Unless otherwise stated, 1 manpower is equivalent to the manpower provided by 2 parcels of land. A better way to think of this is that 1 parcel of land provides 0.5 manpower per year.
The base unit for all land regiments is the Infantry Regiment, hired at a cost of 1 Manpower and 1 Ducat, with an upkeep of 1 Ducat/year. Each unit has two upgrade 'slots' - a unit can be trained up after hiring (or at the same time as hiring) by paying the upgrade cost and it will gain the benefits of the new upgrade. Upkeep costs will usually increase as well.
Personal guards are automatically hired as Infantry Regiments, with the first personal guard regiment having a -1 Ducat discount to hire and all PG regiments having a -1 manpower discount to hire (but only 1 hire per year). Thus, hiring cavalry personal guard would actually require 1 manpower to recruit, as the cavalry upgrade has a +1 manpower requirement.
No unit can have more than 2 upgrades, though it might be possible to research expensive upgrades that are simply more powerful than their predecessors. Replacing an upgrade (when both slots are full) requires the full upgrade cost for the new upgrade be paid. There is no refund for the upgrade it replaces (except for specialists, who are released as they would be on a unit disband).
Base Units
Infantry Regiment: Str 1. Basic land unit.
Hire Cost: 1 Ducat, 1 Manpower
Upkeep: 1 Ducat/year
Siege Tower: Str 0. Basic siege unit. +2 Str vs walled fortifications.
Hire Cost: 1 Ducat, 1 Engineer
Upkeep: 1 Ducat/year
Light Warship: Str 1. Basic naval unit. Can transport 1 Unit. Unless otherwise noted, transported units cannot fight as part of naval battles.
Hire Cost: 1 Ducat, 1 Sailor
Upkeep: 1 Ducat/year
Land Upgrades
Heavy Unit I: Str +1.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat
Upkeep: +1 Ducat/year
Cavalry: Str +1. +1 Str on plains, steppe or open fields, or when defending a hill (but not where also defending a walled fortress). Without access to the Horse resource, a maximum of 1 Cavalry regiment can be recruited per kingdom per year.
Cavalry troops conver +1 to Tactics rolls involving them.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat, 1 Manpower (After the first unit/year, requires access to Horses.)
Upkeep: +1 Ducat/year
Ambush: +2 Terrain bonus when conducting attacks or defence using only Ambush-capable troops. Terrain bonuses are normally provided to defenders of hilly, mountainous or heavily forested regions - terrain bonuses overlap, they do not stack. Ambush-capable troops can get the terrain bonus when attacking, however. Note that this bonus applies to the stack as a whole, not to individual units.
Ambush troops confer +1 to Tactics rolls involving them.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducats
Upkeep: +1 Ducats/year
Raider: Can conduct hit-and-run raids on markets, ports or settlements with a chance of avoiding a fight. On a simple 1d6 roll of 4+ Raiders may avoid combat and withdraw after the raid with collected loot, unless the defenders also possess Raider-capable troops or Scouts. In this event a battle involving only the raider-capable troops/Scouts will take place.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat
Upkeep: (No additional cost.)
Pike/Reach: +3 Str vs Cavalry-capable units.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat
Upkeep: +1 Ducat/year
Scout: Confers ambush immunity (combat vs stacks including scouts negate the +1 terrain bonus enjoyed by Ambush units). Can defend vs raids, but not otherwise raider-capable. On a simple d6 roll of 3+, can escape from any combat before battle starts.
If used to boost a scouting check (i.e. the whole unit is split up and deployed for scouting) provides a +2 to the RtD scouting roll, but on a natural 1 enough scouts are captured or lost that the unit is destroyed.
Can pass through enemy territory undetected on a simple d6 roll of 4+. Does not confer this benefit to non-Scout units.
Can be used to counter-scout (find and eliminate other scouts) within an area, adding a -1 penalty per Scout unit to enemy scouting checks, but these units cannot be used for anything else.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat
Upkeep: +1 Ducat
Archer: +1 Str when defending. Additional +1 Str when fighting on hills or mountains (attacking or defending), or when defending walled fortifications.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat (Requires access to High Quality Wood.)
Upkeep: +1 Ducat
Disciplined: +1 Str when defending.
Upgrade Cost: 0.5 Ducats
Upkeep: +0.5 Ducats
Berserker: +1 Str when attacking.
Upgrade Cost: 0.5 Ducats
Upkeep: +0.5 Ducats
Tactician: +2 to Tactics rolls involving this unit. A skilled captain commands this regiment.
Upgrade Cost: 0.5 Ducats
Upkeep: +0.5 Ducats
Siege Upgrades
Catapults: Str +1. Str +2 defending walled fortifications.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat
Upkeep: +1 Ducat/year
Ballistae: Str +1. Str -1 vs walled fortifications, Str +1 defending walled fortifications. Str +1 vs cavalry, ships or siege.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat
Upkeep: +1 Ducat/year
Naval Upgrades
Heavy Ship I: Str +2. (Carracks are a heavy ship.)
Upgrade Cost: 2 Ducats, 1 Sailor
Upkeep: +2 Ducats/year
Offensive Drill: +1 Str when attacking.
Upgrade Cost: 0.5 Ducats
Upkeep: +0.5 Ducats
Defensive Drill: +1 Str when defending.
