Work on this RPG continues. The last while, I've been doing a major revamp of chapter 1, which focuses on basic infantry units.
Here are the changes I remember making.
Combat/Defense stats no longer are used for different things. Instead, combat is used while on-turn, while defense is used while off-turn. They are collectively known as battle stats.
One of the big goals in this version is to simplify fighting. I can't just combine combat/defense, because it's canon, but doing this makes them overlap each other.
Melee reach is now determined by a reach rating.
I want there to be consistant benefits for having a longer melee reach, but it gets difficult to express that in actual reach measurements when getting below 5', so now there is a reach rating to express it instead. Effective reach is 5', but reach rating can be 1 to 5. Once it gets to 6, then the physical reach becomes 10', and so on.
Short range projectiles users, which I now call shooters for short (canon just says they are types of archery, but I find that confusing, so archery now refers to archers, specifically), now take a penalty when being attacked by melee. Penalty has been reduced to -1.
Originally, the lack of a penalty was in compensation for a lower ammo count, but short range is supposed to be worse anyway, so they don't need it, especially if the penalty is lowered.
Damage is simplified.
I had this whole system of minimum/maximum damage with the rate changing depending on how many bonuses you get to battle stats. Too complicated. Scrapped. You do set damage, half damage whe unarmed, and double damage when getting a battle bonus of +8 (triple with a +16 bonus). A max stack, led by a level 1 warlord, is +8.
Cleave is now a melee bonus ability, rather than a heavy bonus ability.
Being a larger size with a longer melee reach means you can attack two enemies per turn.
Non-combat units no longer have a reach rating, rather than having a lowered reach rating.
That is to say, they just don't benefit from reach, rather than not having it. This means they can't cleave, and have no defense against being cleaved by larger units.
Battle stats can now go below 0, but doing so means auto failing rolls, and must do saving throw vs critting.
Another tactic to speed things up, and to penalize weaker units. Before, it was no matter how many penalties you get, you always had a minimum of 0, which was great for units that start with a 1. Now those units have to be careful or else they will just die when fighting.
I decided that I didn't want the production units going off the road. This has tower defence elements, after all.
Stabber/Scout varients pop at 4 a turn, rather than 3.
There seem to be a lot of varient units, like units specifically for using a city balista weapon, that pop 2 a turn. I decided that all varients would pop at half the rate as the "standard" but then I realized that this could lower the per day upkeep increase. Normally, while popping upkeep will go by 20$ to 40$, but the pop rate of varients would only be 15$ per day. To bring this in line with other units, you need to pop 4 varients, for a total of +20$ upkeep per day.
Crossbower penalty, which was attacking 1 turn later than normal, when surprised, is changed to -2 speed for determining initiative.
Having crossbowers start attacking later than other units made streamlining quick combat rules more difficult, so I changed the penalty to this.
Still not sure if the crossbower advantage, which is a bonus attack vs fliers during the start of combat (skirmish rounds), or when flier is retreating, is the best idea. Considering the idea of double damage to fliers (or maybe unarmoured units in genral) during skirmish rounds instead.
Dodge has been changed to stealth.
Dodge was a stat I added due to feeling like there was too big a gap with how large the combat stats of heavies were. After a lot of thought, those gains have been lowered, so we don't need dodge to compensate anymore. Stealth is something that has become important though, since hiding and searching are fairly important, so it gets more prominent.
Unarmed penalty to battle stats is lowered to -1. Damage is halved.
I've been focused on using whole numbers for lowering damage. You do 1 damage or 0 damage. If 0 damage then roll to see if you can do 1 damage. No more of that. You can now do 0.5 damage. Battle stat penalty is not as bad, but there is more of a risk because getting to -1 means you auto-lose (unless opponent is also at -1. Treat both as having stats of 0).
When outnumbered, -1 if on turn, -0 if off turn.
Before, defense meant defense rolls, so the rule was that being outnumbered affected defense stat. Since there is no dedicated defense stat anymore, the penalty becomes situational. Getting the striker trait makes it so no penalty when on-turn, and the -1 is when off-turn instead.
Rules for determining initiative have been simplified.
I originally had a lot of qualifiers, which got some criticism, now it's take the lowest speed unit of both respective groups. Higher speed wins initiative for group. If same, then no initiative, roll to determine who does the first battle pairings.
Sturdy trait was changed from allowing unit to surviving critical incapacitation to giving a bonus for saving throw vs crit.
Productution units don't even get critical incapacitation, so I came up with a different bonus, a bonus to saving throw makes them the contrast for quick, which reduces saving throw. I like that the two cancel each other out.
Advanced Initiative no longer gives +3 speed. It gives auto- initiative vs units that are within 1 size category.
When units are two sizes larger, I decided they get auto-initiative, so I changed Adv Init to fit within that setup. Plus, fliers have so much more move, this becomes an alternative counter to that (used instead of terrain specialization).
Production (pikers, stabbers, etc) units have been nerfed. Changes are.
Production unts die at 0 hp, rather than being being critically incapacitated.
DC is increased by +5 during saving throw vs crit (20 result always succeeds, 1 always fails).
Making a clear rule as to what specials are allowed. Current rule is that production units are not allowed to have specials that directly change damage dealt/taken, or increase the number of attacks per round (stabber exception for adv initiative).
I think this is a good general rule for what specials are not allowed.
Half damage (after piercing DR) to heavies.
I'm proud of myself for this one. A goal of mine was to create a system where stabbers beat knights, beats heavies (large units), but stabbers were so cost effective, heavies NEVER became the hard counter I wanted them to be. Doing half damage vs heavies finally makes the numbers work the way I want. I also decided that level 1 heavies count as production units as well, so they do half damage against normal heavies, while still being just as effective vs stabbers.
"Heavy" is no longer a stat. In order to keep with canon, I always tried to make a "weight" stat (meaning heavy or light), but size as a stat just works better. Plus, about half the abilities I assigned to heavies (such as cleave) no longer apply, so they are just less unique. "Heavy" now becomes a trait for units of large size or greater.
Promotion is required for player characters that are not warlords. Becoming a warlord needs to always be a viable path, as you need to become a commander to gain any true independence.
Save vs crits now have a difficulty class, like in D&D.
I never properly designed how saving throws work. I think I worked it out properly. Tough/unarmored directly change the roll result, while the other things change the DC.
Severing. I added some new rules on this, but I might end up deleting it. I feel like combat takes too long, and making it faster would mean getting rid of certain abilities.
Retreating is the same. This may be changed to be more in line with making quick combat a more general thing.
Lastly, and this is the big one. QUICK COMBAT RULES! This is my new turn order. It's designed to make battles go by faster, without changing any core mechanics. A key highlight is that, once normal combat has begun, you roll ONCE, to determine the winner, rather than rolling every round, and all battle pairings need a winner before any reshuffle occurs. That means if one unit wins early, he cannot help his ally until one person from that pairing has also died.
I still feel like fighting takes too long, even with every shortcut I could come up with, which makes me feel that if this is too long, then the so-called "normal" combat is just way too long, which means I need to make certain time cutting measures standard, such as making it so you can only retreat at set periods during battle, or not allowing unique movies, like severing limbs.
Anyone with opinions on this current set of rules for fighting? Step 5 seems repetitious, as I decided this in step 2, but I feel like players need a reminder on if the units are surprised or prepared, since it makes a difference for the early fighting.
Ambushing is left for chapter 2, since it's a scout thing.
Quick combat means no scout units (if there are scouts, treat them as non-scouts), no ambushes, and the priority is to finish battles as soon as possible.
Select units: Players select units that will make up their respective battle groups. Be sure to check if shooters have at least 1 ammo. If not, they must fight unarmed.
Note: Take note who is on/off-turn. Units of opposing sides can never be on-turn at the same time.
Situational State: Decide if opposing battle groups are either both prepared, or both surprised.
Note: The main advantage of being prepared is allowing the shooter time to fire at the opposition. As a rule of thumb, lets say if opposing units are unaware of each other until they get get within 5 combat rounds worth of move, they count as surprised. If they have spotted each other outside of that range, then both groups are prepared.
Determine initiative:Players choose the unit with the least move in their respective groups and compare their respective speeds. Be sure to to check if these units have initiative bonuses (advanced initiative; favoured terrain), or penalties (non-combatant, long range shooter). Winning player, player#1, will have initiative for the battle.
When surprised, only units with adv initiatve, or the appropriate terrain specialization, are counted when checking for initiative
If both groups have the same lowest speed, then there is no initiative round. Roll 1d10 (odds vs evens). Winner is now referred to as player#1 while loser becomes player#2.
Determine 'Random' Parings:
Player#1 chooses one of his races/classes to fight against one of Player#2's classes/races.
Race is something like human, while class is something like stabber. All stabbers are human, but not all humans are stabbers. Pick whichever choice accounts for the smaller group (stabbers, in this case).
Player#2 chooses the individual pairings from among the available options that were given due to player#1's choice, until all units from the least numerous side is fighting at least one opponent.
Player#2 chooses one of his races/classes to fight against one of Player#1's classes/races that have not already been paired up (units that have been left over due to not being selected from a previous pairing count as a seperate group), and player#1 does the individual matchups.
Repeat until all units have been paired up.If one player still has unpaired units remaining after all of opponents units have been paired, those units may be paired with units that have been paired up with once, and so on.
State of Battle: Players check to see their respective situational states, prepared or surprised. If both are prepared, select the prepared option, if both are surprised, pick the surprised option. There can also be a situation where one side is prepared, and the other is surprised, which is also known as an ambush, but the auto-attack compulsion makes ambushing impossible. Ambushes are explained in chapter 2.
Prepared: Only read the "prepared" options until you get to step 8.
Surprised: Only read the "surprised" options until you get to step 8.
Skirmish rounds:
Prepared:All shooters will fire at the opposing group. Middle/long range will fire twice (long can fire 3 times vs fliers). Short range will fire once.
If there are no shooters, skip round.
Surprised: Skip round.
Initiative round: For every unit that is no longer paired with an opponent, make new combat pairings, according to the rules in step 4. Afterwards, players roll 1d10 for each combat pairing, and add the appropriate modifiers to the roll. All combat pairings must be concluded before doing anything else.
Prepared: This is the earliest point player can declare additional actions. They take effect at the end of the round.
With initiative: Player#1 attacks, and player#2 can only defend.
Without Initiative: Skip round.
Surprised
With initiative: Only Player#1 units with Adv. Initiative, or Terrain specialization, can attack. Player#2's can only defend.
Without initiative: Skip round.
Begin Quick Battle: For every unit that is no longer paired with an opponent, make new combat pairings, according to the rules in step 4. Afterwards, players roll 1d10 for each combat pairing, and add the appropriate modifiers to the roll. All combat pairings must be concluded before doing anything else.
If results are equal. First round has armoured units taking no damage, while unarmoured units take a glancing blow, and both units do normal damage to each other during each subsequent round until one unit is dead.
If player wins the roll by +1 to +3, he does normal damage every round, while the loser only does normal damage on every odd numbered round (1, 3, 5) until one unit is dead.
If player wins by +4 to +6, he does damage every round, while loser only does damage every even numbered round (2, 4, 6) until one unit is dead.
If player wins the roll by +7 to +9, he does damage every round round, while the loser doesn't do damage on the first round, and then does normal damage on every subsequent odd numbered round (3, 5, 7) until one unit is dead.
If player wins the roll by +10, or more, loser rolls to save vs crit, if critical hit fails, treat as a +9 result.
Note: Initiative/Ambush/Skirmish rounds are rolled per round, but quick battle does one roll that lasts until the death of one of the combatants.
Continue Battle: For every unit that is no longer paired with an opponent, make new combat pairings, according to the rules in step 4. Afterwards, players roll 1d10 for each combat pairing, and add the appropriate modifiers to the roll. All combat pairings must be concluded before doing anything else.
As this is simple combat. There are no additional orders given. Units do not retreat, or go full defensive. This is a straight battle.
IDEA: Maybe have units that finish fight early pick combat pairings. Units that finish during round one must pair with each other, or if unit wins round one, and opposing unit wins round two, then they must pair?
Conclusion: Declare the winner of the battle.
If one one of the groups escape, and the opposing groups are exclusively fliers vs ground, with one side engaging in projectile combat only, move to wrap-up.
Wrap-up:
Winning units gain experience points from the battle.
Check to see if there are any other enemies that can be fought in the general area. If not, then all shooters lower ammo by -1. If enemies forces have been destroyed by over 50%, winning units can search to recover some of their ammunition. Restore ammunition by 0.5.
NOTE: Can only recover ammunition that is physical in nature. Magic ammo can NOT be recovered.
If the shooters still have ammunition, and there are fliers in the hex, they can engage again. Redo the turn order from the start.
Note: A "free attack" is when one side rolls the combat stat and the other rolls defense. In order for a free attack to happen, the defending unit must not have a melee reach that is 10' or longer and the ability to attack during that round.
Note: In the case of using miniatures to show combat, units are always moved before combat.
Note: Counterattack is an action that is only permitted when being attacked by another unit. Cannot attack a different unit when counterattacking.
Old sample battles have been deleted, and replaced with new ones that follow quick combat rules. You can check them out here.
Even after doing a full revision of chapter 1, I can't seem to get away from editing it.
Latest issue is the stat traits. I wanted to give a little variation to units, because stats work on a template format, based on the size of a unit. There are 7 sizes, and each one has a set amount of move, hits, combat, defense, and so on. I've tried a few variations on how this might work.
Here is my current idea. Stat traits give a +1 in one stat, and a -1 in another stat. I then wanted to add in some additional stuff, like popping with shields, but popping with shields is conditional of having a one handed weapon. I also made striker trait weak, because you take a penalty to defending vs projectiles. Here is my new idea, every stat has a different benefit attached to it. Gaining a boost in a stat, means a penalty in the other area.
Therefore, I'll pair Move with the Difficulty Class of saving vs crit, Defense with stealth, Combat with defense vs projectiles, and Hits with outnumbered penalties. Getting a bonus in one aspect means a penalty in the other
Quick: +1 move/-1 defense
No benefit from armour (pops unarmored).
+1 stealth
Protect: +1 defense/-1 combat
-1 stealth
Permanent +1 defense vs projectiles (infantry popped with 1 handed weapons gain shielded trait for a total +2 bonus).
Striker: +1 combat/-1 hit
Permanent -1 defense vs projectiles. No benefits from shields.
Ignore penalty when outnumbered 2 vs 1, while on-turn
Sturdy: +1 hit/-1 move
Gain penalty when outnumbered 2 vs 1, while off-turn.
Extra effective armour. While wearing armour, -5 DC.
-Quick is paired with armour. Armor's main use is to make it more likely to die when doing a saving throw. Not much in disadvantages for wearing it. Can weigh you down for swimming. Beasts are naturally armoured though, and don't suffer from something like that.
