Game in the Brain

[GURPS Mass Combat] Ancient Armies Part 1

This is a Part 1, I’ll follow up later on. I’ve been sitting on this for about 3 weeks now. I can’t find any more time to add a greater level of detail.  


TL and army organization. You can give tactics, soldiering (no soldiers till TL1), leadership and strategy a TL. Intelligence Analysis (Military) becomes available in TL2.


How Organizational Technology Levels Works:

  • Concepts can be gained and lost. Some Eras gain heights that are lost and are relearned.
  • Higher TL occurs when key/fundamental concepts are mastered, which allow for more sophisticated concepts to be employed.
  • The primary focus is organizational and conceptual systems. These discount tools.  


TL0 – Warrior Bands
War Leader. Organizational limit of 50 combatants, modify coordination teamwork and planning rolls. Every 5 more, -1 penalty to tactics checks. Inversely, less 10 increases the ease of coordinating up to a maximum of +4 or 10 combatants. At TL1 and onward, double the limit to 100 combatants and every 10 more is -1; ever 20 less is +1 to a maximum of +4 or 20 combatants. 
GURPS Rules Terms: There are only up to Two “Military” Ranks.  

TL1 – The First Armies
Examples: 

  • Army of Sargon the first and his successors (Mesepotamian Civilizatin)
  • Armies of the Xia and Shang  
Generalship: Now War Bands are capable of organizing into a much larger group. There are now formalized ranks of leadership and sub-organization. Army organization reaches Six military ranks. Organizational Limit of around 1000, -1 to coordination, organization and planning for every 100 more for the General; +1 for every 200 less, maximum of +4 or 200 subordinates.
Organization is about ratios of leaders to subordinates and support staff. Take your current officer corps and look at their optimal subordinate ratio, for every 10% more people they have to lead beyond the ideal, they suffer a -1 penalty to their organizational, coordination and teamwork rolls. 

Organizational Penalties: When Lacking enough Trained Officers (one can always promote someone to an officer position), Generals have penalties. For every 10% beyond officer capacity 
Logistics:  Administration Skill for tests of logistics, cannot be higher than Soldier and History (Military) Skill. 

TL2 – Drilled and Organized Tactical Units 
Examples:

  • Armies at the Height of the Hitite, Egyptian, and Assyrian Empires
  • Armies of the Punic War
  • Armies of the Spring and Autumn period 

Organizational Limit of around 3000, -1 to coordination, organization and planning for every 500 more for the General; +1 for every 250 less, maximum of +4 or 2000 subordinates. 
Informal Military Education: All Strategy, Tactics and Military Intelligence cannot be higher than Military (History) and Current Affairs (Military) Skill.   

Soldiering: Soldiers have fighting styles and perks.
Military Intelligence: Military is an informal skill. 


TL3 – Military Operations
This is when there was a greater and formal understanding of military operations. At this level of organization, the matter of logistics is now delegated to a specialist and more efficient methods and discipline are developed for arranging and acquiring supplies.

Examples:

  • Armies of Alexander
  • Armies of the Spring and Autumn period 
  • Roman Legions after the Punic War, like the Marian Reforms; until the Imperial Era.
  • The Crusades.

Organizational Limit of around 5,000, -1 to coordination, organization and planning for every 1,000 more for the General; +1 for every 500 less, maximum of +4 or 3000 subordinates. 
Formal Military Education: All Administration (Military), Strategy, Tactics and Military Intelligence cannot be higher than Military (History) and Current Affairs (Military) Skill plus 2.   
Soldiering: Soldiering checks allow characters to know how to prepare supplies and their kit for a number of days, how long it takes to travel and dress for the weather, how set up camp, and how to prep basic fortifications.  



TL4 – Combined arms and battlefield maneuvers

This is when tactical units were able to maneuver and deviate from their initial plans. Tactical units is now made up of heterogeneous elements: a mix of archers, pikemen, arqubusiers, heavy infantry etc. taking advantage of the best ability when needed. An example are armies skilled enough to clamp down into a defensive posture like tortoise or pike hedge, but open up to make ranged attacks or skirmishers to quickly make forays and return to the safety of the formation. 

Examples:

  • Armies of the Warring States or the 3 Kingdomes Era
  • Imperial Roman Legions
  • Early National Armies of the Renaissance 

Improved Formal Military Education: All Administration (Military), Strategy, Tactics and Military Intelligence cannot be higher than Military (History) and Current Affairs (Military) Skill plus 4.   
Logistics:  There is an Administration specialization (military) and Soldier specialization of (logistics).

Armies of Sargon and his Successors TL1
These represents the armies of the Sumerian City States, up to the rise of Hitite and Egyptian empires that eclipsed them. The Xia and Shang Dynasty probably has a similar set up.

