21.9 Moving legions around.

An army is all very well and good, but to use them effectively in battle, or for enlarging a sphere of influence will require a large amount of tactics and planning. Before you reach this stage though, you need to know how to divide the city army up into legions, for commanders to take charge of. You may have more than one legion under your control at any one time; this could be useful for both plundering a location whilst defending the soldiers doing the plundering.

Originally, the troops will be under the banner of their commanding government; a city or guild perhaps. From here, authorised commanders may ASSEMBLE/MUSTER the relevant number of troops that they wish to command, and MARCH them away to where they are needed. At the end of service, troops must be DISMISS/DISBANDed from their leader before anyone else may assemble them again.

BATTLEGROUND <legion size> or LEGIONS <legion size>
To review all legions loyal to your guild or your city, their size and location. You may specify a minimum size to review, for example BATTLEGROUND 50 will only list legions of fifty or more troops.

BATTLEFIELD or GUILDFIELD
Reviews all active legions not involved in holding sphere of influence locations, together with alien legions invading home soil and status of legions (engaging, assailing, marching, etc).

ASSEMBLE <number> or MUSTER <number>
To ensure the number of those assembled under your banner is at least the specified number. Assemble is for city troops. Muster is for guild troops. You can, optionally, specify the legion to take troops from by adding FROM followed by the target legion, e.g. ASSEMBLE 10 FROM LEGION12551

DISMISS <number> <direction> or DISBAND <number> <direction>
Dismisses the specified number of troops out from under your banner and leadership to stand guard (if outside barracks) or rest (if in barracks). Dismiss is for city troops. Disband is for guild troops. The direction you specify will determine which part of the location the troops will be dismissed into (see HELP WARFARE for further information on positions within a location). You can, optionally, specify the legion to dismiss troops from by adding FROM followed by your legion, e.g. DISMISS 50 FROM LEGION35862

REDEPLOY <number> TO <new leader> [FROM <legion>]
Takes troops away from one of your loyal legions and redeploys them under the banner of one of your allies.

MARCH ALL <direction> or MARCH <legion> <direction>
Orders those legions following your banner to march in the specified direction. You will automatically follow on with the last to march. It takes one second per hundred troops to move inside a city or village, and ten seconds per hundred troops outside in the wilderness. You cannot march troops into locations on enemy soil with raised fortifications. You cannot, at present, march troops over water. Troops use up rations every time they move a physical location (as opposed to shuffling about witin a location). Inside city or village confines, every location you will find 1% of the legion requiring a ration each, while outside in the wilderness, every location will see 10% of the legion requiring a ration each. If you are unfortunate enough to run out of rations your legion will no longer march and you will need to bring new rations immediately to motivate it once again.

Remember, when marching, the significance of LOCALE. If you have your legion, for instance, in the SOUTH position in a location and order it to march SOUTHWEST, it will head for the NORTHEAST position in the location directly south. Experimentation will clarify the way this works: do not go into battle without a full understanding of marching.