Tentative de FAQ Militaire (traduction)

[Manu Militari]

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Test worked example

This worked example based on the first few days of the Battle of Alexandria is intended to demonstrate the accuracy of the casualty rules worked out so far and perhaps provide some insight into other factors. The battle is between a French cavalry army, tech level 25 galoop cavalry, under an excellent general fighting against a Kara Koyonlu mixed army of tech level 10.

After 1 day of battle



After 2 days of battle

By inspecting individual units I can tell that the overlapping Qara Koyonlu end units have not been attacked and all units have attacked the enemy unit opposite to them or nearest at the ends except both the right hand French cavalry have been attacked by a Kara cavalry. The red lines on the display illustrate the apparent Kara lines of attack. This gives no immediate insight into the battle AI’s operation but does suggest that in normal battles nothing very weird is going on.

Qara tech level 10, French tech level 25. Oddly enough these have no impact on shock modifiers. Infantry have 1.0 and cavalry have 4.0 for both sides. Qara units are cavalry 2/2/2/0 [morale a/d shock a/d] and infantry 3/2/1/0 whilst the French have 4/2/4/2.

The dice roll appears to have compensated for the leader but the two are not actually equivalent. Our leadership increases the casualties that we inflict and decreases the casualties that the enemy inflicts whereas the enemy’s superior dice roll only improves the casualties that they inflict.

Working out the battle we get…

Casualties
French Cav versus Kara Any = 4+3+2-0 = 9 -> 8x3.5x4 -> 112
For the whole force 112 x 7 x 6,845/7,000 = 767 casualties when, in fact, 762 were reported. This is assumed to be the result of rounding errors with casualties being evaluated separately for each unit.

Kara Inf versus French Cav = 1+5-(2+2) = 2 -> 3.5
In fact, in the middle of the line the French cavalry took 3 casualties each on the first day and 2 on the second day. This clearly shows a casualty rate of 2.5 rather than 3.5 so there is a slight discrepancy here indicating that the FAQ is not entirely correct.

Kara Cav versus French Cav = 2+5-(2+2) = 3 -> 2x3.5x4 -> 28
At the left flank this should be 80.8 casualties scaled for day 1 losses (all the exposed units in the Kara line are at 888 men). The actual losses by this end unit are 80 so we have as good as an exact match there. At the other end we have a similar match (worked out separately but seems correct).

Over all losses are a reasonably good match for the FAQ going as 155/784 on day one and then 142/762 on day 2. The declining rate simply reflecting the shrinking size of the two armies.

Moving on I want to have a look at morale losses and the analysis plus facts are as follows

Either Kara Inf versus French Cav 3+5-(2+2) = 4 -> lose .25, .25 actual = {6.21 -> 5.96 -> 5.71}
Or Kara Inf versus French Cav 3+5-(2) = 6 -> lose .25, .25 actual = {6.21 -> 5.96 -> 5.71} (no leader)

Either French Cav versus Kara Inf 4+3+2-2 = 7 -> lose .8, .8 actual = {4.06, 3.26, 2.46}
Or French Cav versus Kara Inf 4+3-2 = 5 ->

Either 3 Kara Cav 2+5-(2+2) = 3 -> lose 2.4, 2.4
Or 3 Kara Cav 2+5-(2) = 5 -> lose 2.4, 2.4

If leaders don’t count but tech modifiers do and the formula is 0.05x(score-1) then we get values of – 5x.05=.25, 4x0.05x4=.8, 4x.05x4x3=2.4 which are the right answers. This seems to suggest that this is the right idea.

Looking at the other end of the line we have 1 Kara Cav causing 0.8 morale loss to the end unit and 1 Kara Cav + 1 Inf causing 1.05 morale loss to the second one in. The formulae all add up again!!

Next round a score of 4 for the Kara infantry has knocked 0.2 off a cavalry unit. This still matches my formula so, for the time being I am going to consider this correct.

So the morale rules are the same as for casualties except that the multiplier is 0.05 instead of 3.5, leaders don’t count and unit strength doesn't count. Note that I have not managed to obtain a battle with terrain effects so I will be coming back to this issue

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Auteur original: Kanitatlan

Voili, voilou, bonne lecture !

[Manu Militari]

Traduction à Faire

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Attrition (Interim statement)

This is an interim statement on attrition since the game clearly has a number of existing faults around this area. This FAQ section should at least give you some clues about the level of attrition and support capacity of various provinces. Investigation has shown the following facts.

Attrition rates are as follows based on province and prevailing weather/climate conditions

Base 5%
mild winter +2%
normal winter +5%
severe winter +10%
tropical +5%

I can detect no other factors affecting attrition rate.

Support capacity seems to consist of the following

Base capacity = N
Army camp gives +2 (unknown if this counts for non-controller of the province)
If you control the province then + base tax rate x 0.2 (unknown if this counts for non-controller)
If you are an owner occupier then x5
If you are the controller then x3
If stationary (besieging) then x2
Otherwise x1
+ leadership effect (see below)

Attrition occurs on the first day of every month and is evaluated based on the total number of units present as against your capacity. This means that quite a large enemy army can be present with no attrition whilst your army is being affected. If you exceed the capacity then you suffer attrition, there are no gradations, it is all or nothing.

Leadership seems to be something of the order of +1.4 to +1.7 capacity per point of manoeuvre ability of the leader. This has only been evaluated in a single high capacity province so this may be rather inaccurate.

Attrition is a highly important subject so I will be revisiting it later in the context of discussing strategy and tactics.


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Auteur original: Kanitatlan

Voili, voilou, bonne lecture !

[Manu Militari]

Traduction à Faire

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I've been doing some investigation of battle deployments to see if I can work out exactly what the battle AI does. The above battle images rather tellingly indicate that the reality of the situation is that only very litmited superior force in terms of more regiments can be applied against the enemy. It looks very much like the larger force fills its front line to a 4 or 5 regiment overlap and then places units in the second line. The cavalry is always given priority on the flanks and, I suspect, priority in the frontline. The ultimate verdict from this is that the larger force will be able to apply up to 2 more infantry regiments than the enemy and 2 cavalry. This means that numbers of regiments is a very weak strategy for defeating an enemy force. I haven't done enough tests of this yet but my current game should sooner or later see Chinese hordes trying to defeat European armies which should reveal the sordid truth.

If this really is the situation then this will be very serious for the low tech countries in the world and, of course, a happy hunting ground for sneaky strategies.


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Auteur original: Kanitatlan

Voili, voilou, bonne lecture !