What would you call a "large" army?

[hakkarin]

I am planning on building a large army, but the problem is that I have no real sense of scale in this game and thus I don't know how many units I need to make my army "large".

For example, is an army of 20 fighter bombers a small or a large air force? And how many ships would I need in order for my navy to be considered "large"? And what about ground units? Are 300 units much or little?

This is the problem I am having, I simply have no idea.

Can you help me understand what is a lot and what isn't?

[Sawedoff]

To be honest, it depends on your actual need for them, in my opinion anyway. I try to keep my army as manageable as possible, mainly because I micromanage every move and action. Once in a war I normally accept trades for units, build like crazy, but at the end I scrap a lot to draw forces down. One, this reduces your costs when not at war, and two, I get rid of outdated or inefficient units first. I try to keep my army technologically advanced and more efficient at fighting rather than going after numbers.

When I first started playing I went for the numbers. In one game as Germany I have 13.6M size army, and it is completely unmanageable, and now due to fuel needs I can't even move units. (Germany conquered all of Africa, except Madagascar, controls Northern South America up to Mexico, has many Caribbean islands and has captured Beijing). That game is pretty much unplayable now because my army grew too large.

My recommendation is to play more tactically rather than with numbers. My only pre-req is that I have a sizeable Air Force. 50 units and I'm normally good there, as I send them to repair once they do an attack, I use them all at once so I do much damage with little loss.

[GIJoe597]

My recommendation is to play more tactically rather than with numbers.

Ditto, any moron can steam roll with superior numbers.

[Ruges]

My recommendation is to play more tactically rather than with numbers.

Ditto, any moron can steam roll with superior numbers.

Sure one super unit can clear an entire map. But somtimes you need numbers.

As for what would I call a large army? Depends on what country you are playing, and what year it is. What Vanuatu considers large in 2020 might not be what Russia considers large in 2020. Even what Russia considers large in 2020 might not be what they consider large in 2070.

So what size should your army be? Again depends on what country you are, who you plan on fighting and when. Reading the AAR's will give you a good idea on what others have used, and what those units have accomplished. Also experimenting with a few games of sending random units into combat to see the end result also helps.

But if I had to put down a basic rule of thumb, the ratio of units I would have is 9 stacks of infantry, 1 stack of tanks, 3 stacks of arty (or 1 stack of missle arty), 1 stack of supply trucks, 1 stack of AA. This setup would be able to take on a front line of 3. (IE attacking 3 cities simultaniously). So from there you can decide how many cities you want to attack at one time and can find out how many units you plan on having. As for your airforce, For every 3 groups of the above combonation, I would have 2 stacks of fighters and 1 stack of bombers. Your navy really depends on your country and your theatre of operations. Plus you need to have reserve units to replace damaged ones and specialty units (recon, enginieer, quick reaction), and border defense/ choke point defense units.

As for managing all the units. Yea it takes allot of manage such a huge military. Thats probly why the slow game speed does not bother me. You have so many units, that even at the slowest speed, I still find myself pausing to issue orders to them all.

[hakkarin]

My recommendation is to play more tactically rather than with numbers.

Ditto, any moron can steam roll with superior numbers.

Sure one super unit can clear an entire map. But somtimes you need numbers.

As for what would I call a large army? Depends on what country you are playing, and what year it is. What Vanuatu considers large in 2020 might not be what Russia considers large in 2020. Even what Russia considers large in 2020 might not be what they consider large in 2070.

So what size should your army be? Again depends on what country you are, who you plan on fighting and when. Reading the AAR's will give you a good idea on what others have used, and what those units have accomplished. Also experimenting with a few games of sending random units into combat to see the end result also helps.

But if I had to put down a basic rule of thumb, the ratio of units I would have is 9 stacks of infantry, 1 stack of tanks, 3 stacks of arty (or 1 stack of missle arty), 1 stack of supply trucks, 1 stack of AA. This setup would be able to take on a front line of 3. (IE attacking 3 cities simultaniously). So from there you can decide how many cities you want to attack at one time and can find out how many units you plan on having. As for your airforce, For every 3 groups of the above combonation, I would have 2 stacks of fighters and 1 stack of bombers. Your navy really depends on your country and your theatre of operations. Plus you need to have reserve units to replace damaged ones and specialty units (recon, enginieer, quick reaction), and border defense/ choke point defense units.

