Field manual
Halting and forming are two separate decisions. The gap between them is where most of the tension lives. An army that halted but never formed is as exposed as one still walking.
Formation
Forming line takes time and requires standing still. Breaking back costs half of that. A formed line advances at 0.35 — slower than an unformed column on open plain. A line cannot run anything down. It is for the last two hundred yards, not for pursuit. The other half of that bargain: an army that does not want a battle can walk away from one.
Pace
Horse 1.18, missile 1.00, heavy foot 0.82. Forced march adds 35% and costs 2.4 times the freshness and supply. Below 50 freshness you are tired at 0.70. Below 25, exhausted at 0.40. At zero you collapse into camp, unformed, and the enemy can walk onto you.
Ground
Path cost penalises leaving the road harder than the speed difference does. That is deliberate. Rivers block. Crossings exist where a road hits water. The painted map and the pathfinder read the same elevation.
| Ground | Speed | Path cost |
|---|---|---|
| Road | 6.4 | 0.55 |
| Ford | 4.5 | 1.15 |
| Plain | 3.5 | 2.40 |
| Forest | 2.7 | 2.90 |
| Slope | 1.85 | 4.20 |
Logistics
Supply starts at 100 and drains on a ten-second tick. Marching costs one. Holding a road costs two. Cut from depot: twelve. Sitting on a friendly depot pulls eight from local stock. Foraging pulls fourteen and gives up rest, because the men are out working the country.
Stock never comes back. Farms score nothing and confer no bonus — worth visiting, not worth defending. After forty seconds empty, you lose a card. Horses first, then heavy foot. A column never starves below four cards.
Intelligence
Peel one troop from a cavalry card. Send them to a named place or on a heading. They path the same ground costs as the army, turn for home on first sight, and stay outside the kill ring. Last-seen is timestamped and fades. A live scout does not put the enemy on the minimap. Riding into a column kills them only if they spawn or are caught inside seventy-eight. No horse means no scout.
