"Unit type speeds across various terrains" Topic

I've been trying to find a 'definitive' list of unit type speeds across various terrains.

Specifically, the unit types I'm interested in are:
Single horseman / courier
Light Cavalry
Heavy Cavalry
Knights
Chariots
Heavy Infantry
Infantry (Archers, foot soldiers)
Light Infantry
Foot Artillery
Horse Artillery
Elephant

And the terrain types are:
Field
Swamp
City
Woods
Bridge
Road

Also, I'm looking for these speeds in kilometers per hour.

Any help would be appreciated! I can also be contacted directly at Sidran@RiverviewAI.com

I don't think there's a simple answer to your question. All of those unit types move at various speeds. Horses walk at 6.5 and gallop at 45 kph over good ground. But they can only gallop for short periods. Men are the same.

And "heavy artillery" varies ENORMOUSLY from period to period. And depends on the team pulling it. 4 horses? 6? 12 oxen?

What ground scale are you looking at for your game? Time scale? A LOT more goes into movement rates than just "how fast can I walk."

The rule of thumb used to be pick a time scale per turn, say 1 minute, and see how far you can walk in that time.

Also, difficult terrain may do less to slow troops down than to disorder them and/or tire them. The difficult terrain may have other surprises within, like ravines and such. Perhaps a die roll for movement to indicate speed through such terrain.

That's a question that most all military men ask. Even today, soldiers are asked to march across different kinds of terrain so they [and their commanders] can estimate how long it takes them to go from here to there.

Scharnhorst wrote a Officers Handbook that laid out the average speed of infantry and cavalry. Dundas notes how long it will take a line of infantry to cross 1000 to 1200 yards in his treatise. The 1805 French officers' school text written by de Verner spent a good deal of time with that question. From the 1740s to after 1865, marching at an even rate was drilled into soldiers. Napoleonic recruits were allowed to train with their units until they could walk a pace's length consistently.

Such information is easy to find from contemporaries. And of course, all are estimates used to base plans on, just as we use past experience and estimates to determine how long it will take us to drive to work or the dentist.

As the above said, there are many factors which continually change the speed. I would add;
Are these people carrying full packs or is it 'stripped down for a battle'.
How often do they have to stop and align rank / file and is that important?
Have they been fed and watered recently?
Is this at the beginning of the march when they're fresh or after several weeks of campaigning when fatigue has set in.
If it's a campaign scale, are you including camp followers, wagons, foragers etc?

Just "going somewhere" in column, or marching in lines? How often are you going to stop to dress the lines?

As often: look at Kriegspiel Papers.

Time scale for game: as stated, includes reforming?
Time and unit scales? Skirmish like might find paths, 1000 men, irrelevant unless very grand tactical.
Not easy.

As the above said, there are many factors which continually change the speed. I would add;
Are these people carrying full packs or is it 'stripped down for a battle'.
How often do they have to stop and align rank / file and is that important?

Have they been fed and watered recently?
Is this at the beginning of the march when they're fresh or after several weeks of campaigning when fatigue has set in. If it's a campaign scale, are you including camp followers, wagons, foragers etc?

Just "going somewhere" in column, or marching in lines? How often are you going to stop to dress the lines?

Just "going somewhere" in column, or marching in lines? How often are you going to stop to dress the lines?

Dressing lines took seconds and could be done on the move. It could be done on a divisional basis. In most cases, when it was done it was a command decision.

Again, all questions asked and answered by contemporaries because they were critical time/distance issues, ones that they worked very hard to control on the battlefield.
Whether troops were stripped down or carrying full packs might impact how long they could march, but the pace would be the same in either case.

Bernadotte was heavily criticized by his peers and nearly court martialed by Napoleon after Jena because his corps took eight hours to march eight miles, never getting into battle.

As with going anywhere, like to work, there is the norm, the expected time and distance that usually happens and then the unexpected. The question would be what is the time that experienced officers expected and planned on and how often the unexpected occurred.

Dropped packs made troops more mobile but they would have to retrieve their packs at some some point – no pursuit if they won. See the French at the Alma.

IMHO

The importance of actual speeds would depend on the level you are gaming at. If you are gaming battles rather than skirmishes, then ground scale / time scale (e.g. movement rate) become rather pointless. For example, if you have a 20 minute move then SYW cavalry could go three miles without breaking sweat, which is across a typical table and back, then back again, then…..

What is more important is the relationship between the rates of movement and the relationship between movement rate and missile power (including missile range, though not exclusively that).

Movement rates for men and animals are fairly easy to find using google, even the rate for chariots (experiment results) can be found with a little work. Most everything else is just down to tweaking. Cataphracts move at a walk, charge at slow trot and so forth so all you need to find is the walk speed and the slow end of trotting speed of horses, n'est ce pas.

Km / mile – use google converter.

Km / mile – use google converter.

Seriously? All smart phones and computers have calculator apps these days, so just do the math: 1 km = 0.62 miles

Or just approximate 2 miles = 3 km. Close enough for grand tactical maneuvers and tac nukes…

- Ix

It isn't clear whether we are talking marching or battlefield movement. It appears to be ancient warfare Ezra is interested in.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I will handle this problem as I have done many times in the past: I will use my research for the default values and allow the user to change the values if they wish.

Km / mile – use google converter.
Seriously? All smart phones and computers have calculator apps these days, so just do the math: 1 km = 0.62 miles
Or just approximate 2 miles = 3 km. Close enough for grand tactical maneuvers and tac nukes…

No, personally I use the 5/8 fraction, but I tend not to try to sound superior if I can. It's a British thing.

That's even better math and beautiful use of irony. Point taken, though – I apologize for sounding arrogant. Unintentional and regrettable, and certainly not meant as a slight.

- Ix

No apology required. The written word often sounds harsher than intended. I apologize for picking up on your comment in the wrong way (Note, in deference to your bastardised English I've used an 'Z' rather than an 'S'). GRIN

James