Unit abstraction?

[CarlG2]

Originally posted by PrinzMegaherz:
Well, dom2 battles remind me a bit of braveheart. If I remember correctly, they dont field such huge armies as you like in the movie.
Dominions 2 is no pure fantasy game. There are no orcs and no elves, most nations (except maybe ermor and R'yleh, but that one does not count as fantasy anyway...) are somehow related to historical nations/religions. This is a background where such epic scale battles would not fit in, as battles in those ages usualy not involved so many soldiers.

Hi PrinzMegaherz,

Thanks for the feedback!

While I am certainly no expert on the subject, the reading and research I have done over the years has given me the impression that the military forces of the ancient world were often larger than would be expected.

It often depended largely on the nation in question and the age (Bronze, Iron, etc.), but there are examples of immense forces (and also relatively small forces). The ancient Romans and Persians fielded military forces numbering in the hundreds of thousands, while the Greeks only fielded armies of around 10,000 men.

Interestingly, the Europeans typically fielded relatively small militaries following the fall of Rome (in comparison to those of the Middle East and Far East at the same time). I believe the armies clashing at the time of Braveheart numbered close to 5,000 men, and I think this was fairly typical of the armies of Europe at the time.

I recall that Alexander the Great led a host that grew as large as 60,000 men, the Egyptians at one time fielded over 100,000, and the Assyrians could muster close to 200,000.

Getting back to the ratio of men to unit size in Dominions 2, I don't see any way that reasonably impressive forces could be achieved in the game without assuming an abstraction ratio of some type.

In fact, I think that the game would be unplayable if armies of any size were to be represented in the game with a 1 to 1 ratio...it'd get too unwieldly, and the battles would take ages to watch...

I do have to agree with some other posters that this is, at its heart, a fantasy universe based roughly on historical themes for the various nations (as is true of almost all fantasy worlds).

Thanks for a lively discussion, and good gaming!
Carl G.