The rules of Warfare, redesigned not to be as ridiculously broken.The recruitment and management of units:Regiments: The base unit for warfare is the regiment. It represents a single cohesive unit of soldiers, who act as one on the battlefield.
Recruitment: To recruit a basic regiment costs one manpower and one ducat. Regiments take a month to become available.
Elite Regiments: In rare circumstances, elite regiments may be available for recruitment. These cost twice as much in manpower and ducats as a basic regiment, and take a season of training to become available.
Ships and Siege weapons: A basic ship costs one ducat and one sailor specialist to recruit. It takes a month to become available. A basic siege tower costs .5 ducats to recruit. It takes a month of construction to become available.
Personal Guard: Any character with the appropriate authority (basically any authority at all) can recruit a personal guard; loyal forces which cost one less manpower to recruit (so a basic regiment requires no manpower). You may only have one unit of personal guard. If you start with a regiment, that regiment is your personal guard. Only in the most exceptional circumstances will a PG unit not remain loyal to their owner.
Upkeep: Units cost upkeep, which varies depending on their upgrades. A basic regiment costs one ducat in upkeep. This is paid once a year, at the start of spring.
If you cannot pay for a unit’s upkeep, the unit disbands. Make sure your finances are in order when spring comes!
Upgrades: There are various upgrades which can be applied to various units. See the section on Upgrades.
Upgrades:Upgrading Units: To upgrade a unit requires ducats and possibly manpower. Some upgrades also require access to a certain resource. These upgrades can be bought without the resource, but only once per year per kingdom. Upgrades can only be performed in friendly territory. Upgrading takes a month per upgrade. During this time, the regiment must stay in the same location, and will only be available for defensive duties.
Removing/Replacing Upgrades: No refunds.
Number of Upgrades: Most units can have two upgrades. Elite regiments can have three. Duplicate upgrades are not allowed.
Base Units
Infantry Regiment: Str 1. Basic land unit.
Hire Cost: 1 Ducat, 1 Manpower
Upkeep: 1 Ducat/year
Elite Regiment: Str 2.
Hire Cost: 2 Ducat, 2 Manpower. Requires capacity to recruit elite regiments.
Upkeep: 2 Ducats/year
Siege Tower: Str 0. Basic siege unit. +1 str when attacking walled fortifications.
Hire Cost: 0.5 Ducats
Upkeep: 0.5 Ducats/year
Light Warship: Str 1. Basic naval unit. 1 transport space (for cargo or units). 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
Heavy Unit II: Str +2. Heavy I must be acquired first; Heavy II replaces Heavy I
Upgrade Cost: 2 Ducats.
Upkeep: +2 Ducats/year
Heavy Unit III: Str +3. Heavy II must be acquired first; Heavy III replaces Heavy II
Upgrade Cost: 3 Ducats, Iron.
Upkeep: +2.5d Ducats/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). Cavalry troops confer +0.5 to Tactics.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat, 1 Manpower, Horses
Upkeep: +1 Ducat/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: For each reach unit in the army, the bonuses from the Cavalry upgrade of one unit in the opposing army is negated.
Upgrade Cost: 0.5 Ducats
Upkeep: +0.5 Ducats/year
Scout: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.
Archer units are naval combat-capable, but due to the high movement of naval combat lose their defensive bonus from archery. Other bonuses can still remain in effect.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat, High Quality Wood.
Upkeep: +1 Ducat
Longbows: +1 Str. +1 Str when defending. Additional +1 Str when fighting on hills or mountains (attacking or defending), or when defending walled fortifications. Archer must be acquired first; Longbows replaces Archer
Naval combat-capable, but due to the high movement of naval combat lose their defensive bonus from archery. Other bonuses can still remain in effect.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat, High Quality Wood.
Upkeep: +1.5 Ducats
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: +1 to Tactics. A skilled captain commands this regiment.
Upgrade Cost: 0.5 Ducats
Upkeep: +0.5 Ducats
Marine: Counts as a Sailor specialist on a ship. If unit is removed from ship, ship is unusable till sailor is replaced.