As for managing all the units. Yea it takes allot of manage such a huge military. Thats probly why the slow game speed does not bother me. You have so many units, that even at the slowest speed, I still find myself pausing to issue orders to them all.

You talk about "stacks", but how many units are actually in each stack? Or were you talking about units all along?

[Ruges]

A stack is the maximum amount of units a hex can support. So for land it is 7 units and for air it is 14 units.

[FlybyU]

My recommendation is to play more tactically rather than with numbers.

Ditto, any moron can steam roll with superior numbers.

Not So as I use Technologically adv units and they seem to hold there own against large amounts inferior units. Also I use a combo of Mobile INF, Tanks, Arty, AA, in a stack, and Helo support along with Fighter's for more protection when Defending or Attacking. I use Bombers to take out anything that I feel is a problem before they are a problem as well. Combined Arms is your friend and is strong at Defense as well as Attack. My forces are usually much smaller yet powerful and are able to do what I need.

[bergsjaeger]

The number you need of something always depend on who and what. Who you fighting, what are they military numbers. It pays to have more than them. If you don't use all of your reserve, you at least have them for back-ups.

I found out a certain combo in sr2010, and I tested it in sr2020. In both games it worked for me, and highly affective I might add. Not saying it would for others but it has held true for me, it might even in Srcw.


Ground force stacks:

#1
1x wheeled infantry, like light infantry/light infantry II/ engineer
1x wheeled/tracked IFV, like styker/m2a4 bradley
1x armor, like abram/m60

#2
7x self-propelled arty, like m109 paladin series

#3
7x self propelled AA, like patriot/meads/thaads

I would place stack #1 in lines, maybe side beside, or have a hex space between them, depends on manpower and how many stacks I could make. I would then place stacks #2 and 3 behind the #1 stack. Depending on range of stack 2 and 3 I would space 2 and 3 in their line behind 1. I would make sure 2 and 3 were beside eace other also because I would stack transport helicopters, the higher cargo number the better, with 2 and 3. it would usually be 2 or 3 heli squads per stack, just to make sure the arty and AA didn't run out of ammo.

Air stacks

#1
14x F/Bs or interceptors.

#2
5x transport place, for airborne assualts and resupply

#3
Carrier based aircraft, depending on the class of ship as for the number of squads.

I only used F/Bs and Intercepetors. Not saying I didn't like bombers. I just liked fast attacks and want the units to stick around incase I needed them to sortie after a target.

Naval stacks.

#1
1x Battleship
2x crusier class
4x destoryer class.

#2
1x carrier class
2x transport class

I would place 1 just like I would the ground forces #1 then have naval #2 behind the naval #1 line for support and of course carrier-borne sorties.

Other then the above, I sometimes go outside the pattern when I needed to, pays to have reserves of specialty units. Airborne to drop on cities and other targets. Marines to come in form the sea, which I do add to the transport ships. Sometimes have "short" carriers with transport helis, which has leg infantry loaded in, all the time special ops or rangers.

Someone could try this pattern, some might like, others may not. But it has always been my way of preparing and fighting wars.

[Artyom150]

I prefer Surgical Strikes by deploying Spec Ops and Green Beret's to the enemys Capitol...Works like a charm on small to medium nations!

[Chesehead]

I perfer to have a couple stacks of heavy infantry, such as bradlys or the high tech equivilent. I try and keep my military as small and high tech as possible. When I capture a country, I usually scrap most of their Army, but keep a large amount of their air force. Generally, for an average invasion force for me, I perfer around 6 stacks of infantry and 2-3 tanks stacks. I throw in 3 stacks of 6 artillary units +1 transport. Farther in the rear, I'll have a stack of long range AA, the kind with 150+ KM range and that can usually hit high altitude targets as well.

