Beleaguered defense - setup

[tomcat]

OOC:

Hello all!

I want to re-introduce my hybrid combat system and how the characters will participate (we used this method in the Battle of Cliffwall and the Battle of Eldanar way back when):

First, we will be using the mass-combat system from the Helm's Deep Sourcebook. I will be carrying out the actual battle on the Battle Map page on the control bar above (this map is not yet set up) - each combat round will be 1/4 hour. You guys will interact with your characters in the combat using the following rules:

1. Roll 1d3 to determine number of opponents around the character for that round. This number will change every round giving the feel that enemies are constantly moving about the character - some may attack, some may not. This allows the characters to interact and also be wounded, as they might be in battle. The kills will count in the main melee and for XP, but it is also there to give the character a bit of bragging rights. 

I may introduce a captain or lieutenant or some other semi-major NPC that steps up to fight you. If that happens, I will let you know. In this case, we would revert to standard combat for your character.

2. Enemies will roll 2d6 per attacker and will hit on each die result of 1 or 2 for 2d6+3 damage minus any armor protection

3. The number of Enemy attackers above does not imply that that is all of the soldiers the character may attack on his turn. It implies that in the fray of combat, that is how many attackers took a swing at the character.

4. Characters then may roll 3d6 per round and will kill one enemy soldier per die based on the results of each die roll and their current Health/Weariness (consult the chart below)

Healthy/Hale: 1-5
Dazed/Winded: 1-4
Injured/Tired: 1-3
Wounded/Weary: 1-2
Incapacitated/Spent: 1
Near Death: Cannot combat

Fore the Hardy Edge:
Healthy/Hale: 1-5
Dazed/Winded: 1-5
Wounded/Weary: 1-4
Injured/Tired: 1-3
Incapacitated/Spent: 1-2
Near Death: 1 ... at this level he is Near Death but still swinging his axe. He literally would go down fighting

5. The characters will skirmish one time for each Battle round and must make a Weariness Test TN 10 at the end of the attack. Skirmishes are considered simultaneous combat in regards to results.

If a character wishes to get out of the heat of battle, you must announce it and I will then determine what it takes for him to retreat.

You have the ability to freely create the narrative of your rounds based on the results of your dice, which should be pretty fun to do as you hack through the oncoming horde.

Any questions, just ask...

[tomcat]

I pulled off all of the non-game posts just to remove any clutter. I hope I didn't offend! 

Battle Stats
Scale: skirmish, 10 combatants per unit
Round Length:  15 minutes

Map: There are six arenas on the combat map posted below. I will determine where each raft lands on the beach randomly to account for drift. There are TN's for a unit to move from one arena to the next in a round. If the Move test is failed, that unit cannot make the move into the next arena in this round. The TN's are based on the following:

TN 7 - area is muddy and makes for a small challenge, or leads up off the river bank to turf
TN 12 - area is a flanking arena into a hastily established defensible position, but not a direct path
TN 15 - the area is filled with caltrops and slows down movement, or is the forward bulwark of a fortification defense

Each arena on the map displays the number of units that can be in a given area at the end of each round and also the terrain within. If a round ends and there are more units in the arena than allowed, a number of units equal to the overage that moved in during that combat round must move back to their starting arena.

MODIFIERS (all that apply will be illustrated here and included in stats below)
Terrain effects by area:
Woods - cause a -5 to movement and reduce Ranged Combat modifier to 0
Light Fortification - units within gain a +2 to Toughness and +3 to Ranged Combat and Support
Mud- units combating within have a -2 penalty to movement and -1 to Command
Dark - all units suffer -2 to any actions due to darkness, except Orc units

Situational modifiers that apply to this battle:
Defenders -
Defending homeland - all Free Peoples Units gain a +2 bonus to Command and +4 to Toughness
Outnumbered - all Free Peoples Units have a -3 penalty to Command
Entrenched - all Free Peoples Units gain a +3 to Toughness
Mostly Untrained - all Free Peoples Units suffer a -2 to Command and Toughness, -1 to all combat, -1 to Movement and Support

Attackers -
Badly supplied - Enemy units suffer a -4 to Command and -2 to Toughness
Leaderless - Enemy units suffer a -3 to Command

As stated above in the opening thread, though Leaderless, there will be High Value Combatants that may engage the heroes depending on the arena you are in. In my next post will be unit stats - once done we can start this skirmish.

