10-30-2006, 08:55 AM
Quote:Well, to me that is a very important point in discussion. Maybe you have another notion of what a field army is, to me it is a force moving together and extracting supply from the same source. The limits on a field army defined as such are very different from those ona global army, they are basically logistics, while on the global army, as posted earlier, would be financial, political, etc.
Then I think that we do have slightly different ideas on this. To take the Napoleonic example, I would call the whole number entering enemy territory a field army. Those left on home territory to maintain security would be aprt of the global figure.
Perhaps I should make clear that I'm thinking in these terms of a force of between 100,000 and 300,000 entering Greek territory with the possibility of 100,000 or more combatants being present at Thermopylae. You argued for 50,000 combatants, or fewer. The difference between our views could be 50,000 to perhaps 150,000. Even the first figure is huge, in terms of the difference it could make at Thermopylae or Plataea ( but Plataea involves additional calculations, so let's leave that, for now!).
