Numb3rs Game

[Exarch]

how realistic do u suppose the armies are in the game compared to real life?
a typical full stack army on normal settings has ~1000 men give or take a coupla hundred.
was this typical of an invading army back in them days of medieval history?
i have hear'd something about 100,000 men which woulda been epic.

[Georgy Zhukov]

No, I think it was usual just to have an army of 10,000 versus another one of 10,000. Though in the crusades Im sure there was at least one battle like that with 100,000 men.

[sparty]

I wonder the same thing. Shouldn't there be a higher count on Peasants or did these armies traditionally employ professional soldiers above and beyond what each vassal lord may keep.

[Wheelchair]

Alexander the Great brought 40'000 Soldiers with him to Conquer persia, He fought a battle against 300'000 I believe, and won..o.O

[Xamt]

Alexander the Great brought 40'000 Soldiers with him to Conquer persia, He fought a battle against 300'000 I believe, and won..o.O

that the most popular version of the story but in truth most if not all the numbers from ancient times are a little to very exaggerated

the large medieval fights like people said were like 10k troops per side, with large battles reaching 30-40k

so i would think that a 1:10 to 1:5 scale is what ppl making MTW use as ratios

[Leutrim]

They're about right. A whole nation would have a standing army of about 30,00 and that would be divided among the many generals and family members. Obviously, if you're going to war, you're going to have many family members attacking at the same time, each with their own men.

[Junius]

No such thing as a standing army during the Medieval period. You'd have militia and trained soldiers, but they would be ins ervice to a knight, and when not fighting they would work on their farm. It was all part of feudal system, and as such there were no real professional armies. All men who were in serfage to a knight would be called up to fight when the king needed them. The knights served the king, the peasents served the knights.

Also, Wheelchair, I presume you are talking about Gaugemela when you speak of 40,000 versus 300,000. Those numbers are a bit off, in my opinion. Alot of the satraps, in the west of the Persian Empire, had switched to Alexander after Issus, and his sieges down the Levant. As such, his number had swelled by then to ~100,000, or a bit less. These were made up of mercenaries and Ionian, Eygptian and other conquered forces. Darius stayed for around a month at Gaugemela preparing the battlefield. The local area couldn't support an army of that size for very long, so the numbers were probably morelike 150,000 on the Persian side. Maybe a bit more. The numbers in most of the histories are exagerated to enhance Alexander's cult of personality, but he did overcome great odds. The 40,000 you talk of is the initial force which eh took with him into Asia.

[Glowboy]

On the firts crusade not including the one by Peter the Hermit it numbered 100,000 give or take a few hundred in knights,spearmen,archers just about every proffesional kind of soldier not including pilgrims.

[Gornard]

There where standing armies of a kind in the medieval period, sucha s the janissaries of tukey and i think the byzantines had some sort of central army as a supplement to the feudalesque themata system. Mainly cavalry i think.

In the hundred years war, the numbers in major battles would be somewhere between 2 and 40 thousand on either side. The latter would be relativly difficult to obtain in game.