-Defense is paired with stealth. Stealth allow you to hide and set up ambushes.
-Combat is paired with defense vs projectiles. This is situational. When being attacked by projectiles, and you are only able to defend, then you get a bonus.
-Hit points are paired with being able to defend better while outnumbered. On and off turn are an aspect due to this RPG setting taking place in a turn based strategy game. Soldiers can only move inbetween terrain hex borders (each hex is about a mile? wide) during certain points of the day. When opposing armies show up, one army can move during the morning, and the second during the evening, with night being off turn for everyone. Normally, you have a defensive bonus, so no penalty for being outnumbered 2 vs 1 when offturn, this is to make up for being stuck in the hex during that time.
Also some general disadvantages from a flying unit.
Fliers also have a -1 protection vs projectiles, and they pop unarmoured. I originally stacked this with the traits
Pops unarmoured, can't fly if armoured, but still gain the DC benefits.
Perminant -1 def vs projectiles, stacks with striker?
By saying if you take quick you pop with no armouir, and by taking striker no benefits from shields, that should mean a net negative if taking all four traits.
Also considering the idea of stat points when taking quick going entirely into move. Maybe fliers taking ??? will put points into all stats like ground units?
Thousands of soldiers will be yours to command some day, if you have the skill and luck to do so. The vast bulk of them will, almost certainly, be made up of the infantry that this chapter details below.
Issues:
Max stack bonus is +4. Double dmg at +6, and triple dmg at +12.
Glancing blows do 1/2 dmg, no rounding up.
Minimum blows do base damage which can not be increased, cannot crit.
Fixing up the quick combat.
One die roll for normal combat. Intiative/Ranged rounds auto-hit.
DONE: Situational modifiers affect base stat now, not dice roll. Well, the reason I had it effect dice roll was because stats couldn't go negative, which has been changed.
DONE: Change "production" unit to "basic" unit.
DELETED: Severing limbs (dismemberment). I added some new rules on this, but I might end up deleting it. I feel like combat takes too long, and making it faster would mean getting rid of certain abilities.
Retreating is the same. This may be changed to be more in line with making quick combat a more general thing.
DONE: Says in defense section that you just need to be outnumbered to not do damage on a 1 result. Rule is now that you must be outnumbered by 4.
DONE: Total defense mode, ignore all stat penalties, but still say auto defeat at 4 vs 1?
1. Stats/Classes
The basic units (soldiers) for any kingdom in Erfworld are always pikers, archers, stabbers, scouts, tossers, and crossbowers. Also important is the digger unit, which is needed for mining/siege. Diggers can function as a basic combat unit, but it is not recommended they do so.
Here are the primary stats.
Combat: When ON-turn, this is the battle stat used for fighting. Determines chance to hit/parry/dodge/block.
Defense: When OFF-turn, this is the battle stat used for fighting. Determines chance to hit/parry/dodge/block.
Note: Combat/Defense are collectively known as "battle stats".
Hits: Amount of damage that can be received before croaking/dying.
Move: Determines rate of travel when on-turn, tactical movement rate (each move point equals 5' per combat round), and combat initiative, which referred to as the 'speed' of a unit.
Note: The terms of "on/off-turn" are based on the fact that Erfworld is modeled after a turn-based strategy game. Generally speaking, the time period between dawn until dusk (sunset) can be considered to be on-turn, while night is always considered off-turn. However, the amount of on-turn time shinks considerably when the units of opposing sides draw near to each other. When this happens, the side that has existed for the longer amount of time will be on-turn from dawn to noon, at which point, end-of-turn happens, and the other side will have start-of-turn begin at noon, and it will last until dusk. An invasion of an enemy's territory can only be done when a unit is on-turn. Functionally speaking, both combat, and defense, do the same thing, but at different times.
In addition to the first four stats listed, there are several other important pieces of information that must be taken note of.
Weapon name: Mainly used as a visual shorthand method to describe fighting style, and weapon range, without saying the name of the unit's class.
Example: That enemy unit is using a spear. Therefore, he must be a long range melee unit, also known as a piker.
Fighting Style: Units have innate knowledge of how to fight in a particular way. Either they are skilled with projectiles, or with melee combat. Even if you tried to teach a melee fighter how to do something simple, like throwing a rock, that fighter would never, EVER, attain any worthwhile level of skill. By the same token, if a projectile user ran out of projectiles to fire, he would be unable to use a melee weapon instead. Unarmed fighting is always available, regardless of fighting style, but it causes rather large penalties.
Weapon Range: There are three range categories. Middle, short, and long. They function slightly differently, depending on if the unit uses a melee or projectile combat style.
Short: This is the natural reach of a unit. All short range weapons are lightweight. Melee units commonly has an additional weapon as a spare, in case the first one gets lost, but unit may only fight while wielding one weapon at a time. Short reach weapons are considered to be inferior vs mid/long reach ones. Short-reach units are scouts, and tossers.
Melee reach rating is 3, while functional reach is 5' (reach is further explained in the "5. Weapon Specifics", below).
Melee, and thrown, weapons need one hand to wield.
Tossers have combat/defense stats lowered by -1 while being subject to melee attacks.
Note: If the relevent battle stat total should ever fall below 0 (tossers have a base combat of 0), unit auto-loses all battle rolls, and must make a saving roll vs crit (death) for each failure.
When prepared, tossers typically get one bonus attack before melee combat begins.
Tossers need to be fairly near to a target before they can attack, and can only attack fliers that are in the lower sky zone, which is a marginally above tree top height (fliers are explained in chapter 3).
Middle: Mid-range weapons are considered the standard for infantry. The extra reach granted by mid-range weaponry is one of the main advantages infantry units have over beasts. Mid-range units are stabbers, and archers (technically, diggers as well).
Melee reach rating is 4, while functional reach is 5'.
Melee weapons need one hand to wield, while projectiles need two.
Archers have combat/defense stats lowered by -1 while being subject to melee attacks.
When prepared, archers typically have two bonus attacks before melee combat begins.
Archers can target most things within visual range, including fliers in the lower/upper sky zones.
Long: All long range weapons are heavyweight. Long-range units are pikers, and crossbowers.
Melee reach rating is 5, while functional reach is still only 5'.
Melee, and crossbow, weapons need two hands to wield.
Crossbowers have combat/defense stats lowered by -1 while being subject to melee attacks.
When prepared, crossbowers typically fire twice before melee combat begins (+1 bonus attack against fliers).
Crossbowers can target anything in the area that they can see, including fliers in the lower/upper/top sky zones.
When determining initiative, crossbowers take a -2 penalty to speed.
Damage: This is the standard damage that is done on a successful attack. This number can be modified when appropriate bonuses/penalties are applied.
Weapon Specifics: Depending on the choice to go with either a melee, or projectile, weapon, there are some important additional specifics that you need to keep in mind.
Reach: Although projectiles can attack at a greater distance, only melee units have reach. When a target is within 5' of a unit, it is considered to be adjacent. Units can always attack adjacent targets, which puts their minimum functional (not literal) reach at 5'. In order to show the differences of reach for units that have a 5' reach, a reach rating has been added.
Small sized units have a rating of 3 for short reach, a rating of 4 for middle reach, and a rating of 5 for long reach.
When a unit is retreating from another unit with higher melee reach rating, the latter unit can attack the former, once, during said retreat, with a +1 to hit (auto-hits, if using quick combat rules). Can not attack, or use a shield, while retreating.
While not relevent until chapter 2, which includes rules for size, when a melee unit has a +2 reach rating, or greater, over at least two enemies within his reach (melee units are considered to always have +2 reach rating vs projectile/non-combat units), and is at least one size category larger, he can attack two seperate enemies per round. This is the cleave special, and it is the biggest advantage melee units have over projectile wielders.
Long reach melee units must be two sizes larger, and have a +4 higher reach rating, to cleave targets.
Ammunition: Only projectile units, also known as shooters, have ammo. This is a general stat that indicates how many engagements the unit may fight before running out of ammunition.
Ammo stat does not keep track of how many times the unit attacks during an engagement. Attacking once is the same as attacking 10 times. An engagement ends when one side wins, and there are no other enemies to fight in the immediate area. If unit used projectiles during the fight, even once, lower ammo by one point.
If a shooter defeats the enemy, he can then spend some time gathering up spent ammunition. Doing this regains 1/2 of the spent ammo point.
When ammo is below 1, unit can no longer use projectiles, and must fight unarmed. Fighting unarmed causes a -1 penalty to combat/defense. This penalty stacks with the melee penalty for shooter, for a total of -2.
Mid/Long range shooters have 3 ammo, while short range shooters only have an ammo of 2.
Traits: Modifies various aspects of a unit. It gives additional benefits/penalties. Of particular note is the 'basic' trait, which all the units in this chapter have. Being a basic unit is another way of saying that this is a mass produced infantry, and this causes the most major changes of any trait. Basic units can be created in far greater numbers than normal/advanced units are, and require half the upkeep. This comes at a cost in quality, but the trade is generally considered worth it. Basic units make up the basis for most erfworld armies. For further details, read section 6 of this chapter.
All basic infantry units, except scouts (the most intelligent of the infantry units), have the same strength, dexterity, combat proficiency, mental intelligence, general knowledge, etc., as all the others. Differences of personality... exist, to an extent, but, in terms of ability, units within a class are completely interchangeable with one another. The most notable difference between them is their weaponry. When you have a bow, you will fight a little different from someone wielding a sword, or a knife.
Pikers: The long range melee unit. Uses a 2-handed weapon. Pikers have the longest melee reach. Having to hold a weapon in both hands can limit some options, such as holding a shield.
Archers: The middle range shooter. Uses a 2-handed weapon, with 3 ammo. Archers are the main projectile firing unit, they can attack any unit they can see in the area, with a few exceptions, but have problems when engaged in melee. Lower unit's battle stats by -1, if being attacked by melee units during a given combat round.
Note: "Battle stats" are combat/defense. If the relevent stat is lowered to -1, or less, unit auto-loses all battle rolls, and must save vs crit to avoid death for each loss.
Stabbers: The middle range melee unit. Uses a 1-handed weapon. They are the strongest, in terms of combat/defense, and also have access to the, normally unavailable, 'Advanced Initiative' special. This special allows them to attack one turn earlier than normal, when surprised, and to automatically win initiative vs unit groups that are within 1 size category, as long as they don't also have this special, or the appropriate terrain specialization. Because of this, stabbers are the most favoured of the basic infantry classes.
Stabbers also can take other military roles. Simply replace the advanced initiative special with a unique weapon special that is available (example: ballista special for manning city defenses). Pop rate (this means the number that can be created/produced, or "popped", into existence) is 4 units per turn/day, rather than 6, though upkeep remains the same. Some examples.
Riders are stabbers with the rider special, instead of advanced initiative. Rider allows the ability to bond with an allied beast.
Stabbers can also aquire any of the four stat traits (striker, protective, sturdy, quick) at the slower rate.
Scouts: The short range melee unit. Uses a 1-handed weapon that is simply inferior to having a middle reach one. Scouts have the highest move stat among the basic infantry units, which is further enhanced by the quick trait, which causes +1 move, -1 defense. Quick units are also "unarmoured" which increases the difficulty class of a saving throw vs dying (crit), as well as gaining +1 to the stealth stat (explained in chapter 5). Alone among the infantry classes, they are not subject to auto-attack (see Section 6), due to their scout special. As a result, they can run away from combat situations, which is what they should be doing. A scout's job is to find the enemy and report them back to his superiors, not go off on his own to fight.
Scouts also have the "courtier" varient. Coutiers are considered to be a non-combat unit. They still have the quick trait. Promotion is replaced with a 'jobs' special, that lets them operate the special features of various city buildings, and manage cities. Like the stabber varients, courtiers pop at 4 units per turn.
Another variant unit is the seafarer, which is a bit of a cross between a scout and a stabber. They use the stats of a scout, and are unarmored, but use mid range weapons, and replace the scout special with terrain specialization, seafarer. This allows them to effectively crew ships. Seafarers pop 6 (not 4) per turn, due to being a standard unit for any city that is adjacent to water (they are not available unless there is water nearby, however, which is the only reason they are considered varients, rather than a staple unit).
Tossers: The short range shooter. While it can be used one-handed, the projectiles are bulkier than arrows, so there is only room for 2 ammo, rather than 3. Tossers need to get closer than other shooters before they can attack. Like all projectile units, they suffer a -1 to battle stats while being attacked by melee. In addition, tossers have the protect trait, which causes +1 defense, -1 combat. Which also lowers stealth by -1, while defending against projectiles gets a situational bonus of +1. As Tossers use one-handed weapons, they pop with shields, and gain the 'shielded' trait as well. Shielded trait causes a unit to gain a situational modifier of +1 to defensive battle rolls vs projectiles (see section 7), for a total bonus of +2, as long as the unit can use the shield.
Crossbowers: The long range projectiler. Uses a 2-handed weapon, with 3 ammo. Crossbowers can attack any unit in the area that is visible to them. They are the only ground unit that can attack fliers that are in the top sky zone, and they actually can fire at fliers three times before they can close in to melee, if the crossbowers are prepared. Like all projectile units, crossbowers suffer a -1 to battle stats while being attacked by melee. As a long range shooter, crossbowers must take a -2 penalty when determining initiative. In addition, crossbowers have the striker trait, which causes +1 combat, -1 hits. The striker trait causes units to suffer a situational modifier of -1 to defensive battle rolls vs projectiles, while allowing it to ignore the 1vs2 outnumbered penalty while on-turn.
Note: Speed is move plus modifiers, with highest speed getting initiative. Speed is only used to help determine initiative.
Diggers: The siege unit. Diggers have the non-combat trait. Non-combat units can still fight, but auto-lose initiative, do not have reach, cannot cleave, and their wielded weapons always counts as being two-handed. Diggers have the sturdy trait, which causes +1 hits, -1 move. Normally, units don't take a penalty when outnumbered 1vs2 while off-turn, but sturdy units do. However, the Difficulty Class of a saving throw vs crit is raised by +5. Diggers are generally not included in an army unless they are needed for attacking a city, or going underground. The dig special is essential for creating tunnels, and breaching enemy walls. They may not promote to a stronger unit, unlike the other six basic infantry units. Diggers, despite being "non-combat", are still subject to auto-attack.
Diggers are frequently popped with siege towers. Towers also act as barricades between diggers and enemy units, and are used to prevent diggers from forced engagement. It also allows diggers protection when attempting to breach enemy city walls, and have a battering ram option for breaching a city gate. Most importantly, siege towers will allow a certain number of non-combat units to ride on it without it costing the units any move (siege towers will need to be pushed/pulled by other units, however). Siege towers are made of wood, and are vunerable to being set on fire.
