Kordo
10-12-2004, 03:45
The [Un]Official Guide to War in NationStates -A Cliff Notes Version
Note: These are my personal suggestions. Please feel free to disregard them at will. This is merely set up to help newbie's get a very basic understanding of the generally held 'rules' on the International Incidents forum.
1. Military Numbers
The largest of militaries is only roughly 2%-5% of the total population of that nation. The larger the nation the smaller percent of the population will be in the army. An example: The total population of Nation X is 2 billion, and it has a draft that assured 2% of the civilian population is in the army. That would mean that their armed force is roughly 40 million men. Just trying to organize such an army would be a logistical nightmare. However, if Nation Z has a population of 6 million with a conscription rate of 2%, the armed forces would be 120,000 men, a much more manageable size.
Obviously, some nations whether in times of war can go over the 5% 'max' however this is for brief time periods only. Any attempt to maintain it for longer either means an outright collapse of your economy (See 4. Workers vrs Soldiers) or it means your soldiers are equiped with horribly outdated, and/or extremly cheap equipment. Not that that is bad neccessarily.
2. Military sizes and their appropriate tactics
While there is a wealth of information about this subject, this will be quick and to the point.
A. Smaller, well-trained armies have a few advantages compared to other forces. They are usually cheaper, easier to maintain, and easier to manage then massive forces. Also, they can move to new locations with much more ease. This force is perfect for nations with no active threat, and is great for quick strikes against threats.
In a war against a numerically larger force, it would be best to avoid going head to head. Instead, try to attack the supply lines, and flanks. Starve them of supplies, and make them lash out and hopefully make mistakes. Make sure you always have room to maneuver because that is your biggest advantage. Avoid getting into a war of attrition with a larger force, because while the larger force may be less trained, or not as well equipped, they will be able to replace troops much easier and faster.
RL examples: United States Army, British Army.
B. Larger forces have some advantages of their own. They can easily over-run smaller opponents with their sheer size. Also, their size can act as a deterrent to attack, because no one wants to mess with an army four-million man army.
Try to engage in wars of attrition, due to your large number of troops. Avoid conflicts or battlegrounds that might give your opponent time to attack your flanks or your rear area. Use your size to your advantage, do not give them room or time to maneuver. However, do to their size, they are often hard to organize, whether in battle or not. Also, they are hard to maintain and supply, and very hard to maintain.
RL examples: The Red (Russian) Army in WWII, Modern-day Chinese army.
C. Guerilla forces are perfect for defensive combat in sympathetic urban territory. You can strike easily and then slip into the darkness. It is also a pain in the butt for invading armies, because it means that they have to keep more troops than otherwise necessary in the occupied territories, which means fewer troops on the frontlines. It also can bolster support for your cause and help lead to a rebellion in your favor.
However, this type of warfare is limited to areas that are sympathetic to your cause. The reason for this is simple; as a guerilla force you have no supply base, or really in many cases one fixed location to operate from. This means no way to grow food, or to produce other necessities of war such as bullets and guns, though local support. While it is possible to steal or even to have stored these goods before hand, this means you are constantly, in the case of stealing goods, forced to show roughly the area in which you operate. And in the case hiding supplies, it means being tied to certain locations, limiting the area in which you operate, among other things. In keeping with the idea of a sympathetic population, you need to have contacts within the local population who are willing to supply you, feed you and even house you. You need to have contacts or informants in the local enemy force, or other individuals, who are willing to tip you off to a raid or other similar activity.
RL examples: Current insurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq.
3. Logistics
Remember, the logistics side of the military, roughly 40%-75% of all personnel in every branch will be devoted just to driving supply trucks and making sure everything got to where it was supposed to. Also, once you create the goods you still have to transport them to the troops, which takes time. For more information about transportation, see below.
4. Workers vrs Soldiers
As more civilians are recruited/drafted, less are available for the economy. It may seem like a simply idea, but it is often overlooked. Even if Nation Z is invaded by a larger nation and says 'well all my fighting age people attack you and you lose' fighting a occupying force like that is just not sustainable for long periods of time. If every competent/skilled person is fighting, who runs the factories? Eventually the defending nation would run out of the basics such as bullets, fuel, and food. Then what do they do?
5. Production
'Well my nation uses uber machines that build everything and plant everthing.' First off, use common sense. Every level of production at a factory will most likely suffer some sort of production error and machines break down. If you have no one to check for mistakes, your going to find out about them in battle, or when your food crop dies because the irrigation system is broken, not exactly the best of times. So, your going to have to use competent workers to catch the mistakes before they get to the front lines, or before they become irreversible.
