Food and Armies

I wrote the mechanics behind this for Tom Walton's "The Mouth of Sauron" zine long ago but I don't think it made it into the archives. I thought I'd share it on this list board. Maybe it will be old hat to you, but whatever.

We all know that in GSI's modeling of the "real" world of ME, there are many absurdities. 5000 thoroughly demoralized troops can be transferred into an army of 100 ecstatic troops and suddenly be equally ecstatic. A city of elves can be influenced over by emissaries or captured, and the next turn an army of orcs can be hired there, riding wargs. (I won't even go into caravan mechanics!) We pretty much just accept this with a suspension of disbelief and an understanding that no gaming model could be perfect, anyway.

But the system is a model; so I think it is reasonable to make full use of the system, even if that seems rather artificial somehow. At least, that is my opinion.

So let's look at armies and food. An army of 100 troops sitting at your city is supposedly fully fed -- but it cannot move with full movement unless there is at least 1 unit of food in the baggage train!

My mental picture has always been that the army commander has to wave a sandwich aloft in front of the troops, or else they insist on spending extra time fishing and hunting, despite having already been feted by the city's inhabitants. Just that one sandwich.

It turns out that there are two separate food checks. One of them is done just after all the 300 orders, after all food and troops are transferred around (340, 355, etc.) At this point, food is eaten and then the army morale is affected by the presence or absence of at least one unit of food in the baggage train. The second check is done just before navy movement, order 830. If at this point the army has that one sandwich, it gets full movement.

Think of it. You have an army of 100 infantry that has 101 food, and an army of 5000 infantry with no food. By the first food check, the 100 infantry eats 100 food and has 1 left, and goes up in morale. The 5000 troops get no food. Between then and the next check, the 5000 infantry commander uses order 780 to transfer command to the smaller army. At this point you have an army of 5100 troops with 1 food, _and they get full movement_ when the time comes!!!

Wow!

More than once I've sent an infantry army forward and had it rendezvous with 100 cav with 201 food launched from far behind it; the cav catches up with the big army just as it gets next to a mountain. Next turn the cav eats 200 food and has 1, and both armies combine, and step up into the mountain. (Or maybe the cav is 2 turns behind but has 401 food.)

Here's the real kicker. As you will see, if you commit three commanders, it lets you move full movement forever for just 200 food per turn (plus 2 more food you always have to have), no matter how many troops you have. The cost is that your commanders are busy shuttling troops and food around and don't get to train or recon. But you get to the front faster.

Say you start with an army of 5000 troops and food, and an army of 100 troops. The big army has a subcommander. The big army sub commander transfers 100 troops to the small army. The big army commander transfers _all_ the food to the small army. At this point, the small army eats 200 food, the big army has none to eat. The small army commander, now with 200 troops and at least 202 food, splits 100 troops to the big army _subcommander_. Now we have an army of 4900 troops, no food, no subcommander, and two armies of 100 troops each with food. The former subcommander transfers command of his 100 troops back to the big army. Now we have 5000 troops that have half the remaining food (at least 1, because we had a minimum of 202 to start with, minus 200 eaten is 2, half of which goes to the subcommander when the little army commander split half of his 200 troops.) Both the big army and little army commanders move together, with food.

Repeat the process until your food goes below 202. But you only use 200 per turn.

(You can do the same with all cav armies but you eat 400 per turn instead of 200.)

This article, by 'Richard', first appeared in the Mouth of Sauron.
Please email if you can identify the author.