Army of Liberty: a Fantasy Revolutionary Warfare Quest

[Photomajig]

Are the casualties that may be incurred deaths or just people not being able to keep up? And how will they be distributed among the units?

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They follow the same rules as battle Casualties, so some will be deaths and some will return post-battle. They'll be distributed across all Units, weighting infantry to take most of it.

As a note, attrition from disease and accidents is the biggest killer in war in this period, but having constant Casualties from attrition was unfun bookkeeping, so it only hits in more difficult circumstances like forced marches, outbreaks of disease or crossings of difficult terrain.

 

[NSchwerte]

Could we pick the same march action multiple tiens

 

[Photomajig]

Could we pick the same march action multiple tiens

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Yes, you can.

 

[Red Rationalist]

Looking at the numbers, intense drilling actually seems to be very much worth it right now. We would double our drill (which would presumably considerably increase our operational manoeuvre freedom and battle cohesion), at the cost of around 100 casualties, distributed over 14 units with 9,510 manpower in total. From the utilitarian view, sacrificing about a percent of our army in return for a decently-coordinated army seems a good trade that might very well save lives in the long run. In our position, the lack of army drill seems like the biggest weakness, with reinforcements being presumably fairly easy for now considering we will be battling in friendly-ish territory.

 

[NSchwerte]

We would double our drill (which would presumably considerably increase our operational manoeuvre freedom and battle cohesion)

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I wonder about that, @Photomajig does drill and morale have effects other than the cohesion?

Oh and i just realised that we should have taken the past human units too, not because of their COs but because they would be cheap extra units

 

[Photomajig]

I wonder about that, @Photomajig does drill and morale have effects other than the cohesion?

Oh and i just realised that we should have taken the past human units too, not because of their COs but because they would be cheap extra units

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Certainly. Poor Morale will risk events that have to do with mutiny, malingering, poor relations between soldiers, etc. Poor Drill risks events like supply spoilage, waste of munitions, slowdowns on the march and other symptoms of weak discipline and order.

You were not able to take the Saintonge units, only their COs, so there was never any chance to get extra units.

 

[NSchwerte]

If we recruit Nymph manpower, would we have to raise a nymph regiment to make use of it? And what would be their trait?

Is there a way to get normal equipment needed to raise new regiments or do we have to raise them with special equipment?

When requisioting experienced recruits, can we specify their races or how does that work?

We do not get info about the Drill/Morale/Cohesion when aquiring intel right?

About the Plan: I dont want to lose all the favour from falling back to the Vaud, though there is the possibilty to just spend the two extra march actions on correspondence to get 100 influence. It would be a great position where the enemies cavalry is bottlenecked by the shallows, but I think the decision should be between peregrina and Mauvais.

I think we definitly want to drill our units. 2 is "can barely march in formation", trying to take such an disorganised collection of troops on a force march is just asking to lose half of them to accidents. My preffered marching strategy would be mauvais with intense drill i think

 

[Photomajig]

If we recruit Nymph manpower, would we have to raise a nymph regiment to make use of it? And what would be their trait?

Is there a way to get normal equipment needed to raise new regiments or do we have to raise them with special equipment?

When requisioting experienced recruits, can we specify their races or how does that work?

We do not get info about the Drill/Morale/Cohesion when aquiring intel right?

About the Plan: I dont want to lose all the favour from falling back to the Vaud, though there is the possibilty to just spend the two extra march actions on correspondence to get 100 influence. It would be a great position where the enemies cavalry is bottlenecked by the shallows, but I think the decision should be between peregrina and Mauvais.

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1) Yes, to make use of nymph manpower, you'll need to found a new regiment for them (or be reinforcing an existing nymph unit). The Nymph Trait increases the Cohesion gain of adjacent Units when they Rest, grants Advantage in Woods, Forest and Wetland, and provides enemies attacking them Advantage in Village, Urban, Bridge and Fortified Terrain.

2) Ah, I'll add in basic equipment to the requisitions option, good catch.