6. Transporting goods
Face it people, like it or not moving goods whether across the country or across and ocean takes time. There is not a fleet in the RL World that can move an entire army across an ocean at once, much less one that can do it in a few days. And don't point to RL Normandy for an excuse or an example, 'cause I know you were thinking about it. Normandy was right across the channel from the United Kingdom. This mean't they could make multiple trips in one day, even (in some cases) a few hours. Also, that fleet was massive, and took a very long time to make and was very costly in both man and material that had to be diverted from other jobs. Just as Rome was not built in a day, neither was your fleet or any other transportation system for that matter.
7. WMD's
WMD's whether nuclear or biological are probably a bad idea to start throwing in the middle of a RP. Why you ask? Well its quite simple, WMD use tends to kill good, well and bad, RP's. The reason is because the most common usage is when people start to lose. 'Can't defeat their army? Nuke 'em to hell' Your so the saying goes in general kills any remaining entertainment factor for the other players.
Also, if your nation is younger then two or three months, the common NS nation logic says that you haven't had time to develop them i.e. your population isn't large enough or 'old' enough to do it. This is because of the costs of designing, building and using/launching/deploying them. This doesn't neccessarily make sense when you think about it, but it does seem to cut back on the amount of people randomly using them. So remember, younger nations can use WMD's but its generally frowned upon by the established players.
Then there is the fact that if you start throwing them, your enemies might too. This means a boring RP, and it might get you ignored by a lot of nations, because many of the haughty already established 'big-wigs' of RP'ing here feel that any nation that has to resort to using WMD's even once isn't a nation worth RP'ing with. Go figure. That isn't to say you can't or shouldn't use them. Just remember that WMD's are a slipper slope. Or, if you okay their use with the other main nations in the RP.
8. Losing
No one really likes to lose at anything. But like any good relationship, (which all RP's are) there has to be some good ole' fashioned give and take. That means sometimes, you, yes, even you with your massive army are going to have to take one for the team. Sometimes this means losing some battles. This isn't to bad, and you should try to make sure you lose occasionally, just to make everything fair. But sometimes you have to bite the bullet, and lose completly.
----And since I can't put it better myself, here's some suggestions from someone else:
Now What?
So what happens then, when your country becomes a colony or whatever there are several things you can do.
-Restart your History
Many nations have done this, however there are better alternatives. It basically means you are to start over.
-Role play the occupation
No nation in RL or in NS, will have the people fly towards the occupiers. There will be resistance, role play it. You never know you might win back your country. If this is the choice it always better to plan things out with the occupier. Find a way to contact him/her.
-Have a good old revolution. Similiar to a resistance movement, the revolution however would take time to occur and organize. This would also include contacting the invading nation on instant messaging asa good ide.
-Develop a way to free your nation, such as a 10 year treaty that will allow you to be a free nation in ten NS years of course if the occupying nation fails to comply with that after "signing" the treaty go to the last two ideas. (Full Text can be found in the link section below)
9. Final Points
This last point is not so much as a guideline as a reminder. Some nations will do/will not follow the suggestions listed above. Some nations have armies that are 6% or even 10% of their population, which is fine for nations who have armies not needing so-called modern battlefield necessities (bullets, guns, and the like). If you encounter such a nation, whether in an RP you’re both in or somewhere else, you don’t have to come crying to the moderators or to other nations involved in the forums, looking for help against them. Simply ask them to explain how they can manage such large forces or use such unheard of futuristic technology. If they pretend you didn't ask the question or they don't have a answer that satisfies you, feel free to simply ignore them 'till they change their ‘evil’ ways. This brings us to our last point:
10. Have fun!
These suggestions/guidelines are to help people make their wars more realistic, not to make them boring. This game we call NS is supposed to be fun! Fun damnit! This should be NS common sense, and not a fact, so if you think all this information is too serious for you or it cramps your creative style, then who cares, and don't listen to it. This is perhaps the most important guideline I have written.
There are some great links/threads related to this topic:
Naval Matters:
A Joint Treatise On Naval Strategy by Sarzonia and Praetonia (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=412713)
Some info on naval vessels by Clan Smoke Jaguar (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=292413)
Navel Landings By The Island of Rose (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=367974)
Logistics:
Logistics: War and Peace By the Macabees (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=393153)
Logistics (http://www.military-sf.com/Logistics.htm)
Military Tactics:
Guide to Roleplaying Terrorism v2.0 by Jaxusism (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=366018)
A Quick and Nasty Guide to Fighting in Built-up Areas by Isselmere (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=403397)
How To Defeat A Numerically Superior Enemy by the Macabees (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=398617)
The Art of Losing by Dracun imperium (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=416665)
General:
What Godmoding Is By Euroslavia (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=367578)
Economy, Militaries, and Invasions - More things to know By Clan Smoke Jaguar (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=297064)
Note:
Thanks to all the kind people who posted things here. All of the links and most of the ideas above are theirs not mine.