Naval combat-capable.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat
Upkeep: +0.5 Ducats
Siege Upgrades
Catapults: Str +1. +1 str when attacking walled fortifications, +2 Str when defending walled fortifications.
Upgrade Cost: 1.5 Ducats, 1 Engineer
Upkeep: +1.5 Ducats/year
Ballistae: Str +1. +1 Str when defending walled fortifications. Str +1 vs cavalry, ships or siege.
Upgrade Cost: 1.5 Ducats, 1 Engineer
Upkeep: +1.5 Ducats/year
Naval Upgrades
Heavy Ship I: Str +2. (Carracks are a heavy ship.)
Upgrade Cost: 2 Ducats, 1 Sailor
Upkeep: +2 Ducats/year
Heavy Ship II: Str +4. Heavy Ship I must be acquired first; Heavy Ship II replaces Heavy Ship I (Man-O-War Class Ships)
Upgrade Cost: 1.5 Ducats, 1 Sailor.
Upkeep: +3.5 Ducats/year
Heavy Ship III: Str +6. Heavy Ship II must be acquired first; Heavy Ship III replaces Heavy Ship II (Ship Of The Line Class Ships)
Upgrade Cost: 1.5 Ducats, 1 Sailor.
Upkeep: +5 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: +1 to Tactics rolls involving this unit. A skilled captain commands this ship.
Upgrade Cost: 0.5 Ducats
Upkeep: +0.5 Ducats
Oar Banks: +1 Str when attacking. +1 to Tactics rolls involving this unit. Banks of oars for higher ramming speed during attacks and manoeuvres.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat
Upkeep: +1 Ducat/year
Sea Raider: On a victory or draw, sea raider units capture the Sailor specialist that was crewing the ship (if multiple specialists were crewing the ship due to upgrades, potentially all the Sailors can be captured), any non naval combat-capable units being transported (i.e. anything not able to fight in a sea battle) and any Cargo Goods being transported. Each Sailor, Cargo Good or Unit captured takes up 1 Transport space on the ship. If insufficient space exists, excess loot is left to the mercy of the sea.
Sailors not intended to be used in recruiting new ships and Units that the new owner does not desire to pay upkeep for can be sold as slaves for a return of 1 Ducat each. Cargo goods are typically worth 1 Ducat each, but this may vary.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat
Upkeep: +0.5 Ducat/year
Cargo Hold I: Adds +1 Transport space to a ship. Transport space is used to ferry units or cargo across the sea.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat
Upkeep: +0.25 Ducat/year
Cargo Hold II: Adds +2 Transport space to a ship. Cargo Hold I must be acquired first; Cargo Hold II replaces Cargo Hold I
Upgrade Cost: 2 Ducats
Upkeep: +0.5 Ducat/Year
Clipper: Increases the speed of the ship from 6 to 10 provinces per season for purposes of trade.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat
Upkeep: +0.5 Ducat/year
BattlesWhen two opposing armies are in the same region, either commander can choose to attempt a battle. The other commander can retreat, either into fortifications (see Sieges) or to another region (see Retreating).
Small scale Warfare: An 'army' with less than three regiments is no army, and cannot fight as one. Battles involing 'armies' of this size are not to be resolved with the large-scale combat system, but rather on a case-by-case basis which we will not go into here.
EDIT: Large scale Warfare: For every 6 points of effective strength over 8 shared by both armies, the damage factor increases by one. Which is to say, if both armies have an effective strength of 14 or higher, damage is doubled. If both armies have an effective strength of 20 or higher, damage is tripled.
Attacker/Defender: Provided that both sides agree to the battle, it must then be decided who will be the attacker, and who the defender. Usually, the side who starts the battle is the attacker. However, a successful ambush allows the ambushing side to be on the defensive from the get go, if they wish. Some upgrades and tactics only work when attacking or defending, and the defenders will often get more terrain bonuses than the attackers.
Terrain Bonus/Other Modifiers: Situational modifiers to the battle conditions must be clearly defined before the battle starts by a GM. Items to be considered are terrain and the advantages that gives the defending force, weather conditions and the effects that can have on Moral and other things, and the consequences of other actions performed before the battle to modify the situation.
