army sizes and make up.

Greetings. I have been thinking about the make up of the army. Any ideas about what works best in game terms? Do Ambulance sections, workshops, hospitals really work. They seem a big expense if a typical agema army is sick listed to three, after 3 or 4 turns. On this basis, it would make sense for armys to be around 30 units strong, wouldnt it? As most battles dureing that time, proved inconclusive, why bother with such big armys. They just go inactive quick. Smaller in size, but larger in number. This is the army sizes i am thinking work best. Any views?

In one game I play as Britain, my army is around 30 regiments of foot (four to five Battalions Each), with the correct ratio of cav and such mixed in. I have those units brigaded and serving under named commanders. So far, I have not placed any of these units into a large scale action, and have more or less used them in police actions. However, they have been well handled by the officers. I also have hospital sections and ambulance sections assigned, and even have surgeons assigned to ships and units. I am not certain of the benefit of this in the game, but the time will come to test it.

Sick lists usually mean you have not supplied them or left them out in the countryside/at sea too long so the men get fed up/sick of camp/ship etc....

Yes, but also an sl rating is due to campagning, marching ect. I was once told by a fellow player, that after three months of fighting, an army will be inactive due to its sl rating.So on that basis, i thought that army sizes should be no more than thirty, and specialised troops, like Workshops, ambulence and baggage trains are too costly and too in-effective. Why spend all that on them when after three months they are in -effective. So i got the impression that after three months armies become un-operatble no matter what you do, or how you form and organize them. Is this correct? or can they fight on for many months, if they have plenty of stores with them?

Not true. As long as they are supplied and not fighting in winter months (although there is a way round that) they can go without getting sick lists. However it need careful management of stores etc for them and in winter it is very hard but not impossible to condut a campagain.

I have fought a sige thru the winter and won and lost no men to sick lists only on storming the walls at the end. I had ample supplies and ensured they where looked after....

Thanks Terry, great advice as usual. Someone very experianced has led me astray there. Now i will have to work on more units, and more specialized units.

How do you feel about mag repeater rifles? i have discovered them but i am thinking perhaps use them spareingly. I suppose they have been discovered too early to be reliable. Do you bother to discover them? Even useing excellantly drilled troops would probably not be enough?

Instead of worrying with the special weapons and such for the general troops make sure that you forces are armed with a common calibre and common pattern weapon so that trouble can be reduced in actual combat. Using rifles or something special in a few units might be the case, but certainly not the norm since the name of the game is realiability and rate fire until it is time for the bayonet. Then nothing else matters other than how you use it.

Yes, i think those matters are sorted. It looks like Richard keeps the development of the muskets, fairly similiar. It looks to me as if the rate of fire is the same for all nations. Certainly the ones that i have looked at.

by adding special weapons you make it hard for your troops to keep supplies as normally you can pick up enemy stuff and use it as it is universal to all nations.
You can experipment with different patterns fo weapons longer range biger bore etc but it takes time to research, then pay to equip ypour forces . As Russia I like the Stalin approach masses of ordinary inf backed by some very elite troops to back them up and a few hard line officers to ensure they are going the right way in battle

I play the typical British Officer well... Well Drilled, well armed, etc. I agree with the Csar's reasoning, but His Britannic Majesty looks at it from my own yard. All of my units are armed with a common weapon of a common design pattern. In other words, the M1731 MkII or something along that line. The same is true for all other arms, they have a common arm of a common design so that supply will be consistent. I beleive that we are good in that area and Terry and I agree on that point ( I believe). I use rifles and specialty weapons in only a few units, and have not had a chance to test their effectiveness. We shall see in the future how this works I believe.

On the matter of supplies dont forget that when you first move them to a location you usually pay for a supply to move from A to B. This is ok but then you do not bother to supply them each month they are there or fighting/seige/blocading hence the sick lists.

So either buy a shed load of supplies in one go or buy some each month to keep supplies at the correct level. Try adding a few special requirements like "add a tot of vodka for each soldier each day". Give out honey once a week or month to suppliment rations etc... you know the score....

Royal Navy man here... Got that base covered!

Great advice guys, thank you. I liked the idea of the tots of whiskey. Just what the soldiars would look forward too.

I always thought the biggest limitation on army size was the calculation over honour score and the number of units per honour point that behave properly (know it's somewhere in the rules...)

I've always liked the idea of hospital sections, etc; just never got round to them, they do take a lot of recruits and I often seem to need them elsewhere.

I haven't gone for repeater rifles, not convinced the effort was worth it, they seem to be unrealiable and as someone else pointed out, it means you can't easily reuse captured material.

It is alright introducing new units, but organising them all is a big effort. Takes alot of time and orders. Perhaps the use of Honour in games, is too important?

It is one of the items that Richard has built in to slow things down some. I believe it forces diplomacy to occur instead of being a simple war game.

Yes, a good idea, that clearly works.