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(Thanks to Thesh for making this, from 2004) Q. How many troops is it possible for me to field? I have 100 million total population. A. After extensive research at the World Factbook, a general pattern was noticed in relation to a nation and it's military. In general, a nation only spends between 2-5% of it's total GPD (Gross Domestic Product). Also, only about 1/4 of a total population are military age and health (aged 18-50). However, obviously 1/4 of your population is not going to be in the military. This is where another general pattern was observed, that nations would have approximately 1-2% of it's military age and health population in the actual military. Take 2% as the top limit, and fluctuating downwards from there. So how does this affect your 100 million population Nation State? - Total Pop: 100M - Mil Age/Health cap: 25M (refered to as military age/health cap) - Military Possible: 500,000 Q. Okay, so I have 500,000 troops in my 100 million population. What next? A. Actually, if you read carefully, the 500,000 is only MILITARY POSSIBLE. This means that this is the total amount of army you could possible have. But different things affect how close to the 2% of the military age/health cap you can go. For example: if your economy is very strong, frightening, huge, then you can spend more money on military, hence pushing you towards the military possible cap. But if your economy is imploded, then you aren't going to have too much money to spend on military. Also, government spending areas affect your military. If your nation spends solely on defense, then you'll be pushed towards the cap. However, if your government struggles under many competing demands, like defense, welfare, religion, etc then you'll have less to spend. Let's call all these influencing factors "Nation Quality". Example: Say you have an average run-of-the-mill nation: economy: average. Expenditure: 3 areas including defense. You are more likely to be at the mid-range of the 1-2% of the military age/health population cap. Take the 100M total population for your nation. - Total Pop: 100M - Mil Age/Health cap: 25M - Military Possible: 500,000 - Nation Quality: Average (makes the % of Mil Age/Health cap at 1.5%) - Gunwielding Helmet-heads (army), Wing Nuts (air force) & Navy: 375,000 Q. Okay cool. So my average quality, military conscription nation of 100 million people has 375,000 in the defense force. A. Hang on a second. Conscription actually changes everything again. Conscription is the basis of compulsory military service, meaning that for a time in a person's life you WILL BE in the military. Conscription usually goes for 5 years, so we'll take that as the base. Also, as 18 is the start age of military service (in most countries) the conscription age will be 18-23. Of your population aged 18-50, approximately 1/6th will be under conscription. This equates to 16.666666666666%. For simplicity, let's call it 17%. So this means, instead of the 1-2% from the Mil Age/Health cap, you will be looking at 10-17% from the Mil Age/Health cap (remembering to slide between those figures depending on nation quality). After all this is taken into account, you need to remember that conscripts are NOT the same quality as volunteer troops (they're forced into service). Based on non-conscript nations, we know that between 1-2% of the Mil Age/Health cap will be volunteers (see above). So TOTAL FORCES = Conscripts + Volunteers. Example: Take your average quality, military conscription nation of 100 million. - Total Pop: 100M - Mil Age/Health cap: 25M - Military Possible: 4.25M - Nation Quality: Average (makes the % of Mil Age/Health cap at 13.5%) - Numbers in Defense Force: 3,375,000 - Number of Volunteers: 375,000 (1.5% of Mil Age/Health cap based on nation quality) - Number of conscripts: 3,000,000 Q. Excellent! So I've got 4M troops! I'm going to invade you with my 4M troops. A. Let me just stop you right there. It's not going to happen, in this world or another. For starters, how many transport ships do you need to move that many troops to another nation over the sea, remembering that a transport ship will probably only carry 1000 troops and equipment? That's 4,000 troopships if you're wondering. Also, how big is your port? You can probably only load 10 ships a day, so that's around 100 days just to load the transports. So that's 100 days to load 1000 ships with your 4M troops. Feel a bit ridiculous now? Yes you should! Every nation is going to keep a standing army. The US only sent about 200,000 troops total to the Persian Gulf, and that took them 6 months to get the troops there and supply them. If you say that 1/4 of your defense force is able to be used in a way somewhere else, then you're not too far from the truth. But if it's your nation being invaded, then if you say 3/4 of your defense force is fighting (1/4 dispersed across the land as defense) is close to the truth too. Q. So I'm getting a handle on this military thing. What about individual divisions, platoons and companies? How many men are in those? A. After a bit of research, and my own experience in the army, the following table is good for most situations. But remember, each country has its own definition of how many troops in each bit. - Platoon: 100 men - Company: 300 men - Regiment: 1000 men (3 companies + HQ + auxillery) - Division: 10000 men (10 regiments) - Army group: 50000 men (5 divisions) (Yes I know the numbers for division and army group are different to what I originally said, I've updated my table) Similarly for vehicle divisions (tanks, arty, mobile SAM, etc) we can use this table: - 100 vehicles = division (APCs, Troop trucks, tanks) - 50 guns = division (artillery/mobile SAM/mobile rocket launchers) - 100 planes = air wing/squadron (division in another name) - 50 bombers = bomber group (strategic and tactical) Navy is a different state of affairs. If we simply said that there's 250 men per ship, then it's not too far wrong (this includes mechanics, cooks, supply, officers, auxillery, etc). There's no static model to use for a fleet. As many ships as you want can be in a fleet. Q. If there's a war going on, and my troops are involved, then what sort of losses will I be taking? A. Hopefully you'll be reasonable on this topic. You need to take into account many different things including: - Number of your troops - Number of enemy troops - Who's defending (defenders are generally fortified/dug in/etc) - who's lands you are in (the owner's forces have an advantage because they know the land) - Support units (whether someone calls in an air strike, or naval bombardment, or even artillery) - Type of troops on both sides (you'll lose a lot of bombers if you face off against fighters) - Situation of attack (see below) The situation of the attack can be so variable. For instance, if you are invading a defended beach (like the allies did in France 1944 at Normandy) then you are going to lose about 3/4's of your invasion force. See saving Private Ryan to understand this. However, if you\'re defending a mountain pass where you're dug in with black ops, and a conscript army comes waltzing up the pass, you're going to slaughter them and lose almost no-one. This is where honesty and acceptance MUST come in on your behalf. If you feel you've been hard done by, raise it nicely so we can discuss the situation. This is a game, not real warfare. We're all reasonable people. Importantly, if you're RPing in a war, try to state everything down in your post. Don't worry about exposing state secrets, only public knowledge can be acted upon by other nations (unless spied on). Example post: My defenses include 1 division of conscript regulars, 100 tanks and 50 artillery support. The troops are dug in and camo-ed at the top of a hill protecting a large open fielded area. A fighter squadron is on alert for any sign of enemy flight incursions and will scramble immediately. There is 5 battleships about 3 miles away in a bay ready to support by shore bombardment. This means to me, if I were to attack I'd be fighting uphill against dug-in troops, under constant artillery and battleship bombardment and being seen all the way in the fields. If I were tall call in an air-strike, they'd be attacked instantly by the enemy fighters, and if I tried to bring in naval support I'd have to contend with battleships.