Poor Inferior Heavy Chariot
Poor Inferior Bowmen
Good Good Medium Infantry
Poor Inferior Heavy Infantry 

Armies at the height of the Egyptian and Hittite Empire TL2. 
These are the armies that moved east to conquer the Sumerian City States.
Basic Average Bowmen
Good Good Light Chariots 
Fine Good Heavy Chariots 
Good Good Medium Infantry
Poor Inferior Heavy Infantry 

Assyrian Empire TL2
These are the armies that succeeded after the one of the early Dark Ages (the fall of the Mycenean Greeks, Egyptians and Hittite Empires; Their apparent and near simultaneous collapse).   
Basic Inferior Light Artillery
Basic Average Light Cavalry 
Basic Average Horse Archers
Basic Average Light Chariots 
Basic Average Heavy Chariots
Basic Average Bowmen
Basic Average Heavy Infantry
Basic Average Medium Infantry  

Armies of the Zhou Dynasty TL2



Basic Inferior Light Artillery
Basic Average Light Cavalry 
Basic Average Horse Archers
Basic Average Light Chariots 
Basic Average Heavy Chariots
Basic Average Bowmen 

Basic Average Heavy Infantry
Basic Average Medium Infantry

Armies of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States TL3 

This is the rise of the Mandarin Bureaucrat because of the innovations brought about by Taoism and Confucianism. This had lead to a greater level of organization and professionalism of the bureaucracy. This also affected army organization, particularly operational organization because of the extensive state administration skills being applied to military operations.

Sun Tzu and his successors gave the era a Technological Leap, they grant the army in their control an the ability to function at TL4 organization, while the rest functioned as TL3. To fully take advantage of TL4 abilities, a kingdom had to have sufficient funds to train their soldiers until they reach elite levels.
 

Basic Inferior Light Artillery
Basic Average Light Cavalry 
Basic Average Horse Archers
Basic Average Bowmen 

Basic Average Heavy Infantry
Basic Average Medium Infantry
Uncommon

  Basic Average Light Chariots 
  Basic Average Heavy Chariots


Persian (Archemaenid) Empire Armies TL2  

Successors of the Assyrians, the archemaenid empire stretched so far as to eclipse all the previous empires before it. The many cutures it came to rule had their own special military expertise (allied Infantry and cavalry); they reorganized their warrior elite to sustain their heavy cavalry manpower.  


Immortals
  Good Average Heavy Infantry
  Basic Average Bowmen

Allied Cavalry
  Poor Good Light Cavalry
  Basic Average Light Cavalry
  Basic Average Horse Archers
Persian Warrior Elite
  Good Average Heavy Cavalry
Allied Infantry
  Basic Average Light Infantry
  Basic Average Bowmen
  Basic Average Medium Infantry
  Slingers – Poor Average Bowmen
Indian Elephants
  Basic Average Warbeasts  
Other Units

  Basic Average Light Artillery
  Basic Average Light Chariots 
  Basic Average Heavy Chariots

Greek and Macedonian Armies TL2. 

The military assets depends on the region, its tradition, economy and circumstance. Some City States only have very professional warrior elites, others are more mercantile with great economic resources, others have unique conditions favoring marine, terrain, cavalry and recon expertise
Some City States have more numerous but less well equipped and trained Hopelites, like Athens, Corinth and Thebes. Some City States, like the Kingdom of Macedon, have the Pikemen Tradition. Scithian Allies provide the Cavalry. The GM determines the social political and economic organization of the City State, and that determines what kind of units it can provide.
Spartans 
  Good Good Heavy Infantry
Corinthian, Theban and Athenian 
  Good Average Heavy Infantry with Marine feature
Macedonian
  Basic Average Pikemen 
Thracian 
  Peltas – Basic Average Light infantry
  Basic Average Medium infantry
  Basic Average Bowmen 
Scythian Cavalry
  Basic Average Light Cavalry
  Basic Average Horsearcher
Cretan 
 Basic Good Bowmen 
Alexander’s Army TL3 
Alexander makes the organization TL3 for the army under his command. Other greek heroes can be considered as effective.

Average Good Heavy Infantry
Basic Average Light Artillery
Allied Cavalry
 Poor Good Light Cavalry

 Basic Average Warbeast  
Barbarian Allies 
  Basic Average Horse Archers
  Basic Average Heavy Cavalry
  Basic Average Bowmen
  Basic Inferior Heavy Infantry

Polybian Legion TL3
The Roman Republic and Kingdom creates units based on socio-economic status, with a military tradition. Each City provides Velites, Hastatii, Principes and Triarii. Since there is a military levy, the distribution of wealth determines the availability of certain units.
Velites
  Slingers- poor inferior bowmen
  Javeliners – poor inferior medium infantry
Hastatii 
  poor inferior heavy infantry
Principes
basic average heavy infantry
Triarii 
Good Good heavy infantry
Equites 
Basic Average Light cavalry 

For the Next Parts: either more samples of various armies and sample armies. I really have to get GURPS City Stats (add a level of detail like harn manor) at the scale of the region.  I already have the spreadsheet, just need to add another column for yearly operational costs (professional level, levy level). 

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