CAN - Action #2 - Simple Military Calculator

[ElConejo]

Military Calculator

I understand that the military plays a key part in roleplaying and I realize that there needs to be some kind of standard for calculating military strength. I have overlooked some other threads and have taken the liberty of creating my own model of a MilCal based upon XiaoDave’s proposal. I will hope that my model appeals to us all equally, but I am very interested in any comments or issues with it.

I have these goals to accomplish with this MilCal:
1- Make military information concrete, accessible and simple for all nations
2- Make a standard system we can all use
3- Maintain balance and fairness in the game
4- Prevent exploits
5- Aid in roleplaying (this is not meant for realistic interpretation)

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Levels of Economy
#units - economy
1 - Imploded, Basket Case
2 - Fragile, Weak
3 - Struggling, Developing
4 - Reasonable, Fair
5 - Good, Strong
6 - Very Strong, Thriving
7 - Powerhouse, All-consuming
8 - Frightening


Levels of Population
#units - Population --- 'tech' units available
1 - 5-50 million --- Guerilla, Conscripts available
2 - 50-100 million --- Army Division, Army Reserve available
3 - 100-300 million --- Artillery, Navy Reserve, Fighters available
4 - 300-500 million --- Airlift Group, Paratrooper Division, Destroyer Battle Group, Amphibious Assault
4 - 500 million-1 billion --- Tank Division, Mechanized Infantry, Submarine Battle Group
4 - 1 billion-2 billion --- Carrier Battle Group, Bombers available
4 - 1 billion-3 billion ---


Bonus Points
+1 pt for 100% tax rate
+2 pts for Major Industry in Arms or Auto Manufacturing
+3 pts for Defense as main priority

Total Points
- Points from Economy, Population and Bonus are added together
- Points can be traded/bought between nations
- Points are then spent on the military units desired (if available)

Unit Costs
---ARMY---
#pts - Unit --- effective in:
1/2 pt - Guerilla --- fighting in difficult terrain; jungle/forest/mountainous
1/2 pt - Conscript --- fighting in cities
1 pt - Army Reserve --- fighting in cities (better than conscripts)
1 pt - Regular Infantry Division --- fighting in cities (better than reservists)
2 pts - Artillery Division --- assaulting military forces from afar
2 pts - Mechanized Infantry Division --- fighting in cities and some open terrain (better than regulars)
3 pts - Tank Division --- fighting in open terrain (better than Mech Infantry)

---AIRFORCE---
#pts - Unit --- effective in:
2 pts - Fighter Group --- protecting skies from bombers and light bombing
3 pts - Bomber Group --- destroying industrial power and armor strength
1 pt - Airlift Group --- dropping infantry into hot spots
2 pts - Paratrooper Division --- dropped behind lines to disrupt supply lines

---NAVY---
#pts - Unit --- effective in:
1 pt - Navy Reserve --- general protection reserve
2 pts - Amphibious Assault --- sea to land shock troops
2 pts - Destroyer Battle Group --- rooting out submarines and general protection
2 pts - Submarine Battle Group --- disruption of shipping lanes
3 pts - Carrier Battle Group --- air support from sea


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This MilCal has gone through some vigorous testing and I have had some discussion on it from the NationStates' forum for them rip apart. For those who are obsessed with the 'money' aspects of calculating military this will not work out, but since there is some animosity towards the economic calculators and the issue of the calculated 'money' then I feel that this calculator can find its home here at Apolyton just warmly. I figure that now it has gone through some testing it is open to be voted and riped apart by the CAN. So please give me all or any ideas or issues of balance that you can think of.

[joncha]

A good start.

It will need a lot of fiddling, especially in the unit costs, but it's a good start.

[ElConejo]

Originally posted by joncha
A good start.

It will need a lot of fiddling, especially in the unit costs, but it's a good start.

Excellent, anyone have any ideas on how to fix the things needed to be fixed? I am open comments

EDIT: I added the "effectiveness" things to the units because this was brought up at the NationStates forum as something that should be included. I also added the Paratrooper and Submarine units to the list to further create some different units...

Please give me any suggestions for any changes to both the effectiveness discriptions and the unit costs. Unit costs are very important and I want to make sure they are well balanced. Thanks alot, and I hope this process will begin the revival here...

[Mr. President]

I know the last few comments were in that other thread. Meh. I like the military calculator, including the way that the size bonuses flatten out at very high population levels. I don't want to either maintain or face a 100 million strong army just because someone's been playing since 2002.

Maybe some simple levels of technology could be added. Low, Medium, and High would be plenty, and could be tied to the Education priority and the Information Technology Industry.

Similar for training levels (again, three to five levels ranging Poor through Normal to Elite should be enough), and in this case the default could be Normal. You can spend, say, half a point more to increase your unit's training by one level and end up with a small elite army, or half a point less to decrease training standards and end up with a large army of conscripts. Though this clearly should be capped - perhaps you are permitted to spend no more than one point more or less. So that say, a tank division always costs between 2 points (if it has very poor training) and 4 points (if it is super-elite).

[Lazerus]

How are the different things matched for strength ?
It's unlikely 6 groups of conscripts would be a match for 3 groups of army regulars and ditto either of them would be able to survive against a bomber group yet they're all the total same value of points.

[ElConejo]

Originally posted by Lazerus
How are the different things matched for strength ?
It's unlikely 6 groups of conscripts would be a match for 3 groups of army regulars and ditto either of them would be able to survive against a bomber group yet they're all the total same value of points.

Each group has a specific 'strength' that is listed in the above post. And of course they would differ greatly as far as strength goes in actual combat, but this system is more based on how to come up with the military that you can use, and the RP itself will determine the outcomes of battles between (obviously if free of GodModding...)

If you have any suggestions or ideas I am very welcome to them.

[Rasputin]

please refer to my post over in Role playing to see how we get around the huge populations., it is simple , we all just start again..