Reading about historical battles, I often see something along these lines 'defender was able to completely surprise the attacker, destroying much larger force'. Such mechanic exists in TW series, but not really in PDX games (sure, one could say that we have terrain modifiers that grant bonuses to defenders, but for attackers it's a calculated risk they have to take, not a gamble they take going into an unknown teritory.)
Main idea:
Armies used to send out scouts to gather intel on their surroundings. Going into a teritory that was not scouted could result in meeting an opposing army waiting in an ambush (wink, wink Teutoburg Forest). In game this could be reflected by having fog of war over teritories not owned/neighboured by player (so simply going into unknown teritory could result in meeting large defending army). However, staying in same teritory for few days should be enough for your scout parties to gather intel, removing fog of war temporarily.
In this example, Thebarga teritory that I move into would have fog of war (unless I stopped in Khayda.. and waited for scouts) and could contain Persian army. I gamble by choosing if I want to move fast to province capital or safe but slow.
Supporting ideas:
I'm sure you can think of more ideas to complement such system.
I deliberately don't mention any values for modifiers or how long scouting should take as it should probably be balanced by our devs.
This idea is posted for I:R, but should also work for other titles, especially CK3
Main idea:
Armies used to send out scouts to gather intel on their surroundings. Going into a teritory that was not scouted could result in meeting an opposing army waiting in an ambush (wink, wink Teutoburg Forest). In game this could be reflected by having fog of war over teritories not owned/neighboured by player (so simply going into unknown teritory could result in meeting large defending army). However, staying in same teritory for few days should be enough for your scout parties to gather intel, removing fog of war temporarily.
In this example, Thebarga teritory that I move into would have fog of war (unless I stopped in Khayda.. and waited for scouts) and could contain Persian army. I gamble by choosing if I want to move fast to province capital or safe but slow.
Supporting ideas:
- Light Cavalry units giving boost to scouting speed
- Morale hit for attacker falling into ambush (so even smaller army can win against larger force by surprising them)
- Different stances for attackers and defenders:
- Defensive stance 'Fortify' giving defender small 'entrenchment' bonus over time (similar to HOI)
- Defensive stance 'Ambush' giving larger bonuses to defending armies, but disappearing once army is discovered (high risk, high reward stance)
- Attacker stances 'March/Forced march' giving normal/extended movement speed but without scouting terrain, making it easier to fall into ambush
- Attacker stance 'Scout ahead' giving lower movement speed, but safety from ambushes
- Different terrain, different ambush bonuses, scouting speed
- Smaller army, harder to spot
- Some units could be harder to spot than others (i.e. Light Infantry or Archers hiding in forest should be harder to spot than elephants), so unless enough days pass to get full info, you would only see some cohorts and some '?'. Does not have to be based on unit type, you could simply see after 1 day that enemy has 5-10k soldiers and after few more know the exact composition of their army
- During ambush, ambusher should be able to withdraw faster than usual
- Original idea says one should not have fog of war in own teritory, but perhaps it should exist there as well, but owner should get significant bonus to scouting and/or forts and cities should provide visibility
I'm sure you can think of more ideas to complement such system.
I deliberately don't mention any values for modifiers or how long scouting should take as it should probably be balanced by our devs.
This idea is posted for I:R, but should also work for other titles, especially CK3
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