Some GMs do not care about sensible limitations, and can fortunately declare a military is tons of of hundreds sturdy. However that form of nonsense will postpone some gamers, breaking their immersion within the setting, destroying their suspension of disbelief – as a result of it is nonsense, barring extraordinary magic or combatants who need not eat!
As participant characters progress to larger capabilities, some might grow to be concerned in warfare. I am discussing this for the advantage of these GMs and sport designers who need their world to make sense. Holding the numbers down may assist whenever you’re attempting to struggle out a battle on the tabletop in a marketing campaign.
Military Inflation
Many many years in the past, I recall being in awe as I examine considered one of three Battles of Panipat (India) involving 600,000 males in keeping with accounts of the time. The numbers had been repeated in a twentieth century dictionary of battles, but sounded immensely inflated. They had been, as are the claims from historical and medieval occasions for a lot of different battles. Logistics (provide, roughly) limits the dimensions of pre-“trendy” armies. So as to feed them and their horses, you possibly can solely focus so many in a single place (not counting cities which have developed lengthy complicated provide chains, although few cities exceeded the dimensions of armies in pre-modern occasions). Trendy estimates for any of the three Battles of Panipat are for lower than 150,000 whole combatants within the 18th century battle, lower than 100,000 for every of the older battles, not 600,000.
I discover that counting, or counting on another person to rely, helps resolve many questions; however even the commanders of pre-modern armies did not know what number of troops they’d. So we resort to different strategies.
Let’s take some examples of battle sizes.
The Battle of Hastings and Marathon
Within the late nineteenth century, estimates for the dimensions of armies on the Battle of Hastings (Norman conquest of England) had been round 25,000 every. At present as we perceive circumstances higher, estimates are sometimes 6,000-8,000 per facet. Not a giant battle, however big in its outcomes.
Numbers cited for the Battle of Marathon (490 BCE) by the ancients are wildly unreliable. A way utilized by trendy historians to attempt to obtain an affordable vary, was to match the dimensions of the (excavated) Persian camp to the dimensions of different camps the place numbers are pretty well-known (as prior to now few centuries, or some Roman camps). The Persian camp could not probably accommodate something just like the numbers cited.
One other strategy to estimate variety of contributors is to know the variety of males manning a ship. Greek and Persian triremes had been fairly standardized, and we all know their measurement from excavating sheds the place triremes had been saved. If we all know that the complement was sometimes 200 males, we will calculate that 371 ships (reported intimately by Herodotus for the Battle of Salamis) equals 74,200 Greeks. An analogous logic could be utilized to Viking armies, however right here many historians mistrust the variety of ships reported by contemporaries, so we find yourself with estimates various from tons of to hundreds.
But I nonetheless see wildly inflated numbers from works of the time repeated in modern-day historic books.
Barbarian Invasions
How about numbers of “barbarians” in ages of invasion? We now have virtually no dependable numbers. One that’s dependable is the variety of Vandals (with some Alans) crossing from Iberia to Africa, as a result of the Romans (who transported the Vandals to take part in a civil warfare in Africa) needed to know what number of ships they wanted. I’ve seen 80,000 quoted by historians, together with girls and kids. Which possible meant not more than 20,000-25,000 warriors.
The Battle of Towton
What might have been the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil, the Battle of Towton (1461), concerned 50,000-65,000 males counting each side – about 1-2% of the inhabitants of England at the moment!
Trendy Battles
Even in Napoleonic occasions, when roads had been a lot improved and the provision system was designed to deal with giant armies and fast motion, the focus of greater than 100,000 on a facet was fairly uncommon, and confined to later within the warfare (Borodino, Leipzig for instance)
The bloodiest battle of the American Civil Struggle (Gettysburg) concerned lower than 100,000 on both facet. The biggest variety of one facet in any battle was Chancellorsville (133,000 Union). These had been three and 4 days battles, not a single day, in occasions when railroads made provide immensely simpler.
Distinction this with notions/claims of many tons of of hundreds in rather more primitive circumstances. Such excessive numbers merely aren’t doable, nor was there any approach for contemporaries to know precise numbers.
Armies in Your Marketing campaign
If you run an RPG marketing campaign involving warfare, you don’t usually must get into particulars of latrines, camp followers, and pay, however you would possibly wish to acknowledge the difficulties concerned in shifting and sustaining very giant numbers of troops. Most warfare within the melee age was “small warfare” that concerned tons of fairly than hundreds, and barely tens of hundreds not to mention tons of of hundreds.
I used to stay in “Battle Creek” Michigan. That eponymous “battle” concerned all of . . . three males (no deaths). A fort might be held by lower than 100 males, until the attackers had been extremely motivated and really quite a few.
My recommendation is, overlook the huge numbers and give attention to attention-grabbing interactions.
Your Flip: What are essentially the most quite a few armies which have ever really fought out a battle on the tabletop in your marketing campaign?
