I'll throw this out to the group.
Do you think there is a benefit to purposely keeping one regiment in the division under, say, 200 men?
Two examples I can think of:
1. Scouting. Sending a good, large regiment out on the flank rarely ends up being worth it. If the main action is back near the main body, what good is that large regiment so far out? It's only watching the flank. You only really need a few men to do that.
2. Rear Guard. How many times have we seen an enemy regiment either do a ridiculous flank march, or retreat behind our lines only to reform and become a royal pain in the ass, chasing off wagons, guns, obj holders? Having one small regiment in your division allows you to keep a small reserve that is just big enough to deter the enemy from annoying the crap out of your rear areas, but won't force you to divert a full 400-man regiment away from the front line where it's far more useful.
Thoughts?
I'm going to try to keep one regiment under 200 for a few games and see if it makes any difference. But I probably won't notice until I have a bunch of trials to compare.
Bringing 1 small regt to battle
Re: Bringing 1 small regt to battle
My noob opinion is that it would be a decent tactic for higher ranked people with many regiments to spare but I would advise against it for a lower ranked person. If I'm only going to have 5-7 regiments I want them at full strength and even then I'm usually outnumbered. Typically one regiment of any size doesn't make or break me, the enemy is either going to outnumber me by more than one regiment or vice versa.
If I'm only outnumbered by one regiment I can usually hold them off in time to get my scout regiment in the fight or find some other way to put that large scout regiment to use while slowly falling back with my main force.
Many times GCM spawns my large regiments below strength anyways. I think the tactic is worth a shot but I'm sticking with full strength regiments for now, I'd rather bring cavalry when possible to scout but I know GCM doesn't always give us cavalry.
If I'm only outnumbered by one regiment I can usually hold them off in time to get my scout regiment in the fight or find some other way to put that large scout regiment to use while slowly falling back with my main force.
Many times GCM spawns my large regiments below strength anyways. I think the tactic is worth a shot but I'm sticking with full strength regiments for now, I'd rather bring cavalry when possible to scout but I know GCM doesn't always give us cavalry.
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KG_Soldier
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Re: Bringing 1 small regt to battle
There's no reason a "big" regiment can't do the work of that "small" regiment.
Re: Bringing 1 small regt to battle
We already pick the smallest regiment to scout, he just wants to exploit that tactic by artificially lowering a scout regiment to make his main fighting force even larger.
With a 2500 man army it would be better to have a main force of six 400 man regiments for a total of 2400 while your seventh scout regiment is small at 100 men rather than having a main force of five 425 man regiments for a total of 2125 while your sixth scout regiment is large at 375 men.
His tactic would be a more efficient use of men if everything worked perfectly but it seems to me like many things could go wrong. You're never guaranteed to bring your exact division line up after GCM adjusts the teams which means you could end up with more than one small regiment. Also you could spawn in a situation where you don't even need a scout regiment and then you'd be wishing you had all full strength regiments.
It's a gamble, I think artificially lowering a regiment would work 50% of the time for a high ranked person with 10 regiments but I think there's too much risk involved for a low ranked person with only 5 regiments. For all ranks I suspect cavalry is an equal or better option when possible rather than artificially lowering a regiment, but I've never tried either way so I can't say for sure.
I like bringing all max regiments for now and scouting with whichever regiment happens to be the smallest but I might try out either Mike's tactic or cavalry in the future.
With a 2500 man army it would be better to have a main force of six 400 man regiments for a total of 2400 while your seventh scout regiment is small at 100 men rather than having a main force of five 425 man regiments for a total of 2125 while your sixth scout regiment is large at 375 men.
His tactic would be a more efficient use of men if everything worked perfectly but it seems to me like many things could go wrong. You're never guaranteed to bring your exact division line up after GCM adjusts the teams which means you could end up with more than one small regiment. Also you could spawn in a situation where you don't even need a scout regiment and then you'd be wishing you had all full strength regiments.
