Troop transfers

[celebaglar]

All right, I suspect this has been discussed before, but IMHO it's still a problem so here are my thoughts on it:

We all know the problem: It's the end of the day for a lord who moves into the same location as an ally of the same race who still has not moved. Troops are transferred to the lord who hasn't moved, and the troops get two days' travel in one day.

A related problem is excessive maneuvering of troops from one lord to another so as to fill the ranks of the good armies (this makes quite a difference in battle).

So here's my proposal to make it more realistic and make it more of a strategic challenge as opposed to "knowing the quirks of the engine":

Troop transfers should take a given amount of time, perhaps a couple of hours. This would reflect the resulting temporary confusion. You could make it so the time taken is less in an allied stronghold then out in the open. Troop transfers in locations where there is an enemy present should be prohibited.

Finally, and this is the crucial bit, the movement "clock" of BOTH lords should be synchronised to that of the lord who has the least hours left in the day.

Traditionally and realistacally, swapping troops is fraught with problems: companies not used to working with each other, officers unfamiliar with their commanders, lack of drill time together etc. I believe the above suggestions would reflect this and make people think long and hard before ordering transfers.

(I can also see some logistical implementation problems with the suggestion, but it's there for you chaps to ruminate on.)

[sparrowhawk]

The time penalty is easy to implement, including the variance for being in a friendly stronghold and preventing transfers when enemies are present.

Clocks: Do you mean that if Lord A (7 hours left) transfers troops to Lord B (2 hours left), both would end up at Night?

A: 7 becomes 2 (lowest time left) - 2 (transfer) = 0
B: 2 - 2 (transfer) = 0

Have I got this right?

What do others think? I also think that the transfer men to other lord exploit is a big issue, and this would go some way to resolving it.

[daiabolical]

TheCreator said:

Do you mean that if Lord A (7 hours left) transfers troops to Lord B (2 hours left), both would end up at Night?

A: 7 becomes 2 (lowest time left) - 2 (transfer) = 0
B: 2 - 2 (transfer) = 0

I think if Lord A has 2 hours left and Lord B has 7 both would end up at night. But if Lord A has 7 and Lord B has 2 I'm not sure. If Lord A has few troops and wants to leave them in charge of a bolder Lord whilst he goes scouting. Surely he'd just dump them on Lord B and head for the hills. Leaving Lord B with the logistics of marshalling his new recruits.

At most I think the lord losing troops (so long as it's all his troops) would lose 2 hours max whilst he explained his plans to Lord B. If he transfers only a portion of his troops then the times would synchronise as both Lords would need to sort and marshall their changed regiments.

[celebaglar]

TheCreator said:

Have I got this right?

Yup. Spot on.

[celebaglar]

DaiABolical said:

At most I think the lord losing troops (so long as it's all his troops) would lose 2 hours max whilst he explained his plans to Lord B. If he transfers only a portion of his troops then the times would synchronise as both Lords would need to sort and marshall their changed regiments.

You're forgetting that Lord A can't explain his plans to Lord B until Lord B gets there. So if Lord B doesn't get there until there are 2 hours left, that's when the transfer should take place.

Giving Lord A a shorter penalty (say one hour instead of two) if he just dumps all his troops on Lord B is fine, provided the coding overhead is not too high. I doubt it would make a huge difference to gameplay.