Re: Fyrds, Shieldwalls, etc.

From: epweissengruber_at_...
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 21:02:35 -0000

Michael's comments about mass-combat are very interesting. I suppose that I have always preferred a cinematic approach to mass combat -- the big battle is resolved as 1 content, the fights of individual PC's are resolved as autonomous mini-combats within that whole.

I don't like turning the PC's into 1 mere grunt within a field of fighting figures

>
> Mass Combat techniques should enhance a unit's regular Close Combat
> techniques in a field battle, thus troops disciplined in formation
> fighting would gain an Edge or Augment which improves their chances
of
> routing or destroying enemy units they encounter. Sounds simple
enough to
> me.

True.

I am wondering when a situation becomes "Mass Combat" a) within a mass battle, two sworn enemies move to high ground to fight a duel -- any mass combat skills/benefit of a good comander would not apply
b) The gladiators in Gladiator. The individual tough guys are getting picked appart by Chariot-mounted opponents. The ex-General whips them into a few classic Roman fighting formations, and they win the day.
You could do the last as i) the general's "strategy" augmenting individual close combat skills, ii) an improvised Mass Combat, augmented by the "Strategy" or leadership and resolved as a collective enterprise

> Each Mass Combat technique could be assigned attack and defense
> ranks, a la weapon and armor ranks, to provide some realism and
detail
> for those so inclined. Perhaps there needs be a Mass Combat
development
> project, to flesh things out a bit more.
>
> Thoughts? Opinions?

Someone posted a number of good suggestions (damn, where are they?), imagine a leader backed by 1000 of followers, lending monstrous AP and gaining collective Edges from their respective weaponry and armour.

So each squad or line = a leader with many followers - this would be easy to represent with counters on a map. - you could have cavalry squads, bands of skirmishers, etc. with all their info on a post-it note.
- movement speed could be extrapolated from Anaxial/HW stats

This is the "wargame" solution and could be done fairly quickly and might be fun for simulating "historical" battles in Dragon Pass

Or you could do a Narrative approach
- this would meld the Heroquesting rules with the mass-combat approach from Bushido.

• the battle is an Extended contest between commanders. FActors such as terrain, numbers, troop quality, and equipment would be reduced to simple edges
• between each round of the extended contest, the state of the PC's could be explored (like close-up scenes withing a huge battle-canvas as in Kurosawa)
• I know that nesting exended contests is a no-no, but the extended contest between commanders is so abstract and intermittent, that individual encounters could be handled with ease
• The result of the maro-scale exchange would translate into a bonus or penalty at the micro-level: their commander suffered a large"AP" loss during the macro-contest, so the PC's get a penalty to their individual actions

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> --
> Michael Richard Schwartz | Language is my playground,
> mschwartz_at_m... | and words, its slides and
> Ann Arbor, Michigan USA | swingsets. -- yours truly