Matrix Games Forums

Why is the creation of a Corps more expensive than an Army? This does not make sense on the surface.

The Napoleonic corp wasn't simply a little army..
it was a great innovation in Napoleon's art of war: it was a part of an army, self-sufficient, able to fight a battle, outnumbered, and still resist until the arrive of the rest of the army; using corps was a difficult task, and many european generals until 1815 didn't use'em, not in the way that Nappy did.
So their cost in the game represent the difficulty of organize them and control an army divided into corps, and i'm sure that's also a way to balance armies, so they can't become enormous too fast...

So in the fast combat why not just buy armies instead of corps since they function the same?

because having two armies, or a corp into an army is not the same thing: the different initiative of the two armies make them move separately, so often they don't fight a common battle

That is such a nuance that it is not worth the cost...It is far easier and cheaper to just buy a lot of Armies

Also, you have a limited number of Army-level commanders (*** and above). **-commanders can only command corps.

ORIGINAL: LaVean

That is such a nuance that it is not worth the cost...It is far easier and cheaper to just buy a lot of Armies

You will not be able to command them. The difference between a formation with a commander and without one is considerable.

maybe.. but when all my armies will be beaten by a single enemy army that fight'em one by one, i'll pray for more corps [:'(]
ah, and building a Corp takes 2 turn, while building an Army takes 6..

Comes back to leaders...they don't seem to have a big effect in the auto resolution.

The Spanish with much worse quality troops, no leader and being outnumbered are able to be level 3 leaders

Corps provide many benefits that armies do not. This is meant to model the corps de armee system.

Corps allow a larger single grouping of divisions that can be obtained by armies alone.
Corps allow units to enter as reinforcements at twice the rate of divisions in an army.
Corps allow units in detailed combat to move on the same segment, and to move before all units that are not in corps.
A divisions gets double the flanking bonus when flanking with a division in its same corps.

These "advantages" do not seem to be apparent in auto combat

I think the Corps movement, supply and cohesion bonuses kick in irrespective of the type of combat resolution. Can't speak to the combat bonuses until I've played some more.