[tomcat]

[tabular type=4 caption="Free Peoples: Defenders total strength 110 (11 units)"]
[row][head]

Unit Type

[/head][head]

Quantity

[/head][head]

Command

[/head][head]

Ranged

[/head][head]

Melee

[/head][head]

Toughness

[/head][head]

Support

[/head][head]

Movement

[/head][head]

Effective Value

[/head][head]

Special

[/head][/row]
[row][data]Archers[/data][data]

4

[/data][data]

7

[/data][data]

10

[/data][data]

5

[/data][data]

9

[/data][data]

5

[/data][data]

9

[/data][data]

1,800

[/data][data]

n/a

[/data][/row]
[row][data]

modifiers

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][data]

-1

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

+7

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][/row]
[row][data]Melee - trained[/data][data]

4

[/data][data]

8

[/data][data]

5

[/data][data]

10

[/data][data]

10

[/data][data]

5

[/data][data]

6

[/data][data]

1,760

[/data][data]

n/a

[/data][/row]
[row][data]

modifiers

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][data]

-1

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

+7

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][/row]
[row][data]Melee - untrained[/data][data]

3

[/data][data]

7

[/data][data]

10

[/data][data]

5

[/data][data]

9

[/data][data]

5

[/data][data]

9

[/data][data]

1,800

[/data][data]

n/a

[/data][/row]
[row][data]

modifiers

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][data]

-3

[/data][data]

-1

[/data][data]

-1

[/data][data]

+5

[/data][data]

-1

[/data][data]

-1

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][/row]
[/tabular]

[tabular type=4 caption="Enemy: Orcs total strength 90 (9 units)"]
[row][head]

Unit Type

[/head][head]

Quantity

[/head][head]

Command

[/head][head]

Ranged

[/head][head]

Melee

[/head][head]

Toughness

[/head][head]

Support

[/head][head]

Movement

[/head][head]

Effective Value

[/head][head]

Special

[/head][/row]
[row][data]Archers[/data][data]

3

[/data][data]

7

[/data][data]

10

[/data][data]

7

[/data][data]

10

[/data][data]

4

[/data][data]

10

[/data][data]

1, 440

[/data][data]

n/a

[/data][/row]
[row][data]

modifiers

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][data]

-7

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

-2

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][/row]
[row][data]Melee [/data][data]

5

[/data][data]

8

[/data][data]

5

[/data][data]

12

[/data][data]

13

[/data][data]

5

[/data][data]

8

[/data][data]

1,530

[/data][data]

n/a

[/data][/row]
[row][data]

modifiers

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][data]

-7

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

-2

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][/row]
[/tabular]

[tabular type=4 caption="Enemy: Wild Men total strength 110 (11 units)"]
[row][head]

Unit Type

[/head][head]

Quantity

[/head][head]

Command

[/head][head]

Ranged

[/head][head]

Melee

[/head][head]

Toughness

[/head][head]

Support

[/head][head]

Movement

[/head][head]

Effective Value

[/head][head]

Special

[/head][/row]
[row][data]Archers[/data][data]

2

[/data][data]

7

[/data][data]

9

[/data][data]

7

[/data][data]

11

[/data][data]

5

[/data][data]

8

[/data][data]

940

[/data][data]

n/a

[/data][/row]
[row][data]

modifiers

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][data]

-7

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

-2

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][/row]
[row][data]Melee [/data][data]

9

[/data][data]

7

[/data][data]

5

[/data][data]

11

[/data][data]

12

[/data][data]

5

[/data][data]

8

[/data][data]

960

[/data][data]

n/a

[/data][/row]
[row][data]

modifiers

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][data]

-7

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

-2

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

---

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][data]

◙◙

[/data][/row]
[/tabular]

[tomcat]

 

At long last! The skirmish at the river is set up. I am posting in Star Wars tonight, but will have the first round battle post up by tomorrow. You guys will see what I am doing as soon as I get the first post up (at least I hope I know what I have done  ), but it will be for you guys to carry out all of the steps of the Player combat - twice - for each round. You will then write any narrative you want in regards to the result - and be creative as you want to be (within reason  ). Feel free to use the Menu dice roller so that your rolls can all be established prior to having to hit [POST] for some of the needed numbers (i.e. # of attackers, etc.)

