NationStates Jolt Archive

I have seen a good military calculator floating around the forums, but seem to have neglected to bookmark it. COuld someone give me a link or two for NS military calculators??

their are military calculators? I thought there were only economy ones

Basic rule seems to be that even in war time you should no more than about 2.5% of your population in the armed forces all branches and probably less. Of that number take at least 50% and consider them logistical units. The remaining 50% is your combat capable units and only about 2/3's of those can be committed at any one time without leaving the logistical units undefended. A better peace time number is probably one-half to three-quarters of one percent of your population in peace time. This can go up or down with your economy. If you have an imploded economy you won't have much of a military.

If you have a compulsory military service you can stretch that up to about 2% or maybe 3% in a war but assume a less professional army. All armies are either slaves or mercenaries and the mercenaries are generally better.


If you have "Arms manufacturing as a major industry then you can say you have a little better stuff otherwise use things you can actually buy such a M1A1's Merkavas or LeCeric tanks.

Here is a web site with a lot of that kind of information

http://www.army-technology.com

There is no way that I know of to roleplay better training or nuances of equipment without being rather tedious or Godmoding unless both parties really know the terms and agreee on the capabilities of the things being used. So it doesn't do a lot of good to say "well I've a 127.3 mm HPDF cannon firing DU APFSDS ammo an that is 3.5% better than what you have." It just makes you look petty

An example of figuring a maximum military
My nation has population of about 950 million
total military personel = 14,425,000 in peace time
Logistical units = 7,125,000
Combat ready units = 4,275,000

If you go much beyond this figure you are going to have huge economic problems. This assumes a 1.5% max and a fairly professional army. I could probably go up to 2% or 2.5% max before I have economic problems.
My economy is listed as a "Powerhouse" in NS If I were Frightening I could probably have even a little more.

Once you have these numbers you can divide up your forces in the various branches. This is a really an inexact set of figures because an is army fairly simple logistically speaking at about a 1:1 ratios of support and combat forces. A navy is higher and an airforce may have 20 or more airtraffic controlers, mechanics, and other support person for every combat pilot or combat crew. Is the radar officer in a bomber a combat guy or a logistics guy? Is the guy who launches an ICBM a combat unit? You need to think about questions like these. :sniper:

HTH