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**F_Smith** · May 6, 1999, 00:38

The 'Lords of the Realm 2' model of 2 time scales works great single player, but stinks multiplayer, as you said.

Just thinking outside the box here, but -- the model I like is a bit different, on 2 major counts.

First, I like an 'army' model that follows the old 'Diplomacy' game -- you capture 'resource centers' or villages, or whatever. That 'resource center' is tied to a single 'army', and will re-supply/reinforce that 'army' for as long as you control the resource center.

Second, I like those armies to have at least 2 'movement' modes -- 'fast' and 'recon'. The first 'mode' allows them to move *very* far thru controlled territory *ONLY*. Moving thru hostile territory they'd have to use 'recon' mode. That means a jet or air-lifted modern infantry unit could circle the globe in one turn as long as it passed thru allied airspace. But as soon as it encounters resistance, it's movement turn ends, at least until it can extricate itself from combat.

Ancient armies could force-march thousands of miles in a turn thru friendly territory, but if they walk into an ambush in friendly territory again their turn ends.

Of course, an ancient army moving slowly thru enemy territory would be *much* slower . . .

**Mark_Everson** · May 7, 1999, 13:19

I don't like the concept of armies attached to specific resource centers for two reasons. When the home center is conquered they shouldn't disappear. (this one could be fixed by a re-assignment scheme) Armies should be able to derive supplies from multiple areas.

The two types of movement Idea championed by Andrew and you is a pretty good one I think. I'd be game to try something with at least a factor of 2-3 difference between movement in friendly areas and "opposed" movement or movement in hostile areas.

**F_Smith** · May 7, 1999, 13:59

Personally, I think the 2 types of movement are a must. An army moves thru enemy territory *very* differently than it moves thru friendly territory (at least, it should!).

The armies tied to resource centers idea is for simulating army support elements and a command and control structure. This represents the recruiters, cooks, weaponsmiths, etc in the 'base' village that were employed full-time just supplying that army group. When you lose the resource center, or lose 'communications' with that center -- (find yourself 'without supply lines') you then lose the ability to resupply/reinforce that army group. You can roll the group into another army group, who draws their supplies from another village. But each resource center can supply a certain maximum # of men in the field . . .

I believe this is the only way to do it, personally. As opposed to tracking production, transport and consumption of individual units of supply (recruits, weapons, etc.), which is a micromanagement hassle extraordinaire.

**Mark_Everson** · May 7, 1999, 14:19

Yeah I think the two rate of movement is cool, lets do it.

On the supply issue, I think we can actually do supply without hassling the player. Its posted somewhere in detail on the old board. I want to use dedicated merchants (already need to be coded anyway) to supply the troops. All you do is say how much money you're willing to spend to supply x front. The merchant/supply manager does the rest. A bonus of the supply system is that supply lines can be attacked. This allows proper modeling of a modern envelopment battle, one of the coolest martial activities known to man

Below is the original post; i've duplicated most of it above...

I think supply is Very important and have been strggling with how to handle it for some time. The best I have come up with
so far involves a derivative of how merchants work in the game. For the case of military supply you would build essentially a
special class of merchant that would try to purchase goods from the surrounding area (or home if transportation is good
enough). This supply unit would travel with large armies and provide feedback to the army commander about whether (and
at what price) it would be able to supply the army if it went to spot X. Units that were not fully supplied would have the need
to forrage for supplies, reducing movement and effectiveness. Mongol Horsemen could probably forrage fairly effectively,
modern armored divisions hardly at all.
Using a merchant that goes out and buys supplies for you has the advantage that the player doesn't have to orchestrate the
supply itself, but only decide if the price of supply is worth it. It also allows for game effects of cutting supply lines in a
reasonable fashion, since the merchant knows the path for the supply lines. (clearly supply is more important for modern
than ancient warfare, where "reversed fronts" frequently occurred in battles) This would give a lot of correct flavor in terms
of Where large armies could go historically, with little loss in smoothness of gameplay.

-Mark

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Telescoping Time Scales - Like in Civ

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