Province Size?

[Kristoffer O]

It took me 72 days (three days of rest included IIRC) to cover the 1000 miles from Le Puy to Santiago de Compostela carrying about 10-15 kg. I bought food every day and slept in pilgrim shelters. Roads were good and straight and the few times we travelled on old roman roads pace slowed down. Rain also had a very strong effect on how fatigued you were at the end of the day. 8 hours in good weather or 9 hours marching in constant rain has tremedous effects on your morale

We travelled about 15 miles a day. I would imagine an army would travel about 5-10 miles a day. Break camp etc takes time. Carrying supplies is a chore. You get the picture.

There is no consistency of scales in Dominions. To build or besiege a fortress in months is silly. A population of a couple of thousand inhabitants in a province that takes a month to cross is also silly. An army of 300 units is also silly. We wanted to incorporate many features in the game. This is not possible unless you break some conventions. The current compromise tries to give some semblance of realism, but it is more intended to make for an interesting game than an overly realistic simulation of mythical warfare

[Chazar]

Kristoffer O said:
The current compromise tries to give some semblance of realism, but it is more intended to make for an interesting game than an overly realistic simulation of mythical warfare

Sure, and I think no one really argues with that! Nevertheless I found this thread to be very interesting (and maybe a bit off-topic). It is also a good task for our imagination to come up with some consistent explanations for the observed...

[tinkthank]

Indeed!
(I hope you don't mind me posting these "philosophical" questions every now and then.
It is like my post about "Dominion and Believers" (if there is a population of 0, who is there to believe in you so that your dominion will be anything above 0) -- I am not complaining! No one is complaining that, say, in the armies of Rome no-one ever cast a fireball...!)

[bone_daddy]

Being somewhat obsessive (aren't we all though?), I decided to check an historical event to see what would be a realistic distance for an army to cover. Being an American, I naturally chose an event from our history; the American Civil War. Sherman's march from Atlanta to Savannah took 28 days and covered a distance of 250 miles, which is an average of 9 miles a day.

This was form mid-November to mid December, which in the American South can be a somewhat rainy period.

In addition, Sherman's army did a lot of pillaging and burning along the way.

[Kristoffer O]

@chazar: good and hard task i believe

@thinktank: Philosophical questions are good. Perhaps a bit obsessive as bone daddy said, but still interesting.

@bone daddy: Most armies pillage. Else they starve. Only sissy players avoid pillaging

[Zen]

This is why there should be an option to Pillage as you move, in order to simulate that kind of warfare. Thoughtout the course of a month, an army should be able to rape and pillage as they engage local defense and defensive positions.

[Kristoffer O]

Conan said:
To hear the lamentation of their women

[bone_daddy]

Yeah, I've been playing Ermor AE in a SP game. Conquer a povince, crank the tax rate to 200% to piss-off the locals, then pillage and patrol it down to 0 pop. Really gets the income going.

Ermor AE seems too easy against the AI. Of course, I've only been playing the full version of Dom2 for acouple of months, so right now I have all of the AIs set to normal.

[Endoperez]

Ermor AE and SG *are* too easy against the AI. It doesn't change it tactics, and the tactics it uses works badly against undead themes.