Here is an example of how you will post for each round:
Round 1
# of attackers in first melee 1d3
Roll(1d3)+0: 3,+0 Total:3
Attackers dice roll [each roll of 1 or 2 is a hit]

Rolled 6d6 : 3, 4, 2, 6, 4, 3, total 22

2d6+3 : 2, 2 + 3, total 7

2d6+3 : 6, 1 + 3, total 10

2d6+3 : 1, 6 + 3, total 10

PC kills

Rolled 3d6 : 2, 1, 5, total 8

# of attackers in second melee 1d3
Roll(1d3)+0: 1,+0 Total:1
Attackers dice roll [each roll of 1 or 2 is a hit]

Rolled 2d6 : 4, 6, total 10

2d6+3 : 1, 1 + 3, total 5

PC kills

Rolled 3d6 : 5, 6, 6, total 17

[tomcat]

You can then interpret the results for your combat round into some narrative - if you want to

So, assuming Fengel was this PC:

He was hit twice - once in the first melee and once in the second for damage of 10 -5(armor) = 5 and 5 -5(armor) = 0, or 5 damage total.

He killed all four attackers with his rolls.

Now he rolls Weariness test TN 10
Roll(2d6)+7: 4,4,+7 Total:15

So Fengel is 5/14 Healthy/Hale

Finally, you will type any narrative you want, like so:



Fengel saw the dark shapes coming up the muddy bank. A sudden flurry of swords and he felt the sharp pain of steel cutting through his skin. The Eothraim did not let it hinder him as his own sword cut through one, then two and three of his attackers. The three men went down only to have another attack from his flank - again a sword cut at his abdomen only to skitter off of his mail shirt. In a fury, Fengel cleaved the man's head with Cerduil.



I will include a round status like all of our combats as the header post to each thread. Any questions, give me a shout.

[Stefan]

Roll(1d3)+0: 3,+0 Total:3
Attackers dice roll [each roll of 1 or 2 is a hit]
Rolled 6d6 : 3, 4, 2, 6, 4, 3, total 22

2d6+3 : 2, 2 + 3, total 7

2d6+3 : 6, 1 + 3, total 10

2d6+3 : 1, 6 + 3, total 10


PC kills
Rolled 3d6 : 2, 1, 5, total 8

Ok, I think I get everything except that 6d6 right after you rolled the 3 attackers.  I think it means that every one of the enemies gets 2 attacks against us (3 attackers, 6 dice) and only hits on a roll of 1-2.  But if that's the case then why did you roll damage for 3 of them when only one of the attackers got a 2? And in the second pass they got a 4 and 6 and one hit him, I'm not sure why that is unless I'm just not understanding the combat as well as I think I do.

[Telcontar]

So....
for each of the d3 attackers you roll 2d6 to see if they hit. (they hit in one and two)
For each hit you then roll 2d6+3 for the damage of each hit? So in your example since the third number was a strike that means the second character's 2d6 roll is used to determine damage.

Is that correct?

[tomcat]

that is it, Tom.

Stefan, I pre-rolled three sets of damage with the little icon that means damage if successful but only used the 10, as the middle guy was the only success. You guys don't have to include all the junk I put in. I just do it so you guys can see the numbers, but feel free to use the dice roller on the menu bar, physical dice in your hands, whatever. I don't ever want our games to be cumbersome and I trust each player to be fair with outside dice rolls - I just want you guys to have fun and that the mechanics are logical.

Just be sure and label what your stuff is - I.e. attack roll, damage, etc.

[tomcat]

I will have stuff for you to post to tomorrow.

[Stefan]

 Ok, I think I've got it now, of course we'll find out when we have to do it.

[GandalfOfBorg]

  Just to make sure, why did the second round hit Fengel?  He didn't roll a 1 or 2 on the attack dice, they were 4 and 6.

[tomcat]

Because I read my post wrong. 

Yea, the second attack was a miss.