Rations

[Tom]

No, it should be delayed. That's why I like a rations-like approach. The basic gameplay idea is to provide an incentive to looting.

So, one idea would be to have a "rations" attribute for units. It would count in days, and would automatically be scaled to unit size. So yes, if soldiers die,. their rations would be lost. Not 100% realistic, but simple and predictable. And it saves us from trouble such as calculating what the effect is when 10 soldiers of an 80 strong unit die (i.e. fractions of days).

Rations would be slowly replenished in certain areas (food supply, barracks, or something), but could also be quickly replenished by looting.

[Velax]

Would that looting replace the current "steal food" option? And would it still reduce an enemy region's food? It would be good to keep that tactical option available.

[Zakilevo]

wouldn't it be better to let forage battlefield to get whatever food you lose from losing your men?

[La Blakeshadow]

wouldn't it be better to let forage battlefield to get whatever food you lose from losing your men?

I agree, this would seem like a good option.
As looting would be fore when there is nothing left to fight, or was none to start with.

[Indirik]

wouldn't it be better to let forage battlefield to get whatever food you lose from losing your men?

That would require lots of record-keeping and calculations. More trouble than its worth, really.

[Marlboro]

That would require lots of record-keeping and calculations. More trouble than its worth, really.

And if you enabled something like this you'd soon see a feature request to be able to intentionally poison your rations to harm scavengers.

[Charles]

Would it require more record keeping than for foraging the battlefield for armour?  I would say use the same code, just adapt it slightly to include food.

[pcw27]

Would these rations deplete themselves automatically or only in regions suffering hunger or starvation?

[Tom]

Fleshing out the mechanics:

   
• Add a value "rations" to the units
• Init at around 5 when you recruit a new unit
• When your unit would suffer from starvation, but has rations, reduce rations by 1 instead
• When you are stationary in a region with food surplus, it slowly replenishes (say, 0.2 per day)
• You can loot for rations, the old "steal food" option
• When you're out of rations, starvation sets in

[Dante Silverfire]

Fleshing out the mechanics:

   
• Add a value "rations" to the units
• Init at around 5 when you recruit a new unit
• When your unit would suffer from starvation, but has rations, reduce rations by 1 instead
• When you are stationary in a region with food surplus, it slowly replenishes (say, 0.2 per day)
• You can loot for rations, the old "steal food" option
• When you're out of rations, starvation sets in

Can you store above the starting limit of rations? Such as building up to 10 rations or instead of just 5?
I would want to be able to prepare for long marches by having a larger store of rations. Or is that unreasonable?

[Eithad]

But there no reason to store for long marches unless you are marching through many many regions that don't have food.

[Dante Silverfire]

But there no reason to store for long marches unless you are marching through many many regions that don't have food.

Dwilight has this problem. (Depending on where you are)

[Tom]

Can you store above the starting limit of rations? Such as building up to 10 rations or instead of just 5?
I would want to be able to prepare for long marches by having a larger store of rations. Or is that unreasonable?

I haven't thought that aspect through yet. Maybe. Maybe with a paraphernalia. I'm not really certain. I don't want to completely eliminate starvation for troops, just make it so you don't start to lose men the moment you cross the border.

[Velax]

Are we still going to be able to significantly affect an enemy region's food by stealing it, though, if we can only go up to 5 or 10 rations?

[Tom]

The food would certainly not come out of thin air, it would be removed from the region.

How significant it is depends on how many troops you have in relation to how many peasants are in the region. In a region with 10k peasants, a unit of 20 men can stuff all their pockets, bags and mouths full of food and carry a bag of grain in every hand and in the sum total it wouldn't even be noticed.