Military Doctrine

[TheAmerican]

Should we begin work on our military doctrine ? I.E How we'll produce the means to go to war, and how we'll fight said war. Strategy and promotions aswell. Should we have a doctrine for each period of warfare ?

I.E

Ancient (Warriors, Archers, Chariots)
Bronze (Axemen, Swordsmen, Spearmen, Chariots)
Iron (Swordsmen, Axemen, Spearmen, Catapults, Horse Archers)
Middle Ages (Macemen, Pikemen, Crossbowmen, Longbowmen, Catapults)
Gunpowder (Musketmen, Knights, Macemen, Pikemen, Catapults)
Early Industrial (Riflemen, Grenadiers, Cannons, Cavalry)
Industrial (Tanks, Infantry, Artillery, Fighters, Bombers, Marines)
Modern (Modern Armor, Mech Infantry, Artillery, Stealth Bombers, Jet Fighters, Gunships, Sam Infantry)

 

[Falcon02]

Well, I don't think it's necessary to plan beyond the initial stages at this point, because were not totally sure what to expect.

How crowded is our continent going to be? What are our starting techs? Will we have a ready source of Copper/Iron or will we have to fight to get it from a neighbor? These things we won't know until the game is started.

However there are some policies that we can work out.

A.) NO unguarded settlers, all settlers shall be escorted. I tend to make an exception in my own games for the first settler if it's just a short distance and I'm confident. But if we lose a settler that's a lost investment, and in these early stages can set us back quite a bit.

B.) When attacking try to give the units near promotions the experience to get to the next level. ie. if you've got a 2/5 XP warrior, and a 13/14 XP warrior about to go into a fight, take the 13/14 warrior, so he can get 14/14 and our next promotion. That of course is assuming the odds are in his favor, don't want to send the 13/14 into a battle he probably isn't gonna come out of, it's a much larger loss then losing the 2/5 Warrior.

C.) Since we're doing Continents we're gonna want a Navy. At the very least a Galley relatively early to start exploring and potentially colonizing small islands off the coast. Aside from that the Land Army should be the primary focus for these opening turns.

These are of course fairly general rules right now, we'll be able to narrow it down more once the save is made.

 

[TheAmerican]

To expand on your post.

D) Organization of one-two scout divisions, to be attached to our nation's army. They'd be burdened with the tasks of early exploration, reconnaissance, and construction of temporary outposts (fog busters) in nearby uncivilized regions. Later we could upgrade these units to explorers; to explore other continents, escort great merchants, and carry out reconnaissance for the Army during times of war.

E) Designation of several divisions of archers to protect our resources. Construction of a navy for protection of our sea resources should also be considered.

F) Protection of our resources should take priority over preservation of our units. Units can be easily replaced, so long as our means of production are not threatened.

G) When under attack by barbarian raiders our primary objective should be the protection of our resources, while the secondary objective should be the destruction of the enemy. The Army should only engage the enemy when they're on wide open terrain, and should attempt to lure the enemy into attacking while stationed on favorable terrain. The enemy should not be allowed to escape into our forests, or hills, and should be engaged by any available division in the area before given the chance to do so.

H) Appointment of a commander for our armed forces either by the Chieftan, or by the people. This commander would be in charge of directing attacks, designation of military units to specific tasks, and the naming of military units. All military operations would have to be approved by the Chieftan.

I) Division of our military into multiple branches, each with a commander appointed by the commander of the military. For now, the military should be divided into two branches; the Army, and the Navy. These commanders would be in charge of unit promotions for their branches, and carrying out the tasks given to them by the commander of the military. They could be replaced at any time by the Chieftan, or commander of the military.

J) Establishment of a recruitment office, for our citizens to sign up for the Navy or Army. These citizen soldiers would be attached to a unit, and will move where the unit moves. This is purely for roleplaying purposes.

K) In the event of early war our objectives will be to deny the enemy their resources, work force, and the ability to expand. Attacking the city at such an early stage is suicide, and commiting the resources to muster the force needed to achieve absolute victory would be too costly. On that note, we'd seek to achieve this objective with as few divisions as possible. We'd knife into enemy territory using a combination of warriors and archers, depending on the divisions available, and approach the enemy capital. Our scouts would be used for reconnaissance, moving a tile ahead of the archers and warriors to see what lies ahead before returning to the stack for protection. After arriving at the outskirts of the enemy capital we'll split the stack and pillage. After this objective is achieved, we'll fortify on the enemy's production tiles, and pull the scouts back to perform other tasks.

L) After the discovery of archery, warriors will no longer be produced, and all warriors will act as observers (fog busters) unless war breaks out, they will then become a part of the attack force and pillage the enemy countryside. Warriors will not be upgraded to Swordsmen, or Axemen due to the high costs.

 

[Joe Harker]

I think that The American is right that we need two people to command the Navy and the Army certainly late in the game so that one isn't neglected also an intelligence section should be set up when we eventually get spies although we don't need to decide that now.

 

[Falcon02]

I think there should be exceptions to Warrior upgrades, in cases where the Warrior has alot of promotions, and the upgrade cost can be justified by the gaining of a highly trained Swordsman.