3) You do actually get an idea of their Morale and Drill - I forgot to mention that in the description.

 

[NSchwerte]

1) Yes, to make use of nymph manpower, you'll need to found a new regiment for them (or be reinforcing an existing nymph unit). The Nymph Trait increases the Cohesion gain of adjacent Units when they Rest, grants Advantage in Woods, Forest and Wetland, and provides enemies attacking them Advantage in Village, Urban, Bridge and Fortified Terrain.

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Hmm, they shound like they would be best as artillery, where routing units can get to them to recover instead of akwardly meeting somewhere.

But artillery often wants to be in fortified terrains. Hmmm, interesting but imo not a must have or superior to existing options, just differetn

3) You do actually get an idea of their Morale and Drill - I forgot to mention that in the description.

Not knowing anything about enemy morale and drill was a persistent thorn in our side in saintonge, i think we definitly want the intel.

2) Ah, I'll add in basic equipment to the requisitions option, good catch.

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related to that, will special equipment replace normal equipment? so if we equip a unit with rifles do we get muskets back?

will influence decay or can we stockpile it?

 

[Red Rationalist]

About the Plan: I dont want to lose all the favour from falling back to the Vaud, though there is the possibilty to just spend the two extra march actions on correspondence to get 100 influence. It would be a great position where the enemies cavalry is bottlenecked by the shallows, but I think the decision should be between peregrina and Mauvais.

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In my opinion, just entrenching where we are isn't a good move. Aside from the question of the influence gained, this option also allows the enemy to army to raise more well-trained troops. Meaning they have a better chance of reforming an army even if they are beaten, buying more time for further reinforcements and foreign aid after the battle and increasing the chance for further support for the intervention from our display of weakness. The latter is especially problematic, as a defensive posture could very well move neighbouring nations to intervene much more quickly since we had to resort to good defensive terrain just for beating a volunteer army. The strategic position we would get to isn't good, even if we beat the enemy with a quite favourable casualty ratio.
Th battle on the Mauvais Plain in combination with intense drilling leaves us with a large, decently trained army in a good position to intercept the enemy, and thus buys time for the revolutionary government to actually prepare for facing the coming foreign armies. We need to project some strength to deter an invasion.

 

[Photomajig]

related to that, will special equipment replace normal equipment? so if we equip a unit with rifles do we get muskets back?

will influence decay or can we stockpile it?

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Yes, it will be replaced, so you'll get back the old equipment.

Influence generally stockpiles, but dramatic changes in the Convention like elections, coups and factional splits can wipe out all or part of your Influence when they happen. The next elections are set for the autumn of this year (it's now spring). The next coup is... Why would there be a coup? Everyone is united in fraternal revolutionary spirit and will be forevermore.

 

[NSchwerte]

Could we split up the race composition of aquired experienced recruits? so ask for 50 humans and 50 hobs in one action?

 

[Photomajig]

Could we split up the race composition of aquired experienced recruits? so ask for 50 humans and 50 hobs in one action?

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I'd prefer not to; it's simpler for the bookkeeping to do it in bunches of 100. But since the only limit to Influence spending is how much of it you've got, you can just requisition 100 humans and 100 hobs at the same time instead.

 

[NSchwerte]

Base actions i consider neccessary:

[] Offer battle on the Mauvais Plain.

We want an army action to drill but i dont want to give up so much ground as the vaud option

[] Intense drill.

Our drill will cause problems if not adressed

[] Requisition experienced recruits. It is far easier to integrate veterans into your service than to train new units from scratch. You might be able to get experienced recruits and replacements sent your way if you talk to the right people. Experienced recruits can be used to found new Regiments of higher XP rank. Experienced replacements can be used to avoid XP loss if they are of equal or higher rank than the Unit they are joining. Write-in desired race of recruits.
-[] [-5 Influence per 100] Regular Humans
-[] [-5 Influence per 100] Regular Hobgoblins
-[] [-5 Influence per 100] Regular Elves
-[] [-5 Influence per 100] Regular Halflings

100 Replacements for all races where we have units. Well lose 2d100 which need to be replaced and these replacements will allow for some reinforcements, though any big battles will empty the reserves

Hobgoblins: 1550
Halflings: 3000
Elves: 3100
Humans: 2000

Our troop number is the following so if we get more reserves we want to start with Elves and Halflings. Getting more reserves may be advised because i am not sure if we can use favours to get more troops if there is a second battle directly after this one

[] [-50 Influence] Acquire intel on enemy forces.

