How many people are in a military unit?

[Bamspeedy]

Someone mentioned about a thread that asked this question, and thought I would post a poll and see what people thought.

Here's one thread that I found that asked this question: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13129&highlight=Unit

Obviously if you build an infantry unit, this is not one single man, but several. Is it 100 men? 1,000? 10,000? 100,000?

Does this depend on the unit and what era you are in? I can see that an infantry unit could be 10,000 men, but a battleship unit is not 10,000 battleships. I'm mainly asking about ground units, not ships or planes, but you can comment on those if you want.

 

[God]

Like Zach said in the other thread, the units of different era's vary in size of troops. Like I would think that the Longbowman unit would be of 500 men. Infantry representing those of WW1 would be more like 5-10,000.

Warrior unit would only be like 100 men. Horsemen would consist of 200-300 horsemen. Archer unit would have 500 men.



EDIT: Whoops, a bit too many 0's in the infantry.

 

[Richard III]

I have always thought of them as regiments for convenience, since it seems like a good compromise unit size that works in all eras. To be more specific, I mean a regiment on the UK model, meaning equal to a US brigade, at roughly 3,000-6,000 mean (with wide variance from that mark, obviously).

That way, a "decent sized army" of 15-16 tanks and 10 infantry units would be equal to about 12 divisions, or about 6 corps, or about 2-3 armies, or a soviet 'front,' or US/UK Army group. Which is about right, ain't it?

I find that this formula seems to fit fairly realistically with city size, country size and so on.

R.III

 

[MuddyOne]

Silly me. From the title I was thinking, I used to be in the army, but not currently

Thought it was unusual question for a civ poll. I would have to say it varies by age a lot though.

 

[Masquerouge]

I say it varies by age a lot. Like your first barbarian unit will not be the same as an infantry unit.
I would say it varies by the unti's HP, also. A conscript unit should include less people than an elite one.

 

[plomeros]

All infantry and cavalry units number at least 500.000 men. Tanks number two, one of them is always out of ammo. Planes number one, and they rarely carry live ammo. Fleets differ with time. Triremes and other early ships number thousands of crafts, while later units contain one or two ships. Privateers are three guys madly paddling on a raft. They are both armed with sharpened forks.

 

[Myartar]

Hey there non politicaly correct guy.

My militaries don't discriminate and allow men AND women to serve.:soldier: :tank: :soldier:

 

[Masquerouge]

Originally posted by plomeros
All infantry and cavalry units number at least 500.000 men.

Wow ! Isn't that a bit much ? I am the proud owner of 60 cavalry units. That makes 30 million people. And AS MANY HORSES !
Plus I can board, say, 4 units in my boat. That is 2 million people.

This boat is bigger that many europeans states

 

[plomeros]

Well, for the game to work, it has to be those figure, and yes, sorry, 50% of the entire force is of course females...
If the landunits had different sizes, they wouldn't be able to destroy tank armies, kill EVERY SINGLE CITIZEN IN A SIZE 22 CITY, the triremes could not survive the airstrikes and the privateers would actually be useful...a bit like the spies, who according to a tough union deal have to travel first class, always stay at the most expensive hotel and has a work day of 8 minutes. Any different and they would actually be able to steal tech for a sum less then the entire GNP of your civ.

Also, the building time of units is explained. Napoleon needed 100 days to come back frpm Elba, recruite a large army and then loose it again. In civ, you need years, maybe even decades to get a bunch of guys to form up! Has to be ¤%/(/& large units that take so long to draft...

And since I HATE the opposing civs, I need the satisfaction of killing of LARGE NUMBERS of those bastard. Try it youself the next time your musketman eats off a zulu knight...

a.hmmm, the Zulus lost 200 men and were driven back...

or

b. In an epic battle, Clause and Clara (see, one male and one female) managed to slaughter 37.000 zulu warriors, encircled the entire army and then gutted them with their bayonets! 250.000 prisoners were taken and 8 million horses! Clause hurt his hand and was awarded Purple Heart!

