Unit abstraction?

[CarlG2]

Hi all,

Thanks for the quick replies! I do appreciate this community, as it is both active and helpful.

I had played the demo some before starting this thread up, and I do agree that with some effort it is possible to imagine that different units consist of different numbers of men. There are various dialogs (mercenary recruitment screen, for one) and other references which conflict with this ability, but I agree that it is possible.

I guess one of my primary goals in posting this thread was to see how other people playing this game abstract unit sizes, and see if I could find something that could push me over the "mental hill" that I'm feeling when I play the game concerning the represented scale. I do want to like this game, since it does have so many things going for it. As the graphics are definitely utilitarian, I think this is a game that largely is played out in one's imagination.

Thus far I do not see a concensus emerging on what the scales should be, but I do like the 100 men per normal unit, 10 per fantastic unit (summoned non-uniques, for example), and 1 plus retinue for uniques, heroes, etc. (I am assuming that is what was being described by Pocus).

Zen, I was looking to recreate epic battles involving tens of thousands of combatants, and am pretty sure that the only way to do that would be through unit size abstraction. I appreciate your follow-up, though! MoM was limited by stacks, but abstracting what those stacks represented allowed one to believe that epic-sized battles were being waged, no?

Johan Osterman, I must abmit that I thought I read in the CGW review that turns represented 6 months (and hadn't verified this in the demo...note to self...always verify first before posting "facts"!) Thanks for the correction! I still have trouble with the number of recruits that can be gained on a 1 unit 1 man scale for a month of recruiting, though (when one considers that these are entire nations recruiting warriors during a wartime economy). If abstracted, however, it makes logical sense on the number of "units" that can be recruited during that period.

Johan K: Very nice to see illwinter responding so frequently to Posts on this board. I appreciate your insight into abstraction depending upon the size of the map/conflict being represented, and agree that it is something to consider. Based on your statement, I can see that most of the values in the game could be abstractions based on the size of the world map. Food for thought. Thanks!

Again, I appreciate all of the responses, and look forward to any further discussion on this topic.

Good gaming,
Carl G.