Bay 12 Games Forum

Descriptions are in standard text.

"Speech is in color"

Actions which need to be rolled are posted in bold.

Unit Battle Rolls

Proportional Rolling: Instead of the old system of opposed d6 + [unit strength] rolls, opposed combat rolls are now done a dX vs dY, where X is the strength of the first party and Y is the strength of the second party.  ]

On the loss of an exchange, the loser must wound or lose a unit.  Only units with more than 1hp can be wounded.  If there is more than one unit in the 'stack' under attack, the loser may choose the victim.  Tactics may rob the victim of this choice, e.g. by splitting a single unit from the rest of the army and placing that under attack.

A critical loss occurs when the victor beats the loser by at least three-quarters of the victor's total strength.  When this happens the loser suffers two points of damage; wounding or killing up to two units.


Combat Stance
An army in general will either be on the offense/attack or the defense.  This stance may be changed each round but generally sides pick a stance and stick to it for most of a battle.  Two offensive armies may engage each other, but at least one army must take an offensive stance for a battle to happen.  Two defensive armies may not engage each other until one attacks.

In the event both armies go on the defensive and are unwilling to flee, opposed rolls will be made to see whose will breaks first and attacks.  Tactician bonuses will apply to the roll, so experienced tacticians have stronger nerves.

Defensive armies gain any unit bonuses to defense and lose any bonuses to attack.  They gain bonuses from owned fortifications and from terrain.  Defensive armies may not pursue a fleeing army.  Fleeing armies are automatically defensive.

An archer unit fighting on walls on a hill defensively has a strength of 5 (1 base, +1 from walls, +1 from hill, +1 from defensive bonus, +0.5 from defending walls, +0.5 from fighting on hills).  A berserker infantry unit in the same situation has a strength of 3 (1 base, +1 from walls, +1 from hill).

Offensive armies gain any unit bonuses to attack and lose any bonuses to defense.  They do not gain bonuses from owned fortifications or from terrain.  Offensive armies may pursue fleeing armies, and fleeing armies may not fight offensively (except in situations such as flanking).

An archer unit fighting on walls on a hill offensively has a strength of 1.5 (1 base, 0.5 from fighting on hills).  A berserker infantry unit in the same situation has a strength of 2 (1 base, +1 from offensive bonus).

Dividing The Army: It is acceptable to divide up your own army into two or more parts, though without a successful split check you will still have to face the enemy as one army - unless they intentionally divide their army as well.  The divided army may fight in separate stances.  This may be advisable, for example, if defending a keep during a siege.  Each round in which the siege engines are not destroyed, the walls deteriorate, but moving the whole army out of the keep would be suicide.  The defending army splits off a section consisting entirely of cavalry and that army sallies forth on the offensive to destroy the siege engines while the rest of the army remains defensive back in the keep.


Tactics

Tactician Units and Tactician Generals: Units no longer convey direct bonuses to tactics rolls.  Only the commanding general conveys his tactical bonus to tactics performed by his side (see Leader Bonuses below).  Units such as cavalry, tactician units and ambushers now reduce the cost or difficulty of specific tactics.

Cavalry units increase the difficulty of an enemy split attempt that involves that unit by 1 (split resist 1).  When involved in a flanking attempt they do not count their own score.  Cavalry with the tactician upgrade decrease the difficulty of flanking by -2 and increase the resistance to splitting by 2.

Tactician units have split resistance 1, and do not count toward flanking difficulty.  They may make reveal attempts.

Ambusher units do not count toward ambush difficulty and partially discount concealment difficulty (full discount out of combat, half cost in combat).  They may make reveal attempts.  They no longer have their old general terrain bonus.

Scout units partially discount concealment difficulty (full discount out of combat, half cost in combat), and may make reveal attempts with a +1 to success.

Tactician Generals convey a bonus to Tactics for all units under their command equal to their skill.  The unit the general is fighting as part of may make reveal checks if they cannot already do so.


Specific Tactics

The effects of some tactics have changed.

Tactics Rolls: You roll d6 against the difficulty of the tactic attempted.  Multiple tactics are rolled separately; you no longer have to attempt to beat the combined difficulty.  You succeed if you roll equal to or greater than the difficulty.
Caveat: If the difficulty is 0 or 1, you must roll greater than 1.
Caveat to the caveat: If the difficulty would be -1 or less (due to the general's Tactics skill) the gambit automatically succeeds.


