lot quicker, but takes a great deal of preparation. An army that borders the Mediterranean coast can travel to any other location on the Mediterranean coast in a year, but will be able to do anything else. If landing in a hostile region, even undefended, they will not be able to occupy it or force battle, as they will only have time to establish a beachhead and organise supplies. This means that the owner of the province landed in has time to move their armies in to counterattack. Naval invasions cost you the initiative.
Battles
If you move your army into a hostile region, you will be expected to defeat what local resistence rises up, and if there is a hostile army present, you will be expected to defeat that too.
Battles work on a general system of being divided into Skirmish, Combat and Flight. The Skirmish phase is an early chance for armies with lots of Horse Archers, or other ranged units (often specialised), to deal some damage before battle actually begins. Damage will usually be small but can be significant if faced with very mobile ranged units (the dreaded Huns, for instance). If losses are high during skirmishish, an army will already be at a morale disadvantage upon combat.
The combat phase happens when the two opposing forces finally crash into one another, be it in a contest of shield walls or mobs of ill-armed peasants trying to mob mounted lancers, this is where most battles are resolved. More professional or experienced troops with good discipline will be more effective, but weight is also important. If you significantly outnumber an opponent with superior units, you may easily flank and dishearten them, and the sheer force of men in your lines may break their lines. Decent losses are experienced during this phase, until one side breaks. Professional troops have a high base morale, foederati and retinues have slightly lower, and levies have much less. Factors that may effect morale at the start of battle are:
-Having one previous battles will increase morale, having already suffered a defeat will lower it.
-If you are defending your last territories, or for some other reason there is no escaping, your morale will be greatly increased.
-Being far from home will lower units morale. Foederati are less effected by this.
-Being undersupplied will decrease morale, depending on the level of severity.
-Being the victim of an ambush will decrease morale.
Once one side reaches 0 morale, it will begin to rout. Sometimes only one section of troops will rout, if they are of differing quality or loyalty to other troops, but this will impact on those who stay and will normally be enough to trigger full-scale retreat. While fleeing the battlefield the winning army will be able to pursue the fleeing enemy. This is potentially the deadliest phase of battle, as formations are broken, weapons are dropped, and men panicked. The percentage cavalry and light units in your army will increase your deadliness during this phase, so having a solid block of heavy infantry may be great in battle, but more of the enemy will live to fight again.
Ambush
An ambush may be attempted if an army is moving through a province you have control in, or one that borders it. It does not matter if this is the origin, destination or simply a stepping stone, so long as the army is moving in that turn. You can simply post in the forum relevant to ambush site (and post a link to this on the movement post, if in a separate province, just to help the other player see) and declare what armies and what troops you are using in the ambush. You don't need to use your full army, even if you only have one field army, and can hold some back if you wish, but they will combine back together immediately after the battle.
Ambushes work exactly like normal battles, except the ambushed become far more disorganised, and the ambusher becomes slightly disorganised (due to the complexities of ambush, and the possibility of it being at night time or difficult terrain and weather). This effectively makes them less disciplined. Though discipline is a loose figure that depends on the category of your troops (professional, semi-professional, levied) it can play an important role, so ambushes can help a less disciplined force to slaughter a better disciplined one by catching them off guard. Ambushes can backfire however, and the chance of success is dependent on the following:
-The quality of troops. Professional soldiers are better at keeping quiet in large numbers, and following complex orders.
-The environment. A foreign army far from home will be much easier to ambush, and employing local populace will make it much easier to ambush. (i.e. ambushing the Sassanids in the Syrian desert will be much easier if you recruit large numbers of Arabs into your ambushing force)
-Percentage of cavalry. The composition of your army, and the percentage of it that is mounted. It is therefore advised to have a slightly more cavalry-heavy army to be able to swiftly outmanoeuvre your victim.
-The size of your army. Though a large ambush can work, it becomes increasingly difficult as the size of your army increases, particularly if you vastly outnumber your enemy. This is less of a problem for professional and semi-professional soldiers, but every additional unit is an additional chance for a slip-up. It is also true for the enemy, though, as a large and ill disciplined force can drag out for miles and be split into fun-sized chunks.
All these qualities also assist an enemy, so be wary of compact forces of local professional troops, they know what they are doing and where they are.
You are free to ambush armies that are returning from a defeat. This will grant you a huge advantage in your success chance for an ambush. F.e. The Franks are retreating into Gaul from a massacre in Italy and the Burgundians see this as an opportunity to strike, stalking the dregs of the Frankish army through to choke points before striking and adding an additional massacre to their shame.