Sword and Planet pt. 4: Combat Examples

This entry isn't going to be as thick as the last few, as I may be dropping too many new concepts at once without making sure the others work first. I think the combat system I posted in the last blog has potential but it is far from finished, that's for certain. I'm going to give a few examples of combat, and then drop some ideas on how I'm hoping to streamline the system.

 The first big problem in the last update, was the shear number of dice. I want there to be a variety of abilities for units, so I'm really hoping to avoid dumbing down combat too much. I'm also hoping to keep all dice rolling in the game based around the same general premise: 3 dice + additional modifiers.

So, here we have an excellent leader, Hall Corfin, leading a large and yet extremely balanced army against Hovad Senn, whose army is small, but also quite balanced.

Hall Corfin chooses to assault, which Hovad Senn chooses not to contest. The first round of an assault compares the attacker's charge with a defender's fire. Hall Corfin's charge rating is 28. Hovad Senn's army has a total fire value of 14. Total dice for Hall Corfin would be 13 (3 base + 2 leadership bonus + 7 unit differential). I've decided to cut unit differential bonus dice in half, and I'm  considering placing a cap on the total dice a player may roll at 10. For now, I'll just proceed without the dice cap. Hovad Senn would roll 3 dice, as he has no bonuses in this situation.   Hall Corfin rolls his 13 dice, and rolls 3 successes (5's or 6's) and Hovad Senn rolls his defense roll and gets a single success. To determine casualties, each character rolls their respective number of hits again and any further successes require the defender to remove a single unit. Hall Corfin causes no casualties, but Hovad Senn gets lucky with his roll and scores a hit. The number of successes determine the victor of a battle and not the number of casualties, so Hovad Senn loses the first round. For fear of further casualties, and a victory already secured, Hall Corfin chooses to not pursue a second round of combat against the villain. Hovad Senn is forced to withdraw, even though he succeeded in causing a loss on Hall Corfin. Hall Corfin chooses to remove a raider, as he will most likely be attacked the next turn, and charge isn't useful for defense. 

 Hall Corfin is correct in the fear of attack, and the next action, Thea Norvak launches an attack. Thea Norvak's force is far less balanced, and because of its lack of substantial charge or fire, he decides to make a gamble and pursue an engagement. It is his hope that he can push through the first round fire phase, and push into the second melee phase. His army isn't really strong enough to take Hall Corfin, especially considering Corfin's superior army build and leadership, but Thea Norvak is really placing all his hopes on securing control of the city for his build next turn. 

Engagement begins with a fire phase, and Thea Norvak is already at a disadvantage. His army only has a total of 16 fire compared to Hall Corfin's 26. This is going to be an uphill battle from the start, but he hopes to get lucky and hold out until the second phase of combat where he'll be more competitive. Thea Norvak  will only roll 3 dice for the first round of comba as his is both outmanned and outskilled by Hall Corfin. Hall Corfin rolls 9 dice (3 dice base + 1 combat leadership bonus + 5 unit differential) . Thea Norvak is lucky and scores two successes, and rolls a single wound for the two. Hall Corfin also rolls two succeses,  but is unable to score a successful hit on his opponent. Amazingly enough, as Thea Norvak is attacker, he wins the first round of combat! He could choose to end combat here, and win a tentative victory, but he decides to continue the attack. Hall Corfin removes another raider in preparation for the second wave of the engagement, melee. 

Now Thea Norvak has a very slim advantage in melee, but not enough to grant him a full bonus die due to combat differences. He still only rolls 3 dice against Hall Corfin's now modest 4 dice (3 base + 1 combat leadership). Thea Norvak is lucky again, scoring 2 hits which he rolls again and is unable to get another wound. Hall Corfin rolls his 4 dice but only manages a single hit, which does score a wound on Thea Norvak. Thea Norvak wins the combat with a total of 4 hits against Hall Corfin's 3, but both suffered a casualty. Thea Norvak would hold the ground, and Hall Corfin would be forced to withdraw from the battle, having taken a beating for his large size.

I hope this clears up what I had in mind for combat a bit better.

Things that I'm currently considering

- a cap on total dice based on terrain, most likely 10-12 for clear down to 6 in mountains.

- printing all the combat values on the counters, this is pretty much a given as it was dumb not to put them there in the first place.