To summarize, units can be either melee or ranged, and have a short, middle, or long range. All choices have benefits and drawbacks.
What is Auto-Attack?
It was mentioned before that everyone wishes to fight in this world, and that is ESPECIALLY true for basic infantry. Auto-attacking is the compelling sense that, whenever a unit is confronted by another unit that is not from an allied capital, he must drop whatever he is doing and launch a direct attack on the enemy. Unit may not sneak over to ambush, and will generally scream out while charging. There is no chance of the target not knowing he is being targeted by an infantry that is auto-attacking. It is simply an overwhelming rush to attack.
Units that auto-attack are not allowed to select their targets for fighting. They do a randomization selection instead, as outlined in section 11.
Scouts/Orders/Fortifications/Capture
All units are subject to the auto-attack, with one exception. Any unit with the scout special can avoid this compulsion. Furthermore, if given orders by a unit with the commander special that is still in the general area (also known as being within the hex. Terrain hexes are explained in chapter 5), units can resist the urge to auto-attack. Also, physical impediments, including fortifications, can prevent engagements. Digger units are typically stationed inside a siege tower, and will remain inside it for as long as the tower remains intact (this can be to the digger's detriment. If tower catches fire, tower still counts as intact, so they are likely to just cook inside it).
Scouts: Scouts are not subject to auto-attacking, and can determine their own engagement. During combat phases where the enemy cannot counterattack, scouts can focus on a single unit to kill him early. Once regular combat begins, scouts must be paired off with other units, and can only continue to gang up on a target if there are no unengaged enemies that can attack them instead.
Orders: If a commander is in the area, he can order basic infantry to not fight. By doing this, infantry can avoid giving into their urge to battle. As long as the units are in the same area as the commander, and the commander is alive, this can remain the case. However, the moment the commander is no longer in control, they begin auto-attacking again, they will do so by auto-attacking. How commanders work in battle will be discussed in chapter 4.
Fortifications (Rolling Siege Towers): Digger units tend to pop with small siege towers. Small siege towers are structures that can hold 16 small sized units within. They are designed to protect diggers from engagements, and diggers will be fine staying within one, even when there is a battle going on. Towers must be pushed/pulled by other units, ideally by a single large sized unit, and the tower has the trait that it will not cost move when non-combat units are traveling within it.
Other fortifications can also be created. Diggers can make trenches, and cities count as a fortification as well.
Capture: Capturing is an option during combat for units. Normally not done during battle, but even units that are subject to auto-attack can capture. Doing so makes the fight more difficult, however. Units can apply a battle penalty to themselves by lowering battle stats by -1 (can't capture if total is below 0). This stacks with the -1 penalty when shooters are forced into melee range, and for being unarmed. This means that an unarmed (-1) archer, that is trying to capture (-1) a unit, that is fighting back using melee attacks (-1), has a -3 penalty to battle stats, which would put the archer (normally battle stats of 1) at -2, Having battle stats below 0 means failing battle rolls, so this archer would be useless for capture attempts.
When attempting to capture, unit can only inflict base damage that is reduced by half (1 dmg / 2 = 0.5). This is known as a glancing blow. When the target gets to 0 hits, instead of dying, he is put into a stunned state until the end of the next round, after which he will recover. Upon recovery, hits go back up to 1. Touching the target, while stunned, will automatically capture him. This can be done by any allied unit, not only the one that stunned him. Capturing attempts is something that must be decided before battle rolls are done.
Example: An on-turn stabber has a current combat of 2. By lowering combat (the battle stat used while on-turn) by -1, he can attempt to capture by doing glancing blows. Base damage is reduced by half (1/2= 0.5). Every successful hit now does 0.5 damage. When target gets to 0, unit is stunned until the end of the next turn, and then hits are restored to 1. Next turn, the stabber touches the stunned target and target is captured. Capture attempts that use glancing blows never kill, but can render the target stunned/unconscious.
When captured by an infantry unit, captured unit becomes imprisoned. A pair of handcuff is auto-magically generated on the wrists of captured unit. Non-command units will now obey the orders of any unit of the capturing side. Unit's move is also dropped to 0. However, if captured unit is in physical contact with the captor, or is part of the captor's personal stack, he can cross the hex border (hex boarders is a topic that will be discussed more in section 5) as well, as if he was an item belonging to the captor. Custody of the prisoner can be changed before leaving the hex where he was captured, but not after. At the start of the next turn, captured unit is no longer considered as an item, and has move as usual.
Command units do not need to obey commands given. In order to force compliance, captor must make physical contact with captive, think about capturing, and the leash and collar will form. As long at the unit is holding the leash, the captive must follow along with wherever the captor is going. Captor can use the collar to stop a unit from talking, or to decapitate captive at the end of a combat round where the unit took no other actions. Leash disappears should the captor lose his grip on it.
Captor can additionally create shackles for the legs, which will limit the movement of the captive to 1/2 maximum move.
In the case where the captive is incapacitated, captor will have to carry the captive. Captor can carry/drag one same sized unit but is unable to do anything other than carry captive (this includes fighting). Doing this reduces captor's move by half.
2. Combat (basic battle rules)
The combat stat is used when a unit is making battle rolls while on-turn.
Here is how the most basic sort of 1vs1 combat works for armed/armoured units.
Current battle stat (combat/defense) must not be lower than 0, or else unit automatically loses all battle rolls, and must do a saving throw vs crit.
If opposing units both have stats below 0, then both are considered to have lost the roll and take normal damage, no crit roll.
Check ammo of shooters. If ammo is less than 1, then unit must fight unarmed.
Check for penalties.
-1 to battle stats, if unit is a shooter currently being attacked by a melee attack.
During skirmish/initiative rounds, units roll 1d10 + battle stat. Higher total wins, and damages opponent. If both totals are equal, the round is a draw. No damage is done.
During normal combat rounds, quick combat rules are used (see below).
Damage done is always a set amount. Basic infantry normally do -1 hp.
When a basic unit's hits is at 0, or less, he is dead.
Note: All units in this chapter are basic units, but 'advanced' units are critically incapacitated instead (explained in chapter 2).
After defeating the enemy group, if there are no other enemies in the area, lower ammo by -1. After ammo has been lowered, unit can spend time to regain +0.5 ammo.
If the enemy had a successful retreat with at least 1/2 of its force, unit may not recover ammo.
Reminder: +1 to combat, -1 to hits when unit has the 'striker' trait. See section 6.
While it's possible to be unarmed, especially for shooters with ammo that is below 1, infantry units are always assumed to have a weapon. The reason for that is, even if a weapon is lost, it will re-pop at the unit's side on the next day. With his weapon, damage is normally 1 point, although there are methods to increase this number, by using various methods that will be discussed later on.
If the infantry unit cannot equip himself with the weapon type he was originally specialized to handle, then the unit must fight unarmed. The auto-attack compels this action. He may not attempt to use a different type of weapon. Fighting with a weapon he doesn't know how to use brings both battle stats to -1.
Quick Combat: This is a single roll that determines all normal combat.
-If results are equal. First round has armoured units taking no damage, while unarmoured units suffer minimum damage (minimum damage is the listed base damage, which is 1 point for small units. This number can not be increased), and both units do normal damage (normal damage is the listed standard damage, plus modifiers) to each subsequent round.
-If player wins the roll by +1 to +3, he does damage every round, while the loser only does damage on every odd numbered round.
-If player wins the roll by +4 to +6, he does damage every round, while the loser only does damage every even numbered round.
-If player wins the roll by +6 to +9, he does damage every round, while the loser only does damage on odd numbered round, starting on the third round (first round is skipped for loser).
-If player wins the roll by +10, or more, loser rolls to save vs crit, if critical hit fails, treat as a +9 result. Initiative/Ambush/Skirmish rounds are not rolled for.
3. Defense (battle rules)
Defense is used in the exact same way as combat, except it's for when a unit is off-turn.
Just like how infantry are assumed to be armed, they are also assumed to be armoured. However, this is not always the case. Scouts, alone among the basic infantry, do not wear armour at any time. When unarmoured, a draw result is changed to being a minimum blow instead.
Minimum Blow: A minimum blow is the base damage a unit normally can inflict. When inflicting a minimum blow, damage can not be increased above the base damage, and there is no chance to crit the opponent.
Here is a series of rules that show how a fight goes when one unit is fighting with more variables, such as being outnumbered and/or unarmored.
Current battle stat (combat/defense) must not be lower than 0, or else unit automatically loses all battle rolls, and must do a saving throw vs crit (enemy must be capable of inflicting a critical hit for this).
If opposing units both have stats below 0, then both are considered to have lost the roll, and each take minimum blows, no crit roll.
Check for penalties. All penalties stack.
-1 to battle stats, if either unarmed or attempting to capture (can only do glancing blows for damage, which is one-half base damage. No crits).
-1 to battle stats, if unit is a shooter currently being subjected to a melee attack.
-1 or -2 to battle stats, if outnumbered (can be avoided).
-2 to defense stat, if the unit pops with a shield but is not able to use it (tossers are the only basic infantry that pop with shields).
Check ammo of shooters. If ammo is less than 1, then unit must fight unarmed.
Rules for being outnumbered.
If outnumbered by one opponent (2 vs 1), check to see if unit is on/off-turn. If off-turn, no penalty. If on-turn, -1 to battle stats, OR
-1 to battle stats while outnumbered by 2 (3 vs 1), OR
-2 to battle stats while outnumbered by 3+ (4+ vs 1), and rolling a 1 to attack does no damage, even if result is higher than opponent.
If the battle stat that is currently in use ever falls below 0 (combat while on-turn, or defense when off-turn), unit auto-loses. No battle roll is done.
Reminder: Outnumbered penalty stacks with unarmed/projectile/capturing penalties.
If outnumbered, unit rolls 1d10 for each unit it can attack, and then one more time to defend vs all other units attacking.
Add a situational modifier (see section 7) of +1 to defensive battle rolls vs projectiles, if infantry has the protect trait, and add another +1 if the unit is shielded. Total of +2.
Deduct a situational modifier (see section 7) of -1 to defensive battle rolls vs projectiles, if infantry has the striker trait.
During skirmish/initiative rounds, If attacker's total is higher, outnumbered defender takes damage, if attacker's total is lower to the defender's total, no damage. If the result is equal, it counts as a draw
With a draw result, neither armoured unit takes damage.
With a draw result, both unarmoured units suffer a minimum blow (glancing blows are explained in the unarmed/unarmoured section below).
During normal combat rounds, quick combat rules are used (see below).
If outnumbered by four, same sized, opponents at the end of a combat round unit will be automatically defeated/captured.
Cannot be auto-defeated if all four attackers use the projectile style of fighting.
Can be auto-defeated, even if opponents have negative values for battle stats. Four units, even unarmed, will always auto-defeat a single same-sized enemy if they survive to the end of turn.
When a a basic unit's hits is at 0, he is dead.
Note: All units in this chapter are basic units, but 'normal' units are critically incapacitated instead, which is explained in chapter 2.
After winning, if there are no other enemies in the area, lower ammo by -1. After ammo has been lowered, unit can spend time to regain +0.5 ammo.
If at least 1/2 of the enemy group has successfully retreated, unit may not search for ammo.
Reminder: +1 to defense, -1 to combat when unit has the 'protective' trait. See section 6.
Even if you have higher stats, and perfectly block every attack coming at you, numbers will cause your defeat at the end of a combat round, if you are outnumbered 4 : 1. As was said in the introduction, you are not a hero, that can go alone to fight hordes of enemies indefinitely. You are just another person that exists, and no one can survive unrelenting numbers. For reasons outlined later on, generally speaking, enemy units tend to not keep piling on after 4 units. If there is no one else to attack, they will stand nearby and simply replace any fallen allies at the start of the next turn. This allows a gap to avoid being auto-defeated, if one enemy unit can be killed every turn.
Shields
All units know the basics of using a shield. Unlike with weapons, no special skill is needed. When using a small shield, the 'shielded' trait is added to the unit's character sheet. Being shielded means that there is a situational +1 to battle stats when defending against a projectile (see section 7). Fighting with just a shield always counts as fighting unarmed (half damage; reach is no longer applicable).
If an infantry unit, with the protect trait, uses a one-handed weapon, that unit will have a shield as standard gear, and must have it equipped, or else defense drops by -2. Furthermore, in order to gain the +1 benefit, unit must be actively fighting with it.
'Fighting with it' means that unit must be actively engaging in a fight. That doesn't mean that the unit must attack, but unit is not considered to be using his shield while retreating, surprised, or incapacitated (can use despite losing the initiative round, as long as unit is not in the surprised state, which requires adv. initiative).
If a unit is willing to forgo a weapon, any unit may use a shield. Assuming it can be acquired. Weapons that don't pop with a unit tend to be difficult to acquire.
Note: There is also the option of equipping a large shield, which gives a flat +2 to battle stats, along with the standard +1 situational modifier to defensive battle rolls vs projectile attacks. Unfortunately, you cannot attack with a large shield equipped, and the heavy shield lowers move by -1. It's not something basic infantry units use. It takes a full combat round to equip/remove a large shield. Unit is considered to be prone when doing so, and all attacks made against him during this time will automatically hit.
Unarmed/ Unarmoured
If unarmed:
Damage is calculated by halving the unit's base damage (half of one damage equals 0.5), this is known as a glancing blow.
Glancing blow damage cannot be increased.
Critical hits (read section 8) are not possible when unarmed.
Weapon type/style is technically changed to short range melee.
Units, including melee units, no longer have a reach stat. They can not cleave, can not defend from cleave, do not get a free attack vs retreating units.
No damage is done to the opponent if result is a draw, even if opponent is unarmoured.
Unarmed units suffer -1 to battle stats.
Shooters that run out of ammo must fight unarmed, and take an additional -1 penalty to battle stats.
You can attempt to capture while unarmed, but it causes another -1 battle stat penalty. Damage from being unarmed and capturing stacks.
Same sized enemy can either be stunned until the end of the next round, or be knocked out for 10 minutes, when reduced to 0, or less, hits. Unit will always restore to 1 hit after recovering from being stunned/unconcious. If attacked again while stunned (auto hits), unit will be incapacitated the unit for the rest of the turn, a third hit will critically incapacitate (skip this step, if target is a basic unit), and a fourth will croak.
Glancing Blow: Cause half of base damage, which is 0.5 damage for basic infantry units. In the case of a infantry fighting, that means he takes damage of -1 (or 0.5, if attacker is unarmed). Glancing blows CAN NOT reduce hits below 1, but can render target stunned/unconscious, if target should have been brought down to an hp of 0 or less.
If unarmoured:
Always suffers a minimum blow on a draw result against an armed enemy.
