War! Guide to large scale warfare in Aceon.

[DasHeadCrap]

What is War? Wars are when two or more factions with noticeable populations initiate aggression's towards one another in the forms of pillaging, killing, and or raping. A small tribal dispute or a dispute with a small property (e.g. BBnB going to war with Aridell) is not a war and would be covered under small scale warfare.

How do I fight a war? Wars are fought with armies and skirmishers that either screen the army or go off on raids in the form of guerrilla warfare. To get armies your faction must have a town/towns to draw peasant levies from, gold to hire mercenaries, or a lord to send in trained men at arms. From here combat is based in text chat. One of the top 3 admins must be present during combat. Said admins are DasHeadCrap, Blake.H, and DarkThunder2.

Each side takes turns giving commands and maneuvering their armies and making attacks. The present admin will decide which attacks ultimately result in the rout or defeat of a group of forces. If 500 archers fires on 200 light infantry the admin may decide "The light infantry take heavy casualties and the remaining 67 of them rout".

Once all of your forces are defeated or routed combat ends. Two or more units routeing simaltaniously can result in the Admin calling a mass rout. Mass routs are when you're entire army (save for the elite troops) gives up due to a mass shock or perceived idea of eminent defeat. Routed troops may be gathered and used in a separate battle provided you win.

That's nice but where do I get my troops and how many do I get? A large village can usually pull in around 500 civilian levies armed with spears and wearing Gambeson. Larger cities (cities having 1,000 or more citizens) can usually pull in trained town guards and if there's a military fort nearby, actual men at arms and knights. A skirmish will see between 20 and 300 soldiers fighting. A small battle will see 300 to 1000. A battle a 1000 to 20,000. A large battle 20,000 or more troops.

So what kind of troops are there? This is the 12 century so your options are as follows.

Civilian levies: Your main defensive infantry. They rout easy and aren't very strong. They can't hold an effective wall so their spears aren't of much use against cavalry. However they're free for feudal kingdoms and cheap for others so they're always plentiful. Losing civilian levies will negatively effect your economy.

Mercenaries: Bought from Admins they require a small amount of gold (see this board for more information) and function as a jack of all trades crossbow unit that don't require much logistical work. In Aceon these will probably be your main infantry.

Men at Arms: Professional soldiers clad in mail armor. They serve their respective nation with their lives... for a price. Paid well these men are your shock troops and are best used to punch holes in wavering groups of the enemy line. Their armor doesn't slow them down but they will get fatigued to the point of uselessness if forced to march in it or battle in it for hours on end.

Knights: Either sons of lords or lords themselves Knights are more or less men at arms that happen to be of upper class. Usually clad in mail with a great helm they can either fight on horseback or on foot and usually prefer one handed swords with a shield.

Sergeants: Sergents are essentially men at arms but cheaper, more plentiful, and armored with Gambesons. They usually use spears or swords/shields.

Archers (basic): Cheap to hire and plentiful are archers. Using simple hunting bows they have a short range of around 50 meters and their bows lack power against mail. Supplying arrows is expensive so the archers usually have to make their own resulting in short ammunition supply and low accuracy. On the bright side any old boy (or girl) can do it!

Archers (professional) Professional archers are expensive and comparatively rare. Their Yewwood bows are hard to obtain materials for and their draw requires considerable muscle to pull all the way back. Feathers and arrowheads need a considerable logistical force to supply and you need ample troops to protect them from light cavalry. However they're a force to be reckoned with and can hit targets up to 100 meters away with decent accuracy. Fired in inaccurate volleys they can rout and kill blobs of enemy forces. Aimed accurate their less effective but more accurate.

Light cavalry: Using fast horses and wearing little armor light cav are designed for raids, scouting, and chasing down routing enemies and slaughtering them.

Heavy cavalry: Very expensive and very hard to train. They're your shock troops and can punch through anything save for a highly trained pike wall (which is something too rare in the 12th century to be an issue). They wear mail armor and use lances and broad swords.

Light infantry: Highly trained and expensive woodsmen trained for raids, skirmishes, and guerrilla warfare.

Batiste: Requires large amounts of horses and skilled engineers. These portable bows can be used to launch arrows or small rocks at enemy formations. Their use requires admin approval, antiquate resources, and troops to man them.

Trebuchet: Built during a battle and thus used for sieges the trebuchet uses a large counter weight to launch large projectiles at enemy fortifications. They're simple to built but are disadvantaged by their long build time and zero mobility.

Catapult: Weak, small, but mobile. The catapult uses mechanical tension to launch small rocks are buildings and enemy troops. Almost any faction can field at least 4 of these.

My faction was defeated what do I do?: Create a new one or join another. Or rage quit.