Other then that, I agree upgrades are too expensive for the most part. It's more productive to build new Swordsmen or Axemen then to upgrade low level Warriors.

 

[fed1943]

I agree with the general philosophy.

And an Officer to take care of military is surely the way to go.

Best regards,

 

[mattwithanh]

Who will decide what promotions our units receives when they have earned one?

I agree that the seperate Army and Navy commanders is a good idea when the need arises.

What is the first promotion you like to give a warrior, an archer?

I like to get my first warrior a double woodsman promotion through fighting animals because the moblity of the unit is useful when there is plenty of forests early and a lack of road system. But I am not opposed to the double strength promotion.

As for archers, I prefer strength for the first archer unit so it had a leg up on barbarian archers.

I usually play on noble and am interested in what other more experience players like to do with their first units.

 

[dutchfire]

Who will decide what promotions our units receives when they have earned one

In order of importance:
The citizens, by a poll
Chieftain
Designated Player

The first probably won't happen.

 

[TheAmerican]

In order of importance:
The citizens, by a poll
Chieftain
Designated Player

The first probably won't happen.

I think it would be best for the commander of his specific branch to carry out unit promotion. The commanders are the ones that carry out strategy, and military operations, so they'll know what training will come into use in the future.

I think there should be exceptions to Warrior upgrades, in cases where the Warrior has alot of promotions, and the upgrade cost can be justified by the gaining of a highly trained Swordsman.

Other then that, I agree upgrades are too expensive for the most part. It's more productive to build new Swordsmen or Axemen then to upgrade low level Warriors.

If we had the income to upgrade such a unit, then I'd be okay with the upgrade costs. However, I wouldn't go out of my way to upgrade a warrior with one or two promotions.

However, to expand on the doctrine.

M) Our early archer divisions will be trained from Drill I-Drill IV, in order to give them both an offensive punch and defensive cabability. Our warriors will recieve Combat I, and Shock promotions, so we may use them as early counters to melee units. The majority of our chariots will recieve Flanking I, and Flanking II training, with highly trained units being trained in Mobility or Sentry. We'll set one chariot division aside to be promoted to Combat I, Medic I, and later on to Medic II and March. My reasoning being that chariots are highly mobile units, with a clear upgrade path to gunships and the earlier we begin training a medical unit the better.

N) Chariots will be used as extremly mobile shock troops. They'll strike at the enemy's cities, with Flanking I-Flanking II promotions and hopefully retreat to fight another day. Early on, these units will be used to attack lightly defended targets on our borders, or on the outskirts of our enemy's civilization. They'll also be used to pillage road networks between enemy cities, and they'll be the primary units for attack on barbarian cities.

I believe that everything has been covered, so I'll probably make a few edits to the sections of this military doctrine, and give it a name. Then I'll create a citizen group for the the approvement of this doctrine, and the establishment of a job seperate from the Defense Minister, to be appointed by the Chieftan.

 

[GenMarshall]

We should first explore what we have around our settlement before we start considering our Military Doctrine. We have to take into account any nearby resources that we can take advantage of as well as to take away essential resources that our opponents have and we don't.

 

[TheAmerican]

We should first explore what we have around our settlement before we start considering our Military Doctrine. We have to take into account any nearby resources that we can take advantage of as well as to take away essential resources that our opponents have and we don't.

These rules can be applied to most situations, I feel that there is not a problem or disadvantage to drafting a military doctrine at this time, and we'd not only be at an advantage by drafting it now, but we'd be promoting participation by implementing these ideas. More opportunity for roleplaying, and more imvolvement in politics.

 

[ice2k4]

I don't really want to discuss military doctrine until creation day, when we know who we are. I'm still skeptical about it until we research animal husbandry. And the doctrine may take some change once we hit Bronze Working and Iron Working.

 

[ordinaryguy]

I agree. Let's see what the game gives us before making a decision. Discussions on this topic, however, are always welcome.

 

[dutchfire]

I don't really want to discuss military doctrine until creation day, when we know who we are. I'm still skeptical about it until we research animal husbandry. And the doctrine may take some change once we hit Bronze Working and Iron Working.

Does this imply you want to go for animal husbandry before Bronze Working? Just curious.

 

[erikthecelt]

Do we start out in a wood pile or a cow pile? That's the time to discuss AH vs BW.

 

[robboo]

you cant decide anything to you see who you are, where you are and figure out who your enemies are.

 

[jdubdixon]

This initiative should be organization of army not the whole strategy.

 

[TheAmerican]

This initiative should be organization of army not the whole strategy.

Would it cover promotions and values of resources, units, and cities ?

 

[jdubdixon]

Would it cover promotions and values of resources, units, and cities ?

I think that we should do them seperatly because organization of the army will stay the same through all times but that those will change constantly.

 

[ice2k4]

Does this imply you want to go for animal husbandry before Bronze Working? Just curious.

Not at all, if I get a civ that has mining, Bronze Working is always my first choice. Animal Husbandry usually only comes before bronze working only when playing Persia or Egypt (in that case I usually bee-line to Animal Husbandry)