Minimum blow damage cannot be increased.
Critical hits are not possible when inflicting a minimum blow.
When doing a saving throw vs crit, the difficulty class is raised by +5 (natural 20s still succeed).
Minimum Blow: Base damage of a unit, which is -1 damage for basic infantry units.
In addition to taking damage on a draw result while fighting, unarmoured units also have a higher chance of suffering critical hit damage (instant death). However, certain actions are only possible while unarmoured, such as being able to swim.
One of the interesting things of Erfworld is that the inhabitants do not bleed, and they have an extremely high tolerance for pain. As a result, no additional factors need to be considered. You take damage when you get hit. Do you have any hits left? If yes, keep fighting.
Units will only stop fighting when hits get to 0, or below. At that point, basic units usually die. This is the most straightforward of the four stats.
Living units must have hit stat that is above 0.
Unit can fight normally until hits are reduced to 0.
When a basic unit's hits is at 0, he is dead.
'Advanced' units are critically incapacitated (dying) at 0 hits, which is explained in chapter 2.
Reminder: +1 to hits/ -1 to move, when unit has the 'sturdy' trait. See chapter 6.
Units can never have a movement stat that is lower than 0 (most 0 move units are generally plants).
Move has four seperate aspects, in regards to traveling. Strategic move, tactical move, retreating, and initiative.
1. Strategic move is the ability to travel through 'hex borders', which are invisible walls that seperate parcels of land from each other. Every time a border is crossed, it lowers strategic move, until it goes down to zero. At this point, the border becomes impenetrable until move is restored at the start of the next turn. Hex borders are further explained in chapter 5.
2. Tactical move translates to being able to move 5' for every point of move the unit possesses during a combat round (example: 6 move means moving 30' per round).
3. Retreat is an option that can only be chosen by units not affected by auto-attack, and unit have a higher move then pursuers in order to be successful.
4. Combat initiative is a bonus round of fighting that takes place once opposing units enter melee range, losers can only defend for the initiative round.
To determine initiative, players each take the unit with the lowest speed in their group.
Speed is the total value of the move stat, plus appropriate modifiers (crossbowers have a -2 modifier).
Higher speed wins initiative.
In the case of a tie, roll dice to determine who chooses unit pairings first. Winner will not gain initiative.
If entire group has advanced initative and the opposing group does not, the former wins, regardless of move.
If entire group has the appropriate terrain specialization, and the opposing group does not, the former wins, regardless of move, or advanced initiative.
If a single member of the group is a non-combatant, and opposing group does not have any non-combatants, the former loses, regardless of any other factors.
The above results only applies if opposing units are within 1 size category of each other.
Reminder: +1 to move, -1 to defense, when unit has the 'quick' trait. See section 6.
If you wish to use figurines and a tactical map, then every point of move equals 5', being prepared means being at least 3+ turns of move away (all of these turns will count as skirmish rounds), while being surprised means means enemies are within 1-2 round of move of each other. No attacking can be done initially, when surprised. If ambushing, ambushers can can move twice, and attack once, before the initiative round. During battle, units move first, then attack. However, for the purposes of simplicity, it will be assumed no maps are used, and movement will be largely kept to the abstract. Move is not overly important for this kind of battle, as units are assumed to get to where they need to go by next turn. In terms of battle, move is primarily important for the determination of initiative.
Hex Borders: The terrain of this war-game world is divided up by a series of invisible barriers that are shaped in a hexagon pattern when looked down from above. The exact territory is unknown but a rule of thumb is that each area measures, at least, a mile in diameter, and it can be ,uch larger (a city site is entirely enclosed in a single hex, no matter how big that city is). Whenever a unit passes through one of these barriers, his strategic move goes down by a predetermined amount, when move hits 0, the barriers become solid for the unit and he may not travel further until the start of next turn, when his strategic move is refreshed. A local area is considered to be all the space that is within these barriers that form a hex pattern. Therefore, the local area can also be said to be within the hex space. When fighting battles, the encounter is not considered to be over until all enemies within the hex are either dead, or retreated outside of the hex (some exceptions apply).
Retreating: Basic infantry do not typically retreat, even when the battle is clearly lost. The mechanics of retreating is detailed in chapter 2.
Initiative
Initiative is determined by the move stat of the slowest unit in a given battle group, plus modifiers, which represents the total speed. The modifiers are.
Size: Explained in chapter 2.
Terrain specialization: Basic units can not aquire this, and it will also be explained in chapter 2.
Advanced initiative special: Exclusive to stabbers among the basic units. Auto-wins initiative, unless opponents also have this special.
Non-combatant: Auto-loses initiative against opponents that don't have this trait. If both sides have a unit with this trait, there is no initiative round.
Ambush bonus: When ambushing surprised opponents, ambushers raise +1 to speed when determining initiative.
Long range projectile penalty: Crossbowers have a -2 penalty when determining initiative.
Initiative has two aspects. The first is that the winners of initiative will be allowed to attack the enemy, once, at the beginning of melee fighting without risk of taking damage themselves. The second is that it allows the winner first choice in deciding which unit class/race will fight the other unit class, while the initiative loser gets to decide which individual pairings from among the two classes selected will battle. Groups that have non-combatants will auto-lose initiative, unless the opposing group also has a non-combat unit.
Example: Player#1 has two stabbers vs player#2 who has two pikers. Player#1 auto-wins initiative, due to advanced initiative, so he decides that the stabber group will fight the piker group. Player#2 now can decide that he wishes his piker#1 to fight stabber#1, while his piker#2 will fight stabber#2. The stabbers now can now attack during the initiative round, in which the pikers cannot counter-attack. Then normal combat begins.
In order to decide who will get initiative, you first look at the combat grouping of allied units. Whenever a group of allied units gather together, they naturally form a group, and this group/stack will move at the speed of its slowest unit. This is true, even if every other unit but that one has excellent move.
Initiative is decided by taking the units of each respective stack with the lowest speed, with the higher speed unit winning initiative for his respective stack. If result is a tie, there will not be an initiative round. Roll dice to determine who will win the right to select unit pairings first.
Example: Stabbers have a move of 6, and also have 'adv. initiative' special. Pikers have a move of 6. They have no additional bonuses. First stack has a group of stabbers and pikers, while the second group only has pikers. To determine initiative, the pikers would be compared, since all units have a move/speed of 6, and pikers do not have adv. initiative, making pikers the slowest units of both groups. The compared pikers both have a move of 6 which means a tie. Therefore, no initiative round. Now a tiebreaker is done, and the second group wins the roll.
Once battle is engaged, initiative stays the same until there are no more enemy units within 2 round combat range, and no ranged units are firing from or upon the stack. At which point, initiative can be recalculated to take into account allied units that have croaked, or new units that have joined the stack.
Surprised vs. Prepared
There are two special phases that take place before regular combat round. These are the skirmish, and initiative, rounds. Whenever combat begins, a stack will start off in one of two states. Surprised, or prepared. While not directly related to the move stat, these two states have a influence on how initiative affects combat.
PREPARED: When both sides are prepared, it means that all units will have a bit of time to get themselves ready for the battle ahead, as well as analyze the enemy's forces.
Determine initiative: No modifiers. Roll 1d10 for each opposing group and add total speed stat. High roll wins initiative. Tie means no initiative.
Skirmish round: All shooters will be able to shoot at the enemy before being forced into melee. Archers/Crossbowers can shoot twice, while tossers can fire once.
Initiative round: Side with initiative can attack, while side without initiative can only defend. If neither side won initiative, this round is skipped.
Normal rounds: Continue, and resolve, all fighting.
SURPRISED: When both sides are surprised, there is no skirmish round, and there is no roll for initiative. Instead, all units with 'advanced initiative', and the appropriate 'terrain specialization' fight during the initiative round. Among the basic infantry, only stabbers have either of these specials. If neither group has stabbers, then initiative round is skipped.
Determine Initiative: No rolls to determine initiative. Units with the Advanced Initiative special can attack this round, while other units cannot.
Skirmish round: None.
Initiative round: No side has initiative, but every unit with the 'advanced initaitive' special (from either side) can attack once. All other units units have a -1 to defend, cannot attack, and canot use shields for the round (no +1 bonus for defending vs projectiles).
Normal rounds: All units are no longer considered to be surprised. Resolve the fighting in this state.
AMBUSH: When one side is surprised but the other side is prepared, it counts as an ambush. All ambushing (prepared) units gain a +1 bonus to speed for determining initiative, and have a free attack during the skirmish round. All ambushed (surprised) units suffer -1 to battle stats during the ambush (skirmish) round, cannot use shields, and are considered to still be in the surprised state during the initiative round, unless the units have advanced initiative special.
If the ambushed party does not have any units with advanced initiative, then it auto-loses inititiative. If it does have adv initiative, then compare move of the slowest ambushed unit with the advanced initiative special vs the slowest ambusher unit with advanced initiative (which has a +1 bonus). Highest total wins initiative.
NOTE: The only basic units capable of ambushing on their own are scouts, and they cannot prevent other units from attacking before an ambush is ready. It is not something that happens during normal infantry combat.
Determine Initiative: Prepared/Ambushing units gain a +1 bonus to speed when determining initiative.
Skirmish round: Every ambushing unit can attack once. All ambushed units have a -1 to defend, cannot attack, and canot use shields for the round (no +1 bonus for defending vs projectiles).
Initiative round: Side with initiative can attack, while side without initiative can only defend. If neither side won initiative, this round is skipped.
Normal rounds: All units are no longer considered to be surprised. Resolve the fighting in this state.
There are times when not all units have the same amount of move. In these instances, the stack will move at the same move as the slowest unit, in order to remain a cohesive whole. If units get to far apart, they are no longer considered part of the stack, and stacks instinctively do not want to lose their numbers in such a way. This is the biggest disadvantage of being in a stack, and a big reason why stacks tend to be made up of similar units. Infantry with infantry, beasts with beasts, and so on.
With stabbers/scouts, it's especially important to keep them seperate from other units, as both these units have an initiative advantage over all other base infantry units.
Move vs. Reach
For same sized units, it is more valuable to have a higher move stat than to have a longer reach stat. The true value of reach appears when differently sized units show up (see chapter 2).
Note: As a quick summery. A longer reach can allow a melee unit to attack two seperate enemies during the same battle round. Short to mid-reach units must be one size larger, with at least a +2 reach rating over the target (if target has no reach rating, skip this requirement), while long reach units must be two sizes larger, with at least a +4 reach rating over the target. Being 3+ sizes larger grants an automatic reach advantage for melee units.
Move/Speed primarily comes into play during the initiative round vs opponents that are within 1 size category. Side with initiative can attack while the side without initiative can only defend. Move is also needed when staging a retreat. It is important at the start, and sometimes the end, of fights.
Reach, on the other hand, only really comes into play if an opponent tries to retreat, at least when fighting same sized units. If unit has a higher reach rating, he can make a final attack on a unit that has declared it is retreating, with a +1 to hit (auto-hits instead, if using quick combat rules). This is unlikely to show up, given how auto-attacking units fight. Shooters are better at attacking retreating units, as they can keep attacking for a few additional rounds after the opponent begins to retreat, just like they were allowed extra rounds to attack incoming enemies, when prepared.
Reach has a minimum value of 5', and all units that are within 5' are considered adjacent to a unit. Any target that is adjacent can be attacked.
6. Traits and Specials
Units in Erfworld, with only a handful of exceptions, are combat oriented. All the standard, basic, infantry units have a proficiency with one style of weaponry. But there are variations to this formula that are called traits, and additional abilities that are called specials.
Stat Traits
There are a total of four main stats, all of which have been shown already. In addition to the stats, units can be given up to four stat traits that increases one stat by a point, while decreasing a second stat by a point. Whenever a stat change happens, either positive or negative, a secondary effect is also created (Move alters saving throws, defense alters stealth, combat alters projectile defense, and hits alter outnumbered).
Quick: +1 move/-1 defense (additional change: all stat gains from leveling up are put into move)
+1 move, but cannot be armoured. Permanent +5 in the difficulty class (DC) of a save vs crit roll, due to being unarmoured.
Note: Fliers (sky terrain type, see chapter 3), who are naturally unarmored, suffer no additional penalty.
-1 defense, but gain +1 stealth (stealth affects hiding, and is explained in chapters 2 and 5).
Protect: +1 defense/-1 combat
+1 defense but lose -1 stealth
-1 combat, but situational +1 modifier when defending vs projectiles
Note: Infantry, with 1-handed weapons, that don't also have the striker trait (strikers can't use shields), pop with shields, which grants "shielded" trait (see below). Also suffers a -2 to defense stat when shield is not equipped.Furthermore, there is no shield bonus (but also no penalty) when a unit is retreating, surprised, or incapacitated.
Striker: +1 combat/-1 hit
+1 combat but situational -1 modifier when defending vs projectiles. Cannot ever gain the shielded trait.
Note: This penalty stacks with the -1 flier penalty when defending vs projectiles.
-1 hit but ignores the on-turn penalty for being outnumbered 2 vs 1.
Sturdy: +1 hit/-1 move
+1 hit, but suffers an off-turn penalty of -1 to battle stats when outnumbered 2 vs 1.
-1 move, but has the DC of a saving throw vs death lowered by -5, if armoured.
Note: Fliers, who are naturally unarmoured, gain no benefit.
Any units that already has a stat that would be brought to below zero after taking a trait, is not allowed to take the trait. Tiny units (explained in chapter 2) are not allowed to pick traits.
Wearing a shield/armour also counts as a trait, since it makes some notable changes. Generally speaking, units will not be wielding a shield, or be unarmoured, unless they have the protective/quick traits, but it can come up at times. Many units do not like to wear helmets, for instance. Not wearing a helmet doesn't cause the unit to be unarmoured, but does make it more likely that he can be critted.
Shielded: When holding a small shield, gain the shielded trait. If unit has the 'protect' trait, unit is assumed to always have a shield.
+1 situational modifier when defending vs projectiles. Modifier does not take place when unit is retreating, surprised, or incapacitated.
Shielded+: When holding a large shield, gain the shielded+ trait.
+2 battle stats; cannot attack ; +1 situational modifier when defending vs projectiles; -1 move. Situational modifier does not take place when unit is retreating, surprised, or incapacitated (the +2 remains, but the +1 while defending does not).
Unarmoured: Any infantry can fight without his armour. If unit has the 'quick' trait, unit is always considered unarmoured.
+5 penalty to the Difficulty class of a saving throw to avoid being critted.
Non-Combat: Auto-loses initiative vs any unit that does not also have this trait, when in the prepared state. Non-combat units do not have anything in the 'specifics' stat (which can be either reach or ammo). They cannot use projectiles, count as unarmoured, and gain no benefits from having a longer melee weapon. This means they cannot cleave, and cannot protect against being cleaved. Furthermore, wielded weapon counts as two-handed.