Split The Enemy: Attempt to split off part of the enemy army to fight them separately.  The difficulty of this tactic is equal to the strength of all the enemy units you are attempting to split, plus their split resistance.  You must decide which units will attempt to fight the split unit(s) in advance, as this will determine failure penalties and the adjusted strength of the target units.  e.g. Splitting pikemen with an infantry unit is only difficulty 1 (base strength), but splitting pikemen that will face a cavalry unit is difficulty 4 (from the pikemen special).

You cannot send all of your units to fight the split units; at least one of your units must still engage the 'main' army.  If there are only two units in the enemy army, you automatically attempt to split whichever unit is harder.  e.g. If the army consists of only 1 cavalry and 1 infantry, you cannot attempt to split the infantry unit - you must try to split the cavalry.  If there is 1 cavalry and 2 infantry, you may attempt to split one of the infantry away.
Caveat: You may attempt to send all of your units to fight the split units, but only if the entire army consists of cavalry.

On a success, the targetted units are engaged separately from the main battle by the units allocated to split them.

If you fail to split the enemy, all units that would have engaged the split forces suffer a -25% penalty to strength and must engage the main army as normal (unless they themselves are split away).

You may split the enemy into as many parts as you like, but the caveat on splitting two-unit armies applies.  The split does not persist beyond one round; you must split the enemy again each round.


Flank: Send part of your forces against the enemy flank for greater advantage.  The difficulty of this tactic is equal to 1 (one) plus the number of friendly units engaging in the flank.  That is number, not strength (so 3 regular infantry have the same chance as three heavy infantry or archers).

On a success, all units that are part of the flank enjoy a +25% strength bonus to combat.  Flanking is an offensive tactic, so all flanking units fight as if on the attack (gaining any offensive bonuses and losing any defensive) even if the main army stance is defensive.

On a failure, all units that are part of the flank suffer a -25% strength bonus to combat.  Their combat stance is not changed.

Flanking must be attempted fresh each round.  Flanking may only be done once per enemy army engaged (to prevent players doing separate rolls for 20 heavy units), but split armies may have a separate flanking attempt for each faction of the enemy army engaged.  e.g. If a split was successful and the enemy divided in two, both friendly armies may make separate flanking checks.


Conceal: The first part of an ambush strategy, units may attempt to conceal themselves in battle.  The difficulty is equal to the number of units to be concealed multiplied by two.

If an army reaches the battlefield first, either by it being home ground or through a successful Logistics check, they may make a conceal check at half difficulty, i.e. difficulty equal to the number of units.  Ambusher or scout units are not counted toward the difficulty when concealing before combat, and during combat they only add 1 to the difficulty each.

Units attempting concealment are automatically counted as being split from the main army (unless the whole army attempts to conceal).  They may not attack other units while attempting concealment, and if they win any exchanges with units attacking them they do no damage.

On a success, the units cannot be attacked by the enemy on subsequent turns until revealed.  If concealed before battle, their presence on the battlefield will not be revealed except on a successful reveal check at or before the start of battle.

On a failure the units remain split for that round and do not conceal themselves.  They still may not attack, so any exchanges they win will do no damage.


Reveal: Attempts to reveal hidden foes.  Only certain units may attempt a reveal check.  The check is an opposed roll vs the hidden party.  Each unit attempting to reveal makes a separate roll vs the hidden units; each successful roll reveals one unit, robbing them of concealment.  Scout units get a +1 bonus to their checks.  If a Tactician general is hidden among the concealed units, he adds his Tactics bonus to the opposed check for all concealed units.

Full success is achieved by beating an opposed roll with the hidden parties.  Partial success is achieved on a draw; the existence of a hidden unit is made known to the revealer, but the unit itself is not revealed.

On a failure, the hidden foe remains hidden and the revealer takes a -25% penalty to strength during their next exchange.

Reveal attempts may be followed by standard attacks or other tactics attempts.


Ambush: Surprises a foe from hiding.  Units attempting ambushing must first be concealed.  Reveal checks are made before ambush checks, so if ambushing units fail an opposed reveal check they automatically fail the ambush check.