For air power, I perfer heavy bombers due to their firepower and survivablity. Most of my fighting is fighting in cities and entrenched garrisons, so they are pretty effective doing that. I like to keep a couple stacks of fighterbombers for the critical time in a conflict when they can do the most damage and lead to a ground breakthrough. For interceptors, I perfer to have the best, and usually 1-2 stacks per battle theater. I set them to supersonic mode, and then send them whenever the enemy puts up air craft. They generally hit them hard the first engagment, so then they have no use.

naval wise, I like to have a nice big super carrier and some escorts to provide air defense. I like to employ fighter bombers on my carriers as well. Generally, I perfer stacks of advance destroyers and battleships so that I can support my land forces. I also like a stack of subs here and there as well.

[mfisher12]

I don't think I've ever had a total armed forces over 5 million max and those were with the larger nations like US, China, Russia.

I play a very tech-centric game, spending a huge chunk on research and trying to build the most advanced military in the world. So to me, tech is far more important than numbers - my smaller armies typically have little problem destroying much larger AI armies of lower tech, given about 2 years of all-out research and production.

Likewise, an air force of 20 squadrons seems small to me but it depends on my country. I could win with Israel or Taiwan that way, but not as the US or Russia - there's just too much territory to cover. And I lean toward multi-role and FB types rather than single-role interceptor or bomber units, then change out the missile loadoat as needed. That said, a few stealth bombers carrying nukes is a great game-changer.

Navies in SR2020 are mainly good for transporting and covering amphibious assaults. Without some kind of sea lane shipping, even abstracted, it doesn't pay to have huge carrier fleets roaming the oceans. I've never had an aircraft carrier playing as Germany, Israel, or S. Korea. Just no need for it and they cost too much in materiel and production time when I could be cranking out missile destroyers & frigates for the purpose of coastal defense. And on the flip side, my missile-carrying stealth aircraft will make short work of the AI's aircraft carriers if they venture within range.

[Hullu Hevonen]

What would you call a "large" army?

It all depends on who you are, are you at war or not and are you playing multiplayer.
I usually organize or count my army in divisions/brigades etc, and in a game as France about 20+ divisions(rougly 120,000-280,000 men, rougly maybe 350-450 units) would be large. In multiplayer, this would have to be even larger, because then you have an human player that will put the stakes higher then the AI can, maybe 30-40 divisions. As force airfore, about 60-120 air units for a country like France would be large, 120 units would be large even in MP(about 1000-4000 air personell). as of Navy, well, thats hard to say, maybe 40-100 naval vessels. Then for countries like, USA, China and Russia maybe 60+ divisions would be large. For countries Macedonia, Leshoto, Costa Rica etc, even 1 division would be significant and large.

[backes42]

As long as you have enough reserve personel I don't think your army can be "too big" really depends on your strategy. As the previos posts have shown, there are many different ways to go about conquering. I usually go with a big air force and some infantry. I don't even bother with tanks or helicopters. To each their own I guess.

[Tnarg]

It all really depends on your play style, I like to micro manage my military and model them realistically. For Large Countries like the US, China, and Russia I usually battle group Corps or Armies and designate them to a particular area. Some more notable or highly used organizations I might break down to division level or brigades and designate a battle group for them. From my armies or corps battlegroups I can select division or brigade size stacks which work well in this game. Combat units in one stack with supporting battalions like artillery, AA, or supply one hex behind. The modern model the US and Russia are now starting to use like Brigade Combat Teams works really well with this game as they are more self supporting rather than older divisional brigades.

If you are interested there is an organization list in the AAR section. I have tried to model US organizations, Russian organizations, and developing or 3rd world organizations based off of military manuals and other sources. Some of it is Cold War era, some of it modern with the new Brigade Combat Teams (US) or All Arms Combat Teams (Russian), some of it futuristic based off of systems like the FCS. I am working on revising the Russian one.

http://www.bgforums.com/forums/viewtopi ... 54&t=18815