Feels better, doesn't it?

 

[plomeros]

haha,sorry about the typo, Claus and Clara did not "eat off" the zulus, they "BEAT off the zulus"

My privateer navy tries to eat the enemy ships, perhaps that is the reason why they always fail...

 

[Masquerouge]

Well, if the cavalry is 500 000 men, then the spy unit should be close to, ok, let's say 1,000 spies. Wich implies :
1. HUGE expense reports ("WHAT ??? 1,000 suits in the Georges V ???? An ENTIRE B-747 ?")
2. Some difficulties of succeeding in your tasks ("Tell me again, Bob, what are those 1,000 black limos doing in front of our secret research lab ?")

Everything is ok, then. Of course the price of a spy mission is your GNP, since you must send your ENTIRE population !

 

[plomeros]

Yupp, you got it! Wich makes my Minestary Of Transportation an amazing organisation, sinze I can transport my 34.000.000 strong army across the glode eight times in less then one day, causing no casualties whatsoever, interfering in no way with normal traffic and having no difficulties finding the necessary wagons.

My Airplains need a bit of trimming though...they can airlift an army of elephants (numbering 260000 elephants that's a hell of a task, but bloody Rupert, my so called leader, cannot be airlifted. Obviously a vary large man...

 

[Masquerouge]

Originally posted by plomeros

My Airplains need a bit of trimming though...they can airlift an army of elephants (numbering 260000 elephants that's a hell of a task, but bloody Rupert, my so called leader, cannot be airlifted. Obviously a vary large man...

I'd rather say you've got very small elephants. And if you tried to store them nicely, you'd be amazed at how much can fill in your backpack.

 

[Paalikles]

G.I. Joe

Go Joe! GO!

 

[JohnnyReb]

Like someone else mentioned, every type of unit would obviously be different. A tank division doesn't have as many tanks as an infantry division has soldiers.

Spies (guess we're on civ2 on that unit) would probably be a one person thing, as are obviously great leaders.

Aircraft would probably be squadrons (as opposed to entire air wings or a single flight) etcetera.

My personal opinion on the infantry type units would be around 5,000 or so men per unit.

Oh...Paalikles, with regard to Go Joe. I grew up when G.I. Joe was one man, not some twitty anti-terrorist force. Always hated that grotesque alteration to my childhood action-figure of choice . (btw, did you know the original GI Joe was modeled directly from a specific Marine from WWII?)

 

[RX2000]

I used to think that the naval units represented a "fleet" of ships of that type of unit. But I was watching the History Channel the other day, and when Hitler was thinking about invading Britain, it said that Britain only had like 20 something destroyers and a few batteships to defend its island with. So after hearing that, I dont see why, realistically in Civ3, a destroyer couldnt be 1 destroyer, and a battleship 1 battleship, etc.

 

[Paalikles]

to johnnyReb: hehe - actually, I have never seen anything about gi joe
I ve heard the name mentioned on some occations...I was only trying to liven up the discussion.
BTW - I thought GI Joe was just one man...oh well

 

[JohnnyReb]

Righto

Gi Joe is indeed one man. Some morons in the 80s decided to make a cartoon called GI Joe about an anti-terrorist squad collectively called GI Joe. HERESY!

RX2000 - If indeed ships are individual units as you suggest, then that makes aircraft easy to number. If a carrier can carry 8 units, then each unit would be roughly 10-12 aircraft. I arrive at this by assuming an aircraft carrier can carry anywhere from 80-100 aircraft.

 

[TheNiceOne]

RX2000: Maybe a battleship unit represents a single battleship, but a transporter must represent a fleet, since it can carry 8 infantry units.

plomeros: Your aircraft doesn't need trimming, the problem is with Rupertm your leader. He seems to have the same problem as Norway's next queen, they're both afraid of flying.

 

[Shabbaman]

Not only a cartoon, but even action figures!

By the way, how many tanks would make 1 unit?