Run Date: August 11, 2024
PCsHelena: Lv3 Bladedancer (Level Up!)
Gwendolyn: Lv3 Fighter
Hench
Mercedes: Lv1 Priestess
Athena: Lv1 Priestess
Messing Around With Mass Combat
We experimented a bit today with resolving combat that was larger than personal, but smaller than the Battles resolution tends to handle. I’ll go over the events first, then tack my rambling on later. You may also notice that there’s a gap between this report and the last. Difficult to run sessions when nobody’s around, but at least the power of 1:1 allowed things to keep moving in the background.
The setup
Ryder, leader of the Roughnecks, is intent on ruining the reputation of Serif Georgio of Nota Rosa. Helena, his main squeeze, was invited to take part in the planning and execution as a Lieutenant. Gwendolyn was just along for the ride.
Through Recon (the PCs didn’t participate in, more on that later), the Roughnecks discovered several ambush points along the Camino Norte with varying levels of risk. I explained this as Low, Medium, and High to the players, and more or less let them choose their risk/reward tolerance. High was closer to Coxhaven and Low was further; this would determine risk of patrols and response time to the attack.
Ryder’s Roughnecks
Ryder, Helena, Gwendolyn
3 WBL
12 GL
60 Raiders
Stance: Offensive, Ambush
Splits: 6 squads of 5: half shortbow, half heavy infantry
Caravan (Large)
40 Wagons
Mercantilist
40 Merchant
4 Swordmasters
12 Warriors
20 Man-At-Arms
60 Guards
Stance: Defensive, Mercantile
Splits: 4 squads of 15: half Med Cav, half Crossbow
The Assault
The PCs chose to play with a Medium Risk; this slotted them into a camp a short ways north of the road posing as workers repairing recent damage. The Roughnecks spotted their quarry and waited until the first section of wagons had passed by the camp before beginning their attack.
The Caravan was surprised! A hail of arrows fell upon the cavalry with Helena’s direction; she wished to thin their numbers for the infantry’s approach. Gwen lead/controlled the infantry and the spearmen began shouting as they rushed toward the wagons.
A horn blew, giving commands to the guards while the merchants began whipping their horses into a frenzy. Their response was quick and the crossbowmen offered covering fire as the cavalry formed up for a charge; and that charge was absolutely devastating. They caught the Roughneck infantry and nearly broke them. Gwen stepped forward and began tearing down the enemy while those remaining thrust spears to pincushion anyone within reach. Meanwhile, Helena continued picking targets for her shortbow lines. She soon found a few of her men had dropped and shouted to the Priestesses to patch them up.
The battle continued for another couple of rounds; a mess of swirling dust, blood, and screams. The Roughneck infantry managed to push through the cavalry and rush up to the crossbowmen on the wagons. Another volley from Helena and a devastating charge from Gwen soon broke any resistance and the merchants surrendered. The guards, however, delayed the enemy long enough for a majority of the wagons to get a lead on the Roughnecks. Given the positioning, I ruled that they managed to capture 15 wagons.
To the victor, the spoils. The Roughnecks looted the wagons (PCs rolled their contents) while Ryder stripped the Mercantilist and Merchants of anything liquid. The Priestess tended to the wounded on both sides and prisoners were taken for interrogation and ransom. I rolled a couple of encounter checks to see if the local Patrol would arrive during this (adjusted for Medium Risk) and nothing. The players sorted out the logistics, loaded up the herd of draft horses, and left.
The extremely slow pace left the Roughnecks vulnerable, as did their own dwindling numbers. Before they could make it to the safety of the Greenwood, they were accosted by a very late Patrol of 24 Med Cav. The dust kicking up like an old western was the first sign of danger, and the PCs set up their battle lines.
This second encounter ran much like the first, though the Patrol was more cautious and advanced with with shields up and defensive maneuvers in place. The maneuver nearly crippled Helena’s offense so the Roughnecks began a slow retreat. This was the signal for the Patrol to charge. Gwen’s infantry were ready and spread out with spears, resulting in huge losses for the Patrol. The Patrol’s second line, however, ran them down with their brutal lances. Gwen, being the only one without a spear, retaliated and cleaved her way through the remaining. More prisoners were taken and a few warhorses captured.
The Bill
Roughnecks (16 killed, 20 wounded)
Merchants/Patrol (32 killed, 32 wounded)
Captured:
Mercantilist
Warrior
14 Patrollers
32 Guard
Aftermath
Upon returning to the Golden Sun, the prisoners were tied up and tossed in a room. Helena’s Priestesses would continue tending to them. Meanwhile, Helena and Gwen celebrated with the Roughnecks. Later, Helena press-ganged some of the guards and patrollers into joining the Roughnecks, noting the great rewards and freedom that comes with living outside the system.
