It's not necessary! It can provide a useful framework, and I personally feel more comfortable when I have guidelines to help me respond to those situations, but it's not necessary. I say this even as a self-confessed hard-core simulationist whose favorite role-playing game is Advanced Squad Leader ;) As you say, it's mainly a question of getting comfy with the system through practice.
Mechanically, running a HQ contest between two different abilities is all about choosing improvisation penalties. For example, "Swing Sword All Day Without Tiring" is a really good choice for resisting "Overwhelm With Vast Numbers", but not nearly as good a choice for resisting "Volley of Arrows". Well, exactly *how much* worse? That is left entirely up to the Narrator to decide. In the beginning, you and your players will need to realize it will take time to get comfy, and it may be very inconsistent at first. For example, they may say, "hey, why is being outnumbered 3-to-1 a 12-point penalty tonight? it was only 3 points last week!", to which you respond, "well, last week I discovered that wasn't enough, so we're trying something else this time; depending on how it goes, next week's penalty may be 7 or 17. either way, in four more sessions we'll have it down pat." Alternately, you can say, "it's not just their numbers; you're at minus 12 because these guys also have more training and better armor," and assign whatever bonus or penalty you want, inventing plausible reasons after the fact. I really don't like to do that, but I know it's a personal choice. Making yourself a table of standard effects for numbers, maneuvers, weapons, etc. can be a helpful reference, but fine-tuning the right one is a complicated problem which depends on your gaming group's preferences as much as any real-world "truth".
I like the various detailed tables in Hero Wars as a starting point from which to learn how to operate the rules -- I see them as not a straitjacket, but a safety net. Whatever ruleset I'm running, I never stop tinkering with it. I have a personal obsession with self-consistent simulation, but even I have come to appreciate how well HQ handles dynamically changing levels of detail, and how it lets you decide which part of your campaign is what you want to focus on. Most RPGs have the most detailed rules for combat, so they are generally better suited to modeling combat than anything else. HQ can be used that way, but it doesn't have to be; you can easily decide on the fly when and where to zoom in and out.
Ryan Caveney
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