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Forces

This page owns the Force as Valenar's mobile container for military, security, patrol, escort, garrison, siege, and reclamation operations. Force is the canonical mobile actor at Banner, Province, and Crown scale; it is the counterpart to the Settlement garrison (fixed local defense) and to the individual named Character (specialist or officer assigned to a Force).

Role​

A Force is the mobile equivalent of a Settlement's garrison. Where the Settlement garrison is a fixed local defensive contribution (a scalar contribution on the Settlement scope), a Force is a player-owned mobile group that the player assigns operations, routes, and objectives to. Forces become the canonical defense container starting in Act 4 (Banner Network), the canonical Province defense actor in Act 5, and the canonical Front execution actor in Act 6.

A Force is the noun the player builds Operations and Defense Zones around. It is the entity that marches, patrols, sieges, escorts, garrisons, intercepts, withdraws, and reclaims.

Design Reference: What This Is Not​

Rejected: HOI4 Continuous Front-Line Micro​

Hearts of Iron IV's military model assigns divisions to a continuous, painted front line whose adjacency the player brushes onto the map. Divisions auto-fill segments at density, the player micro-tunes division composition per painted segment, and the conceptual primitive is "the line", not "the army". This model is explicitly rejected for Valenar's Force model.

A Force in Valenar is a discrete, tactical-scale container — a named entity the player owns, composes, doctrinally biases, and sends to do explicit work against named Sites, Routes, Territories, and Threats. The Force is never a brushstroke segment on a continuous line. The player never paints a frontier and watches Forces auto-fill it; the player creates a Force, composes it, and assigns it explicit Operations against explicit nodes and corridors. The unit-density micromanagement workload of the HOI4 line model is inappropriate for an idle-cadence game and incompatible with the node-and-corridor world Valenar Forces operate in.

Rejected: Victoria 3 Opaque War-Bar Abstraction​

Victoria 3 abstracts military Force outcomes into invisible attrition comparisons between population-and-supply pools, surfaced to the player as a single moving war-score bar with little causal visibility. Battle outcomes feel detached from named Sites, Routes, or commitments; the player cannot trace why one side gained ground in any given week. This is explicitly rejected for Valenar Forces.

Force resolution in Valenar stays causal. Every Force outcome — casualties, ground gained, supply burned, reserve consumed, doctrine drift — traces back to specific Sites visited, Routes traveled, Threats engaged, and Operations committed. The player can read a Force's recent history as a chain of named, causally-linked events, never as a moving abstract bar. Province Defense Plans, Operation Previews, and post-combat casualty attribution all preserve this causality.

Positive Reference: Paradox-Style Macro Readability​

Paradox grand-strategy titles (CK3, EU4, Vic3) present armies as macro tokens at province / region scale: a single icon over a province carries a named commander, an aggregate strength, a movement state, and an attached order. The macro view is readable at a glance; the player drills in only when composition or detachment-level decisions matter. This pattern is adopted as the readability anchor for Valenar Force presentation.

A Force in Valenar reads as a macro army-token at Province and Crown scale: one marker per Force, carrying name, doctrine, aggregate strength, supply state, and current Operation. The detachment composition (line companies, scout detachments, ward teams, supply train, reserve) is visible at zoom-in but does not crowd the macro view. The macro reading is what the Crown player operates on; the detachment reading is for officer-level intervention when it matters.

Positive Reference: Node-And-Corridor Defense​

Valenar's Force model attaches Force operations to nodes and corridors, not to free-form polygon shading. Nodes are Sites (ward sites, strongholds, shrines, key supply depots), key Territories (choke points, river crossings, staging grounds), and special structures (bridges, ward-line anchors, gate-scar seal Sites). Corridors are Routes between nodes. Losing a corridor lets hostile Forces bypass nodes, sever supply, or split a DefenseZone into isolated fragments.

A Force always has an explicit placement on this node/corridor graph: in a Territory, moving on a Route, stationed at a Site, besieging a Site, occupying a Site, or projecting pressure into adjacent nodes. There is no "Force is somewhere on the painted line" state. Defense is the assignment of Forces to defend specific nodes and corridors — passes, bridges, ward nodes, shrines, key supply depots, reserves — never every pixel of a border.

Positive Reference: Open-World Strategy POI Clustering​

Open-world strategy and 4X UI patterns (Civ VII, Mount and Blade Bannerlord, Crusader Kings strategic map, modern open-world RPG strategic overlays) cluster point-of-interest markers as zoom-out aggregates: at low zoom a cluster medallion stands in for many underlying POIs; at high zoom the cluster fans out into individual markers. Valenar's Force-token map UI is informed by this pattern.

Force tokens cluster on the strategic map per the same medallion / cluster / fanout-ring pattern as Site and Feature markers: at low zoom multiple co-located Forces (e.g. an HQ Territory hosting a Front's reserve plus two Province plans' Forces) collapse into a single cluster medallion; at high zoom the cluster fans out into one marker per Force. The cluster medallion is a presentation aggregate over the underlying data rows — Force is the authoritative data row; the cluster is the visual. Cluster geometry is never gameplay-authoritative; selection, targeting, ownership, and resolution always operate on the individual Force data row beneath the cluster.

Force Composition​

A Force is composed of one or more detachments. The committed detachment kinds:

  • Line companies — the main combat element; the strength that holds ground, closes with hostile Forces, and absorbs casualties in a stand-up fight.
  • Scout detachments — advance scouting, route clearance, early-threat detection, and intelligence pull from terrain and known Sites.
  • Garrison detachments — left to hold a specific Site or Territory after the Force has secured it; can be peeled off the parent Force and become a standing local garrison.
  • Patrol detachments — cyclic coverage of a route segment or Territory perimeter; reduces hostile pressure infiltration and reveals movement.
  • Ward / engineer teams — ward-line maintenance, gate-scar sealing prep, bridge work, fortification work, and corruption-resistant operations.
  • Supply train — the logistical backbone; sets Force range and endurance, scales with supply depot coverage of the Force's current position.
  • Mobile reserve — uncommitted strength held back for response, exploitation, or fallback under doctrine.

