Movement rates

From: Paul May <kax_at_...>
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 20:58:12 +1100


At 06:44 PM 13/11/04, I wrote:
>For individuals and small groups, you could look at GURPS, which has a
>< snip >
>possibly tonight.

  This is detailed, but you can work it out ahead of time; it's easy. A bit of practice and you can do it in your head. ;)   A person has a best movement rate of about 50 miles a day. This assumes 10 hours of travel, reasonable terrain and carrying no real load.   A reasonable load (a small pack with food and some gear, a sword and a couple of javelins, clothes, cloak) brings that down to 40 miles a day. A heavier load (the above plus some days worth of supplies or some loot) is 30. A heavy load (the 'light' or 'reasonable' loads with armour and shield) is 20. The 'heavier' load plus armour and shield is about 10 miles a day - this is a warrior or soldier on campaign, although practiced marchers will go a little faster (up to about 12-15 miles a day, for a full load).   Travelling by horse doesn't really change the distance; the horse must spend more time than you do feeding during that 10 hrs, plus saddling and rubdown time. On the other hand, you can carry more for a given speed.

  Modifiers (all are cumulative (ie., swamp in jungle in steep hills with a heavy load is 20x0.2x0.5x0.2= 2/5 of a mile per day)): Very Bad terrain (deep snow, dense forest, jungle, mountains, soft sand, swamp): x 0.2
Bad (broken ground (including streams), forest, steep hills): x 0.5 Average (light forest, rolling hills): x 1 Good (hard-packed desert, level plains): x 1.25

  Roads make any terrain Average; very good roads make any terrain Good (these are Roman-style or good modern roads). Ie., that " swamp in jungle in steep hills with a heavy load" above becomes 20x1= 20 miles per day. Roads are very important; Ask Sartar...
  Mud, including soggy dirt roads, is Very Bad. Good roads get no worse than Average in the wet or snow, although they can ice up and become Bad, as below.

  Weather:
Rain: halves off-road speed.
Snow: x 0.5 if ankle-deep, x 0.25 (or less) if more. Skis make any depth of snow Average.
Ice: x 0.5. Solid ice is Bad, unless skates - these make it Good.

  As noted above, get the base speed for your load, then apply all possible modifiers. This will give a speed between about 60 miles a day to under 1/2 mile per day. That speed example above is accurate; it's about the speed of the New Guinea lowland exploration missions. One took many months to get part of the way to the mountains less than 100 miles inland, and gave up less than half way there. ;)
  OTOH, fast cavalry that is carrying little has managed, over hard-packed desert and some plains, managed just over 60 miles per day for a couple of days, and then managed to fight at the end.

  If you look at the map, Sartar putting roads in his kingdom was good tactics. His warriors can be anywhere in Sartar inside a day with a partial combat load, or two with a full load. Thereabouts.

-- 
Paul May

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