- Time
- Command
- Efficiency
- Diversity
- Balance
1. Tactical impact: Time
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The logic is plain and obvious, the more troops we have in one single unit the greater margins we get for errors. A unit that holds more men can simply survive longer, just because of that fact; it holds more men. Now, if a unit survives longer, even if we deployed it or used it wrongly or at least less efficiently. It also ultimately means that we have longer time to remedy a bad situation, thus the circumstances of battle becomes more forgiving to us. With increased size-settings, we increasingly get these circumstances and thus things get easier for us to handle with such setting…. Valid for both MTW and even so more in Redux.
2. Tactical impact: Command
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This aspect is also heavily linked to time. The more time offered to us, the greater the likelihood that we give appropriate orders as we clearly can better assess the circumstances when given more time to do so. Thus command will be given greater advantageous circumstances in general due to increased time because of the increase in men that needs to get slaughtered before we can see results and that takes more time. That circumstance clearly makes it easier for us to give better and proper orders in battle. This is valid for MTW but even so more in Redux.
3. Tactical impact: Efficiency
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Regardless how efficient unit X might be - the general terms apply all the same - the more quantity of men that needs to get killed before an enemy-formation is destroyed by unit X will counteract that efficiency by sheer time-increase. That is, if efficiency is measured by results and the time it takes to achieve these results. If so, then it is beyond doubt that unit X clearly becomes less effective as compared to default settings where the results and the times to get those results are faster. This is valid for MTW but even so more in Redux.
4. Tactical impact: Diversity
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Diversity in troops is born out of the necessity for it – as in the margins are too small for us to ignore it. However, with enough quantity the need for diversity and specialized capacities eventually disappears. By that token, increased quantity of men in formations is more the just one step in that direction. With enough “big” formations (200men units for instance) the need for diversity decreases as such formations are enough in total to virtually ignore the details and aspects of diversity if these formations are numerous enough in total – as in the sheer quantity will prevail anyway and thus the need for diversity disappears. By increasing size-settings we clearly approach such outlined circumstances and as a result we can more easily get away with ignoring diversity due to sheer quantity in men at our command in each army. As a result, things do get easier to grasp and handle in battle with increased size-settings. This is valid for MTW but even so more in Redux.
5. Tactical impact: Balance
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The visible and internal effect and gaps between “scalable” units will be smaller while non-scalable units in relation to the “scalable” units will be significant with size-settings. The overall unit grid – of which the “non-scalable units” is a part - will get increasingly distorted and skewed (in direct relation to the higher settings we use). That means that non-scalable units get gradually more irrelevant as their usefulness is virtually disabled in regards to all the other scalable troops. The relevance of 10man unit in the field as compared to a 200man formation of soldiers (at max settings) is virtually none. Even if they did somehow survive that encounter, they must do it all over again with the next formation they fight – and this in the same battle…
The sheer numbers in the enemy formations is likely to simply “drown” such small units, if not successful the first time, the second attempt is even more likely to succeed at acceptable costs. The point of using such non-scalable units is thus virtually lost. Various levels of diversity are lost. The actual unit-grid balance is also lost. Quality in capacities is also increasingly irrelevant as we can virtually afford to ignore it with little consequence. In short, things will thus get much easier, both to grasp and handle as the complexity decreases simply because there is little consequence if we do ignore it – the sheer quantity will eventually prevail anyhow. Thus the balance is seriously damaged and distorted because several parts of the unit-grid have virtually ceased to function properly – or at the very least as supposed too.
All this likely to result in that our solutions can get increasingly standardized by applying sheer quantity as a universal remedy for all problems we encounter in battle – we simply don’t need to bother with much else - that circumstance can hardly be categorized as balance in a tactical sense or in game-terms. This is valid for MTW but even so more in Redux.
Conclusions: Tactical impact
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In short, size-settings do have an effect and impact on both Redux and MTW if we change it. The more we increase it – the easier games we get as a result – at least as far as the tactical impact is concerned. There little doubt that playing at maximum size-settings will never ever provide the same or as demanding experience as default size-settings does in a strictly tactical sense – due to reasons outlined above and regardless the game. For optimal tactical game-experience we have too apply default size-settings as there is no other setting that can truly match it in purely tactical terms – due to game-designs. We can use that insight as means to further “fine tune” our difficulty/challenge in our games due to size-settings – if we like - this beyond the fairly crude difficulty-setting alone. That circumstance could be valuable information to anybody interested in such things.