Upgrade Cost: 0.5 Ducats
Upkeep: +0.5 Ducats
Tactician: +2 to Tactics rolls involving this unit. A skilled captain commands this regiment.
Upgrade Cost: 0.5 Ducats
Upkeep: +0.5 Ducats
Be warned, I've rebalanced several units accordingly. Scouts retain their abilities but are now twice as expensive to recruit (since they can do a
lot, when you think about it - the conferred ambush immunity alone is worth it), Ambush units are now twice as powerful for their cost (buffed to bring them in line with Archers), Cavalry has been nerfed to remove its automatic Raider-capability but has gained a Tactics bonus. A couple of extra upgrades have been added (Berserker & Disciplined) to offer slight offensive/defensive-specific improvements.
There's a new Specialist, too:
Sailors: Needed for shipbuilding. Ports produce 1 Sailor/year.
Finally, I've added a somewhat involved Tactics system based off McJohnston's tactics during the last Weylander battle. I'll be welcoming suggestions for additional tactics to add to the roster.
Tactical Movement
It may be advantageous in battle to specify using certain units to attack others whilst leaving other units behind, or else to split enemy forces to take them on piecemeal. Attempting to pull off tactics more complex than a straight charge or holding position as a clump of forces whilst the enemy attacks requires a Tactics roll. Given the simple success/failure nature of Tactics rolls, these are handled with a simple d6 roll rather than RtD rules.
The base success threshold for any Tactical manoeuvre is 3; i.e. roll 3+ on a d6 to succeed. Each tactic added to the manoeuvre increases the success threshold, making it harder to pull off but allowing you to combine multiple tactics. Unit or PC bonuses (e.g. from Training) can provide bonuses to the Tactics roll. Enemy tactical bonuses decrease the tactics roll. Failure usually has consequences related to the attempted manoeuvre.
Flank the Enemy: Attempt to attack your enemy from the sides or rear at the risk of getting caught exposed. On a success, +1 to the battle roll. On a failure, -1 to the battle roll.
Difficulty: +2
Split the Enemy: Split the enemy into two or more portions to engage each part separately. On a success, can engage fractured army according to own disposition. On a failure, -1 to battle roll.
Difficulty: +1, additional +1 for each unit in the enemy army that will not be engaged by your own troops.
Special: Split the Enemy is always checked first, independent of any other tactics combined with it. On a success, any tactics combined with split the enemy are rolled for each fraction of the enemy engaged. On a failure, all combined tactics are rolled vs the full enemy army with an additional +1 difficulty.
Negate Terrain Bonus: Attempt to gain the high ground. On a success, enemy terrain bonus negated. On a failure, -1 to battle roll.
Difficulty: +2, but see special.
Special: If this tactic is combined with a successful attempt to split the enemy, the difficulty is reduced to +1 for the main body of the enemy army and +0 for any other fractions.
Force Rout: Try to get the enemy to rout with a potentially reckless charge. On a success, if the fight is a victory (not a loss or draw), destroy 3 enemy units instead of 2. On a failure, -1 to battle roll.
Difficulty: +2
Conserve Forces: Hold your men back just enough to avoid unnecessary losses. On a success, if the fight is a victory (not a loss or draw), lose no units from attrition (normally 1 unit lost). On a failure, -1 to battle roll.
Difficulty: +2
Scale/Breach Walls: Try to reduce the effectiveness of the enemy defences by breaching or scaling the walls. On a success, -1 to enemy structural defence bonus. On a failure, -1 to battle roll.
Difficulty: +2
Edit: So technically, you could use a two unit stack with Cavalry/Ambush and Ambush/Tactician to get a total +4 Tactics bonus (+2 Tactician, +1 Ambush, +1 Cavalry) with an effective 6 Str on open plains (total 3 base unit Str, +1 Cavalry plains bonus, +2 Ambush terrain bonus) and a
certain chance of either getting a bonus +1 to the battle roll or avoiding unit attrition on a victory (Base Tactics needs roll 3-6, Flank/Conserve makes it 5-6, -4 from Tactics bonuses makes it 1-6). If they felt like taking a risk, they could wager a 67% chance of pulling off both a bonus +1 and conserving attrition, but it would be weighed against a potential -2 to their battle roll on a failure.
Of course if said stack faced a single Piker/Scout unit (1 Base Str, +3 vs Cav, negates Ambush terrain bonuses) it would actually find itself in a dangerously even battle (effective Str 4 on both sides), though the Tactics bonuses would give it a chance of winning out. Unless the Piker/Scout was combined with a Cavalry/Tactician unit as well, bringing down the overall Tactics bonus to just +1 (and bringing the effective Str of the Piker/Scout+Cavalry/Tactician combo up to 6).
But your deadly Piker/Scout+Cavalry/Tactician anti-Cav, anti-Ambush combo would find itself in dire straits trying to attack a pair of Archers on a hill (7 effective Str inc. the terrain bonus, whilst the combo only has 3 effective Str without the cav bonuses), especially if one is an Archer/Tactician and can negate their tactics bonuses. Woe betide attacking Archers on a hill behind walled fortifications.
So yeah, this could get interesting.
Author
Topic: You are King! (Spring 315a) (Read 187671 times)