Narrative Mass Combat Notes: Part 4 – Anthropometrics, Force Capacity, Land & Resources, and Mounts and Remounts

When i was playing airsoft I ended up using anthropometry more and more because that was the easiest to think about instead of recalling precise measures. In a combat where there are large distances and time can speed up and slow down depending on fatigue, attention overhead, and coordination.

In an RPG every second does not matter because I cannot sense it passing. I can only see action and events, or seeing the enemy react or give me control of the situation. So I’m recommending measuring opportunities, instead of time. As I got better I was aware of opportunities and not the time. The opportunity I could be taken out because I had gear malfunction, the moment the attention of my prey was diverted, or when the opfor had to make that decision to divide his mental resources. Those are the opportunities that matter in thinking in the chaos of battle, and not the seconds.

I’ve gotten to the 5th book of the Saxon Series of Bernard Cornwell and… YES this is how to narrate a combat. Dont get bogged down by the seconds, because when sh*t hits the fan our minds is either prepared to spot and act on an opportunity or unable to act.

Thats why I recommend framing an action in opportunities (in a previous post).

Anthropometrics.

The wikipedia does a lot already for the research already so please check them out. Note that Anthropometrics extends from the Combat, as the GM and players describe distances and man-power, to the Preparation leading to mass combat – Marshalling forces, Levies etc…

1 pace is 0.8m or 4/5 yards. Roughly the width of a broad shield in a close formation. Half a pace is the distance between ranks in a shield wall.

As roughly the width of a man with a shield. The number of men in a rank is typically 2/3 of space in yards or meters. So a narrows of 30 paces can be held by 30 men in a rank.
In a wargame where a unit hex is 50m, that makes 70-80 paces. That would mean a battalion of 400 can hold a 80 pace line 5 men deep. I use this unit because of the limits of Google Maps and Roll20.

Walking or Cautious March 3kph = 0.81m/sec or 1 pace per second. ~50 paces is as many seconds. (1 hex in my map a minute)
Fast Marching 4-5kph = 1.2m/sec. roughly 50% faster than Cautious March. 90 paces in just a minute. (2 hexes a minute)
A run of 7-8kph can be done in a 40-60lb kit. This is almost twice as many paces. (3-4 hexes a minute, depending on what kind of unit and terrain). Horses can make these speeds easily.
A fast run would be 10kph, for a horse it would be 15kph. that would make 5-6 hexes and 7-9 hexes.

Force Capacity

The GM may have to declare how many people per Strategic Location. Be ready to know how many per space and area in the Map. This skill takes some training, I know some people who are able to make these assessments very acutely in a glance, I’m not one of them but I’m always observing to learn from them. But in a Game, the GM can make it up and I wont be surprised if the Players figure out an optimal employment of forces given the numbers I give – it all depends on my preparation.

How many men can fight on a ship? How many need be a shield wall across the width of a ship?
How many can fight in the quarters of a Hall?
How many in a small space surrounded by ditches?
How many to hold a Fort?
How many to close off a Route or Pass?
How many can fight in the space afforded in the Wilds?
How many can be seen in the concealment of battle, wilds, or streets and structures?
to make it easier I will use Organizational Sizes

“It takes half a company to defend this space”
“it takes a battalion to hold this pass”
“it takes regiment to surround this force”

Note that 24/7 support requires up to 5-6x more forces if one will create shifts.
I may end up writing on the GM side of the Roll20 layers 50, 100, 1000 etc… to note how much will it take to occupy a particular space.

Land and Resources

1 Hide = 4-6 Virgates (or 4-6 families). So 1 Hide is able to support 1 full-time warrior.
Acres was a Man-Day of work to prepare an amount of furlongs (assuming a team of oxen and plow). It took about two days to prepare a field, and three days to harvest it. So every acre cost 5 man days.

A Virgate of 30 Acres will require 75 man-days a year to work because only half is needed.

1 Acre of Barley or Rye is roughly 7-17 bushels or median average of 13 bushels or 624lbs of barley or rye.

This is ~13 Bushels and when made into bread 1,200lbs of barley/rye bread. This is enough to feed 3.4lbs of bread per day for a year or 4,000 calories a day. Enough for an Active Soldier or Two adults.
1 Acre = to 1 man-day to till, 1 man day to sow, and 3 man-days to harvest. So 1 acre is 5 Man-days of work.
A bushel, a common volume of measure with its own container makes bread of 2000 calories bread for 60 days.
2000 calorie of Barley/Rye Bread is 1.5lbs.
1 Family (5-6) with Ox and Tools is needed keep 15-45 acres productive (median ave of 30 acres). This is around the size of a Virgate. For simplicity 1 Virgate = 1 family.

Note that only 1/2 is actively used as the rest is fallow.
This means 75 man days to work the fields. But working the fields is a one of many parts of what a household does.

In SotC aka 11C Byzantium the units were “Are” are (/ˈɑr/ or /ˈɛər/ symbol a) with a numeric Prefix. Surprisingly the term “Hectar” is from Hekaton-Are or Hektare. 1 Hektare is 10 stremma or Dekare.

A hektare is 10 man-days to till, 15 man-days to sow, and 25 days to harvest. 50 man-days per hektare.
A Hippikon (~10 Hektare) has only 5 hektare utilized. it takes 250-man days (This means the wife, children, and slaves need to be employed).

