War Parameters

[Ark]

Hello Indie's i've got a question, uhm like what parameters or variables do you think that will make an army win a battle? I know it depends on the epoch, so let just say it's on like medieval-renaissance era.

The ones that I got are:
-Army size
-type of weapon
-ammo (if the weapon is longrange e.g. musket)

*Thanks for loopy!
-Terrain
-General leadership
-Training
-Weather
-Mobility

*Thanks for jackolantern
-Tactics
-Terrain knowledge

*Thanks for Hallsofvallhalla
-Morale

What other parameters will you consider?

[Loopy]

Terrain
General leadership
Training
Weather
Mobility

[62896dude]

"Success is determined by the quality of one's convictions, not the number of followers."

[Ark]

Thanks for the replies!

@ Thanks loopy! definitely those are important params to consider! Just one question what do you mean with mobility?

@ Nice quote (rand(num))dude ! I wonder who said it?

[62896dude]

Remus Lupin

[Loopy]

Thanks for the replies!

@ Thanks loopy! definitely those are important params to consider! Just one question what do you mean with mobility?

I mean the ability to outmaneuver your opponent. Sounds like you are doing something very similar to what I did in my game with regards to your armies. In my game I use mobility both as an army's ability to get to favored terrain (individual troops fight better in different terrain than others, so the ability for an army to get to a terrain that best suits the entire army is important) and as an ability to flank an opponent for combat advantage once combat has started.

I also rate my troops individually against other troops. For instance, heavy cavalry faces a larger advantage against light infantry archers than they do against light infantry spearmen, though the advantage is significant over both.

You can take this even further though. For instance, I don't rate my generals on their ability to lead just an army, I rate them on their ability to lead different types of troops within the army too. So perhaps the general's overall ability to manage the army is 'Good' (I use numerical values for calculation, but do not make those numerical values available to the player), but his ability to lead cavalry is not as strong as his ability to lead infantry.

I don't recall how many factors I have influencing my battles since I haven't worked on that particular game in quite awhile, but it's a lot. In a wargame, my personal opinion is that the battle equation needs to be complex enough that a thinking man will benefit by strategically putting his army together and paying attention to the elements, but not so complex as to confuse the average player.

[Ark]

In a wargame, my personal opinion is that the battle equation needs to be complex enough that a thinking man will benefit by strategically putting his army together and paying attention to the elements, but not so complex as to confuse the average player.

Yeah I absolutely agree and i'm focusing to achieve that. Thanks!

[Jackolantern]

Tactics are extremely important as well, and not completely touched upon in this thread. For example, in feudal Japan, several shoguns discovered that splitting their forces into multiple teams and attacking from multiple sides at the same time gave a huge advantage over having all of them attack as one huge force. It turns the odds in several basically-guaranteed-loss battles!

And as an extension of "terrain", there is home terrain advantage. It was one of the biggest assets that the US had in the Revolutionary War, since they knew the forests they were constantly running through as the British followed, whereas the British were trying to learn the land while focusing on the enemy.

[Ark]

Yes definitely Tactics are very important. Thanks for the info jack!

[Callan S.]

Hello Indie's i've got a question, uhm like what parameters or variables do you think that will make an army win a battle?

How many of the other side are dead. 100% means certain victory.

Everything else is a means to the end of 100% butchery, which itself is a means to the end of absolute victory.

You don't think in terms of if weather will affect the outcome, but how it'll affect the butchering.