Gloranthan Miltary Magic

From: Kevin Rose <vladt_at_interaccess.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 02:27:16 -0600 (CST)


Chris Bell said:
>focus not on tactics used by the
>Swiss or Ancient Greeks, but by the Full Moon Corps, the armies under
>Argrath and the Pharaoh's Armies from the Holy Country.

Quite true, but one thing that has been obviously lacking since the original cradle scenario was a good idea of just what a magical unit could actually achieve, how much set-up time it needed, how long it took to recover, and other such stuff. Hand waving works at the PC level, but not when you try to determine how warfare is effected.

A certain amount can be infered from Dragon Pass, but this is limited, as the factors reflects things other than direct attack. Most of the magicians are not physical magicians, so they more likely don't blow units up, but effect their cohesion and ability to fight.

I would expect that trying to extrapolate the effects of a magical unit based on the heavy combat spells (sever spirit, lightning, sunspear) will not be successful.

Of course, the problem that the magic system given for the game does not apparently reflect the "real" gloranthan reality makes it pretty difficult to determine a lot of things. Ignoring this issue you get a couple of things.

Tactically, the effects of battle magics should be pretty serious, as they rather dramatically increase the chance of an incapacitating wound. Even more pronounced are the effects of sorcery. A line of Loskalmi heavy crossbowman with damage boost 8 (achievable due to practice and ceremony) can pretty much guarentee stopping one cavalry charge per battle. The same damage boost placed on a hand weapon will do a number on most armor. The Mostal and Brithini are really gross, basically being nearly invulnerable, nearly never missing and disabling their opponent with one hit.

Exactly what this effect is depends on just what amount and type of magic the average troop has. Some armies (Mostali and Brithini, for example) can pretty much decree what magic a soldier will have, other are going to have a wide mix (Sartar, for example) that is less tailored for the military.

Magic should result in the opening minutes of heavy combat being much more leathal than on earth (if both sides go for damage increasing magic), the same as earth (if one side uses defensive magic and the other uses comprable damage increasing magic), or much less damage (if both sides use defensive magic). The decision would probably be culturally determined, as I would doubt that most troops could have effective damage increasing and defensive magic.

The transient nature of magic would place a premium on mobility. A mounted (or significantly faster and better organized dismounted) force can force an infantry unit into expending their magic by making agressive motions, then avoiding contact until the magic wears off. And if the infantry doesn't cast magic they can close and engage.

Sorcery using forces, if using Sandy's rules, have a real advantage, as their magic doesn't go off after a few minutes.

The indications are that the really massive offensive magics take years to gear up (for example, skyburn). The crater makers and a few others are another matter, but exactly what the effect of each is is a little open. Does Craigspider's pillar really cover an area 10km (or whatever) in diameter? Or is the effect largely morale based - the units get terrified into running away?

The few writings on the nature of the magical units suggest strongly that the majority of the spirit magic attacks in DP are attacks at the army itself, not a direct physical attack on the individuals of the army. So you cause many/most of the members of a unit to get homesick and walk off into the night, not that you cause them to drop dead.

There is also the issue of whether it makes more sense to use your magicians to try to put out of action the other guys magicians or to concentrate on his physical combatants.

Right now their are sufficently large holes in the what is known of how combat magic really works that it is hard to discuss how they would effect combat. I an see two ways to approach this:

First, you can specify what the large scale magical units can actually do and what magic a combat unit will have, then you determine what effect they would have on tactics and strategy.

Or you can decide how much effect you want the magicans and battle magic to have on tactics and strategy and determine what sort of magical effects would produce this.

Any ideas?

Kevin

(Hmm, where did I put that asbestos suit. . .)


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