GURPS Mass Combat: Why is flying cavalry so expensive?

[David Johnston2]

Given that flying beasts on their own are 120, and infantry or archers are 40, I'd suggest that an appropriate raise price for flying cavalry would be something like 180.

[ericthered]

Yeah, the costs in Mass Combat have some interesting logic. Ogres are Identical to heavy infantry, except for their halved upkeep.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Yeah, the costs in Mass Combat have some interesting logic. Ogres are Identical to heavy infantry, except for their halved upkeep.

Uh, because they only need one body per two persons hired?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Yeah, the costs in Mass Combat have some interesting logic. Ogres are Identical to heavy infantry, except for their halved upkeep.

No they aren't. They have twice the troop strength, but count as 4 infantry units for transportation. They are also available at TL 0

[Talonos]

Well, kinda. If you hire two groups of heavy infantry, it ends up being identical to one group of ogres, save that the ogres have twice the weight and half the upkeep.

That's okay, in my book. You're hiring half the troops, so you can pay them half as much. They're also heavier, because weight scales with size cubed. Cost and "training time" represents expense in finding the ogres. The GM can limit the supply. And we're only one order of magnitude off, not several.

[The Benj]

I'd figured it was a misprint or something.

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by The Benj

I'd figured it was a misprint or something.

The flying cavalry's Raise cost is definitely in error. (Compare to flying beasts and so on, or the different cav/inf ratios elsewhere).

It's been years since I wrote it, so I can't remember what the original value was supposed to be, but Raise: 180K is probably reasonable.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by David L Pulver

The flying cavalry's Raise cost is definitely in error. (Compare to flying beasts and so on, or the different cav/inf ratios elsewhere).

It's been years since I wrote it, so I can't remember what the original value was supposed to be, but Raise: 180K is probably reasonable.

While we've got you here, are there any other errors on that sheet? For example, the Leviathon is ten times as expensive as the Flying Leviathon and Titan, despite being in a similar strength class. (In my house rules, I actually increased the cost of the Titan and F. Leviathon, putting them on par with the rest of the fantasy units in terms of cost per TS.)

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

While we've got you here, are there any other errors on that sheet? For example, the Leviathon is ten times as expensive as the Flying Leviathon and Titan, despite being in a similar strength class. (In my house rules, I actually increased the cost of the Titan and F. Leviathon, putting them on par with the rest of the fantasy units in terms of cost per TS.)

I'm not sure I see this error. Looking at p. 19 of my copy:

Flying Leviathan: 10M/400K
Leviathan: 10M/400K
Titan: 16M/640K

[Lamech]

I would like to point out some units are just better. Normally this is accomplished by higher TL, but stuff like "having access to ogres" or "having the support of the mages guild" should be able to substitute.