I consider this very important, know your enemy and their routing thesholds!

Leftover Influence: 55

 

[NSchwerte]

What does further retraining effort when switching COs mean, @Photomajig ?

I we put Klèber in charge of the artillery will we need to spend an march action retraining him and Faucher?

 

[The Laurent]

It's 2d100 total, right? How is it divided up? Like I assume we aren't losing Artillery troops?

 

[Red Rationalist]

It's 2d100 total, right? How is it divided up? Like I assume we aren't losing Artillery troops?

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That one was previously answered. The casualties are inflicted across all troops, with infantry taking a higher portion of them. I assume the artillery would take very low losses if any, given their small size and lower risk from drilling.

They follow the same rules as battle Casualties, so some will be deaths and some will return post-battle. They'll be distributed across all Units, weighting infantry to take most of it.

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[The Laurent]

Okay, also, btw, @Photomajig , your EXP numbers are off for the Horse Artillery. They were at 3/40 at the end of the last battle, and units get +2 XP for making it to the end of a battle, so they should be at 5/40. It doesn't matter much of course, those two XP aren't going to be the difference between a Rank Up and not anytime soon, but I happened to notice.

 

[The Laurent]

That one was previously answered. The casualties are inflicted across all troops, with infantry taking a higher portion of them. I assume the artillery would take very low losses if any, given their small size and lower risk from drilling.

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Gotcha, yeah, I'm willing to take that risk. Like yes, it feels bad non-mechanically to be a harsh driller... but this practice will absolutely save people's lives, so a few people getting worn down is acceptable, because two extra Cohesion could well make the difference between a unit breaking and others having to take losses to step up, and surviving.

My one worry is that the enemy will just take an Intense Drill themselves, therefore essentially just making it a "Red Queen's Race" of not staying ahead of things. Also we'll have all of our units short on Munitions when the time comes, at 9/10 and with no replacements in store. Which could be trouble for the artillery if this is an extended engagement.

Yet...

 

[NSchwerte]

Gotcha, yeah, I'm willing to take that risk. Like yes, it feels bad non-mechanically to be a harsh driller... but this practice will absolutely save people's lives, so a few people getting worn down is acceptable, because two extra Cohesion could well make the difference between a unit breaking and others having to take losses to step up, and surviving.

My one worry is that the enemy will just take an Intense Drill themselves, therefore essentially just making it a "Red Queen's Race" of not staying ahead of things. Also we'll have all of our units short on Munitions when the time comes, at 9/10 and with no replacements in store. Which could be trouble for the artillery if this is an extended engagement.

Yet...

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We do have 110 munition in our reserve storage and I would assume that the units would get filled up before the battle, so I dont think well have munition problems in this battle because of it. Though it may cause problems later of course.

Spoiler: Cheat Sheet influence/marsh comparison

All theoretical but imo good to keep in mind

Influence:

100 Remove CO
25 Transfer CO
50 Intel

(Equipments)

10 200 Regular Troops
10 100 Proffessional Troops
10 50 Experienced Troops
10 20 Veteran Troops

10 20 Munition
10 20 Supply

Marsh:

1 Mentor CO

1 25 Supplies
1 25 Munition

1 250+-? Green Manpower

1 50 Influence


If 1 Marsh = 50 Influence:

Remove CO: Use Marsh action on mentoring

Troops: Use influence to requisition Regular Troops instead of recruiting

Munition/Supply: Use influence to requisition instead of foraging

 

[Red Rationalist]

My one worry is that the enemy will just take an Intense Drill themselves, therefore essentially just making it a "Red Queen's Race" of not staying ahead of things. Also we'll have all of our units short on Munitions when the time comes, at 9/10 and with no replacements in store. Which could be trouble for the artillery if this is an extended engagement.

