Rules Proposal for Military Design

[xiaodave]

Proposal of Military Design Rules for use with Nation States

Militaries using this system will be purchased with a point buy system. First thing to do is figure out how many points a country has to spend. Find the countries Population Rating on the chart and find its Economic Rating on the second chart. Multiply the two numbers together and then multiply the result by six. Add in any bonuses the nation qualifies for to get your military budget. Then choose items off the list up to your nations total budget.


Population Rating Population
1 5-100 million
2 101-500 million
3 501 million-1 billion
4 1.001-1.5 billion
5 1.501-2 billion
6 2.001-3 billion
7 3.001+ billion


Economy Rating Economy

1 Imploded, Basket Case, Fragile
2 Weak, Struggling, Developing
3 Reasonable, Fair, Good
4 Strong, Very Strong, Thriving
5 Powerhouse, All-Consuming, Frightening

Multiply Population Rating by Economy Rating. Multiply that result by six.

Bonus Points:

Active Space Program: 6 points.
‘Defense’ listed in nations spending priorities: 6 points.
Private Sector Bonuses:
Arms Manufacturing District: 6pts for first, 3pts for second, 1 point for third.
IT, Automobile, Uranium: 4pts for first, 2points for second, 1 point for third.
4 points for 100% tax rate. Total govornmental control of production.


Military Worksheet

Steps:

1. Determine Population Rating. _________
2. Determine Economy Rating. _________
3. Multiply line 1 and line 2. _________
4. Multiply Line 3 by 6. _________
5. Total bonus points. _________
6. Add line 5 and line 4. _________

This is your military budget. Spend it on the following items.

Cost Unit

1 Army Division
½ Reserve Division
½ National Guard Division
½ Guerilla Unit
½ Conscripts
2 Mechanized Infantry
2 Amphibious Assault (Marines)
4 Armored Cavalry Division (Tanks)

4 Carrier Battle Group
3 Expeditionary Strike Group

1 Fighter Group
3 Bomber Group
1 Airlift Group

20 Nuclear Arms Program
2 100 warheads.




Obviously this system does not go into great detail, I leave that to rping to determine. The point costs and military budgets are designed to give the largest Nation States countries a military slightly larger than the current US Military. This is appropriate for the current RP situation but would require upward augmentation for a World War RP thread.

Point costs of nuclear warheads are representative of the arsenals of France, England and China. The USA and Russian stockpiles are an order of magnitude higher. If one wants nukes on that scale I would suggest changing it to 1000 warheads / 2points. Since nukes can’t really be used in RP I figure the lower scale works fine.

So there it is. A system that allows anyone to play in the military threads. Let me know what you think, what would you like to se added/taken out. If people want to play with larger armies than this, the system can be easily tweaked simply by changing the 6 point generic modifier to a higher number.

[foolish_icarus]

Perhaps this can be combined with the system proposed in the Military Calculator thread. They're almost the same anyway, the other just incorporates more specific unit details, which I think is good. But I like your proposal of how to come up with the points : Still leaving a significant difference between large/rich countries and small/poor ones to preserve some realism, but lessening it enough to make it more interesting. Tax Rate should also be factored in somehow.

[joncha]

Interesting start, xiaodave.

I like the idea of incorporating into the work that Ras has already done. Maybe he can use his excel skills to map out some examples for us.

[Rasputin]

the only problem i see with this is a small country jsut joining is going to have a sizable military. Now i know tha tis what some people want, but i am against the idea of newbies being so large.

Yes i know that will limit the military threads t ocertain posters, but imho that is waht works best. let the newbies ally with a larger nation ifthey want to roleplay a war, otherwise let them rp in the toher threads...

[xiaodave]

The best starting country will have at most 30 points to spend. Most will have 6-18. The biggest nations will have in excess of 200. I would argue that this is a healthy division of power.

I created this system to give new players a chance to play, so yes, new countries start out with a stronger military than they would realistically have and the largest countries end up with somewhat less than they would logically end up with.

All in all I think it makes for a healthier and more challenging game.

[Mr. President]

Originally posted by Rasputin
the only problem i see with this is a small country jsut joining is going to have a sizable military. Now i know tha tis what some people want, but i am against the idea of newbies being so large.

Yes i know that will limit the military threads t ocertain posters, but imho that is waht works best. let the newbies ally with a larger nation ifthey want to roleplay a war, otherwise let them rp in the toher threads...

I don't agree. Small countries should be allowed to fight without having to worry about being steamrolled in under fifteen minutes.

Looking to the real world for certain things is okay, but the real world never had to deal with populations on the ridiculous scale that the NationStates server makes them.

The thing I like about this system is the way it abstracts population just a shade. I have never been an advocate of taking the NationStates population figure literally because it grows too fast and it justifies older nations having armies larger than other entire populations.

[joncha]

What about some kind of "progressive" calculating system? Bigger multipliers for lower population than for higher ones. That way, big nations would still be dominant, but not ridiculously so.

[Urban Ranger]

Military spending should adversely affect a country's economy if it's very high. Maybe something like this:

Using a multiplier of 6 - effective economic ranking is dropped 2 levels (this is the case if military is the primary goal of the country)

Using a multiplier of 5 - effective economic ranking is dropped a level (this is the case if military is mentioned as one of the goals)

[GeneralTacticus]

Looks pretty good to me, but I can see one problem: the price of a carrier battle group is the same as that for a tank division. Those things are ridiculously expensive, and should be a much bigger investment than that.

[Mr. President]

Perhaps cost modifiers could be introduced for training and technology. For instance, a poorly-trained Army division might cost 0.5 points and an excellently-trained Army division 1.5 or 2 points.

[Rasputin]

i like the idea of using conscripts as cheaper cost..

jsut dont think adding bonus points is the right thing to do for the industrys and defence priority, it should be a multiplier as the larger your econmy and population the larger the benifit of having Arms manufacturing and defence becomes.. if you only 6 mill pop your arms bonus shouldnt be the same as a larger nation....

[GeneralTacticus]

Oh, and somethign else I noticed: those industry modifiers only take effect if they're private sector ones. There is no reason why this should be so; I, after all, have a high IT rating without having a private sector at all. The bonuses should take effect simply from having a reasonably high level in the particular industry.

[Rasputin]

agreed

[xiaodave]

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus
Looks pretty good to me, but I can see one problem: the price of a carrier battle group is the same as that for a tank division. Those things are ridiculously expensive, and should be a much bigger investment than that.

Carriers are tremendously expensive is true, but remember how big a tank division is. Bear in mind the US has two tank divisions and twelve Carrier Battle Groups. In the end I couldnt go to 5 points for a carrier group without going to 7 for overall modifier. That is always an option, but I think these costs may work.

[xiaodave]

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus
Oh, and somethign else I noticed: those industry modifiers only take effect if they're private sector ones. There is no reason why this should be so; I, after all, have a high IT rating without having a private sector at all. The bonuses should take effect simply from having a reasonably high level in the particular industry.

Id love to do it that way. But for fairness sake it has to be something that is verifiable. If it says IT in your nations description you should get a bonus for it, otherwise I dont think there should be one.