Size of a battle unit (i.e., abstract troop size)

[irdeggman]

Time to close this poll. Here are the results:

What should be the approx. size of a battle unit (i.e., troop)?
1. Approx 200 individuals (the 2nd ed standard) [ 15 ] [83.33%]
2. Approx 100 individuals [ 2 ] [11.11%]
3. Approx 20 individuals [ 1 ] [5.56%]
4. Other - please specify [ 0 ] [0.00%]
5. Abstain [ 0 ] [0.00%]
Total Votes: 18


People want to keep the 2nd ed/BRCS-playtest concept of abtract troop size of 200 members.

[doom]

On Tue, Mar 22, 2005 at 04:28:12AM +0100, irdeggman wrote:

> This post was generated by the Birthright.net message forum.

> You can view the entire thread at:

> http://www.birthright.net/forums/ind...ST&f=36&t=3020

>

> irdeggman wrote:

> Time to close this poll. Here are the results:

>

> What should be the approx. size of a battle unit (i.e., troop)?

> 1. Approx 200 individuals (the 2nd ed standard) [ 15 ] [83.33%]

> 2. Approx 100 individuals [ 2 ] [11.11%]

> 3. Approx 20 individuals [ 1 ] [5.56%]

> 4. Other - please specify [ 0 ] [0.00%]

> 5. Abstain [ 0 ] [0.00%]

> Total Votes: 18

>

>

> People want to keep the 2nd ed/BRCS-playtest concept of abtract troop size of 200 members.



Not to muddy the waters or anything, but it may be worth considering the fact that

the number of individuals isn`t as important as effective deployment of strength.

It would probably be an ineffective deployment of strength to send 200 hardened Varsk

Riders against 200 individuals in a levy. One might be far better of sending 20

or 30 Varsk riders out and sending the others to fight a different force. Thus, I`d

argue that, in the spirit of abstraction, the number of individuals in a fighting

unit is not as important as its measure of "power" (for which CR/EL seems to be an

appropriate measure).



If a unit is defined as some arbitrary CR/EL then a "unit" of levies

might include 400 1/2 CR individuals and a "unit" of Varsk Riders might

include only 50 soliders with mounts. On the field, they might be

"roughly" appropriate numbers to send at each other.



If the system is re-designed to simply use numbers of individuals, then the war

card metrics are going to have to be signiciantly more varied (as 200 levies Vs.

200 Varsk Riders will hardly require a roll and should be solvable in one war

round).



- Doom