Battle advantage calcs

[Phoss]

So, when you enter a battle you're usually either at an advantage or disadvantage, depending on your tactics skill compared to the opposing lord's skill. This advantage/disadvantage somehow determines how many of your troops actually make it into battle. I learned this the hard way as half my elite troops were left out of an important battle because they were at the bottom of my army list and weren't included in the group that actually joined in on the battle.

Does anyone know how to tell how many of your troops will join you in battle? Both against bandits/raiders/looters, where I think your whole army joins in, and against other lords.

 

[Mastermind]

I don't know exactly how it is calculated, but a main factor is the number of soldiers on each side, e.g. if you have 100vs2000 enemies, you WILL be in the disadvantage, even with 10 tactics, simply to compensate the enormous advantage the enemy has with his high numbers. But tactics definitely help, especially during sieges you do on your own, where the numbers are rather even but every soldier is important :p

 

[Phoss]

But against neutral troops you will almost always have both the numbers and the tactics in your favor, so do you actually get your entire army on the battlefield against those?

 

[Kynnath]

The total number of troops on the field is determined by the battlesize. The proportion of your troops versus their troops is defined by battle advantage. If the sum of your troops plus their troops is lower than the battlesize, every troop will appear at once.

 

[Phoss]

n00b Q: What's a battlesize?

 

[Elvenshae]

In your options, you can set how big you want battles to be.  That's the maximum number of troops allowed on the field at once.

 

[Phoss]

Cool, thnx. Guess I'll bump it up to max then.

 

[Mercenary88]

Tactics

Base Attribute: Intelligence

Effect: Every 2 points to this raises your battle advantage by 1.
Before each battle your Tactics score is compared to that of the enemy leader, and this determines how many men each side has at the beginning of the battle.

Additionally, if you choose to send your men in while you stay back or are knocked out during battle this skill will have an effect on the aftermath losses. This skill also reduces how many men you need to leave behind if you retreat.


All this can be found in the m&B wiki: http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount&Blade

 

[12oz Jesus]

So does a battle advantage of 2 mean that the advantaged side gets 2 extra soldiers?  Or is the calc more complex than this?

 

[Urlik]

I miss read the thread title and thought I was missing out on an item

but now I've got the image in my mind, I really want some battle cakes

 

[Phoss]

Mmmm, battle cakes....

 

[Handel]

From what I see in the battles every point of battle advantage gives about 4-5 warriors more for your side (which means 4-5 less for the enemy of course)
So if you have 60 ppl battle size (for easier calculation) and have 1:5 troops ratio then you will have 10 vs 50 soldiers disadvantage. Having +1 points of tactics will make your soldiers ~15 vs ~45 etc. Of course you still will see negative advantage numbers coz the tactics will work "behind the scene".
With max 5 points of tactics in the above example you should have about equal troops size and the advantage should be 0. Of course this is if the enemy has no tactics skill at all.

 

[Galdus]

So, when you enter a battle you're usually either at an advantage or disadvantage, depending on your tactics skill compared to the opposing lord's skill. This advantage/disadvantage somehow determines how many of your troops actually make it into battle. I learned this the hard way as half my elite troops were left out of an important battle because they were at the bottom of my army list and weren't included in the group that actually joined in on the battle.

Does anyone know how to tell how many of your troops will join you in battle? Both against bandits/raiders/looters, where I think your whole army joins in, and against other lords.

Use the Mount and Blade Warband Battlesizer and increase it to at least 300 unless your PC can't handle it that way you will most likely have all your men on the field.