Rounds: Battles can be handled round-by-round or with several rounds at once. The default is round by round; both sides must agree in order to 'speed things up'.
Tactics: Commanders tell the GM which tactics they wish to use for the coming round(s). See Tactics. Tactics are kept a secret (unless the enemy has some way of knowing about them) to prevent metagaming.
Combat: Both sides roll a die, with an amount of sides equal to their armies effective strength in this battle. In other words, an army with a effective strength of 7 rolls a d7, whilst an army with an effective strength of 10 rolls a d10. The side which rolls higher has won that round of combat. As such, even the mightiest army can lose a round of combat to the weakest army (unless the weakest army has a strength of one). If the results are equal, there is a draw.
Damage: The losing side suffers a point of damage. In the event of a draw, both sides suffer a point of damage.
Attrition: An army with no modifiers to the contrary suffers a point of damage in attrition for each round of combat.
Losing Units: Damage merely reduces the effective strength of an army until the battle has ended; units, and any bonuses they confer, are not 'lost' until that time.
Tactics Note that the new list of tactics is merely a suggestion at the moment and I make no claims as to it being balanced; costs and consequences will need work.
Tactics score: Both armies have a tactics score, made up from the following:
1 point of tactics per unit with the tactician upgrade.
2 points of tactics from having a commander present.
2 points of tactics from the commander trait 'tactician'.
-1 point of tactics per enemy fear unit.
+1 point of tactics per friendly fear unit.
Situational modifiers up to a maximum of +4 or -4, to be made clear before the battle starts by the GM.Rolling Tactics: Both sides choose which tactics they will use. A d6 is rolled and added to their tactics score. So long as the total cost of tactics is less than the total tactics score, all tactics succeed. If the score is insufficient, tactics will fail. There are three categories of tactics, which determine when they fail. Risky Tactics all fail as soon as the tactics cost is less than the total tactics score. Their cost is removed from the total cost. If the tactics score is still lower than the cost, Advanced Tactics fail as well. These fail one by one at random until the tactics cost is less than the tactics score. Basic Tactics cannot fail.
Basic Tactics: These tactics are commonly used, being effectively just basic orders to the troops. These are only chosen at the start of the battle; their costs persist throughout. You cannot spend more than your base tactics score on Basic Tactics.
Avoid Losses (Basic): Costs 2 tactics. Avoid one round of attrition.
Push Forwards: Costs 1 tactics. A unit is sent to guard the flanks of others, or to be the first into dangerous situations. These units will suffer damage first at the end of the battle.
Hold Back: Costs 2 tactics. A unit is kept out of the deadliest parts of the battle, only sent into fights it will definitely win. These units will suffer damage last at the end of the battle. Siege units are automatically
Held BackFight Harder Not Smarter: Costs 2 tactics. Effective strength increased by 1. Just shout at the men to fight harder.
Sabotage Tactics: Costs 2 tactics. Reduce enemy tactics score by 1.
Advanced Tactics: These tactics represent more complex manoeuvres, which could go wrong if the enemy acts unpredictably, or if one's own troops act stupidly. Some have consequences for failing.
Target Unit: Costs 1/2/4 tactics, depending on the situation: 1 if the targeted unit has been
Pushed Forwards, 4 if it has been
Held Back, and 2 if neither is the case. The troops are directed to take out a specific unit; if they succeed, that unit will be damaged first at the end of the battle.
Failure: -1 effective strength.Analyse Enemy Strategy: Costs 2 tactics. Shows which units have been
Held Back or
Pushed Forwards Failure: -2 tactics next round.Carpe Diem: Costs 2 tactics. Effective strength increased by 2. Watch the battle, and direct your soldiers to weak spots in the enemy line. See how micromanagement saves the day.
