Battle Groups

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Ultimate Combat Advice: Skip it if the matching is ridiculously uneven (side bar, p212)

• Size: 0-5. Add (size) to attack, raw damage, soak, and magnitude. Size 0 is 1-2 soldiers. This should be done as standard combat. Size 1: less than a dozen. Size 2: a few dozen. Size 3: Over a hundred. Size 4: Several hundred. Size 5: Over a thousand.
• Drill: How well soldiers in the group work together. Poor: Route/rally +1 difficulty, +0 defense, -2 to order/rally. Average: +1 defense. Elite: +2 command rolls, +2defense. Most standing armies are drill of average.
• Might: 0-3. Average supernatural power of the group. Might 0: ordinary mortals, no bonuses. Might 1: lightly supernatural, +1 accuracy/damage/defense. Might 2: +2 accuracy/damage, +1 defense. Might 3: +3 accuracy/damage, +2 defense.
• Magnitude: The health tracks of the BG. Magnitude = (# health tracks of average member) + (size). Bother withering and decisive attacks damage the magnitude. Decisive attacks get an additional +1 damage per 4 dice rolled, round up. When a BG loses all of its magnitude, it must make a rout check.

• Only deal withering damage. Withering damage dealt does not go to the BG, it just goes away.
• When their target is in initiative crash, THEN the damage dealt goes to the target's health track.
• BGs do NOT have double 10s.
• Only one attack per turn
• A single melee attack roll applies to all enemies within range of the battle group.
• A single ranged attack selects a primary target, and all enemies near that target also take the damage.
• Initiative is only used to determine when the BG attacks in a given round.
• A character that causes a BG to lose a point of size gets an Initiative Break bonus.

Route Check:

• Route Check: Roll: (AVG willpower of group members) + (affects from drill, see drill) vs difficulty 1+
  • +1 difficulty for each: an ally BG has routed, a leader has dropped, per Size lost during the current skirmish, if route check is caused by a devastating supernatural assault (Obsidian Butterflies)
  • If a BG loses all of its magnitude, it must make a route check
  • If it succeeds, it loses a point of size and magnitude refills
  • Rollover damage applies to the new magnitude track immediately
  • It is possible to have to make 2 rout checks in a row from the same attack

Actions:

• BGs take mostly the same actions as normal characters, except:
  • Grapple becomes Engage, swarming a target
  • No initiative roll is made to Engage, it is a gambit that auto-succeeds
  • Restrain/drag/throw options are not available
  • Use combat ability instead of unarmed for the action
• Movement: characters can move thru enemy BGs at -1 initiative per round in the BG
  • Can attack anyone adjacent to it for melee range
  • No disengage action required to move away from any BG 2 size increments smaller than it

Command Actions: Issue Order, Rally, Rally for numbers

• Issue Order: (CHA, APP, or INT + War), difficulty 1 (p210)
  • Rear line uses INT
  • Inspiring speech is CHA
  • Leading by example is APP
• Rally is done after a failed rout check (p210)
  • (CHA or APP + War), same difficulty as the rout check
  • If it succeeds, the group recovers as if it made its rout check
• Rally for Numbers is done after the group suffers magnitude damage (p210)
  • (CHA or APP + War), difficulty 1
  • Every 2 successes restores 1 Magnitude
  • Cannot restore lost size
  • Cannot restore more Magnitude than its current maximum

Perfect Morale: combat groups formed of the fearless, p210

• Automatically succeed on rout checks
• +3 Magnitude
• Cannot benefit from a Rally For Numbers command

Slaughter: Running down the survivors of a routed battle group and killing them all, p211

• Fleeing BG has -3 defense, 0 magnitude
• If Size is 2 or less, ST estimates how many escaped after the slaughter based on the attack roll(s)
• If Size is greater than 2, the slaughter action must be done by another BG (not a single individual)

Strategic Warfare: when two armies fight each other, p211

• This is not intended for army vs circle of solars or solars vs abyssals
  • Each side describes its strategy to the ST
  • Each side tallies up their advantages (as modifiers)
  • Players make opposed (INT + War)
  • If one side wins the roll, the battle plays out as outlined by the winning side
  • Example Modifiers:
    • -1 General knows nothing at all about opposing general
    • -1 General knows little to nothing about the forces he is to face
    • -1 General commands troops with poor Drill
    • +1 General has extensively studied his opponent’s past strategies
    • +1 General has spies and informants within the enemy’s ranks
    • +2 General has a high-placed traitor within enemy ranks
    • +1-3 The players have roleplayed one or more scenes in which they obtained some concrete advantage over the enemy or harmed the enemy army (stealing its secrets, devastating its supply lines killing a famous hero of the opposing forces, etc)

Example Stratagems: p212

• Back to the Sea (threshold 1)
  • Strategic Placement (threshold 1)
  • Demoralized (threshold 2)
  • Fortifications (threshold 2)
  • Ambush (threshold 3)
  • Pincer (threshold 3)