As things settled, Helena approached Ryder to discuss sacrificing the Mercantilist to the Waste That Walks. He didn’t approve of that plan, hoping to instead press the man for information and ransom him back. His goal to ruin Serif Georgio’s reputation was still at the top. Helena, however, is very alluring and extremely convincing. The session finished out with her suggesting he use the werewolf captive to infect the merchants for the ransoming and sow chaos in Nota Rosa. Helena erased Neutral and replaced it with Chaos on the character sheet.
Rewards (Totals)
470 XP
135 GP
The PCs were treated as Henchmen for shares: Ryder was the leading commander of the operation and responsible for distribution. In addition to the various trade goods and valuables, the Roughnecks also recovered 2 Potions, 1 Scroll, and a Rune Bullet.
Afterword
Ramble time! To begin, the reason for this hub-bub! The Battles Rules suggest a minimum of 6 platoons/units and uses zones with a phased system (ranged, melee). There is a middling place between Battles minimum and Man-To-Man that I want to sort out and practice. Squads/Groups is how I tend to handle them, and it’s easy to roll 5-6 dice and track the same amount of initiatives. However, some things do get lost in the abstract and need some figuring out.
Goal 1: Expedient and fair resolution. I want the results to be close enough to 1:1 without some of the swinginess that can come with over-abstracting. Today I tried the Man-To-Man style, but I think the Battles system might still work with Squads. As for expedient, I’d say these experiments satisfy.
Goal 2: Engagement and control. PCs tend to want to feel in control, or that their character has an effect on a battle in some way. With Battles, Forays are the method in which this occurs. With Man-To-Man, the PCs were treated as normal, just attached to a Squad for positioning purposes. In this session’s case, Gwen’s cleaves decimated enemy squads. I am hesitant to call Goal 2 a success due to the lack of players. I believe with a full entourage of 5-6 plus henches, Forays would be more engaging.
Recon: This point came up during post-game. Helena’s player noted being the type that would have enjoyed making something like that into a session; along with sabotage and other hijinks that would push things in the group’s favor. I fundamentally agree here. I don’t consider it a missed opportunity due to the context: 2 weeks of no sessions. It could have been handled in downtime. The players could have decided to make that the session. Time keeps moving, and opportunities or life can push those out.
Mapping/Tokens: Everything was run theatre of the mind. This lead to a couple miscommunications throughout the session. Upon discussion, there are some difficulties that come up and figuring out how to execute them would prove a boon. Firstly, how long is a 40 wagon caravan? Probably extremely long. Tokens on a map would take a while to generate and plop down, and most of that time would be wasted in my opinion. As we continued the discussion, I realized we could have used zones or sections marking each caravan (being 10 wagons, etc). This would mean I’d need 4 sections instead of 40, and we could zoom-in or abstract from there. Something worth trying in the future.
Abstraction vs Granularity: There isn’t much to say on this as everyone has their own preferences. I think the main point of contention is less about granularity and more about suspension of disbelief. It needs to be “good enough” that the game keeps flowing. For example, how many medium horses run away after a cavalry charge is decimated? How many are wounded or die? How many can the PCs grab for themselves or later sales? Same questions, but for wagons and draft horses? You have 15 wagons after your assault and that’s already 60 heavy draft horses. How do the logistics break down? How many were calmed, etc? Man, I just wanted to run an ambush with raiders!
Cleaves and Impact: For cleaves, I just ruled that Heroes/Individuals could do so. This was a weakness in the squad setup because I didn’t want to track the individuals on my side (the swordmasters, et al). I also realized way too late that the Impact Damage and Hoof Attacks from the cavalry charges get a bit weird. Some context to explain this: A 15 man charge hits the enemy line dealing 45 damage. The average HP of a Roughneck is 5, meaning that 9 men drop. Easy, right? So let’s double it to 90 damage. Now the 15 man charge can drop 18 men, but if they’re Lv0s they have no cleaves; but but they also have a Leader that can cleave! Anyway, I decided to allow overflow instead of capping because of the Leader thing. I skipped hoof attacks entirely, and in hindsight probably shouldn’t have due to the force multiplier at play. Frankly, I didn’t want to deal with hoof cleaves either.
All in all, it was a good night to experiment and get a feel for certain things and where I draw the line; or where the players draw theirs. I think a lot of my issues may be resolved with continuing to read the rules and accepting that I cannot be completely lazy about certain events; or that I may need to do a bit more prep.
That’s all for now. Take care.
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