Intercepting Armies

[Psientist]

That clears things up considerably! The #1 item that MaxWilson specified is probably a detail I have always overlooked. I am currently playing a MP game where I tried - unsucessfully - to have THREE armies intercept an large enemy army, from three different directions (but not where it was heading).

Thanks... I shall experiment!

[Gandalf Parker]

Size is definetly a factor on pass thrus. Keep in mind that a province is one months travel for many units. Its large enough to be a small kingdom of its own. For US people Im thinking the size of a county? Thats also part of the answer for why defend ends up with such a different result than patrol.

[MaxWilson]

Counties are pretty small, maybe 50 miles across at most. I understand that it's possible to hike from Denmark to Greece in a month's time; since a hiker would probably have a mapmove of 2, that makes 2500 km/2 = about 1000 km the standard size of a province. On the other hand, armies move slower than individuals, but 15 km/day is still a pretty fair minimum for light infantry. So each province should be at least 225 km across.

In U.S. terms, each province should be about the size of a medium state. Maybe Pennsylvania or Louisiana-sized, not New Mexico or (ack!) California. There's actually a map on the Illwinter web site that lets you play on a map of the U.S., which makes you think about how ridiculously small the armies are, given the territory they control.

-Max

[Gandalf Parker]

Remember. No roads. The "roads" benefit would be comparable to having that terrain benefit. Its still not exact but it still gives an idea that its bigger than most people think of provinces.

[MaxWilson]

Are cavalry on the plains significantly slower than cavalry on roads? Obviously roads could negate the effect of *bad* terrain (swampland), but I gave units their best mapmove in that calculation, which means they're on optimal terrain.

-Max

[Micah]

Maybe Dominion months are only 5 days long? It's never specified. Would certainly fix the scaling issue, plus locking yourself up in a lab for 30 days to cast one spell seems like a bit much.

[Saint_Dude]

If 2 armies are moving toward each other, assuming they intercept, is it completely random which province the fight occurs in?

Perhaps bigger armies move more slowly, so the eventual fight is likely to occur in the prov that originally held the bigger army. Or perhaps terrain slows the movement of troops, so the fight is more likely to occur in the prov with the most rugged terrain. Or perhaps the fight is more likely to occur in the prov of the army with the slowest troops.

Whatever the game mechanic, is it possible to skew the result (i.e. which province the fight occurs in) by preemptively attacking an opponents prov with ritual summons? In other words, is there any way to delay an opponents army (ever so slightly) such that if both of your armies are moving towards each other, the fight is more likely to occur in the opponents prov than your own?