Updated semi-continuously!
Note: These are my personal suggestions. Please feel free to disregard them at will. This is merely set up to help newbie's get a very basic understanding of the generally held 'rules' on the International Incidents forum.
1. Military Numbers
The largest of militaries is only roughly 2%-5% of the total population of that nation. The larger the nation the smaller percent of the population will be in the army. An example: The total population of Nation X is 2 billion, and it has a draft that assured 2% of the civilian population is in the army. That would mean that their armed force is roughly 40 million men. Just trying to organize such an army would be a logistical nightmare. However, if Nation Z has a population of 6 million with a conscription rate of 2%, the armed forces would be 120,000 men, a much more manageable size.
Obviously, some nations whether in times of war can go over the 5% 'max' however this is for brief time periods only. Any attempt to maintain it for longer either means an outright collapse of your economy (See 4. Workers vrs Soldiers) or it means your soldiers are equiped with horribly outdated, and/or extremly cheap equipment. Not that that is bad neccessarily.
2. Military sizes and their appropriate tactics
While there is a wealth of information about this subject, this will be quick and to the point.
A. Smaller, well-trained armies have a few advantages compared to other forces. They are usually cheaper, easier to maintain, and easier to manage then massive forces. Also, they can move to new locations with much more ease. This force is perfect for nations with no active threat, and is great for quick strikes against threats.
In a war against a numerically larger force, it would be best to avoid going head to head. Instead, try to attack the supply lines, and flanks. Starve them of supplies, and make them lash out and hopefully make mistakes. Make sure you always have room to maneuver because that is your biggest advantage. Avoid getting into a war of attrition with a larger force, because while the larger force may be less trained, or not as well equipped, they will be able to replace troops much easier and faster.
RL examples: United States Army, British Army.
B. Larger forces have some advantages of their own. They can easily over-run smaller opponents with their sheer size. Also, their size can act as a deterrent to attack, because no one wants to mess with an army four-million man army.
Try to engage in wars of attrition, due to your large number of troops. Avoid conflicts or battlegrounds that might give your opponent time to attack your flanks or your rear area. Use your size to your advantage, do not give them room or time to maneuver. However, do to their size, they are often hard to organize, whether in battle or not. Also, they are hard to maintain and supply, and very hard to maintain.
RL examples: The Red (Russian) Army in WWII, Modern-day Chinese army.
C. Guerilla forces are perfect for defensive combat in sympathetic urban territory. You can strike easily and then slip into the darkness. It is also a pain in the butt for invading armies, because it means that they have to keep more troops than otherwise necessary in the occupied territories, which means fewer troops on the frontlines. It also can bolster support for your cause and help lead to a rebellion in your favor.
However, this type of warfare is limited to areas that are sympathetic to your cause. The reason for this is simple; as a guerilla force you have no supply base, or really in many cases one fixed location to operate from. This means no way to grow food, or to produce other necessities of war such as bullets and guns, though local support. While it is possible to steal or even to have stored these goods before hand, this means you are constantly, in the case of stealing goods, forced to show roughly the area in which you operate. And in the case hiding supplies, it means being tied to certain locations, limiting the area in which you operate, among other things. In keeping with the idea of a sympathetic population, you need to have contacts within the local population who are willing to supply you, feed you and even house you. You need to have contacts or informants in the local enemy force, or other individuals, who are willing to tip you off to a raid or other similar activity.
RL examples: Current insurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq.
3. Logistics
Remember, the logistics side of the military, roughly 40%-75% of all personnel in every branch will be devoted just to driving supply trucks and making sure everything got to where it was supposed to. Also, once you create the goods you still have to transport them to the troops, which takes time. For more information about transportation, see below.
4. Workers vrs Soldiers
As more civilians are recruited/drafted, less are available for the economy. It may seem like a simply idea, but it is often overlooked. Even if Nation Z is invaded by a larger nation and says 'well all my fighting age people attack you and you lose' fighting a occupying force like that is just not sustainable for long periods of time. If every competent/skilled person is fighting, who runs the factories? Eventually the defending nation would run out of the basics such as bullets, fuel, and food. Then what do they do?
5. Production
'Well my nation uses uber machines that build everything and plant everthing.' First off, use common sense. Every level of production at a factory will most likely suffer some sort of production error and machines break down. If you have no one to check for mistakes, your going to find out about them in battle, or when your food crop dies because the irrigation system is broken, not exactly the best of times. So, your going to have to use competent workers to catch the mistakes before they get to the front lines, or before they become irreversible.