On a success, ambushers emerging from hiding gain a +50% strength bonus on their attack.  As ambushing is inherently offensive, any ambushing units count as fighting in an offensive stance.

On a failure, the ambushers are revealed and suffer a -25% strength penalty for exposing themselves.

Only one attempt may be made per round to reveal ambushers (who may then subsequently try and split the enemy).  Not all hidden units need to engage in the ambush, but as only one attempt may be made a certain amount of discretion is advised.



Logistics

Logistics is a new skill for generals and admirals.  Logistics rolls involve army speed and supply lines. The speed of an army is rolled when a general must get to a certain place before a certain date, or catch up with an army, or take besiegers from behind during a siege... At any moment where the army must get somewhere quickly. This can be used for guerilla tactics, defeating enemy armies in detail, gaining a terrain advantage just before a battle (being the first army to get on the hill, for example), or catching up with enemy troops.

Supply is never rolled as long as an army's supply line is secure. A supply line is in theory always secure, unless someone starts messing with it by raiding it or blocking the only way for it to get there. The supply roll determines how long an army can spend without its supply line without starving, in weeks (4 = 4 weeks, 1 = 1 week, etc). An admiral's rolls are calculated in months if he has only a battle fleet, but the roll is divided by two if half of his ships carry troops, and by three if more than three quarters of them are carrying regiments (so a one, in a fleet carrying as many regiment as it can, would result in about ten days of supply without starving).

Logistics rolls can also apply to events of the GM's choosing; an admiral with a bonus in logistics will endure a storm without taking as much damage, and his fleet won't be as scattered, a general's forces won't be as affected by a nasty disease, etc.

If an army is constituted only cavalry, it gets +1 to speed but -1 to supply.  Armies with siege weapons suffer a -1 to speed.

A well organized command can have a general good with logistics taking an army where it needs to be, then letting a good tactician lead a battle. The disadvantage to this, of course, is that it means the two generals have to travel together, which can mean other forces will have less experienced officers.


Leader Bonuses

Armies, or particular sections or wings of armies, may be led by a player general.  That general conveys bonuses from his skills to the whole army, or to any troops under his command.  These bonuses do not nest; if one master general is leading the whole army but a separate local general is commanding a wing of troops under the first general, the commanded wing will either receive the master general's bonuses or the local general's bonuses.

e.g. Alan is leading the army as a whole.  He is a tier 1 Tactician, so he gives a +1 bonus to all Tactics rolls within the army.

Bill is leading a wing of 3 cavalry units.  He is a tier 1 Offensive Strategist and a tier 1 Logistician.  He will give a +1 to logistics rolls for those 3 cavalry units and +10% to the strength of all three units when using an offensive combat stance.

By default, Bill gives his offensive and logistics bonus to the 3 cavaliers he leads, but Alan does not give his tactics bonus.  If Bill elects to be subordinate to Alan, his troops will receive the Tactics bonus but not the Logistics or offensive bonus.

Four skills come to mind for generals; Tactics, Logistics, Offensive Strategy and Defensive Strategy.

Tactics: Each tier of this skill provides a +1 to Tactics checks.
Logistics: Each tier of this skill provides a +1 to Logistics checks.
Offensive Strategy: Each tier of this skill provides a +10% strength bonus to led units while in the Offensive combat stance.
Defensive Strategy: Each tier of this skill provides a +10% strength bonus to led units while in the Defensive combat stance.

For balance reasons, it is very likely that certain players with skills like this that are overpowered may find themselves nerfed.


Siege Warfare and Fortifications

Fortifications such as keeps and walls take many seasons or even years to build, and breached fortifications take a season to repair.  They are generally worth it, as they convey a bonus to any friendly unit in the Defensive combat stance during battle and are a good way to protect valuable locations such as cities and strategic points such as bridges.  Archers in particular become vastly more powerful behind fortifications.

Overcoming fortifications is not easy.  One may bypass them by throwing enough bodies at the wall; if you vastly outnumber your enemy, you can just accept the losses and win.  Another is to destroy the fortifications with siege weapons.

