I wrote the mechanics behind this for Tom Walton's
"The Mouth of Sauron" zine long ago but I don't think
it made it into the archives. I thought I'd share it
on this list board. Maybe it will be old hat to you,
but whatever.
We all know that in GSI's modeling of the "real" world
of ME, there are many absurdities. 5000 thoroughly
demoralized troops can be transferred into an army
of 100 ecstatic troops and suddenly be equally ecstatic.
A city of elves can be influenced over by emissaries
or captured, and the next turn an army of orcs can be
hired there, riding wargs. (I won't even go into
caravan mechanics!) We pretty much just accept this
with a suspension of disbelief and an understanding
that no gaming model could be perfect, anyway.
But the system is a model; so I think it is reasonable
to make full use of the system, even if that seems
rather artificial somehow. At least, that is my opinion.
So let's look at armies and food. An army of
100 troops sitting at your city is supposedly fully
fed -- but it cannot move with full movement unless
there is at least 1 unit of food in the baggage train!
My mental picture has always been that the army commander
has to wave a sandwich aloft in front of the troops, or
else they insist on spending extra time fishing and
hunting, despite having already been feted by the
city's inhabitants. Just that one sandwich.
It turns out that there are two separate food checks.
One of them is done just after all the 300 orders,
after all food and troops are transferred around
(340, 355, etc.) At this point, food is eaten and
then the army morale is affected by the presence
or absence of at least one unit of food in the baggage
train. The second check is done just before navy
movement, order 830. If at this point the army has
that one sandwich, it gets full movement.
Think of it. You have an army of 100 infantry that
has 101 food, and an army of 5000 infantry with no food.
By the first food check, the 100 infantry eats 100
food and has 1 left, and goes up in morale. The 5000
troops get no food. Between then and the next check,
the 5000 infantry commander uses order 780 to transfer
command to the smaller army. At this point you have
an army of 5100 troops with 1 food, _and they get full
movement_ when the time comes!!!
Wow!
More than once I've sent an infantry army forward
and had it rendezvous with 100 cav with 201 food
launched from far behind it; the cav catches up
with the big army just as it gets next to a mountain.
Next turn the cav eats 200 food and has 1, and both
armies combine, and step up into the mountain.
(Or maybe the cav is 2 turns behind but has 401 food.)
Here's the real kicker. As you will see, if you commit
three commanders, it lets you move full movement forever
for just 200 food per turn (plus 2 more food you always
have to have), no matter how many troops you have. The
cost is that your commanders are busy shuttling troops
and food around and don't get to train or recon. But
you get to the front faster.
Say you start with an army of 5000 troops and food,
and an army of 100 troops. The big army has a subcommander.
The big army sub commander transfers 100 troops to the
small army. The big army commander transfers _all_ the
food to the small army. At this point, the small army
eats 200 food, the big army has none to eat. The small
army commander, now with 200 troops and at least 202 food,
splits 100 troops to the big army _subcommander_. Now we
have an army of 4900 troops, no food, no subcommander,
and two armies of 100 troops each with food. The former
subcommander transfers command of his 100 troops back
to the big army. Now we have 5000 troops that have half
the remaining food (at least 1, because we had a minimum
of 202 to start with, minus 200 eaten is 2, half of which
goes to the subcommander when the little army commander
split half of his 200 troops.) Both the big army and
little army commanders move together, with food.
Repeat the process until your food goes below 202.
But you only use 200 per turn.
(You can do the same with all cav armies but you eat
400 per turn instead of 200.)
Jeremy Richman