Player-facing size names: Warband (small), Company (mid), Army (large), Host (very large). Size is a derived label over total committed strength; doctrine and detachment composition matter more than headcount.

Force Placement​

A Force has an explicit placement state at all times. The committed placement kinds:

  • In a Territory (stationary, patrolling within the Territory perimeter, or staging for a planned Operation)
  • Moving on a Route (an explicit travel sub-activity is in progress between two Territories or two Sites along a known Route)
  • Stationed at a Site (garrison or post-occupation duty)
  • Besieging a Site (a siege Operation is in progress; the Force projects pressure on the besieged Site while screening its own approaches)
  • Occupying a Site (the post-assault control phase; the Force holds the Site and may be transitioning detachments into a Garrison configuration)
  • Projecting pressure into adjacent Territories, Routes, or Sites (patrol radius effect; reduces hostile infiltration without committing the main body)

A Force never has an implicit or unknown placement. Position is gameplay truth, not presentation; the player sees where every owned Force is at all times. Hostile Forces follow the same placement model but are revealed only through scouting, patrol intelligence, or contact.

Settlement Garrison vs Force​

int Garrison on the Settlement scope is the local fixed defensive contribution. It represents the settlement's own militia and watch — the people who defend their own homes — and is incremented through the RecruitGarrison activity rather than by assigning Force detachments.

A Settlement garrison and a Force assigned to the same Territory both contribute to Territory defense independently:

  • The Settlement garrison cannot leave the Settlement except in a structured withdrawal or reinforce-Force operation.
  • A Force has its own composition, supply, doctrine, and Operations queue separate from any Settlement it may currently be staging at.

This separation is load-bearing. The two contributions stay distinguishable in the Province Defense Plan, the Operations preview, and the post-combat casualty attribution.

Doctrine​

Each Force carries a doctrine setting that biases how the Force allocates detachments to sub-tasks during an Operation and how it responds to surprise contact. Committed doctrine kinds:

  • Aggressive — close with hostile contact, prefer assault over screen, reserve percentage low (10–15%), supply-stretch tolerance high
  • Balanced — engage hostile contact under favorable terms, reserve percentage mid (20–25%), supply-stretch tolerance moderate
  • Defensive — hold ground, prefer screen over assault, reserve percentage high (30–40%), supply-stretch tolerance low
  • Withdrawal-ready — accept ground loss to preserve strength, reserve percentage very high (40–50%), fallback path checked every contact

Doctrine is the single biggest readable knob the player sets when fielding a Force.

Reserve​

Reserve is the fraction of total Force strength held uncommitted for response, exploitation, or fallback. Doctrine sets the default reserve percentage; the player can override.

  • A committed reserve is never sent forward in the main body's first wave.
  • A committed reserve can be pulled into the line by an explicit player override during contact, or by a doctrine rule (e.g., Aggressive doctrine may release reserve after a successful break-through).
  • A committed reserve is the difference between a survivable withdrawal and a rout when the main body is broken.

Reserve is a gameplay knob, not a presentation gimmick. It is the Force-level analogue of the strategic-level Frontier Screen Defense Zone — strength held back so the rest of the system has time to react.

Supply​

Forces have a supply range relative to their base Territory or nearest supply depot. Operations that extend beyond supply range degrade the Force's effectiveness, raise casualty risk, and tighten the doctrine's fallback behavior. Specifically:

  • The supply-endurance channel resolves a Force's current supply state from base Territory, nearest depot, route distance, route safety, and supply train detachment strength.
  • The supply train detachment extends the effective range proportional to its size; a Force with no supply train degrades quickly outside its base Territory.
  • Supply-degraded Forces have reduced patrol coverage, slower march speed, and increased withdrawal probability under contact.

Supply depots are Site-scoped: a Settlement, an Outpost, a forward camp, or a ward-line Site can all serve as supply depots when the player or polity has marked them as such. The Route network determines effective supply distance between depot and Force.

Officer And Specialist Assignment​

A Force can carry assigned named characters as officers, specialists, ward-team leads, or scout leads. These named characters provide:

  • modifiers and bias on Operation sub-activities (e.g., a Scout officer improves the Force's scouting phase)
  • access to character-specific Techniques (dispatched via activity typed-arg; Technique is not itself a Force-level entity — see gd-character-skills.md for the Technique runtime note)
  • Force-level Activity_TrainSkill availability where the assigned character's skills are taught to detachment leadership
  • bonuses to the Force's overall doctrine effectiveness, calibrated by the character's relevant skills (e.g., Leadership, Tactics, Fieldcraft)

A character is assigned to a Force, not a detachment; the Force's policy layer decides how the character's effect propagates to its detachments.

Force Lifecycle​

A Force has these lifecycle states:

  • Forming — the player has marked detachments for recruitment but the Force has not yet reached its target strength
  • Available — the Force is at sufficient strength to receive Operations
  • Operating — the Force is executing a player-assigned Operation
  • Returning — the Force is in a Withdraw or relief-return phase
  • Disbanding — the player has issued a disband order; detachments are being absorbed back into garrisons, settlements, or other Forces
  • Lost — the Force was destroyed or annihilated; recovered detachments (if any) are absorbed elsewhere

Force lifecycle transitions are gameplay events. Disbanding is reversible only until detachments have been absorbed elsewhere; a Lost Force cannot be revived, only replaced.