6. Transporting goods
Face it people, like it or not moving goods whether across the country or across and ocean takes time. There is not a fleet in the RL World that can move an entire army across an ocean at once, much less one that can do it in a few days. And don't point to RL Normandy for an excuse or an example, 'cause I know you were thinking about it. Normandy was right across the channel from the United Kingdom. This mean't they could make multiple trips in one day, even (in some cases) a few hours. Also, that fleet was massive, and took a very long time to make and was very costly in both man and material that had to be diverted from other jobs. Just as Rome was not built in a day, neither was your fleet or any other transportation system for that matter.
7. WMD's
WMD's whether nuclear or biological are probably a bad idea to start throwing in the middle of a RP. Why you ask? Well its quite simple, WMD use tends to kill good, well and bad, RP's. The reason is because the most common usage is when people start to lose. 'Can't defeat their army? Nuke 'em to hell' Your so the saying goes in general kills any remaining entertainment factor for the other players.
Also, if your nation is younger then two or three months, the common NS nation logic says that you haven't had time to develop them i.e. your population isn't large enough or 'old' enough to do it. This is because of the costs of designing, building and using/launching/deploying them. This doesn't neccessarily make sense when you think about it, but it does seem to cut back on the amount of people randomly using them. So remember, younger nations can use WMD's but its generally frowned upon by the established players.
Then there is the fact that if you start throwing them, your enemies might too. This means a boring RP, and it might get you ignored by a lot of nations, because many of the haughty already established 'big-wigs' of RP'ing here feel that any nation that has to resort to using WMD's even once isn't a nation worth RP'ing with. Go figure. That isn't to say you can't or shouldn't use them. Just remember that WMD's are a slipper slope. Or, if you okay their use with the other main nations in the RP.
8. Losing
No one really likes to lose at anything. But like any good relationship, (which all RP's are) there has to be some good ole' fashioned give and take. That means sometimes, you, yes, even you with your massive army are going to have to take one for the team. Sometimes this means losing some battles. This isn't to bad, and you should try to make sure you lose occasionally, just to make everything fair. But sometimes you have to bite the bullet, and lose completly.
----And since I can't put it better myself, here's some suggestions from someone else:
Now What?
So what happens then, when your country becomes a colony or whatever there are several things you can do.
-Restart your History
Many nations have done this, however there are better alternatives. It basically means you are to start over.
-Role play the occupation
No nation in RL or in NS, will have the people fly towards the occupiers. There will be resistance, role play it. You never know you might win back your country. If this is the choice it always better to plan things out with the occupier. Find a way to contact him/her.
-Have a good old revolution. Similiar to a resistance movement, the revolution however would take time to occur and organize. This would also include contacting the invading nation on instant messaging asa good ide.
-Develop a way to free your nation, such as a 10 year treaty that will allow you to be a free nation in ten NS years of course if the occupying nation fails to comply with that after "signing" the treaty go to the last two ideas. (Full Text can be found in the link section below)
9. Final Points
This last point is not so much as a guideline as a reminder. Some nations will do/will not follow the suggestions listed above. Some nations have armies that are 6% or even 10% of their population, which is fine for nations who have armies not needing so-called modern battlefield necessities (bullets, guns, and the like). If you encounter such a nation, whether in an RP you’re both in or somewhere else, you don’t have to come crying to the moderators or to other nations involved in the forums, looking for help against them. Simply ask them to explain how they can manage such large forces or use such unheard of futuristic technology. If they pretend you didn't ask the question or they don't have a answer that satisfies you, feel free to simply ignore them 'till they change their ‘evil’ ways. This brings us to our last point:
10. Have fun!
These suggestions/guidelines are to help people make their wars more realistic, not to make them boring. This game we call NS is supposed to be fun! Fun damnit! This should be NS common sense, and not a fact, so if you think all this information is too serious for you or it cramps your creative style, then who cares, and don't listen to it. This is perhaps the most important guideline I have written.
There are some great links/threads related to this topic:
Naval Matters:
A Joint Treatise On Naval Strategy by Sarzonia and Praetonia (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=412713)
Some info on naval vessels by Clan Smoke Jaguar (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=292413)
Navel Landings By The Island of Rose (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=367974)
Logistics:
Logistics: War and Peace By the Macabees (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=393153)
Logistics (http://www.military-sf.com/Logistics.htm)
Military Tactics:
Guide to Roleplaying Terrorism v2.0 by Jaxusism (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=366018)
A Quick and Nasty Guide to Fighting in Built-up Areas by Isselmere (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=403397)
How To Defeat A Numerically Superior Enemy by the Macabees (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=398617)
The Art of Losing by Dracun imperium (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=416665)
General:
What Godmoding Is By Euroslavia (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=367578)
Economy, Militaries, and Invasions - More things to know By Clan Smoke Jaguar (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=297064)
Note:
Thanks to all the kind people who posted things here. All of the links and most of the ideas above are theirs not mine.
Updated semi-continuously!