Limit to stack size ?

[stefankollers]

Being fairly late to the Party. Have been watching a few playthroughs on Youtube. Anyway apologises if the question has already been asked. Is there a limit to the amount of Military units I can have
in a stack ?
I have had a brief look in the manual but could'nt find anything.........I may of been looking in the wrong place. Thanks for reading.

[devoncop]

Hi

There is No "artificial" stack limit but there is most definitely a de facto stack limit for sensible players which varies based on the ability of different regions to supply your army with food.

Take half a dozen of units of phalanxes and a couple of elephants into a desert province with a small population and see how long they last

Spoiler : Not long

The regions also have different battle frontages depending on the terrain in them. A huge stack taken into the mountains will largely sit around looking pretty during any battle as very few will be able to contribute to the fighting raging in the mountain passes. Small numbers of well led troops who suit such terrain will easily hold off much larger numbers of unsuited or badly led ones.

[gnocco.p]

Wow! This is fantastic!
Can't wait the release....

[Tamas]

Yep, devoncop has summarised it very well.

Besides regions' supply limits and the terrain frontage in battles, there is also the question of maintenance cost for units that can be a limiting factor.

[stefankollers]

Thanks for the information. I wasn't actually thinking of creating a massive stack and marching all over the place, rather combining several together if I was faced with a major battle. Still trying to get my head around several areas of the game. But I find you learn from your mistakes when your actually playing. Again thanks for the information.

[devoncop]

Yep, devoncop has summarised it very well.

Besides regions' supply limits and the terrain frontage in battles, there is also the question of maintenance cost for units that can be a limiting factor.

I could do even better at describing it if I had the game

[loki100]

Thanks for the information. I wasn't actually thinking of creating a massive stack and marching all over the place, rather combining several together if I was faced with a major battle. Still trying to get my head around several areas of the game. But I find you learn from your mistakes when your actually playing. Again thanks for the information.

The back of the manual has some discussions around this, esp Pocus' designers notes.

For a start a well balanced army will beat a similar 'power'/'size' ill-balanced army. I've found this early game, Carthage almost by default gives you a really neat mix of skirmishers, medium infantry, heavy infantry, cavalry (& the always nice Elephants). But the early Diadochi armies can be ill-balanced, they all tend to be HI heavy and it takes time to restructure. Now If I win as Carthage, my losses tend to be lighter than a win with say Antigonus.

Second skirmishers are incredibly important, if you can try to have an army with 4-6 (at least), that'll cover most likely battle sites. You protect your army and disrupt the opposition, and a 'fatigued' powerful HI unit can be taken out by a fresh regular infantry.

Third having a surplus does help. There is a short test game in the manual that shows this nicely. In that game Rome won the first battle with the Senones but that is usually a draw. The larger Roman army would then replace weakened/fatigued units for round 2 while the smaller Senones army has to fight again, already cut up from the first clash.

Then there is the economics, upkeep is costly, and at some stage you hit a critical limit in terms of the regular demand on your manpower/money/metal just to replenish the current army.

FWIW, in the early game I'd see an army of 120-150 power (say around 12-15 units) as my main force. By the end of the middle game, this would be up to 20-25 and I'd have more than one. In a war, I'd try to team them so if one gets a beating (even when winning), the other can cover for it. I'd rarely put them both into the same region (even if the supply was there). Finally, you can build some specialist armies. I may often have one based around mostly regular infantry (a lot of them) with just a few heavies, skirmishers, cavalry in case it gets caught. This would take on a long tricky siege (again the manual is handy on what is going on here). I've seen this army be badly beaten if caught by a normally configured force as it lacks staying power on the battlefield - even when it is notionally the larger, more powerful, force.