Basic: Infantry that have the 'basic' trait. You should think of them as being the canon fodder of your army. Faster to make, cheaper to maintain, but weaker in a fight than standard units of that size category.
Basic (small): In exchange for weakening the stats of your units, and dropping the favoured terrain trait (favoured terrain will be explained in chapter 2), this unit can pop more often per turn, and lower their individual upkeep than a normal unit.
DC is increased by +5 during saving throw vs crit (base DC is 0).
Dies at 0 hits. Basic units do not get critically incapacitated.
After overcoming damage reduction, all remaining damage dealt to heavies is halved.
Basic units are not allowed to have specials that directly change damage dealt/taken, or that have an effect that can increase the number of attacks per round (some exceptions to the latter).
Unchanged aspects.
Move remains the same.
Hit points remains the same.
Damage output remains the same.
Size listing remains the same (read chapter 2).
Bonuses.
1/2 upkeep.
*4 prodution rate (also known as pop rate) for standard basic units.
After the reductions, here are the basic small unit stats:
Stabbers and scouts are a bit special among the basic units, and get some bonuses, with the minor penalty of a slower pop rate.
+1 special (2 specials)
Note: Stabbers are allowed to have advanced initiative, despite it allowing for an uncontested attack during the initiative round. The scout special can also grant an uncontested attack, via ambushing).
+2 stats (stabbers get a +1 cbt/def, while scouts get a +2 move).
-2 units per day (pops 6 per turn).
There are also several variants of the stabbers/scouts that pop at 4 per turn, but still have the 5$ upkeep. There are a lot of unique jobs that need specialized units, such as manning static defenses, riders for mounts, managing cities, or even juggling (for entertaining the ruler and guests). Other units are conditional pops, such as seafarers, which can only be created in coastal cities. None of these are considered to be 'standard', however, and do not get a detailed analysis.
Specials
Basic infantry all have access to at least one special. For most, this special is called 'Promotion'. Standard stabbers also have a second special, called 'Advanced Initiative'. Scouts, as well, have access a different second special, which is called 'Scout'. Meanwhile, diggers only have access to the special that is called 'Dig'. Diggers also cannot be promoted, unlike other basic infantry.
Advanced Initiative: Auto-wins initiative vs opponent within one size category that does not also have this special (or the appropriate terrain specialization). When in the surprised state, units with this special can attack during the initiative round.
Dig: While all light infantry units are capable of walking around underground equally well, only diggers can create new tunnels. Created tunnels will auto-magically add lights, so that units can see. Diggers are also the only basic units that can burrow through a city's walls, which means dig also counts as a siege special variant. If there are no diggers, then the only way to get through is to smash open the gate. Diggers tend to pop in sets of 8, sometimes with with a siege tower, that protects them from enemy fire while they dig through the wall, or a battering ram, to smash the gate.
Promotion: Allows a ruler or chief warlord to spend smuckers to promote them to their advanced infantry (knight) class variant (cost: 2000$), or into a warlord (cost: 4000$). Every basic infantry, except diggers, has an advanced variant, or can promote to Warlord instead.
Scout: Allows an infantry to avoid auto-attacking, and to select combat targets, instead of randomly pairing up. They can also set up ambushes, retreat from battle, and other things. Scout is the minimum required special in order to create a player character, and the unit must also have promotion, if he is not a commander class unit.
Scouts as Player Character
So this RPG is mainly dedicated to a new, simpler world, where you start off as king, and will be having a fair amount of space to build up your kingdom before encountering others. However, it is certainly possible to roleplay as someone from before the great reset happened. If that is something you wish to do, then read on.
Player characters should pop as warlords. However, if popped as a different unit, such as a scout, or stabber, the unit will have access to the scout/promotion specials, which will allow the character the ability to become a warlord eventually. Player characters also will not instantly die at 0 hp, but will be incapacitated instead.
The Reason why the scout is the minimum requirement for a player character is because it is (along with commander) the only special that increases intelligence and self-agency.
Sometimes, a normal stack of basic infantry pop, and one of them ends up with the scout special. This is an additional special that comes at no additional cost to to the unit. Gaining the scout special can happen to any basic infantry type, except scout, which already has the scout special. Riders, archers, pikers, etc. Any basic unit can have this happen. Also, if they promote to knights, they will still retain the promotion special. For a PC, there should always be a path to becoming a warlord. When the extra specials are noticed, they are usually immediately given extra attention, and are far more likely to be slated for warlord promotion than typical infantry (exception: some royalist sides may actually treat the unit worse, given that they are against the idea of promoting infantry to warlord).
A scout can think in various ways that allow them tactics that other units are incapable of imitating. Generally speaking, the ability to do what you are told and an eagerness to fight and die for your side is of the highest importance. However, for scouts, that are frequently on their own, exploring the surrounding terrain, there are simply too many problems can arise to not allow for some increased problem solving.
Here is a tentitive list of the kinds of things a scout can do.
Allows an infantry to avoid auto-attacking,
Can use scout selection for battle pairing, rather than random selection.
Spotting for enemies. Many beasts hide, so if you can't spot, then it's hard to hunt.
Sneaking through terrain.
Hiding.
Peaking into adjacent hexes. Can see if other units are across the border.
Setting up ambushes
Retreating from battle.
Can fight defensively, although it stops unit from being able to attack.
Crouch? +1 defense vs ranged but move lowered by 1/3 (round down)?
Changing attack target while outnumbered.
Breaking with the group he is a part of (can charge ahead of a stack or fall behind and let them fight first).
Screening other units from damage. They tend not to do this (although duty may compel the action). Screening happens more often with Warlords, because they can order units to screen for them, rather than having to sacrifice themselves for others.
The ability to engage in alternative actions, such as gathering nearby arrows for future use during, not after, a battle.
Betraying his own side.
Can pass objects through the hex border without using move, even off-turn. Notes to warlords can be relayed in this way.
Can use the survey ability, which increases the terrain penalty hex by -1. In exchange, unit can learn the terrain types of all the hexes that border his own hex, along with major landmarks, such as roads, cities, or rivers.
There are many other actions he is capable of as well. This is not to say that other units cannot also do most of these actions, however. If a warlord makes a personal stack that includes non-scouts, player should treat them as if they also have the scout special, whenever following the orders of the warlord.
Should all allied warlords in a hex die, then all commands impressed into the non-scout are immediately forgotten. Likewise, since their warlord can only make a certain amount of personal stacks, he might dissolve the current stack in order to make a different one. If this is done, all orders are forgotten. In short, being a scout allows the player the most control over his own actions. If a player picked anyone else, they would severely hampered in what they could and could not do.
Promotion to Warlord: The player character can, and should, be promoted to warlord. If this happens, then player can select any of the weapon options. A stabber can become a spear warlord, or a knife thrower can be a bow warlord, for example. The same is true, of course, for promotion to the advanced class. Knight type units do not normally promote, but players should always have a path to become a warlord. Also note that kings are also warlords/commanders. Becoming a warlord is the requirement of ruling your own nation someday.
Additional note: There are times when information needs to be sent to the army leaders but a scout does not have enough move to get to them. In this case, the best way to send the message is to have other scouts nearby and the message can be passed off to one another. Assume that a typical infantry scout has to either physically get to the warlord in order to tell him of any discoveries, or hand a note to a fellow scout, who will then pass that note to another scout at the border hex wall until the chain gets back to the warlord in charge.
7. Additional Bonuses
In addition to the beginning stats of a unit and situational modifiers, there are also a variety of ways for units to add to their combat power.
Leveling Bonus
First off, the requirements to level will be dealt with in chapter 2. For now, all you need to know is that it exists, and these are the benefits from doing so.
Leveling gives permanent bonuses to starting stats, and the combination of starting stats and leveling bonuses form a unit's "base stats".
Level 2: +1 to movement
Level 3: +1 to combat and defence
Level 4: +1 to hit points
And so on. Every odd level gives a +1 to cbt/def (3,5, 7), while the even levels alternate in giving a +1 to movement (2, 6, 10) and +1 to hit points (4, 8, 12). Note: If you have the quick trait, all points can be given to the move stat. Even numbered levels give +1 move, while odd numbered levels give +2 move.
Warlord Bonus
Leadership is a special that all warlords have. The leadership special gives a battle stat bonus that is equal to the level of the warlord, this bonus can also be extended to any unit within a warlord's personal stack.
Furthermore, kingdoms normally appoint a chief warlord, who gives a chief warlord bonus to every unit on the entire side, except for other warlords, and units in their personal stacks (you either gain a warlord bonus, or a chief warlord bonus, never both). For as long as there is a chief warlord that is still alive, he will grant a variable bonus to the battle stats of all units that are part of the same side, and not under the leadership of a different warlord. The exact size of this bonus, almost always, varies from 1-3, depending on the chief's level.
At levels 1-2 there is no bonus for the side. At levels 3-5 there is a side-wide +1 combat/defense bonus. From levels 6-8 there is a +2 combat/defense bonus, etc. It's exceedingly rare to see a chief warlord with a level 9 (giving a +3 bonus), or above, due to the experience cost raising at an exponential rate. Generally speaking, only very well off sides can manage this, and a chief warlord with a level of 12 (+4 bonus) is so rare that even units that are over 10,000 turns old have been unable to achieve such a high level unit. The odds of this happening for a warlord would be less than one in a thousand.
Stack Bonus
A stack is a group of allied units moving/fighting together.
A warlord stack happens when a battle stack includes the warlord that is forming it. That warlord's leadership bonus is used, in place of the chief warlord bonus.
In addition to the leadership bonus, an additional stacking bonus is given to the battle stats of each unit in the group. Total bonus can be anywhere from +0 to +4 points.
"Stacking" is a general term that is colloquially used to refer to any group of units that are together. This can be as small as two units walking side by side, as large as every allied unit within the local hex space.
However, there is a big difference between a group stack, and a warlord stack, and a player should not confuse the two.
A "group stack" grants a passive level of date-a-mancy that causes the units to generally come to an unspoken agreement on certain actions, such as marching directions, or how to choose which enemy units each member of the stack will fight.
A "warlord stack" is when a battle stack includes a warlord. The warlord's leadership bonus is added to the total bonus, along with a stack bonus that is dependent on the number of units in the stack. If there are multiple warlords in a stack, the warlord that is leading the stack (normally, but not always, the warlord with the highest leadership) is the unit that applies his bonus to all units in the stack, this bonus replaces the leadership bonus of the other warlords.
The stack bonus starts at +1 point for a stack of two units, and increases by +1 point for every two additional units the stack has, up to a maximum bonus of +4 in an eight-unit stack. Any units above this number lowers the stack bonus by -1 by the same rate as it was increased. If the stack is fifteen units or more, then the total stack bonus is +0.
Example: A level 1 warlord makes a max stack with seven knights (total of 8 units). This gives the stack a stack bonus of +4, and a leadership bonus of +2, for a total bonus of +6. When a unit gets a +6 bonus over his base stats, damage is doubled (damage is tripled when the bonus is +12).
In order to benefit from this, the units of the group must be, at least, within visual range of each other, and would ideally be fairly close together. If for no other reason then due to the fact that a stack can't protect the warlord if they are not nearby.
If the warlord dies, all his leadership stacks he created dissolve immediately, which turns the warlord stack into a group stack. All orders given will be forgotten, and all combat bonuses will be lost.
Here is the stacking bonus progression.
One unit= +0 bonus
Two or three units = +1 stack bonus
Four or five units= +2 stack bonus
Six or seven units= +3 stack bonus
Eight units (MAX) = +4 stack bonus
Nine or ten units= +3 stack bonus
Eleven or twelve units= +2 stack bonus
Thirteen or fourteen units = +1 stack bonus
Fifteen units or more= +0 bonus
Situational Modifiers
Most stat modifiers are simply added directly to the relevant stat. For example, wielding a heavy shield grants a +2 modifier to battle stats, and a -1 modifier to move. This will apply for as long as the unit is holding the shield.
However, there are also situational modifiers. These modifiers are specific to the opponent you are fighting or the state you are in. Large shields have a situational modifier when defending vs projectiles, and when you are retreating, surprised, or incapacitated, that situational bonus does not apply.
When a unit has a situational modifier, check to see what the stat is before making any dice rolls. If the total is below 0, then that particular clash will be an automatic failure, but nothing else will be. This also works in the opposing way. If your stat would have been below 0, except that you have a situational modifier that brings the total to zero, or above, then that roll can be done as normal.
Example: An on-turn tosser is fighting 2 enemy units, which are a piker, and an archer. The tosser must use his combat stat of 0, since he is on-turn. Furthermore, the unit is outnumbered, and an on-turn unit that is outnumbered 2vs 1 takes a -1 to battle stats. Therefore, the tosser's stat is -1 when attacking either the piker or the archer, but is 0 if defending against the archer, due to the situational bonus of +2 when defending against projectiles (+1 from shield; +1 from protect trait). Therefore, the best move is to attack the piker (auto-fail) and defend against the archer (can roll to defend).
8. Critical Hits/ Fighting Moves
While the basics of fighting were covered in the combat and defense sections, some aspects were not properly explained. One of the primary things is how units decide who to target. Much like the compulsion to auto-attack, deciding who to face off against is largely the product of instinct, and not a thing that is consciously thought about.
Opposing melee units will always randomly pair up against units that are not engaged in combat already, as long as there are available units to do so. This will be explained in depth in section 11.
Saving Throw: Another extremely important thing to explain is the critical hit roll. Basically, crits can happen if there is a large disparity between the totals of opposing attack rolls.
Save vs Crit roll: Critting means unit is critically incapacitated, or dead. It doesn't matter how high, or low, the unit's hits are. Enemy attack must actually be capable of lowering the opponents hits by at least -1 hit point to crit. Cannot be critted by an minimum blow, or by a glancing blow.
If an attacker wins a battle roll by 10+ points, the loser must make a saving throw vs critting. Alternatively, if a battle stat is below zero, while the opponent's stat is 0 or above, the former must make a saving throw vs crit. Failing the saving roll means instant death.
You roll 1d20 when doing a saving throw.
Roll result must be above the Difficulty class (DC) of the saving throw.
A roll of 20 always succeeds, and a roll of 1 always fails, regardless of the DC.
The base DC of a saving throw is 5, but it is raised by the following.
+5 if unit is a basic unit.
+5 if unit is unarmoured.
+5 if unit is one size smaller then opponent (see chapter 2).
Automatically critted when hit, if unit is two sizes smaller, no saving throw is possible.
+10 if there is a disparity of 20+ points between opposing attack rolls.
Conversely, DC is lowered by the following.
-5 if unit has the tough trait, and is armoured.
-5 if unit is exactly one size larger.
