Match ups in large battles vs medium battles

[Jagger2002]

I have been wondering does a large sized battle favor the dominant army in a match up vs the same match up in a medium sized battle? I very rarely play large battles but my gut feeling is that the larger sized battle would favor the dominant army in a game between equal players. A weaker army needs to gain a battlefield edge and exploit that edge, usually quickly, to win. However I think it would be harder to gain and exploit an advantage with larger forces as the additional troops would make it easier for a dominant army to recover from mistakes than the weaker army. Something I was wondering about.

So any thoughts?

[TheGrayMouser]

I have been wondering does a large sized battle favor the dominant army in a match up vs the same match up in a medium sized battle? I very rarely play large battles but my gut feeling is that the larger sized battle would favor the dominant army in a game between equal players. A weaker army needs to gain a battlefield edge and exploit that edge, usually quickly, to win. However I think it would be harder to gain and exploit an advantage with larger forces as the additional troops would make it easier for a dominant army to recover from mistakes than the weaker army. Something I was wondering about.

So any thoughts?

I would say if both players had the same level of experience in various size battles, then it won’t matter. I’m not sure but possibly what could matter is the size of the map as it doesn’t necessarily scale perfectly to the unit count...

[Karvon]

How much empty space there is really depends on the size of the field selected, the density of restricting terrain and presence, or not, of large rivers, and the unit density of the armies involved. On very large fields, with free deployment, you can easily mass in one sector or the other and achieve a quick local superiority if your opponent has spread himself out too thin trying to cover the whole field, or otherwise misdeployed.

The thing I don't like about very large battles is it takes a long time to move everything and you have to be extra careful not to overlook things with more to keep track of.

[GamerMan]

I imagine large battles would help the dominant army, just because there is random variance, and the larger the battle, the more the variance balances out. It would also help the stronger player, since bad luck is less likely to cost them the game as well.