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I'm actually not sure if our enemy will get an equivalent action for their army, considering their are trying to form an army from foreign reinforcements that are still arriving while marching into enemy terrain. Seems a bit much to organize at once, especially without the formal organization of a full army behind them.
As pointed out below, I'm not too concerned about munitions. If we are really low on them we can buy 50 of those by requesting additional supplies after the battle, and we carry 110 of those. I don't assume we will fire enough shots next battle where having 14 less would make a difference.

Gotcha, yeah, I'm willing to take that risk. Like yes, it feels bad non-mechanically to be a harsh driller... but this practice will absolutely save people's lives, so a few people getting worn down is acceptable, because two extra Cohesion could well make the difference between a unit breaking and others having to take losses to step up, and surviving.

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I also totally get the practice feeling bad, but as you point out it may very well be necessary now.

Just a clarification: Morale (Fifth Army- 7) determines battle cohesion, drill (Fifth Army - 2) determines logistical ability and operational movement. Low drill causes a risk of supply loss, munitions waste and movement to the battle being slower than expected.

Poor Morale will risk events that have to do with mutiny, malingering, poor relations between soldiers, etc. Poor Drill risks events like supply spoilage, waste of munitions, slowdowns on the march and other symptoms of weak discipline and order.

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While our army has pretty high morale, that isn't all that useful if our bad drill causes us to be slower in troop movement, or to miss supply and munitions over the cause of the campaign. Our army is especially vulnerable to logistical mishaps given our increased supply need for hobs. Bad luck caused by low drill could easily cause us to miss a crucial battle, or to arrive to late and be caught in a bad position, so I think drilling now when we can afford it is crucial to reduce the chance of loosing the campaign too logistical hurdles. People can easily die to bad logistics during longer campaigns.

 

[NSchwerte]

My current draft plan:

[] Offer battle on the Mauvais Plain.
[] Intense drill.

[] Requisition experienced recruits.
-[] [-5 Influence per 100] 100 Regular Humans
-[] [-5 Influence per 100] 100 Regular Hobgoblins
-[] [-5 Influence per 100] 200 Regular Elves
-[] [-5 Influence per 100] 200 Regular Halflings

[] [-50 Influence] Acquire intel on enemy forces.

Result

Fifth Army

	Morale	Drill	Supplies	Munitions	Influence
Current	7	4	43	96	45

Reserve Manpower:
100 Humans
100 Hobgoblins
200 Elves
200 Halflings
(2d100 needed for Replacements)

+ Intel on the enemy

 

[The Laurent]

Also, we now know the factions, by the way! Honestly feels like the way to go would be to triangulate between Liberationists, Consulars, and Levelers as much as possible for the moment.

 

[NSchwerte]

Also, we now know the factions, by the way! Honestly feels like the way to go would be to triangulate between Liberationists, Consulars, and Levelers as much as possible for the moment.

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With the constitutionalists on the out if we get compromising info about the kings involvement with the volunteer army we would have a very strong lever with the other 3 factions who are all anti-monarchist.

 

[The Laurent]

With the constitutionalists on the out if we get compromising info about the kings involvement with the volunteer army we would have a very strong lever with the other 3 factions who are all anti-monarchist.

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Yeah, also for Coup-O-Clock hours, the Consulars are honestly not actually any less vulnerable than the Right-Levelers, and more vulnerable than the Left-Levelers.

Like guys:

"The Consular faction advocates for a strong, centralized republic, moderate social reform, economic rationalization, normalized relations with foreign powers and representative democracy with limited suffrage."

"They see the lack of a clearly defined executive branch of government a weakness and advocate for the election of representative Consuls to assume executive power under the mandate of the Convention."

"They have a strained working relationship with the Constitutionalists and the Liberationists, but consider the Levelers dangerous radicals and would-be authoritarians."

The call is coming from inside the house, lol.