-10 if unit is exactly two sizes larger.
Cannot be critted, if unit is 3 sizes larger, or more.
Failure means either critical incapacitation, or death, for the unit.
Critical Miss: Only happens if a same-sized target is facing 5 to 1 odds, or greater. When outnumbered 5 to 1, odd things begin happening, and they are entirely to the benefit of the outnumbered target. There is a high risk of units messing up when outnumbering a unit 5 (or more) to 1. This means that, even with auto-attack, units refuse to join in if the target is already being attacked by 4 units. Instead, they will wait for one of their allies to die, and replace him next round. This allows for a gap where the defending unit, if he can kill 1 enemy every round, can continue to avoid being auto-defeated. Warlords can order all units to attack anyway, however, damaging your own units/allies, even by mistake, is one of the few things that can lower moral for a side. Being killed by an enemy is one thing, being killed by your own side is another. This action is rarely done, even for a high value target.
Defender ignores the rule about not being able to deal damaging when rolling a 1. This penalty is given to the attackers instead. Whenever a attacker rolls a 1, the unit will hit either himself, or one of his allied melee units. If the allied unit is hit, he is auto-critted. If unit hits himself, he suffers a glancing blow, and drops his weapon (one round to reclaim weapon).
If there are no melee units attacking target, then the shooter hits himself as a glancing blow, and drops his weapon.
Fighting Moves: Most of the time, a unit will do a normal attack to the enemy that was decided during the combat pairings state. However, units can also learn other moves. Usually, you need the scout special to be intelligent enough to perform them, however.
Minimum Blow: Does base damage, no increases possible, no crits are possible.
Glancing Blow: Cause half damage, minimum 1 (must have a base damage of 1 for this to be the minimum). In the case of a infantry fighting, that means he takes damage of -1 (or -0.5, if attacker is unarmed). Glancing blows CAN NOT reduce hits below 1, but can render target stunned/unconscious, if target should have been brought down to an hp of less than 1.
Target shift: Only available with the scout special; must be outnumbered. When being attacked by multiple units, unit may change from the unit he is currently attacking to another unit that is attacking him.
9. Projectile Fighting
Projectiles are an interesting thing in Erfworld. The main limit of what you can hit is generally considered to be anything you can see within the area, unless blocked by a hex border area. Objects can be shot to distances that should not normally be possible, if you were considering only our Earth world physics. There is no hard and fast rule on how far away you can shoot.
Short reach projectiles can hit a fair distance. It's high enough to attack fliers that are just above the treetops. Erfworld doesn't really work with hard and fast rules on distance, however. Units are capable of gravity defying shots when going after high flying beasts, but seem to have more trouble aiming when it's against a ground based target.
If opposing units are considered to be of sufficient distance from each other, it can be ruled that they are out of range of this weapon type. General things that may cause this is if a tosser wants to attack someone manning tall walls of a city, or at the other side of a wide river. The target will be considered too high/far for the attacker to reach. Also, as was mentioned, short range can be considered sufficient to attack fliers that are in the lower sky zone, which is a bit above tree top height.
Middle reach projectiles have far fewer restrictions than short reach units, but there still are some. While they can hit most units that are higher up, and target units on the other side of wide rivers. Units that man city walls that which reach the maximum possible height are out of range. Fliers are targetable in the lower and upper sky zones.
Long reach projectiles have no restrictions. If you can see it, even if it's just a speck, then you can attack it (although it still cannot cross the hex border, of course). Long reach projectiles are the only weapon style that can target fliers in the top sky zone, an area where few fliers can travel.
Archer Stacks: For quick combat, the number of attacks that ranged units can do is fixed. One could say that a group of ranged units would be allowed additional time to fire before enemy melee closes in, since they are not required to close the distance, however. You can calculate this sort of thing out by checking move, and the distance between enemy stacks.
NOTE: For simplicity, treat all ranged fire as simultaneous, and only count deaths after all ranged fire is done for a round.
Ammunition: Shooters a limited amount of ammunition every day. For the purposes of simplicity, an exact ammunition count is not recorded. Instead, a single ammunition is considered to be enough to last for an entire combat encounter. It matters not if the encounter lasts long enough to fire one or ten projectiles, one combat encounter equals one ammo spent. Short reach projectile users, such as tossers, have enough ammo for a total of 2 encounters. Mid to long reach projectile users, such as archers and crossbowers, have enough ammo for a total of 3 encounters.
If a shooter wins a battle and can spend a few minutes searching, assume the unit can gather up 50% of spent ammunition. Winning generally means the croaking of all enemy units in the general hex space. If fighting against equivlent shooters, a GM may rule that a unit has gathered enough ammo to restore 100% of the ammo used.
Quick combat means acting as if all units are subject to auto-attacking, no ambushes, no retreating, and the priority is to finish battles as soon as possible.
Quick Combat Turn Order:
Select units: Players select units that will make up their respective battle groups, and check thier conditions. Be sure to check if shooters have at least 1 ammo, and that all units have their weapons equipped. If not, they must fight unarmed.
Note: Take note who is on/off-turn. Units of opposing sides can never be on-turn at the same time.
Situational State: Decide if opposing battle groups are either both prepared, or both surprised.
Note: As a rule of thumb, lets say that opposing units who are unaware of each other until they get get within 3 combat rounds worth of move count as surprised. If they have spotted each other outside of that range, then both groups are prepared.
Determine initiative: Players choose the unit with the least move in their respective groups and compare their respective speeds. Be sure to to check if these units have initiative bonuses (advanced initiative; favoured terrain), or penalties (non-combatant, long range shooter). Winning player, player1, will have initiative for the battle over player2.
If both groups have the same lowest speed, roll 1d10 (odds vs evens). The winner is player1, while the loser is player2. There is no possibility of having initiative when the decision is made in this way.
Determine 'Random' Parings: Read "Section 10.1: Randomized Selection", to understand the process of how to select units (below).
State of Battle: Players check to see their respective situational states, prepared or surprised. If both are prepared, select the prepared option, if both are surprised, pick the surprised option.
Prepared: Only read the "prepared" options for steps 6 and 7.
Surprised: Only read the "surprised" options for steps 6 and 7.
Note: There is also a third situation, where one group is prepared, and the other group is surprised. This is known as the ambush situational state (impossible to achieve from auto-attacking units), which will be explained in chapter 2.
Skirmish rounds: For every unit that is no longer paired with an opponent, make new combat pairings, according to the randomized selection rules you followed in step 4.
Prepared: All shooters will fire at the opposing group (skip round, if there are no shooters). Middle/long range will fire twice (long can fire 3 times vs fliers). Short range will fire once, before fight gets to melee range. All attacks auto-hit.
If unit has the shielded trait, during every round fired, one of the projectile attacks becomes a minimum blow.
If a target dies during the skirmish round, the archer stops shooting, even if there are combat rounds remaining.
If opposing groups can/will not close to melee range, ignore restriction on the number of skirmish rounds, and continue firing until one unit of each pairing is dead. After, make new pairings, according to rules in step 4, and repeat step 6.
Surprised: Skip round.
Initiative round: For every unit that is no longer paired with an opponent, make new combat pairings, according to the randomized selection rules you followed in step 4.
Prepared
With initiative: Player#1 attacks for one round, and all attacks auto-hit player#2's units.
Without Initiative: Skip round.
Surprised
All units that have advanced intiative, or the appropriate terrain specialization, can attack during this round. Units with neither special are in a stunned state. All attacks auto-hit. If there are no units with either special, skip round.
Begin Quick Battle: For every unit that is no longer paired with an opponent, make new combat pairings, according to the randomized selection rules you followed in step 4. Afterwards, players roll 1d10 for each combat pairing, and add the appropriate modifiers to the roll. All combat pairings must be concluded before doing anything else.
If results are equal, the odd numbered rounds have armoured units taking no damage, while unarmoured units take a minimum blow, and both units do normal damage to each other during the even rounds. Work through the rounds until one unit is dead.
If player wins the roll by +1 to +3, he does normal damage every round, while the loser only does normal damage on every odd numbered round (1, 3, 5) until one unit is dead.
If player wins by +4 to +6, he does damage every round, while loser only does damage every even numbered round (2, 4, 6) until one unit is dead.
If player wins the roll by +7 to +9, he does damage every round round, while the loser doesn't do damage on the first round, and then does normal damage on every subsequent odd numbered round (3, 5, 7) until one unit is dead.
If player wins the roll by +10, or more, loser rolls to save vs crit, if critical hit fails, treat as a +9 result.
Note: Initiative/Ambush/Skirmish rounds are rolled per round, but quick battle does one roll that lasts until the death of one of the combatants.
If a unit has his relevant battle stat below 0, then he is automantically critted.
Continue Battle: For every unit that is no longer paired with an opponent, make new combat pairings, according to the randomized selection rules you followed in step 4. Afterwards, repeat step 8. Continue this until all units belonging to a player is dead, then proceed to step 10.
Conclusion: Declare the winner of the battle.
Wrap-up:
Winning units gain experience points from the battle (experience points are explained in chapter 5).
Check to see if there are any other enemies that can be fought in the general area. If not, then all shooters lower ammo by -1. If enemies forces have been destroyed by over 50%, winning units can search to recover some of their ammunition. Restore ammunition by 0.5.
NOTE: Can only recover ammunition that is physical in nature. Magic ammo can NOT be recovered.
Note: In the case of using miniatures to show combat, units are always moved before combat.
Note: Counterattack is an action that is only permitted when being attacked by another unit. Cannot attack a different unit when counterattacking.
Randomized Selection
Several times, it has been said that attacks shall be determined "randomly". Instead of true randomization, however, the method used for this shall be for players to take turns deciding on the targets. Mainly because this way is faster...
Make sure you have determined who chooses pairings first, before starting random pairings, and that all the available units are listed.
Example: Player1 won first choice (lowest speed of both groups is 6, so no one won initiative). He has 2 stabbers, and 2 archers. Player2 has 3 pikers.
Player1 chooses one of his races/classes to fight against one of Player2's classes/races, and chooses the individual pairings from among the available options that were given due to this choice, until all units from the least numerous group is fighting at least one opponent.
Note: Human is an example of race, stabber is an example of class. All stabbers are human, but not all humans are stabbers, nor are all possible stabbers human. Pick the smaller group (you can choose human stabbers, not all humans, or all stabbers). Many times, race and class are the same.
Example: Player1 decides to pair his (2) human stabbers with player2's (3) human pikers. Stabbers1&2 are paired with pikers1&2.
Player2 chooses one of her races/classes to fight against one of Player1's classes/races that have not already been paired up (units that have been left over due to not being selected from a previous pairing count as a seperate group), and then does individual matchups until all the units of one of the two groups have been paired up.
Example: Player1's still has (2) archers remaining. As this is the only unpaired class left, Player2 must pair her piker with an archer. Piker3 will now be paired with Archer2.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all units of one of the two groups have been paired up.
Example: All of Player2's units have been paired. Continue to step 4.
If one player still has unpaired units remaining after all of opponents units have been paired, then a new round of pairing begins. Player2 is the first to choose this time around. Only units that have been paired once can be selected. If there is a third round, then player1 goes first again, and only units that have been paired up twice can be chosen.
Example: Player1 still has an archer remaining, but player2 no longer has any unpaired units. Therefore, a paired unit must be chosen. This starts a new round of pairing, and player2 goes first (player2 picks two pairings in a row). Player2 pairs his Piker3, who is already paired with archer2, with archer1. Now Piker3 is paired with archers2&1. while Stabbers1&2 remain respectively paired with pikers1&2.
Once all pairings are done, you can return to the combat turn order. Move on to the quick combat: Step 5, State of Battle.
Battle Rules
While quick combat is done during the combat steps (steps 8, and 9), normal battle is still done during the skirmish, and initiative, rounds (steps 6, 7) of the turn order.
During combat, players roll 1d10 and add appropriate modifiers. Higher result wins, and if the result is equal, it's a draw.
Relevent stats during a combat round between small sized basic units are...
Hit Points: Is lowered when successfully hit by the damage dealing value of the unit. Basic units die when the value gets to 0 or less.
Damage: Lists the amount of hp that is lowered when you hit the unit. All standard infantry do 1 damage, although this value can be changed by a few factors. Most notably, if a unit gains +6 bonus to a battle stat, damage doubles.
There are also other relevent aspects.
Unarmoured (Quick) Status: Takes damage during a draw result, and has a -5 penalty when saving vs crit.
Protect trait: +1 to roll when defending vs projectiles.
Shielded Status: +1 to roll when defending vs projectiles, as long as unit is not retreating, surprised, or incapacitated. This bonus stacks with the protect trait. No shielded bonus when shield is not equipped, and -2 to defense stat.
Can reduce one hit that has a damage increase to a minimum blows during each skirmish round.
Striker: -1 to roll when defending against projectiles during normal combat rounds.
Sturdy: +5 DC when saving vs crit (must be armoured).
Unarmed: Can only do glancing blows, which do 0.5 damage; -1 cbt/def; no crits; hits that cause unit to below 1hp, will count as a kill.
Projectile vs Melee: When a melee unit attacks a shooter, -1 cbt/def to shooter (melee must actively be attacking the shooter).
Ammo: When ammo is less than 1, unit must fight unarmed.
Outnumbered: -1 cbt/def when 2vs1 and on-turn (or off-turn, with striker trait); -1cbt/def when 3vs1; -2cbt/def when 4vs1. A roll of 1 means no damage, even if the result is higher.
Skirmish Round(s)
This is for shooters only, and they can only do it when prepared. Shooters must be in the prepared state, and have an ammo value of 1 or higher to shoot, or round is skipped.
Tossers can attack once during this, and archers/crossbowers can attack twice. If tossers are opposing archers/crossbowers, tossers must wait for the second combat round to attack.
Since units can only attack once per round, shooters must attack the first unit they have been paired with. This is known as a primary pairing. If the opposing unit is melee (or a tosser during the first round), that unit can only defend against the attacks.
Initiative Round
Each Primary pairing automatically takes damage from units that are capable of attacking.
If a unit is outnumbered 1vs4 at end of round, unit is auto-defeated.
BATTLE#1 1. Select Units: Both players have 1 piker 2. Situational State: Players 1&2 are prepared. 3. Determine initiative: 1d10; odd result means player 1 wins roll, but doesn't have initiative. 4. Determine Random Pairings: Player1 pairs his piker with the enemy piker (only one possible choice, but Player1 makes the decision). 5. State of Battle: Use prepared options for steps 6&7. 6. Skirmish rounds: N/A (no archers, so step 6 is skipped). 7. Initiative round: N/A (no initiative, so step 7 is skipped). 8. Begin Quick Combat: Player#1 wins roll with a +1 to +3 result. Player#2's piker dies at -4hp, while player1's piker loses -2hp. 9. Continue Combat: N/A 10. Conclusion: Player#1 wins. 11. Wrap-Up: No other enemies around. No shooters, so no ammo recovery. Winning piker gets exp.
