Pocus wrote:You lose troops as soon as you move, but we are a bit reluctant to impact attrition to the historical level. This is still debated. Do you really want to lose 75% of your men just marching, in normally supplied conditions (I'm not even speaking of the Russian Campaign there!).
But rest assured, you will lose more men by attrition than in ACW

I'd have to say im with Bill here. I certainly understand a certain nervousness from game designers side about playbility of the game and the fun factor.
That said especially the 1812-1814 campaigns and the Spain ones was to large degree won/lost exactly cuz of attrition.
I mean the whole Russian strategy of trading space/land for time rely on the far reaching march attrition / strategic consumption. The Grand Arme lost more troops on the way in to Borodino, than losing on the retreat from Moscow too attrition. Wont that strategy become less effective / void if dont have historic levels of strategic consumption. No way the russian army could or should initially take major battles with the Grand Arme. It would be crushed by the sheer numbers. With less attrition wont u by the nature of it, tip the scale in french favor?
Again in 1813. Yes Napoleon stamped 500k+ troops out of nothing for the fall campaign, but it was in large young and unfed troops. Running Saxony thin in responce to the allied Trachenberg Treaty strategy. Those 500k dwindled very fast to a much more "manageble" numbers helping in giving the allied a more markedly numerical superiority. While the attrition/strategic consumption wasnt per say a idea in the Trachenberg strategy it non less was very much a product of it. The "casulties" to the french from strategic consumption far out weighted the actual combat casulties in the initial battles. By Leipzig after only 8 weeks of campaigning the Grand Arme was down too around 200k troops and by far most of those casulties came from strategic consumption. Scott Bowden's 1813 campaign books gives an excellent insight into that. Cant say i know what number of weeks or possibly days, turns are in NCP, but if any thing like AACW thats in the neighbohood of 300k men lost in 4 turns. Far majority to strategic consumption. Not that i cant alrdy hear the outcry from: Hey, where has my army gone. i just lost 60.000+ men in the last turn, just from "marching"!!!
My question/concern is how do u get those campaigns if included in the game to have a historic result/feel/option of strategy if attrition isnt at historic level since IMHO it was the most significant factor in those campaigns or rather the disparity of attrition/ strategic consumption of the sides. The later and later u get in the periode the more prone the french are to strategic consumption and the allied in general less than earlier. Younger and younger and less and less well fed troops. U can say its a factor into or reason of depending on point of view in the decline in french capability compared to earlier in the periode. A tip in balance through out the periode. The initial French advantage of forced and long march far out pacing the allies giving a much higher degree of manuver, becomes a disadvantage in that the later on younger troops cant sustain it and especially not when not fed properbly.
Would an option for historic levels of attrition be an option to include in the game Pocus?
So people can play historic or more "balanced" attrition. Tho i understand getting the right balance in scn's all of a sudden gets twice as hard/much work.
bill wrote:/5% is not a regular figure for attrition, but along the logistic line there are garison
75% isnt a unnatural figur in several campaigns.
aryaman wrote:I see a regiment at full strength, with almost 1.400 men, I guess we are going to have the same discussion on manpower and overbloated formations like in AACW?
I see there is a small number along the green dots, showing how many units are in the stack?
As for the map, I love it, type of terrain is much more clear, a bonus for playing. also stacks are nicely placed within regions. BTW Regions and cities apparently share the same name, I like that, in AACW sometimes I was misled by the name of the region being different from that of the city inside.
I love AACW but I guess I will cease to play it as soon as I get my hands on NC!
Assuming it is indeed regiments and not btn's and its at the start of a campaign i see no problem. Actually the opposite. A typical 4 btn french regiment at start of 1812 campaign had twice that number of troops in it. Heck many prussian regiments in the fall 1813 campaign had 4000 men in its 4btn regiments. U dont really see any 4 btn regiments with less than 3200 at the start of the campaign. Even most, non Silesian, 4 btn landwehr regiments had 3000-3200 men in it.
Yes through out the napoleonic era regiment strength varied and ofcourse also from country to country, but to me, 1400 men doesnt seem overbloated to me for most regiments through out the periode. Especially if at the start of a campaign. Yes u can also find 300 men regiments at end or middle of the campaigns, so it indeed vary alot. Any how from my many studies of OOBs especially in the later periode in non Spain. 1400 men is in no way a reach and actually pretty low in many cases.
Kind regards,
Rasmus