It's a gamble, I think artificially lowering a regiment would work 50% of the time for a high ranked person with 10 regiments but I think there's too much risk involved for a low ranked person with only 5 regiments. For all ranks I suspect cavalry is an equal or better option when possible rather than artificially lowering a regiment, but I've never tried either way so I can't say for sure.
I like bringing all max regiments for now and scouting with whichever regiment happens to be the smallest but I might try out either Mike's tactic or cavalry in the future.
Last edited by States on Thu Jun 30, 2016 5:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Bringing 1 small regt to battle
Perhaps more practical than trying to craft a mini-regiment for special duties would be attempting to bring a short brigade of, say, two regiments totaling 600-800 men. Given GCM's "leveling" tendencies with regiments, shaping such brigades and arranging them in your lineup is somewhat more reliable than attempting to prune special "bonsai tree" regiments.
I'm never disappointed when I find a mini-brigade in my OOB. They often come in handy for the reasons already mentioned, and also because they can be especially useful on a flank. They make for excellent "canary-in-the-coalmine" detachments when you're pushing up from a flank but still have concerns about unfriendlies rudely showing up on your side or behind you -- without tying up a bunch of troops. Then, if/when those concerns dissipate, they can strike out themselves on a flank march to stretch an enemy or threaten a remote vp. Even when not on a flank, they serve well as a second line of fresh troops to shoot when the first line is exhausted in melee, or exploit other opportunities.
Additionally, using mini-brigades is superior to grooming small individual regiments because of the important performance benefits/morale bonuses that come from using regiments together. And if you're only sending a single, small regiment back to guard against an enemy marching behind the lines, who's to say the bad guys aren't bringing a big regiment or multiple regiment that will simply overwhelm the little guy anyway?
I'm not as concerned as States about small divisions diluting their power by spinning off strength for particular missions. To me, it's a team game and not a competition to see who can bring the biggest divisions. Sure, there will always be size mismatches, but that just points to the imperative of working cooperatively. It's ALWAYS better to have your army's least experienced and less effective players bring small divisions than to have them attempt to overcome their own inexperience with big numbers.
I'm never disappointed when I find a mini-brigade in my OOB. They often come in handy for the reasons already mentioned, and also because they can be especially useful on a flank. They make for excellent "canary-in-the-coalmine" detachments when you're pushing up from a flank but still have concerns about unfriendlies rudely showing up on your side or behind you -- without tying up a bunch of troops. Then, if/when those concerns dissipate, they can strike out themselves on a flank march to stretch an enemy or threaten a remote vp. Even when not on a flank, they serve well as a second line of fresh troops to shoot when the first line is exhausted in melee, or exploit other opportunities.
Additionally, using mini-brigades is superior to grooming small individual regiments because of the important performance benefits/morale bonuses that come from using regiments together. And if you're only sending a single, small regiment back to guard against an enemy marching behind the lines, who's to say the bad guys aren't bringing a big regiment or multiple regiment that will simply overwhelm the little guy anyway?
I'm not as concerned as States about small divisions diluting their power by spinning off strength for particular missions. To me, it's a team game and not a competition to see who can bring the biggest divisions. Sure, there will always be size mismatches, but that just points to the imperative of working cooperatively. It's ALWAYS better to have your army's least experienced and less effective players bring small divisions than to have them attempt to overcome their own inexperience with big numbers.
Last edited by exp101 on Thu Jun 30, 2016 4:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Bringing 1 small regt to battle
FWIW, I'm a Brig. Gen. now, but I still have my settings at 6 regiments and 4 guns.
And I was just throwing all this out there for discussion. States did hit the point I was trying to make by not detatching a bigger percentage of the overall force just to scout. But Palmer also highlighted the unpredictability of such a move, in that GCM itself is so unpredictable with number of regiments one brings and how big said regiments will be when the battle starts.
And I was just throwing all this out there for discussion. States did hit the point I was trying to make by not detatching a bigger percentage of the overall force just to scout. But Palmer also highlighted the unpredictability of such a move, in that GCM itself is so unpredictable with number of regiments one brings and how big said regiments will be when the battle starts.