1 Hekare of Barley/Rye is 31 modii (modii and bushels are both ~8 dry liters).

this is 9,600 calories of Barley/Rye bread for a year. This is enough for a family.

As an Asian I’m not really exposed to dark breads as we don’t have these flours here. Although its easy to understand this in Rice metrics, while rice having the advantage of being much easier to prepare. Although rice is half as much calories to weight as Barley at 1.1 calorie to gram ratio vs the 2.5 calorie to gram ratio for rye and barley.
Meals (like oat meal) and Cakes and Biscuits are the many common means of preparing these. And because there were not many sweeteners these were typically savory and herby in flavorings.

1 family is needed for ~12 Hektares or a Square Diaulos.
4-6 Diaulos = 1 Square Hippikon. This is enough to support 1 fulltime soldier. Hippikon or Hippikia = Hides of land.
A square Milon (M’len) which is the equivalent of a square Mile is 4-5 Hippikons or a Tetra or Penta of Soldiers. if the distance is used as a radius around multuply this by Pi but also round down for how arable the area can be.
A square Dolichos (4.8km or 3mi) which is equivalent to 40 Hippikons. In a Dolichos radius (or 1 Dolichos in all directions) its roughly 80-120 Hippikons.
A square Parasanges (3.4 mi or 5.5 km) which is the equivalent to 50 Hippikons or a Pentinta of Soldiers. In All-directions its 100-150 hippikons.
A Schoinos/Schoenus (4.6 mi or 7.3km) is 100 Hippikons or a Hekaton of Soldiers. In all-directions its 200-300 hippikons.

A few Schoinos make up a Tagma Panoia. Each Schoinos having an administrative HQ of a fort or village that watch the network roads that allow the are to feed the highways with traffic and trade.

A Stage (18mi or 30km) or a whole day’s is ~1000 Hippikons or a Chillia (Thousands/Regiment) of Soldiers. In all directions its 3000-5000 hippikons.
When a Doux summons his forces from 1 whole days journey away in all directions (an area of a Circle whose radius is 30km), there could be as many as 3-5,000 soldiers.

Output. 5 hectare or 15 acres produce 195 modii/bushels.

minus 40 bushels/modii for stores for the next year.
the remaining 155 is about 3 years of stores (counting loss from storage). Typically ~40-100 is taxed and the other suprlus years are for the discretion of the farmer… in IDEAL scenarios.
Merchants or the Lord can buy the surplus for trade.
In Wheat the output is 2-3/5 as much but 50% denser per bushel/modii.

A Modii was once a measure of currency. Since a Modii/Bushel can feed a man 2000 calories a month it would about the cost of a Silver piece. Gain prices fluctuated in war doubling to reaching x20 in famine.

1000lbs of grain or 20 modii/bushels would fetch about 20 silver but delivering it with an ox and oxcart (see below) would be 400 silver!

Levies. A levy can be extracted from the population instead of purely supporting soldiers. Easily 1 able body can be levied per family at the cost of the regions Economy! for every Man Levied the productivity of an entire Hide or Diaulos goes down by 20% which also means if that population loss is permanent in the next year there would be 20% or worse gross output. Its hard to bounce back from such.
1 hide = 1 (square) Hippikon = 1 centuria (100 heredum) = ~20 ha = ~120 acres = roughly 1000 bushels of rye or barely production, ~2500 man days of labor as tax, and ~1000 man-days of cottage industry labor goods = (Note 50% variance in productivity) ~5 households = 1 full time warrior

Remounts and Pack Animals

An Trained 2000lb Ox with an Oxcart of 1600lbs can carry 1000lbs of Barley/Rye, 200lbs of feed or 10 days of feed for the ox, and 1,000 man days of food as long as there is ready water and ready oven to make the bread. Otherwise its made into meal instead.

An Ox feed 20lbs per day.

A Small Pack Horse or Mule of 650lbs can carry 200lbs for a workload.

A 650lb Pack horse/mule can 2% of their body weight on feed. If they carried only feed (160lbs and 40lbs of packing gear) they are good for 12 horse-days.
A packhorse travels about 20km a workload.
Every remount able to rest (not carry anything but riding gear) add 5kph to a workload of travel.

So with 5 horses with only 2 carrying feeds adds 10kph for that days workload.
Doing three shifts of workload every day would mean 90km a day. 16 hour straight.

2:5 Pack horse carrying feeds ration (with 1 rider) is good for 5 days of travel.
4:5 Pack horses carrying feeds ratio (with 1 rider) is good for 9.6 days of travel.
1:2 Pack horse carrying feeds ratio (with 1 rider) is good for 6 days.
Skilled horsemen can lead up to 4 other horses other than their own.
Typically such travel is so dangerous and typically two riders are sent.

A Good Pack Horse/Mule is about ~850lbs can carry 250lbs.

Because of their increased size, the Horse Days a full 250lb pack is roughly 11 horse-days.
The advantage is that a more equipped rider can be carried.

A Large Pack Horse/Mule is about ~1,200lbs can carry 300lbs.

They have roughly 10 horse-days of feed.

It took me about 3 weeks to research all this 😛

Game in the Brain