Every fortification has a certain number of hit points (generally 5 multiplied by the defensive bonus it grants).  Siege weapons such as catapults and ballistae will reduce hit points by 1 each round that they are around.  They tend to be poorly defended and easy to destroy, but unless split attackers will have to take on the whole army.  If battle ends before the fort is reduced to 0 hit points, it is repaired to full hit points by the next battle.  If the fort is reduced to 0 hit points it is breached, losing all its defensive bonuses and may be freely attacked.  This includes bonuses to fighting within or on fortifications.

Siege weapons cost 3d, have a defensive strength of 2 (they cannot destroy units and must be defended by standard units - on winning an exchange they are just not damaged) and have an upkeep of 1d/year.  They take one season to build.


Unit Upgrade Adjustments

Heavy I: +1 Base Strength.  +1 hp.
Heavy II requires Iron, Heavy III requires Arms.  Both stack with Heavy I, adding a further +1 Str and +1 hp.
Cost: +1d.  Upkeep: +1d.

Cavalry: +1 Base Strength.  +1 Strength fighting on open plains, or fighting defensively on hills (unless defending a fortification).  Flanking cost 0, Split resist 1.   +1 hp.
Cost: +2d.  Upkeep: +2d.  Requires Horses.

Tactician: Flanking cost 0, Split resist 1, may reveal.  Stacks with cavalry for flanking cost -1, split resist 2, reveal.
Cost: +0.5d.  Upkeep: +0.5d.

Ambush: Concealment cost 0, ambush cost 0.  May reveal.
Cost: +1d.  Upkeep: +1d.

Scout: Concealment cost 0, may reveal, reveal +1.  Confers a +1 bonus to logistics checks to reveal or locate enemy armies (does not stack).
Cost: +0.5d.  Upkeep: +0.5d.

Archer I (Shortbow): +1 Str in defensive stance.  +0.5 Str when fighting on hills or mountains.  +0.5 Str when defending fortifications.  Can fight at sea.  Ranged.
Cost: +1d.  Upkeep: +0.5d.

Archer II (Longbow): +1 Str in defensive stance.  +0.5 Str when fighting on hills/mountains.  +0.5 Str when defending fortifications.  Stacks with archer II.
Cost: +1d.  Upkeep: +0.5d.  Requires Timber.

Archer III (Recurve): +1 Str in defensive stance.  +0.5 Str when fighting on hills/mountains.  +0.5 Str when defending fortifications.  +1 if unit is also mounted (cavalry or other).  Stacks with archer III.
Cost: +1d.  Upkeep: +0.5d.  Requires Timber.

Naval Combat and Movement

Navies move like armies on a grand scale, using Logistics for movement.  They move much faster than land armies (+3 to logistics rolls versus land armies trying to get to the same location) but can only go where there are major bodies of water (rivers, lakes, seas - or canals).

Basic Ships have been reworked.  A basic 1 ducat ship has Base Strength 1 as before, but it now has 3hp structural (recovering hp after a season, provided it can dock at a city or coastal fort for repairs) and 1hp personnel.  The base strength of the ship is the same for both crew and ramming, divided accordingly by hitpoints.  Basic ships may carry a single regiment of troops, but cargo upgrades can improve carry space.

Structural hitpoints are the condition of the ship itself.  Ships can take up to 3hp of damage in ship-to-ship combat (more with upgrades) before breaking apart, but every hp lost incurs penalties.  Every hp less than 3 forces a Logistics penalty of -1 and a penalty to boarding checks of -1.  It is thus beneficial to send damaged ships to port for repairs if you need the rest of the fleet to get somewhere in a hurry, as Logistics checks are made based on the slowest ship in the fleet.

Personnel hitpoints is the health of the onboard crew.  During crew-to-crew combat, these are depleted instead of structural hitpoints.  If fighting with military units on board, the crew are always the last unit to lose hp/be destroyed.  Ships are captured when their crew have no remaining hitpoints.  They are then crewed by a skeleton crew of the victor, but automatically lose any crew-to-crew combat before they reach a port.  Once a skeleton-crewed ship reaches port, its personnel hp is replenished fully.


Ship-To-Ship versus Crew-To-Crew

Ship-To-Ship is the meat of naval combat and usually centres around either approaching ships for boarding or ramming them to destruction.  Each fleet picks a stance, akin to land-based combat stances; approach, ram or evade.  Combat between ships is resolved as a pair of opposed combat rolls; one offensive, the other defensive.  On victory of an offensive roll, a ship either rams or approaches its target.  It is possible for both ships to miss each other, or both ships to ram each other (even resulting in mutual destruction).  Ships fight with their base strength, plus any modifiers or bonuses to ship combat.

