De-Legro, Not so much really. If you do things efficiently you usually need a -lot- less nobles. You're right if people are going to "Blob of Doom" their way around, but why do that when you can drive people bannanas and leave the ole blobbers sitting and starving.
Tactics get people to care too, because they stop being just another foot soldier and have missions and goals. I mean, yes, you need a couple fo good marshals, but otherwise it's a self-feeding system.
You misunderstand us, I think. We're not saying Arcachon wasn't using excellent tactics. We're saying that Arcaea can't use those tactics.
Soniel makes a huge difference, in allowing repairs right before departure, in a fortified landing that's nigh-impossible to breach if fully defended, and in forcing Arcaea to go the long way through Ecsetuah.
What also makes a large difference is that Arcachon is a single duchy, and thus everyone gets all their taxes in gold even at the borders. Your clock starts ticking from when you leave Soniel. Arcaea's clock starts ticking the moment they leave Remton.
What makes possibly the biggest difference is a significant amount of apathy in Arcaea, and having people who routinely drop out of marching order, requiring us to spend much longer to get anywhere with a concentrated force.
To give an example of how all that works together...On the last campaign, Arcaea attacked Mnalor and lost. That happened because we weren't going to be getting enough reinforcements to make a difference (less than active nobles), we'd lost significantly on the march (starvation via the longer route up to Ecsetuah, serious equipment damage on the travel from Akanos, nobles who miscalculated their gold and lost their units, took longer because people kept falling behind), couldn't move to Soniel (fortified and easily accessible from Mnalor), and couldn't wait much longer because the gold in Ecsetuah had been exhausted and our units were at the bleeding edge of equipment damage (88% damage after Mnalor, for instance).
The geographic and other realities severely limit the number of tactics Arcaea has access to...And Jenred's pesky sense of honour limits what's left considerably by refusing to use the more damaging looting options.
There are, certainly, other tactics Arcaea could use...But most of them require us to have an army that can move at least as fast as Arcachons, which doesn't seem likely. The only remaining strategies that I could see was, essentially, attrition and treachery, both of which have proven useful, if not nearly as quick as I would like.
