The goal here is to do better than RuneQuest, surely?
Anyway try this:
Take three PCs, a Humakti combat machine (15w1 sword and shield), A Chalana Arroy healer (5w1 healing), a Lunar wizard who knows a useful spell (17 slay animal) and a Odaylan hunter (5w1 sneak, 18 ranged combat).
A bunch of Grazers (5 horse archers, 16 skill, 80 APs between them) attack, with the goal of capturing or killing them.
The players realise they have no chance on open ground, but there is a ruined building (cover 18) a short distance away.
PCs get to act first.
The Humakti stands his ground and snarls threats at the Grazers, with the intention of getting them to focus on him, and let the others make it to cover.
Action: challenge, skill 6, 3 AP bid. Grazers can defend with horse archer at no penalty, as not closing is a key cultural idea for a horse archer (this trick might have worked better against an Orlanthi who happened to be on horseback). Humakti loses 2 * 3 AP, leaving him with 29.
The other three take an unrelated action to get to the building (no roll needed as the Humakti is playing the hero).
Round 2, the grazers attack.
5 sets of arrows come the way of the Humakti. He has rank 5 armour, which more than cancels out the 3 edge from the arrows. Each grazer bids 9AP.
The Humakti says he is slowly backing towards the building, using his shield to block any arrows aimed at him.
Narrator allows a defence of sword and shield - 10 against the arrows.
There is also a -8 multiple attacker penalty (less than the -12 usual as
blocking several arrows in succession sounds easier than fighting
several opponents simultaneously). This leaves the Humakti with a skill
of 17.
The grazers get two successes and three failures.
>From the successes, the Humakti loses 2 * 2 * (9 - 5 + 3) = 28 APs,
representing minor wounds and his luck running out. At this point in a
film, the hero would be glancing at his sidekick and saying 'this is not
going to work'.
On the failures, the Humakti's ^5 sword doesn't come into play, and the grazers get an 8 edge as the Humakti's defence can't harm them. Grazers collectively lose 3 * 2 * (9 - 8) = 6 AP, representing arrows fired, and time wasted while the Humakti closes, etc.
At this point, Grazers have 74 AP, Humakti has 1AP, all others are at defaults.
The Humakti continues backing towards the ruins (unrelated action, 0 AP bid, he'll get there in say 2 rounds).
The Chalanan tries to heal the Humakti (20 AP transfer, -3 penalty for range, minor success).
The Odaylan sneaks off out the back of the ruins, with the intent of circling round behind the Grazers and picking them off.
This is an attempt to gain an edge. The Odaylan uses his 5W1 sneak skill to try for a +6 offensive edge. He gets a minor victory, representing him getting to a concealed firing position in range of the Grazers.
The wizard decides to try to augment her fear horse spell before using it, so she uses her Magic Crystal (5W1) to try for a +4 bonus, and succeeds with a minor victory, giving an effective skill of 1W1.
Round 3:
Grazers have 74AP, Humakti has 21, Chalanan has 5, all others at defaults.
The Odaylan pays 5AP to get to act first, then bids 3 AP to fire an arrow from hiding. The Grazers defend with Horse Archer = 16.
The grazers only have ^1 armour, so a success causes the Grazers to lose 2 * (3 + 3 + 6 - 1) = 22 AP. One Grazer falls off his mount with a shriek, and the rest start to look worried.
Three of the grazers start looking to see where the arrow came from, one continues to attack the retreating Humakti.
The ones searching for the Odaylan use an unrelated opposed action to try to cancel out his edge by finding him. Horse Archer - 4 = 12 against Sneak (5w1 - 6 = 15). They have 3 rolls, and at least one succeeds, cancelling his edge. They start surrounding him with the intention of closing in with lances.
The one firing at the Humakti takes him aim carefully, and bids 16 AP, the highest bid possible with his skill. He get a marginal victory, and the Humakti loses (16 + 3 - 5) = 14 AP. He is now staggering back, barely able to walk.
Meanwhile, the wizard starts firing up her slay animal spell. She makes a 21 AP bid - she is trying to finish it as fast as she knows how, at a higher risk of failure.
The Grazers defend with the default 14, and lose 21 AP. The spell is partly complete.
The Chalanan tries another 20 AP heal, but fails, losing 20 AP. He passes out.
Round 4:
4 Grazers remaining, with 31 AP between them. The Humakti has 7 AP, the Odaylan 16 AP, the wizard is on 21 AP, the Chalanan on -15.
3 Grazers surround the Odaylan (close combat 16, rank 2 armour, rank 3 spear) and attack with lances (Horse Archer - 2 = 14, rank 3). He takes a -8 multiple opponent penalty, they bid 8AP each and get a minor defeat and 2 minor victories.
He loses 2 * (8 + 3 - 2) = 18 AP, and is down and out, on the floor helpless under their lances. They take (8 + 3 = 1) = 16 APs worth of wounds, putting another Grazer out of the fight.
The last grazer take careful aim at the Humakti again, and once again does 14 AP, dropping him.
The sole standing PC bids 21 AP again to complete the slay animal spell. She hugs the dice for a moment, and rolls a major victory. The spell completes, and the grazers lose 42 AP. All their mounts, as well as all the small animals in the area, drop down dead.
The survivors slink off, and the wizard doesn't press the issue.
Not a masterpiece, but a plausible episode from an adventure story.
As far as I know, the above contains the following slight variants/interpretations of the HW rules:
This mainly reduces bookkeeping (one AP total to keep track of instead of 5), but also helps to put an upper limit on the hordes bets, so they can't use the otherwise optimal strategy of 'bid one more AP than your opponent has, repeat until he suddenly falls over'. This ensures players will usually have time to adjust their plan if they are losing, instead of being taken out of the contest by a single unlucky roll. Richard
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