On a ram, the losing ship takes 1hp of structural damage as in normal combat; if the combat would qualify for a critical hit (victor beats loser by 3/4 of ramming strength), 2hp of damage is dealt instead.  Every point of damage gives a -1 penalty to resist boarding.

Once a ship makes contact with another, either by ramming or approaching, either party may initiate boarding immediately.  On a successful boarding roll, crew-to-crew combat may begin.  On a failure or if the would-be boarder chooses not to board, the ships disengage and fresh approach and boarding rolls must be made.

Ships sink when they reach 0 structural hitpoints.  Any crew, units or objects aboard the ship sink to the bottom of the sea and are lost.

Crew-To-Crew combat normally takes place during boarding.  The crew and any loaded military units from the boarding all board the target ship and engage the units and crew there as in ordinary land combat.  Crew fight with the base strength of their ship, plus any modifiers or bonuses to crew combat.  Crew lose personnel hitpoints on damage.

If the fight goes south and the boarders retreat back to their own ship, the boarded can become the new boarders and continue the fight on the former boarder ship.  Crew-to-crew combat only ends when both crews are unable or unwilling (i.e. allow them to leave) cowards.

Crew are always the last unit to receive damage in crew-to-crew combat.  When all the crew of one ship (boarders or target) are slain/incapacitated, that ship becomes unmanned and is instantly taken over by a skeleton crew from the victor's ship.  This skeleton crew cannot engage in boarding actions and instantly surrenders to boarding if no other units are present.  They can sail ships, and if sailed back to a friendly or neutral port will replenish all crew (and personnel hp) immediately.

The first exchange of crew-to-crew combat happens immediately upon boarding.  Subsequent exchanges, if needed, happen after ship-to-ship combat each round during the battle.  During this time the ships are lashed together by grappling hooks and will not disengage.  It is a perfectly viable tactic for other ships to attack the immobile ships (boarder or boarded).  Approach checks versus the immobile ships succeed automatically (allowing for boarders to join the fight), as do ramming checks.  It is quite possible to board an enemy vessel only to find that their support ships have sunk your original vessel to the bottom of the sea by ramming.

If an empty ship is destroyed during crew-to-crew (e.g. via ramming), the former crew and units are stuck on the new ship and must either surrender or fight their way into possession of a new ship.  NPC crews will usually surrender, led crews depend on the player.  If a ship with combatants on it is destroyed, all combatants on either side are lost.


Ranged Crew-To-Crew

Where ranged military units are on board ships, or where crews have shortbows/are archer trained, they may engage in ranged crew-to-crew battles.  These do not require the ships to make contact for boarding.  Where opposing crews both have ranged capability, a standard combat exchange will occur between the ranged combatants.  Where one crew does and the other does not, a one-sided ranged battle will occur in which on victories (but not draws or failures) the ranged troops damage the melee troops but not the other way around.


Crew-To-Ship, Ship-To-Crew

Ranged crew and archers may loose fire arrows at opposing ships at a -1 penalty to attack rolls.  This works as a one-sided ranged battle versus ship-to-ship strength (i.e. base + any bonuses to ship-to-ship combat) in which a victory deals 1hp of damage to the losing ship.

Ships with certain special abilities such as Ampyrian Fire may choose to make their attack versus the crew of an enemy ship rather than the ship itself.  They take a -1 penalty to attack rolls and again play as a one-sided ranged battle (using their ship-to-ship strength).

Where ranged crew attack ships with ship-to-crew combat abilities, combat is resolved as a normal fight dealing appropriate damage to the loser.


Naval Stances

Approach: Approaching the enemy ship in preparation for boarding.  This is the default tactic for ship-to-ship combat and requires no tactics check.  It provides neither penalties nor bonuses to ship-to-ship combat, but on a successful combat roll the ship makes contact with the enemy vessel without damaging the structural hp.

Ram: Attempting to ram the enemy takes no tactics check; it gives one a +1 to checks to ram the enemy ship and a -1 to avoid being rammed or approached.  One may either ram, evade or approach, but only one of the three.  Ramming initiates contact as well as doing damage to structural hp.