I will now write down some small battles between infantry that gradually add more of the various rules mentioned in this chapter.
Combat order is as follows.
Blue (on-turn): Piker#1. Green (off-turn):Piker#1.
2. Situational State Blue and Green could both be either prepared or surprised, and it would make no difference. No one can win initiative either way, and battle pairing is already decided, since there is only one fighter from each group.
3. Determine initiative
Move is the same for both players, so no one has initiative. Furthermore, as there is only 1 unit in each of the opposing groups. Pairings are predetermined. Therefore...
The determination of initiative is skipped.
4. Determine Pairings
Player with initiative chooses the first combat pairing (Blue).
Blue'sPiker#1 is automatically paired with Green's Piker#1.
No Initiative
No initiative
Piker#1 hits= 4/4
Piker#1 hits= 3/4
This completes all combat pairings.
5. State of Battle
Used as a reminder for how steps 6 and 7 will go. Since both steps are skipped, it doesn't matter.
6. Skirmish Combat
Both sides are melee, so no skirmish combat is possible.
7. Initiative Round
Neither side won initiative, so this round is skipped.
8. Begin Quick combat.
Each player rolls 1d10.
Blue adds combat stat to roll (+1). Green adds defense stat to roll (+1).
Reminder: When on-turn, you roll combat stat. When off-turn, you roll defense stat. Whether you are actually defending or attacking is not relevent.
Blue rolls 5 (total: 6); Green rolls 2 (total: 3)
Blue wins by +3, so use the 1-3 win result
1-3 result is winner does normal damage every round, loser does damage every odd round.
Starting : 4/4; 4/4
Round 1: 3/4; 3/4
Round 2: 3/4; 2/4
Round 3: 2/4; 1/4
Round 4: 2/4; 0/4
Piker#1 is at 2/4 hits; Piker#1 is dead.
Piker#1 hits= 2/4
Piker#2 hits= 0/4
9. Continue Combat
All opposing units are dead. There is no continuation.
10. Conclusion BLUE WINS!
11. Wrap-up
There are no other enemies in the area.
There are no shooters. So no ammo to be lowered.
Blue (on-turn): Stabber#1&2. Green (off-turn):Piker#1&2.
2. Situational State Blue and Green are both surprised.
3. Determine initiative
Only units with the Advanced Initiative special can attack during this round. Blue has stabbers, and they have the advanced initiative special, so they can attack this round.
No initiative is determined, but Blue has units with the advanced initiative special, while Green does not. Roll dice to determine who makes the first random combat pairing. Blue wins the roll.
4. Determine Pairings
There are no scouts. All units will be randomly paired.
Player with initiative chooses the first (only) combat class pairing (Blue).
Blue pairs Stabbers with Pikers. Green pairs Piker#1 with Stabber#1. Green pairs Piker#2 with Stabber#2.
Initiative (combat)
No Initiative (defense)
Stabber#1 hits= 4/4
Piker#1 hits= 3/4
Stabber#2 hits= 4/4
Piker#2 hits= 3/4
This completes all combat pairings.
5. State of Battle
Choose the 'surprised' option for steps 6, and 7.
6. Skirmish Combat
Both sides are melee, so no skirmish combat is possible.
7. Initiative Round
Even though all units are surprised, stabbers can attack one turn earlier than normal, due to advanced initiative. Since they have also won initiative, they can attack during this round, and pikers can only defend.
Resolve the first pairing.
Each player rolls 1d10.
Stabber#1 adds combat stat to roll (+2); Piker#1adds defense stat to roll (+1).
Blue rolls 6 (total is 8); Green rolls 3 (total is 4)
Stabber#1 wins roll (by 4 points), and inflicts 1 point of damage.
Piker#1 are now at 3 hits.
Resolve the second pairing.
Each player rolls 1d10.
Stabber#2 adds combat stat to roll (+2); Piker#2 adds defense stat to roll (+1).
Blue rolls 4 (total is 6); Green rolls 8 (total is 9)
Piker#1 wins roll but cannot attack during intiative round. No damage is dealt.
Initiative (combat)
No Initiative (defense)
Stabber#1 hits= 4/4
Piker#1 hits= 3/4
Stabber#2 hits= 4/4
Piker#2 hits= 4/4
8. Begin Quick Combat:
Resolve the first pairing.
Each player rolls 1d10.
Stabber#1 adds combat stat to roll (+2); Piker#1 adds defense stat to roll (+1).
Blue rolls 7 (total is 9); Green rolls 3 (total is 4)
Stabber#1 wins roll by 5 points, resolvecombat using the 4-6 result.
If player wins by +4 to +6, he does damage every round, while loser only does damage every even numbered round (2, 4, 6) until one unit is dead.
Starting : 4/4; 3/4
Round 1: 4/4; 2/4 (-0; -1)
Round 2: 3/4; 1/4 (-1; -1)
Round 3: 3/4; 0/4 (-0;-1)
Stabber#1 is at 3/4 hits; Piker#1 is dead.
Resolve the second pairing.
Each player rolls 1d10.
Stabber#2 adds combat stat to roll (+2); Piker#2 adds defense stat to roll (+1).
Blue rolls 2 (total is 4); Green rolls 10 (total is 11).
Piker#2 wins roll by 7 points. Resolve combat using the 7-9 result.
If player wins the roll by +7 to +9, he does damage every round round, while the loser doesn't do damage on the first round, and then does normal damage on every subsequent odd numbered round (3, 5, 7) until one unit is dead.
Starting : 4/4; 4/4
Round 1: 3/4; 4/4 (-1; -0)
Round 2: 2/4; 4/4 (-1; -0)
Round 3: 1/4; 3/4 (-1; -1)
Round 4: 0/4; 3/4 (-1; -0)
Stabber#2 is dead; Piker#2 has 3 hits left.
Initiative (combat)
No Initiative (defense)
Stabber#1 hits= 3/4
Piker#1 hits= 0/4
Stabber#2 hits= 0/4
Piker#2 hits= 3/4
9. Continue Combat:
There is only one unit left on each side, therefore stabber#1 is auto-paired with piker#2.
Resolve the first pairing.
Each player rolls 1d10.
Stabber#1 adds combat stat to roll (+2); Piker#2 adds defense stat to roll (+1).
Blue rolls 5 (total is 7); Green rolls 6 (total is 7)
Tie. Resolve combat using the draw result.
If results are equal. First round has armoured units taking no damage, while unarmoured units take a glancing blow, and both units do normal damage to each other during each subsequent round until one unit is dead.
Blue (on-turn): Tosser#1&2. Green (off-turn): Crossbower#1,2&3.
All units are shooters, and will be attacking during this battle. Lower ammo for all units by -1.
2. Situational State Blue and Green are both prepared.
3. Determine initiative Crossbowers have a -2 to speed, making their total speed (4spd) lower than the tossers (6spd). Blue wins initiative.
4. Determine Pairings
There are no scouts. All units will be randomly paired.
Player that won (Blue) the pairing roll chooses the first (only) class/race pairing.
Player that lost (Green) chooses the individual units.
Blue pairs Tossers with Crossbowers. Green pairs Crossbower#1 with Tosser#1 Green pairs Crossbower#2 with Tosser#2
There is one Crossbower left, he must now be paired with one of the existing pairs.
Player that lost (Green) the pairing roll chooses the first (only) class/race pairing.
Player that won (Blue) chooses the individual units.
Green pairs Crossbowers with Tossers. Blue pairs Tosser#1 with Crossbower#3
Initiative (combat)
No Initiative (defense)
Tosser#1 hits= 4/4
Crossbower#1&3 hits= 3/3; 3/3
Tosser#2 hits= 4/4
Crossbower#2 hits= 3/3
This completes all combat pairings.
5. State of Battle
Choose the 'prepared' option for steps 6, and 7.
6. Skirmish Combat
All units are shooters, so all units can attack during this time.
Resolve the first pairing.
Round 1
Blue rolls 1d10, while Green rolls 2d10.
Tossers are short range shooters, and cannot attack until the final skirmish round. You roll defense once, no matter how many attackers.
Tosser#1 adds combat stat to roll (+0), and shield bonus (+2), minus outnumbered penalty (-1) Total: 1; Crossbower#1&3 adds defense stat to roll (+1). Total: 1
Outnumbered by 1 means a -1 penalty when on-turn, unless you have striker trait. Tosser is on-turn.
Shields give a bonus when not attacking.
Blue rolls 8 (total is 9); Green rolls 6&6 (total is 7&7)
Tosser#1 wins roll but is out of range, so no damage is done.
Round 2
Blue rolls 2d10, while Green rolls 2d10.
Tosser can attack, so he rolls once to attack, and once to defend.
Tosser#1 adds combat stat to roll (+0), minus outnumbered penalty (-1) to the first roll, and also adds the shield bonus (+2) to the second roll (defending only for second roll, so can benefit from shield). Totals: -1; 1; Crossbower#1&3 adds defense stat to roll (+1). Total: 1.
Tosser was defending in round 1, so he could use shield. No shield bonus when attacking. This puts him at -1, which means he auto-fails vs crossbower#1, and must roll to save vs crit (DC 5).
Blue rolls saving throw of 10, which succeeds, but still takes normal damage. Tosser#1 loses -1 hp.
Blue rolls 6 (result 8). Green rolls 9 (result 10) Tosser#1 loses -1 hp.
Tosser#1 is at 2/4 hp, while Crossbowers#1&3 are at full hp.
Resolve the second pairing.
Round 1
Blue rolls 1d10, while Green rolls 1d10.
Tosser#2 adds combat stat to roll (+0), and shield bonus (+2). Total: 2; Crossbower#2 adds defense stat to roll (+1). Total: 1
Blue rolls 5 (total is 7); Green rolls 6 (total is 7).
Draw result. Both units are armored. No damage.
Round 2
Blue rolls 1d10, while Green rolls 1d10.
Tosser#1 adds combat stat to roll (+0). Total: 0; Crossbower#2 adds defense stat to roll (+1). Total: 1
Blue rolls 10 (total is 10); Green rolls 3 (total is 4). Crossbower#2 loses -1 hp.
Crossbowers#2 is at 2/3 hp, while Tosser#2 is at full hp.
Initiative (combat)
No Initiative (defense)
Tosser#1 hits= 2/4
Crossbower#1 Hits= 3/3
Crossbower#3 Hits= 3/3
Tosser#2 hits= 4/4
Crossbower#2 Hits= 2/3
7. Initiative Round Blue won initiative, so the Tossers can attack, while the crossbowers can only defend.
Resolve the first pairing.
Round 1
Blue rolls 2d10, while Green rolls 2d10.
Tosser#1 adds combat stat (+0), minus outnumbered penalty (-1), to the first roll, and also adds the shield bonus (+2) to the second roll (defending only for second roll, so can benefit from shield). Totals: -1; 1; Crossbower#1&3 adds defense stat to roll (+1). Total: 1.
Blue rolls saving throw of 4, which is below the DC of 5. Tosser#1 crits.
Tosser#1 is at 0/4 hp, while Crossbowers#1&3 are at full hp.
Resolve the second pairing.
Round 1
Blue rolls 1d10, while Green rolls 1d10.
Tosser#2 adds combat stat to roll (+0). Total: 0; Crossbower#2 adds defense stat to roll (+1). Total: 1
Blue rolls 8 (total is 8); Green rolls 2 (total is 3). Crossbower#2 loses -1 hp.
Crossbowers#2 is at 1/3 hp, while Tosser#2 is at full hp.
Initiative (combat)
No Initiative (defense)
Tosser#1 hits= 0/4
Crossbower#1 Hits= 3/3
Crossbower#3 Hits= 3/3
Tosser#2 hits= 4/4
Crossbower#2 Hits= 1/3
8. Begin Quick Combat:
Crossbower#1&3 are auto-paired with with sole remaining blue unit, Tosser#2.
Resolve the remaining pairing.
Blue rolls 2d10, while Green rolls 3d10.
You roll once to attack, and once to defend.
Tosser#2 Rolls adds combat stat to roll (+0), minus outnumbered penalty (-1), to both rolls, and adds shield bonus to the second and third rolls; Crossbower#1,2&3 adds defense stat to roll (+1).
When outnumbered 3 vs 1, you get a -1 battle stat penalty that applies on, and off, turn.
Blue rolls 13. Successful save (DC 5). Use 7-9 loss result.
If player wins the roll by +7 to +9, he does damage every round round, while the loser doesn't do damage on the first round, and then does normal damage on every subsequent odd numbered round (3, 5, 7) until one unit is dead.
Blue rolls 6 (total is 7) vs Green's roll of 4 and 8 (totals are 5 and 9). Meaning a 1-3 win result (can't damage enemy though), and a 1-3 lose result.
If player wins the roll by +1 to +3, he does normal damage every round, while the loser only does normal damage on every odd numbered round (1, 3, 5) until one unit is dead.
Loss of 7-9 vs Crossbower#1, and win of 1-3 vs crossbower#3
Starting : 4/4; 3/3 ^ 1/3 ^ 3/3
Round 1: 2/4; 3/3 ^ 1/3 ^ 3/3 (-1-0; -0-0; -1-0)
Round 2: -1/4; 3/3 ^ 1/3 ^ 3/3 (-1-0; -1-0; -1-0)
Tosser#1is dead, Crossbowers#1&3 are full hp, and Crossbower#2 is at 1hp.
Blue (on-turn): Piker#1. Green (off-turn):Piker#1.
2. Situational State Blue and Green are both surprised.
3. Determine initiative: 4. Determine Pairings:
Player with initiative chooses the first combat pairing (Blue Green).
No Initiative
No initiative
Piker#1 hits= 4/4
Piker#1 hits= 3/4
This completes all combat pairings. 5. State of Battle: 6. Skirmish rounds: 7. Initiative round: 8. Begin Quick Combat: 9. Continue Combat: 10. Conclusion: 11. Wrap-Up:
13. Advanced Rules
Some of these touch on subjects that will be dealt with later on, while others give a few added rules for players that want a few optional details added to the game.
Section 3
Armour typically comes in three pieces, breastplate, helmet, and greeves, and add a total of 5 points toward preventing being critted. Greeves gives a +1 (16+), helmet gives a +3 (19+), and breastplate gives a +1 (must roll a natural 20 to crit). In addition, as as long as the unit wears the breastplate, he does not suffer from glancing blows. All three pieces of armour must be removed in order to gain the quick trait of -1 defense and +1 move.
.
