Post by Emperor Francis I on Mar 19, 2008 21:05:43 GMT 1
Dispatching the Troops
One of the main changes in this new version of Apocalypse: The Napoleonic Years is troop positioning. What this means is that for every protectorate and colony a leader must state how many of his troops he is allocating to that territory, and we suggest this is the first thing you do in the game. A country can declare how many troops it is stationing in each one of its provinces, but that isn't compulsory.
The Specifics
This system only affects powers with colonies, so if that's you, please read on. At the start of the game you must declare how many troops you are station in your protectorates and colonies and whatever is left over will be to defend your homeland, please be aware, failure to do so will lead to the assumption that your colonies and protectorates have been left undefended.
These can be changed, but only once a week. By doing this, player-upon- player becomes a real concept, where in previous games, this has never really been an option. This also brings into a real sense of tactics, as what you deem your most prized colonies, you shall protect more. You can change your troop postings whenever you like unless there are some other factors affecting your postings such as a naval blockade.
You do not need to defend your dominions as they happen to have an independent standing army (unless one hasn't been recruited for a dominion yet), however, if you choose to you can add troops to your dominion in order to give it extra defence. Furthermore, you are allowed to allocate 0 troops to a territory, but in doing so that leaves it undefended and open to attack.
An Example
For example, let us take Denmark and pretend it has 300,000 troops. Here is the Danish Empire:
Denmark (Parent Country)
The Danish West Indies - colony
The Faroe Islands - protectorate
Iceland - protectorate
Greenland - protectorate
Therefore, 300,000 troops must be split 5 ways, a contingent for:
The Danish West Indies - 10,000
The Faroe Islands - 10,000
Iceland - 30,000
Greenland - 30,000
Denmark - 220,000
As you can see, they have allocated 80,000 for the defence of their four colonies and protectorates, and 220,000 to be used for the defence of Denmark proper (which includes Norway).
Offensive or Defensive?
Are these troops offensive or defensive? Well, to be honest, the distinction is slightly arbitrary - all troops are defensive until you choose to invade somewhere. When you do choose to invade someone, though, you must make it clear where the troops you are using to invade are coming from - if you don't tell us, we will assume they come from your homeland. Furthermore, when invading a neighbour, it would be a bit silly to use troops from a colony on the other side of the world, as this will leave it undefended, but this all comes down to the tactics of the game.
