Dev Diary: Military and Combat

[p]Hello all! This week we're going to be looking at one of the most important systems in Fall of an Empire: the military. Armies are the backbone of your power - without them, you cannot defend your borders, crush rebellions, or bring wayward provincial governors to heel. But maintaining a military is expensive, and fielding the wrong troops in the wrong place can be disastrous.Viewing and creating a new army template[/p][p]Let's start with how armies are actually built. In the game, your militaries are ordered around formations. A formation might specify that you want three cohorts of heavy infantry units, two of cavalry, and siege units. Once you've designed and raised this formation, your settlements will automatically begin producing the units and sending them to form up into an army. This means that raising a new force takes time, and if your settlements are spread across the empire, your reinforcements will trickle in over days or weeks as they march from their home provinces. It also means that if a settlement is under siege or cut off by enemies, it can't contribute to your war effort. You’ll need to make sure that your settlements meet the requirements: certain units can only be fielded from upgraded buildings or special Fortresses (which entirely convert the settlement into a militarised one).[/p][p]Creating a formation from a settlement[/p][p]Units themselves come in several broad categories: infantry, ranged, cavalry, siege, and special units. Infantry form the backbone of most armies: they're relatively cheap, they hold the line, and they die in large numbers so that your more expensive troops don't have to. Ranged units attack the enemy from a distance but crumble if cavalry reaches them. Cavalry are fast and deadly on the charge, but expensive to maintain and useless in a prolonged melee. Siege units are essential for taking fortified settlements - without them, you'll be stuck outside the walls for months. And special units cover everything from religious figures who bolster morale to elite units who can turn the tide of a battle.[/p][p]Each unit type has three damage values - pierce, crush, and slash - and three corresponding armour values. A unit that deals primarily slash damage will struggle against heavily armoured opponents with high slash armour, while pierce damage from spears and arrows cuts through lighter troops. This means that army composition matters: a force of nothing but heavy infantry will be tough to kill, but slow and vulnerable to massed archery. A cavalry-heavy army can run circles around infantry, but will suffer badly if caught by spearmen.[/p][p]Different cultures field very different units. The Rephsian legions can call upon the Legio Comitatenses (no relation to any historical military units whatsoever) - professional heavy infantry in the old imperial tradition - as well as the Equites Clibanarii, armoured cavalry who can smash through enemy formations. The Neutarnic barbarians prefer shield walls and tribal levies, fighting on foot with axes and spears in tight-packed formations. The Tamasheq of the southern deserts field swift cavalry and light archers adapted to the heat. And the steppe peoples of Tarhania fight almost entirely from horseback.[/p][p]This brings us to battles themselves. When two armies meet, combat takes place in a kind of simulated two-dimensional space. Rather than resolving everything in a single dice roll, your units form up into groups of the same unit type that move and fight together. These groups then manoeuvre across the battlefield, seeking advantageous positions and trying to engage enemy formations on favourable terms. Infantry formations will try to pin down enemies, cavalry will attempt to flank and charge, and ranged formations will seek positions from which they can rain missiles without being engaged in melee.A battle in progress: this UI will see a refresh before release.[/p][p]You have some control over this process. You can assign targets to your formations, ordering your cavalry to ignore the enemy infantry and sweep around to attack their archers. You can set your formations' stances - aggressive for more damage at the cost of taking more, defensive for the opposite, or simply ordering them to hold position and let the enemy come to them. You can also trigger special abilities if your commander has the tactical skill for it: ordering a testudo formation to weather a storm of arrows, for instance.[/p][p]Commanders matter a great deal. Each army is led by a character (it can be leaderless, but will suffer a lot from the lack of leadership), and that character's statistics affect everything from movement speed to combat effectiveness. A general with high Tactics will unlock more battlefield abilities and make better decisions in the automated parts of combat. A general with high Authority can command more troops and provides larger bonuses to the formations under their command. And the military hierarchy itself provides bonuses - a Dux commanding multiple Prefects, each commanding multiple Legates, creates a chain of command where each level provides morale and combat bonuses to those below them.[/p][p]Armies also gain veterancy over time. A newly raised formation of conscripts will fight poorly compared to a hardened force that has survived multiple campaigns. This veterancy is precious - losing a veteran army means losing years of accumulated experience. It's often better to retreat and preserve an experienced force than to fight to the death and have to raise raw recruits to replace them.[/p][p]Of course, armies need to eat. Every month, your soldiers consume food and other resources from your faction's stockpiles. If the supplies run out, your army will begin to suffer attrition. This is where the convoy system from the economy becomes the most useful: if rebels or barbarians cut your supply lines, an army can starve to death on the march home. Armies can carry their own stockpiles to an extent, but for prolonged campaigns deep in enemy territory, you need to plan your logistics carefully.[/p][p]The army sidebar: note the resources and morale.[/p][p]The terrain itself can be deadly too. Armies marching through snow in winter will suffer cold attrition. In summer, the deserts will parch and exhaust your troops. Certain unit types are adapted to these conditions - desert cavalry don't suffer in the heat, and northern barbarians are hardier in the cold - which is another reason to consider the composition of your forces carefully (in this case, foederati can be very powerful).[/p][p]For the barbarian factions and the foederati, the military works somewhat differently. Rather than maintaining standing professional armies like the Rephsians, these cultures rely on tribal levies - warriors called up from the population when war demands it. The levy system scales with population, so a small tribe can only field a small warband, while a large and prosperous one can raise a formidable host. But levies have their costs: calling up their warriors means they're not working their farms, and a defeated levy that suffers heavy casualties will take time to recover. The foederati themselves occupy an interesting middle position. As barbarian tribes settled within the Empire, they owe military service to their Rephsian overlord - you. When war comes, you can call up foederati forces to fight alongside your legions. These barbarian auxiliaries bring their own fighting styles and unit types to your armies, often providing capabilities that Rephsian units lack. But the foederati don't always appreciate being called up, and demanding too much military service will strain your relationship with them. Push them too hard, and they may decide that rebellion is preferable to endless war in your name.Three armies in battle, next to a pillaged settlement.[/p][p]Finally, there are sieges. A fortified settlement cannot simply be walked into - you need to besiege it. This is where siege units are the most useful. Each unit contributes siege power, and the total siege power of your army determines how quickly you can reduce the fortifications and assault the walls. A well-fortified city with strong walls might hold out for months against an army without proper siege equipment, but fall in weeks to a force with rams and catapults. During a siege, the settlement's garrison will defend against any assault, so you need to be confident your forces can defeat the defenders before you order the attack (or just wait until they surrender).[/p][p]Thank you (again) for reading! Next week we'll be looking at the imperial court and policies.[/p]