Evade: Evading the enemy requires no tactics check.  It gives one a -1 to checks to approach the enemy ship and a +1 to avoid being rammed or approached.  One may either ram, evade or approach, but only one of the three.  Evading ships approach the enemy unless instructed to ram if the opportunity presents.


Naval Tactics

Naval tactics work similarly to land tactics but with some limitations.  Ships may not conceal or ambush, but military units on ships may do so.  Crews may not conceal because they need to run the ship.  Military units and crews may not flank or split, but ships in ship-to-ship combat can.

Boarding: Boarding is an opposed check (with bonuses from a general's Tactics skill) between the crews of two ships that have made contact, minus penalties from ship damage.  On a draw, no boarding takes place and the ships disengage for the next round of ship-to-ship combat.  If no draw, the victor may choose whether to disengage or send his crew and units over to the enemy ship and begin crew-to-crew combat, which lasts until both sides are unwilling or unable to continue fighting (at which point the ships disengage).

Combat

Whenever you wish to kill somebody or even simply attack him, you will generally need to beat him in combat. The system is, at its base, somewhat simple:
Each side has 3 HP. Every round, a 1d6 is rolled for each side; the highest number wins. If the same number is rolled, the dice is rolled again. Winning a round deals one point of damage to the other side, or two points of damage if you beat the opponent's roll by 5 or more. The fight is over when one side reaches 0 HP.

Combat Modifiers

Many things affect combat. These things will give a bonus to one side or the other, influencing the rolls and increasing the better party's chances to win. The modifiers are as below:

Equipment:. Being armed grants you +1, as does being armored. Masterwork weapons give a +2 instead, heavy armor a +2 and -1 to agility, and masterwork armor a +2 without the agility penalty. Bonuses granted by armor and weapons stack with eachother, but not with multiples of the same kind.

Skill: Having the appropriate set of skills can give you from +1 to +3, depending on your proficiency in with your weapon of choice.

Circumstance modifiers: those are rare, and work at the GM's whims. They are generally influenced by things that would probably change a fight's outcome - for example, a poisoned or even intoxicated man will not fight as well as he would in a better state.

Guards: having a bodyguard fighting on your side gives you one more HP per bodyguard, up to a total bonus of 3 HP. There are no further increases past that threshold, so even if you have an entire army fighting with you, the bonus will still cap at 3 HP.

Disengaging

When a side is losing, or attempting to flee from the beginning, it will often attempt to disengage from the fight. To do so, after every round of battle, another opposing roll will be done, and if the fleeing party has the highest number, it will manage to get away. The GM may do multiple opposing rolls to give the opponents a chance to catch up, depending on the situation. These rolls are based on agility.

Noble: you come from a noble background and possess the rights & obligations reserved to those.

Mage: you are capable of channeling dreaded mystical forces, but face the stigma common to all those such as you.

Weaponmastery (insert weapon here): +1 to personal combat rolls/skill level with the weapon of choice.

Agility: +1 to acrobatic, reflex & movement rolls/skill level

Subterfuge: +1 to pickpocketing, stealth & disguise rolls/skill level.

Charisma: +1 to persuasion & bartering rolls/skill level.

Tactics: +1 to tactic rolls/skill level.

Logistics: +1 to logistic rolls/skill level.

Offensive Strategist: +10%/skill level to army strength when on the offensive.

Defensive Strategist: +10%/skill level to army strength when on the offensive.

Skills can be trained once a season and proficiency ranges from I to III, each level progressively harder to attain. Training can be done individually or assisted, with varying experience gains:

- 1st proficiency level: 100 experience of any type.

- 2nd proficiency level: 200 experience, out of which at least 100 must be from a trainer

- 3rd profciency level: 300 experience, out of which at least 100 must be from a trainer. The last 100 experience can only be gained by embarking on a personal quest to be conducted by the responsible GM.


Personal training: 6d6, with experience gainss being the sum of the experience value attached to each roll:

- 1 -> -20

- 2 -> -10

- 3 -> +10

- 4 -> +20

- 5 -> +30

- 6 -> -10


Teacher: having a teacher for a given proficiency level increases the experience gains for the season by 50 pts.