. Section 4
In order to properly croak a unit, the final blow must be in the torso/head zone. A unit can lose his arms, and legs, but still survive, as long as he avoids being stabbed in the critical area. This is not to say that losing an arm doesn't cause damage. It simply will not not kill him. Also, smaller amounts of damage will not trigger a hit loss. A finger can be cut off without taking a hit, but having your hand chopped off would, unless the unit only has 1 hp left.
This rule shall be very important for size modifiers, when that feature is implemented. Tiny creatures have to roll a 1d10 and get a 10 to damage medium/small units. This is why swarming is an important tactic for things like bats and rats.
This also applies with light type units, attacking heavy type ones. Heavy units gain a damage ignore special that allows them absorb damage. When this happens, there is still a 10% chance to inflict 1 point of damage by rolling a 1d10 and getting a 10.
Important characters may not be knocked unconscious when critically incapacitated. Roll a saving throw.
. Section 10
If there are terrain penalties within the hex terrain you are inside the boundary of, your maximum initiative is dropped by that amount. Movement penalties subtract your max movement by the amount of the hex penalty for as long as you remain in the hex. Meaning, while your infantry may have a 6 move normally, in a forest hex, his move is only 4. Therefore, 4 will be the number you determine initiative by.
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Chat GTP has been a major success. It's really helped me up my writing ability.
I've never been more sastisfied with the the results of my chapters than I am right now. I feel like I'm very bad at being a concise writer, and GTP really helped me lowe the word count while also being a lot easier to read.
I cut chapter 1 down by about half, while I cut chapter 2 down by over a third.
Chapter 1
Old version: 16k words (19.7k with example battles).
New version: 8.4k words (10.7k with example battles).
Chapter 2 (finished on Feb 9, 2024)
Old version: 12.1k (13k with example battles).
New Version: 7.0k (8.1k with example battles).
Here are some short examples of how I cleaned my my messy writing style.
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Size Differential Rules: OLD
When same size,
All units inflict normal damage.
When unit has a stat penalty for being outnumbered, a 1 result when doing an attack roll does no damage.
Outnumbered unit will be auto-defeated, if outnumbered by 4+ at end of turn.
At least one of the attacking units must be melee.
Difficulty class (DC) for a save vs crit roll is 1 (or 6, if unarmored). If you roll the DC, or above, you make the save.
Increase DC by +5 (6 or 11), if unit is a basic unit.
Rolling a 20 is always a success, and a 1 is always a fail, regardless of the DC.
Roll has a -5 modifier, if unit lost the roll by 20+.
Maximum number of same sized units that may attack without risking a 'critical miss' is 4.
Maximum penalty for being outnumbered is -2 to battle stats (cbt/def).
NEW
Unit Size Differential: 0
Damage: Standard damage.
Save vs Crit: 5 DC (assumes armoured status; +5 if unarmoured).
Outnumbered: Apply standard penalties when outnumbered by 1 vs ≤4.
Auto-defeat if 1 vs 4 at end of combat round (min 1 melee).
Critical-Miss: Apply when outnumbering by 5+ vs 1.
Information provided in both versions:
1. Standard damage is listed for both
2. Listing the 1 result when outnumbered is not needed because it's part of the standard penalties. Units outnumbered by 4+ don't do damage on a roll of 1.
3. Auto-defeat I left in, because the number of units needed to auto-defeat changes, while outnumbered penalties do not.
4. Minimum 1 melee needed to auto-win listed for both.
5. Save DC information was already written in the proper section, so I removed the information that did not change.
6. Critical miss included for both.
The information is the same, but the new version is far more concise, and easier to read.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "Quick" Battle Rules: OLD
Select units: Players select units that will make up their respective battle groups, and check thier conditions. Be sure to check if shooters have at least 1 ammo, and that all units have their weapons equipped. If not, they must fight unarmed.
Note: Take note who is on/off-turn. Units of opposing sides can never be on-turn at the same time.
Situational State: Decide if opposing battle groups are either both prepared, or both surprised.
Note: As a rule of thumb, lets say that opposing units who are unaware of each other until they get get within 3 combat rounds worth of move count as surprised. If they have spotted each other outside of that range, then both groups are prepared.
Determine initiative: Players choose the unit with the least move in their respective groups and compare their respective speeds. Be sure to to check if these units have initiative bonuses (advanced initiative; favoured terrain), or penalties (non-combatant, long range shooter). Winning player, player1, will have initiative for the battle over player2.
If both groups have the same lowest speed, roll 1d10 (odds vs evens). The winner is player1, while the loser is player2. There is no possibility of having initiative when the decision is made in this way.
NEW
Select Units: Choose units for battle groups, ensuring all conditions are met.
Take note of on/off-turn status.
Situational State: Determine if respective groups are prepared or surprised.
If within 2 rounds of move = surprised; spotted beyond = prepared.
Determine Initiative: Compare each group's lowest evasion unit. Add initiative bonuses/penalties (quick reference at 10.2). Higher total wins initiative.
Tiebreaker: Roll 1d10 (odds vs. evens); skip step 7.
When ambushing, ambushers auto-win initiative.
Information provided in both versions:
1. New doesn't need to state you need to check to be equipped and have ammo.
2. Both take note of on/off turn
3. Both talk about on/off turn, but new is more concise.
4. Speed changed to evasion. Has a mention of section 10.2 to go over the initiative bonuses, rather than listing them. I could list them again. I don't have a strong opinion on this, but since I was trying to lower wordcount, I decided that this information could be moved.
5. Tiebreaker mentioned.
6. No player1/player2 nonsense. I honestly thought I needed to do this, but when Chat GTP did the rewrite, I realized how unnecessarily wordy I was being.
Again, information is the same, but the new version is much less confusing.
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I've been writing and re-writing chapters 1 and 2 for a few years now, and this is the first time I've felt sastisifed enough with them to do a major rewrite of chapter 3.
Chapter 3 has had various issues to solve. For instance.
Cavalry units.
Had this fixation that the rider and mount would both be able to attack every round, but that was just too complex, so it's just one attack, and they count as a single unit, with various bonuses.
Neutral units (wildlife).
For sided units, you are forced to auto-attack unless you are a scout, so I thought that all wildlife needed to be scouts as well, but I scrapped that and went with the idea that they didn't have to auto-attack and could hide, and all that. However, scouts still had other advantages, so it was still useful, even if it wasn't needed to stop auto-attacking.
Flyers.
Fliers move a lot faster than ground units, and can generally decide if they want to engage in a fight or not vs ground. I need to balance that out. The biggest disadvantages I'm giving them is that they do half damage vs similarly sized units.
Shooters.
My goal with weapon ranges was that short range is an inferior version of medium range, while long range has an advantage over med but also a disadvantage. I didn't like how I balanced that out, so I changed it so that long reach gets an extra attack before melee combat, but has a lower ammo count. Also I decided that a general penalty I had for shooters, became specific for long reach shooters instead. I feel that this is better than the previous setup.
Carry capacity.
Mounts should be able to carry more than just the rider, so I reworked how many passengers could ride on them.
Lot of old stuff that needed to be updated. Ended up doing some work on the previous chapters, but nothing major. Overall. I feel I made good progress. I think chapter 3 is looking good at this point, and after that is done I can focus on warlords, which is another old chapter I haven't done a proper updating of in forever.
First, I'll go over what I identified as areas of interest.
Cavalry units.
Rider and mount combine into a single unit. +1 to battle stats. Rider specials are shared with mount. If rider is 1 size smaller than mount, then cavalry unit gains the rider's weapon specialty (eg. mount is a short reach melee, rider is a long reach shooter. Cavalry becomes a long reach shooter).
Neutral units (wildlife).
Changed auto-attack so that it's a forced behavior for sided units, but not for wildlife.
This makes 3 behaviors. Auto-attack, can choose to attack, and advanced options (scout).
Flyers.
In addition to the half damage, I lowered maximum ammo by 1. Battle stats are lowered by 1. Fliers can carry fewer riders. Are unarmoued and are stuck to short range, can't have favoured terrain or the siege ability (free for ground type heavy infantry units), can't dash (fliers have higher base move, but ground can use dash to move faster sometimes).
I also decided that fliers are not allowed to become basic units, which is an additional battle disadvantages, for economic benefits. Combining flying disadvantages with basic disadvantages was a bit too much.
I think this makes it clear that ground units are superior at fighting, while fliers excel at mobility.
Shooters.
Long reach shooters have ammo lowered by 1, and take 1 point battle stat penalty when fighing armed melee.
Carry capacity.
Calculate how much a mount can carry by the number of passengers, rather than by weight.
Those were just what I listed. I made a whole host of changes. Both to chapter 3, and chapters 1 and 2, as working on chapter 3, identified issues that I hadn't noticed, and caused more changes. Here is the list.
CHAPTER 1
Groups are spotted/hidden (not prepared/surprised), which leads to prepared/surprised/ambushed battle.
Stunning takes more prominence. Adv Init works by lowering time for stunning by -1. If Stun lasts 1 round, don't stun.
Long range shooters suffer -1 to battle stats vs armed melee units, not melee with reach which (outdated term).
"Group Stacking" replaces "Stacking Bonus". Warlord stack bonus is moved to chapter 4.
Protect infantry pop with shields. +2 vs projectiles if shield equipped. Otherwise, no bonus.
Shields changed to always give bonus when equipped, even when retreating/stunned/incapacitated.
Non-combat means unit counts as being unarmed, which also means -1 battle stats and no specifics.
Non-combat means units count as being unarmoured. Diggers are armoured, so sturdy counters that.
Non-combat are not affected by auto-attack.
Quick/Sturdy just gives additional modifiers to DC to fliers. Was having fliers not gain benefits/penalties before now.
For basic units, armed damage to same-sized regular enemies is halved. But only if damage is 1 point or more.
Shields/protect: full defense gives a bonus to battle stats. Shields normally give a penalty when attacking with a shield but protect negates
Situational modifiers are deleted.
Rolling 1d10 for crit saves. Base chance is 3 DC.
Outnumbered penalty is lowered; 1 vs 2 = -1 ; 1 vs 3+ = -2
Critical miss no longer erases penalties for being outnumbered.
Auto-lose no longer applies if both sides are below 0.
Explicitly state that auto-loss only happens during battle rolls (battle#3 makes this mechanic clear)
Example battles must be changed to incorporate new hit/miss mechanics during skirmish and initiative rounds
Outnumbered 1vs4 roll of 1 result means unit does no dmg on round 1.
Outnumbering units don't roll during battle bouts. Does normal damage every second round instead.
Critical miss is now save vs crit rolls for all units not attacked during the first round.
Battle Bouts is the primary way of fighting, not rolls per round. It's time to update the language to reflect this. "Quick combat" is actually the norm.
The secondary units do damage every odd round if smaller, but every even round otherwise.
Winner/loser definition is replaced by first/second selectors, since the loser can also pick first, so this sounds better
Draw result counts as a either no damage (armoured) or a glancing blow (not minimum blow, which is for stats below 0). I had mixed messaging.
CHAPTER 2
Basic units do half damage vs same sized units (nerf for stabbers vs regular small units).
Reworking size differentials
Lowering critical misses to 4vs1 or 8vs1.
1 result is an auto-fail to damage at 4vs1 when same sized ONLY.
Block: ignore damage from one successful projectile hit per round.
Swarms raise battle stats by +2 (half swarms by +1). Keeps stat spread more even vs larger units.
Cleave targets 2 units with one die roll, and the higher statted unit rolls for counter-attack, not both.
Stat bonus for swarms is based on lowest statted swarm unit.
Stunned scouts are the ones that can't use scout select, not surprised scouts. Treat as normal after stunned wears off.
Target shift can't be targeted to scout secondary pairings during battle bouts.
During pursuit, retreating unit must have a higher roll then persuer.
Melee can only pursue 1 retreating unit.
Area attacks are properly implemented.
CHAPTER 3, Version 1.0
Changed rules for prisoners. They have no move. Must be assigned a jailor to move. If jailor rides a mount, captive must ride same mount to travel with jailor.
Neutrals end turn at dusk, but also end turn whenever move is either full or 0.
Long reach shooters have normal evasion stat
Long reach shooters have ammo reduced by 1 (ammo: 2/2)
Eliminate -1 vs melee with reach, except for long reach shooters
Long reach shooters gets three attacks during prepared skirmish rounds.
anti-flier special removes -1 melee vs reach penalty when fliers attack
get a +1 to a stat (evn, mv, hp, cbt, OR def) when trading mount/siege.
Only riders can 'ride' mounts. This turns the mount/rider into a cavalry unit.
Calvary units have a carry capacity that is greater than the weight of the rider.
Any humanoid ground unit can be carried by the cavalry unit.
Fliers cannot be carried.
garrison can be assigned but no lowering of upkeep. Benefit is limited to no extra cost from training/leveling.
Cavalry unit no longer counts the rider as part of the carry limit, unless large sized (-12 to carry).
Dash incorporated better?
When rider attacked, base damage can not exceed that of the rider. That prevents a quick blow on rider. Mount is supposed to keep rider safe.
Allowing misses/glancing blows, and additional modifiers, during skirmish/initiative rounds, instead of just auto-hitting.
Quick battle renamed to battle bouts.
Neutrals can end their turn early.
flyers have 2 ammo, not 3.
Incapacitation extends battle bouts.
Stun carries to the start of the next battle bout.
Neutrals must use defense while on turn if move is full or empty.
Tiny fliers take double damage, rather than half hp.
Slam rules changed to fit with the new area attack rules.
Tar suffocation/capture rules alters to fit with new slam rules.
The PC re-targeting idea is being moved to chapter 4 as a backline idea.
Carried units with rider special are now treated as secondary pairings, and can join in on the bout fight.
Carried units without rider special are treated like riders, only unable to fight.
Change chapter 2 Target Selection Methods to Target Selection. It's not two seperate methods anymore, it's one combined method.
Made the unit selection in line with previous chapters. Fixed the examples of unit selection in chapters 2&3.
NOTE: Changing auto-hits during skirmish/initiative was the catalyst for starting at chapter 1 again. I also got all the way to chapter 2, when I realized that the outnumbering rules were clunky so I changed to a fixed damage every other round, which put me back to chapter 1.
Began February 8th. Ended May 30th.
And that's it for chapter 3. Chapter 4 will be editied next. It's focused on the command units that lead the armies. I consider commanders to the the player characters, and important NPCs, of the game.
Anyway, if anyone wants to discuss my rules. I'm trying a discord. Basically using it to write down my thoughts on how to develop my RPG.
PS. This might seem like a selfish request, but I use extensive anchors on my game rules. The fact that some of them have reactions, while others don't, alters how my "bottom of section" anchors line up (so does whether or not I have threadmarks, but I can control that). If it's not a bother, could someone please make sure every post on page 1 has a reaction? Thanks, if you do.