Failure: -2 tactics next round.Capture Unit: Costs 2 tactics. Requires that the unit has been
targeted. The unit is not destroyed but captured, provided that enough damage is done to 'destroy' (subdue) it. If that unit contains any notable characters, they have a chance to escape (+3/+5 difficulty: +3 if the capturing side retreats, +5 if the capturing side is victorious. Other modifiers may apply), and will be captured if they fail.
Avoid Losses (advanced): Costs 3 tactics. Avoid one round of attrition. Risks failing, but has a lower cost- probably.
Failure: -2 effective strength.Devastating Charge: Costs 3 tactics. Enemy suffers extra point of damage if you win this round.
Failure: Suffer additional point of damage if you lose this round.Counter-Tactic: Costs 2 tactics. Increase cost of specified tactic by 1 for next round.
Risky Tactics: These are the things famous generals put on their resumes. They can change the tide of the battle if they succeed, but if they fail... well, pray they don't fail. Note: Every 'Lose this round' after the first increases the damage suffered by 1. So if you 'lose this round' three times, you lose, and suffer 2 extra damage.
Negate Terrain Bonus: Costs 1 tactics. Reduces enemy terrain bonus by 1.
Failure: Reduce effective strength by 1Flank the Enemy: Costs 4 tactics. Increases effective strength by 6, and decreases enemy moral by 1.
Failure: Lose this round.Taunt: Costs 5 tactics. Enemy defender becomes attacker.
Failure: Lose this roundFeint Retreat: Costs 4 tactics. Must be defender. Permanently increase effective strength by 3.
Failure: Become Attacker.Perfect Leadership: Costs 3 tactics. You do not deal with probabilities and guesses. You see the whole battle, and know the strength of every man on it. Under your command, the outcome is a certainty. Flat +2 to battle roll (your roll becomes D(strength)+2).
Failure: Moral decreases by 1, cannot use again.Force Rout: Costs 3 tactics. Enemy makes moral check (difficulty 2+). On a failure, they flee.
Failure: Lose this round.((As I said, balanced this is not. But this sort of tactics are more sensible, I think.))
RetreatingRetreating from battle: The side with the advantage (won the last round) can retreat from battle without penalty. The opposing force can choose to pursue, but that is handled strategically. The side without the advantage may also choose to retreat. However, by doing so without the advantage they automatically suffer damage as if they lost the round, and will only successfully retreat if the opposing force chooses not to pursue, or they succeed a 4+ difficulty roll on a D6. No tactics can be performed when retreating.
Fleeing from battle: If one side is forced to flee (due to failing a moral check), they suffer damage as if they lost the round. The opposing force can choose to pursue, and if the fleeing side fails their 4+ difficulty roll to get away, the fleeing side suffers another round of damage. Repeat until either the cowards manage to get away, or are utterly destroyed.
Fleeing automatically: On the fourth round of battle, both sides must start performing moral checks, difficulty 2+. Failure results in that side fleeing. If both sides fail, both sides flee. And feel very silly about it afterwards. Moral is reduced by one for every two rounds after the fourth (6th round, 8th round, etc)
Retreating certain units: You may choose to have certain parts of the army retreat whilst the rest stays behind. The retreating units automatically get away, unless the units staying behind are wiped out in the same round.
Strategic withdrawal: An army which flees the field, or flees before the start of a battle, must leave the area, and cannot return until the next season at the earliest.
Withdrawal into fortifications: An army which flees the field, or flees before the start of a battle in an area which also contains friendly fortifications may choose to retreat behind their walls. If the enemy still wants to engage them, then we get a siege.
DamageWhen the battle has ended (one or both sides have either retreated, fled, or been destroyed), the damage done during the battle must be dealt out. If the army did not suffer enough damage to be destroyed, work out which units were damaged like so:
Units which were
Pushed Forwards and
Targeted are damaged first. If there is not enough damage to destroy all units in this category utterly, damage will be allocated randomly until it is spent.
Units which were
Pushed Forwards or
Targeted are damaged next. If there is not enough damage to damage all units in the category, damage will be allocated randomly until it is spent. A unit which suffers damage (but is not destroyed, due to having an effective strength greater than 1 in the battle) is switched to the
Held Back category.
