Draft Rules - Help for a NOOB

[Southern Hunter]

I have just picked up the game, patched it, and climbing the learning curve. So far, I love it, I think it is a remarkable game, despite the awkwardness of the interface in parts.

In the Drafting of people section, there are a bunch of numbers: Draftable Population; Draft Training; Draft Pool; Training Rate; Draft Strength; Draft Morale.

I dont understand the relationship between them all. Could this be explained slowly and succinctly?

Does 1 'man' in a province represent a certain number of population?

Sometimes the training rate is negative? What does that mean?

Also, in the tactical battle section, the enemy moves and fires rather a bit too quickly. Is there a way to slow this down? It seems like it might be 'unconstrained', and my computer is quite quick.

Thanks,

Hunter

[Ralegh]

ORIGINAL: The Hunter
I have just picked up the game, patched it, and climbing the learning curve. So far, I love it, I think it is a remarkable game, despite the awkwardness of the interface in parts.

Welcome!

In the Drafting of people section, there are a bunch of numbers: Draftable Population; Draft Training; Draft Pool; Training Rate; Draft Strength; Draft Morale. I dont understand the relationship between them all. Could this be explained slowly and succinctly?

There is quite a compex set of calculations underneath these simple figures. Each province has a population level (abstracted into a number of 'men' as you guessed) in different ages levels. The draftable population is that portion of the population who are within the age range you have set, and male. They get conscripted based on your expenditure into the draft category, and are then in the draft pool. They stay in the draft pool for an amount of time set by the length-of-training parameter you have set. The draft strength is the current numbers in the pool. Now the morale of the men in the draft pool goes up as training occurs, and down as new conscripts join the pool, and down as graduates go off into military units. (Exception: the morale of all your infantry goes down when you create a guards unit - they are formed by creaming the best from all the inf divisions, and don't affect the pool.)
Special note: taking men out of the countryside and into the military makes all civilian production less effective, since there are less men to do the work.

Sometimes the training rate is negative? What does that mean?

You are releasing men from military training back into the population.

Also, in the tactical battle section, the enemy moves and fires rather a bit too quickly. Is there a way to slow this down? It seems like it might be 'unconstrained', and my computer is quite quick.

In quick combat, there is a slider. I'm not sure if you can slow it down in detailed battle - I'll have a look.

[Southern Hunter]

I'm trying to work this through, I'm not stupid really [:'(]

Turkey 1805
Defaults
Draft Size : 4

Draftable Population : 1,187,377
Draft Training : 23,964
Draft Pool : 25,000
Training Rate : 0
Draft Strength : 12241
Draft Morale : 2.95

OK, so if I understand this, there are 1,187,377 eligible males between the ages normally set there. When I zip through the provinces and check, it says there are 87 men. So 87 (scale men and representing the whole population) somehow translates into 1,187,377 (eligible draftees). Fine.

If I increase draft size to 10, the number that changes is Draft Training, which becomes 97,410. That is about 8% (not 10%, which I kind of expected) of the total number of men. I presume this is the number of men who are in training to be ready to be soldiers. When they are finished, they go into the 'Draft Strength' category?

What then is the Draft Pool number? Is it just an upper limit, beyond which, if the Draft Strength exceeds it, people stop being trained (or graduated anyway) ? Anyway, I can't change it.

OK, so now I change the draft ages to only be 21-30 year olds. The numbers change thus:

Draft Size : 4
Draftable Population : 809,853 (only 68.2% of the above number now eligible)
Draft Training : 8,396 (35% of the above number. Why not 68.2%)
Draft Pool : 25,000
Training Rate : 0
Draft Strength : 8,349 (ah! 68.2% of the above number)
Draft Morale : 4.4 (I get the morale increase, very nice)

So, it seems that of the draftable population, a percentage (but not quite the percentage set by the slider) are turned into 'Draft Strength' category, each......year?

Now changing the Draft Size changes the Draft Training number drastically (8 instead of 4 roughly multiplies the Draft Training by 5). It doesn't change the Draft Strength category at all.

OK, so now running for a month with these numbers, results in:

Draft Size : 4
Draftable Population : 826,551 (gone up by 17,000, I guess the population grew)
Draft Training : 8,396 (completely unchanged)
Draft Pool : 25,000
Training Rate : 417 (Aha, a number. What does this mean? This is 1/20th of 8340, and I have set 20 months of training, so maybe this means that 1/20th of the Draft Strength (men in training) pass out and are available? OK, so I expect that the number of men available goes up by 417 somewhere? But it hasn't, the Draft Training number hasnt changed, the Draft Pool hasnt changed?).
Draft Strength : 8,349 (completely unchanged)
Draft Morale : 4.4 (I get the morale increase, very nice)

My Production Report says that Turkey has drafted 8349 men into training from Constantinople. So Draft Strength is definitely the number of men put into training. Wow, that's a lot, will I get another 8,000 into training next month? Nobody was allocated out to units, I will set some to resupply.

All my units in constantinople are set to paid supply (not foraging) but nobody got any reinforcements?

OK, turn 2. Put a depot in Constantinople, and dont change the training figures:

Right, here are the new numbers:

Draft Size : 4
Draftable Population : 851,598 (gone up by 24,000, I guess the population grew again, majorly)
Draft Training : 8,396 (completely unchanged)
Draft Pool : 25,417 (ok, now I am confused, this seems to be the actual trained resources available then? Sort of, but the number of reinforcements hasn't been subtracted?).
Training Rate : 396 (Why has this gone down? It is no longer 1/20th of the draft strength).
Draft Strength : 8,349 (completely unchanged)
Draft Morale : 5.2 (The morale has gone up again? Why?)

Looking at my reports, about 12,000 recruits were added to my units in Constantinople. OK, where did they come from?? It seems a depot is necessary otherwise nobody gets reinforced.

Turn 3: 2000 reinforcements made to various units

The only numbers that change are:

Draftable Population : 868,296 (another major increase)
Draft Pool : 25,813 (The initial 25K plus the 'Training Rate' for two months, without any hint of the reductions for troop reinforcement)
Training Rate : 376 (This will be added in next month)

So my summary of my complete lack of understanding....

1. You have a population, through the age sliders, you set a draftable population in men (loosely but feasibly related to the number of 'men' shown in provinces).
2. You then set a draft size (slightly less than a percentage, i.e. 4% is about 3.5% of the 'men' figure. This is how many eligible draftees you will take into training per MONTH, or maybe per training period, i.e. if training is 20 months, you take this many over that time). Except it doesnt seem to alter completely in line with the eligible draftees.
3. A proportion of these pass out, in line with training time, so 20 months training time = 1/20th passing out. (Incidentally, what could be the point of a training time greater than that? It doesnt seem to affect morale at all?)
4. When they pass out, they are added to the 'Draft Pool' in next months report.
5. The Draft Pool never seems to go down?
6. Draft Training is a mystery number?
7. Draft Morale is the morale of the men going in, the men in the training pool, or the men in the 'ready to be sent to the unit' category?

If you can work out how this works, I believe it could be presented much more clearly in the interface, so that we can see men 'pouring' from one pool of men into another, according to parameters we set. I dont mean graphics, but if even the vertical order could be changed, it might make more sense. At the moment, I cant tell whether it is bugged, because I dont really get the sense of it.

Sorry if it is all too obvious

Hunter