1:1 meaning that each soldier ingame represents 1 actual soldier (as opposed to 1:10 or smaller by most RTT games).
S:TW, M:TW, R:TW and Imperial Glory are all RTT games that feature hundreds or even a couple of thousand soldiers. That seems impressive but most of the famous battles were between armies several thousands strong and some even ten thousands. While playing said games I can't help wondering why the tactics that I use very rarely resemble the ones used in the historical battles. Red Harvest once pointed out that since the lines aren't as wide as they were in real life it becomes more easy to flank an opponent. If you tried playing a 5000 vs 5000 battle with R:TW you would start to notice that the flanks become less important and you will become more concerned with wether a hole doesn't appear in the middle of your line. Since you cannot quickly collapse the enemy line because of it's length reserves become more valuable as those holes need to be plugged. And having that said the game suddenly becomes more like the battles you read about.
CA and Pyro, or for that matter almost every developer, value getting up close higher than having the scale right. Both 1:1 scale and zooming right into the battle is with the current hardware not yet possible. However since I do like to play a 1:1 game I am currently developing my own medieval game engine which does have that feature. Now I would like to ask you what influence a 1:1 scale would have on the gameplay. Would certain tactics become obsolete? Would it introduce new tactics? Controlling fifty 100-men units would be a nightmare so do you an idea how to make controlling them easier?
Cheers,
Duke John
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