Units which were neither
Pushed Forwards nor
Held Back are damaged next. If there If there is not enough damage to damage all units in the category, damage will be allocated randomly until it is spent. A unit which suffers damage (but is not destroyed, due to having an effective strength greater than 1 in the battle) is switched to the
Held Back category.
Units which were either
Held Back or injured in previous damage categories are damaged last. If there is enough damage to destroy all units in this category, the army has been destroyed. Otherwise damage will be allocated randomly until it is spent. Note that siege weapons are OHKO- they are destroyed upon receiving any damage whatsoever.
After damage has been dealt, there may be units who suffered damage, but not enough to destroy them. For example, a heavy unit, or an archer on the defensive, which only takes a single point of damage has still got a point of strength left before it is destroyed. In this situation, roll a D(unit strength). If the result is equal to or less than the damage received, the
unit is destroyed anyway. Otherwise, it survives, but needs .5d per point of damage to be restored. Injured units cannot fight, but can move. An injured unit can also be restored by spending a season locked in place, in a location where repairs/recruitment can be enacted (at a rate of one point of damage/season). Trained medics may be able to increase the survival chances of select units and aid in the recovery of injured units.
SiegesHistorically, most battles were sieges. Also historically, most sieges were boring.
Sieges have slightly different mechanics compared to field battles.
Supplies:The problem with sitting behind big stone walls is that one cannot eat the walls or the enemy will be able to get in. Thus, supplies must be provided. One unit of supplies is enough to feed one regiment or one population point for one season. A fortification has 1 unit of supplies per population point and 2 units per fort level. Additional supplies can be stockpiled at a cost of .5d/supply. Supplies will not deteriorate if the attackers cannot besiege the location.
Surrounding the fortifications: In order to effectively besiege a location, supplies must be cut off, from both land and sea. At least one ship is required to blockade a port, and at least three regiments are required to block access to a town/fort.
Sneaking supplies in: Even if the enemy surrounds the location, supplies can be smuggled in. Scout or raider units can attempt to smuggle supplies in from outside. This requires them being outside of the city/fort, paying up to 2.5 ducats (for up to 5 supplies), and then smuggling the supplies in. (A 4+ difficulty action). Ships can do the same. All ships are suited for this task, and can carry 5 supplies per cargo space.
Non-conventional supplies: A cavalry upgrade can be sacrificed for two supplies. Bottom-of-the-barrel type things like vermin, pets, and the corpses of fallen comrades can be consumed
once for 2 supplies and a -1 to moral.
Starvation: If there are not enough supplies to last a season, units and population will die of starvation at a cost of -1 to moral each. If moral needs to drop to -5 or lower to last the season, the garrison/town will surrender (at the end of the season). Of course, the siege is also over if
everyone starves to death.
Sally: The defenders can attempt to sally forth at any point. They surrender their defensive bonuses from holding the walls, and face besiegers as attackers in a regular field battle. If they are routed from this battle, they have nowhere to run to and the entire army is thus either captured or destroyed, and the fort/town is captured.
Assault: The attackers may choose to attack the fortifications, either due to impatience, a lack of their own supplies, or the impending arrival of enemy reinforcements. In this situation, the following rules apply:
- The defenders may not use tactics. Tactics score is converted into effective strength at a ratio of 3:1.
- The defenders have a +3 moral bonus as they have nowhere to run to; running is pointless.
- The defenders gain 0.5*fort level in effective strength per unit.
- The defenders only suffer attrition once every [fort level+1] rounds.
- Attacker Tactics score is reduced by a third of the defender's tactics score.
- The following tactics may not be used by the attackers: Target Unit, Capture Unit, any of the Risky Tactics except for Perfect Leadership.
Some other stuff needs to be stuck in there as well. But this is mostly the stuff that
needed changing.
I think this should handle the issues encountered here, as well as potential issues in the future. But there's probably a million things wrong with it, and dozens of things you want in the combat system which I haven't mentioned: Feel free to point out any issues you can find/can't find.
I am going to put this on a wiki page shortly, and I will not rest until we have definitively fixed the combat system.
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