This combat system was created to do battles with large numbers of people very quickly. You will notice that there are no hit points, and only one roll per person per round (except for archers). Should a person be hit, they are either wounded (mark by reversing head) or they are dead. If they are wounded and are wounded again, they are dead. All of the arms and armors we have encountered are listed herein, plus some other easily improvised ones. Scale for archery is a close as we could figure it, given a fair amount of research into the subject, and the weapon damage is actually more forgiving than it might at first seem (trust me, a good sword will slash through 1/2 an inch of leather like it's not even there). Everything we could think of was squished into as few numbers as possible, so things like dexterity, high stamina, strength, etc. can be used to modify defense and attack modifiers (like the training levels).
Seige weapons, castles, etc. are included in the advances rules, should we ever get around to writing them.
Armor toHit Discription
none >5 Peasants etc.
light >6 Men-at-Arms, people with ensignia but no visable armor
medium >7 Scale armor
heavy >8 Plate is painted onto the person
plate >9 Add-on plate armor, Black Knight et al.
Shields DefMod Discreption
Improvised +1 Lids to barrels and the likes
Standard +2 The standard kite style shields
Tower +3 Tower shields, the tall suckers
note: In normal melee, the shield can only be used against one person
example: The "Black Knight": Armor--Plate, Shield--Tower
In normal melee one would need greater than a
12 (9 for armor, 3 for shield) on 2d6 to hit.
If there were two attackers, the one on the shield
side would need >12 while the other would only need
>9.
Skill AtkMod DefMod
Untrained -1 -1
Green -1 0
Line 0 0
Crack 1 0
Shock 1(3) 1(-1) (number in parentheses for berserking--
i.e. stoned, drunk or bloody crazy)
Attack from behind: +2 atk
Attack unexpectedly: +3 atk
note: these two DO compound!! For example: Attacking an unexpecting
guard from behind IS a +5!!
Add modifiers to rolls. These account for speed, precision and the ability of the weapons to penetrate armor and people.
Weapons Normal Braced Charge++ Range*
+WarHammer 1 0 3 1 The pick axe in town sets
Hand Axe 0 --- 1 1/2 The hand axe in town sets
Sword 0 0 1 1
Spear 1 2 3 2
Thrown 0 --- 1 ---
+Pike 1(0)** 2 4 4(1)**
+BattleAxe 2 --- 3 2
+Halberd 2 2 3 3
+PitchFork 0*** 1 1 2
Club -1 --- 1 1/2
* Range is not in any units; It simply states who strikes first.
** A pike used from behind a row of people gets only a +1 to hit
and has a "range" of 1 relative to the person he is standing
behind.
*** These are wooden pitch forks and cannot "kill" under normal
strikes. If the idiot wants to whack someone charging them on a
horse, then yep they can kill 'em.
++ Charge means either the person charging or the person being
charged (20" per turn closure speed--add both speeds, double if
over 40" per turn). If two unarmored people with lances (same
as braced pikes) are charging at full tilt, the modifier for the
weapon is: 2 (braced) + 4*2 (100" per turn, doubled charge)
- 2 (charging opponent) = +8 (shish-kekbab!)
+ Two handed weapon. If the figure is using a two handed weapon,
they can't have a shield. (Shield bearers--yes, but not them.)
Attacks are made by rolling 2d6 (a pair of six sided dice) adding the attack modifiers and subtracting the defense modifiers.
"A" has "light" armor and a halberd. Skill: "line"
"B" has "plate" armor, tower shield, and a sword. Skill:
"crack"
"A"'s Attack is +2 (halberd), Defense is 6 ("light" armor).
"B"'s Attack is +1 (0 for sword, +1 for skill) his defense is 12 (9 for
"plate", +3 tower shield.
If "A" attacks, he will need to roll better than a 10 on 2d6 in order to hit.
If "B" attacks, he will need to roll better than a 5 on 2d6.
-- "A" is in deep shit.
Amount Over Condition
0 Stunned, loss of next attack
1 Wounded
2 Wounded and if mounted, dismounted
3+ Dead, toast.
Two wounds make a dead. Corny but simple and fast.
Armor Base Run Sprint
none 6"/0 12"/1 30"/3
light 6"/0 12"/1 24"/4
medium 5"/0 10"/2 12"/5
heavy 4"/0 8"/3 10"/9
plate 2"/1 4"/5 6"/12
the first number is movement in inches
the second number is the fatigue value
Fatigue can get a bit messy; far large numbers you might want to only permit sprinting for two turns and forget trying to keep track of each person's fatigue.
activity fatigue
no combat -1
archery 0
attacks 1 attacking from behind own lines. i.e. pikes
melee 2 normal combat
note: if one is walking with a 0 fatigue and does no combat, he
recovers 1 level of fatigue each round. Full plate, walking
no combat just breaks even.
Total Fatigue AtkLv DefLv
30+ -1 0
60+ -2 -1
90+ -3 -3
120+ -4 -5
Note: as earlier stated, fatigue is a mess... you may want to ignore it.
The archery rules assume that the bows are heavy Welsh longbows and that the crossbows are on the order of #250 draw. The longbow has more velocity (due to the longer draw) and more accuracy (due to the longer arrow and higher velocity) but is a hell of a lot harder for an inexperienced person to shoot accurately.
Skill Longbow Crossbow
Untrained -4 -1
Green -2 0
Line 0 0
Crack 1 0
Shock 2 1
"To Hit" is in terms of 2d6.
To Hit ROF To Hit ROF
Range Longbow Crossbow
<30">5 2 >4 1
<60">6 2 >6 1
<90">7 1 >8 1/2
"To Hit" represents the abilty to put an arrow into a zone 2" wide
and 3" deep.
To Hit ROF To Hit ROF
Range Longbow Crossbow
<60">2 2 >2 1
<90">4 2 >4 1
<120">8 2 >9 1
<150">10 2 >12 1
Roll 1d6 for scatter: 1-2 is 1" short, 5-6 is 2" long, slide the grid
forward or backward the appropriate amount.
Roll 1d6 for location inside grid: 1 2
3 4
5 6
If no one is in the grid then no one was hit; if a friendly
was in the grid... darn! Next time be more careful!
Damage: 3d6-"armor". For example: 3d6-7 for medium armor.
The effect of damage for archery is the same as it is for melee.
Movement: In inches per turn.
Armor
Person Horse Walk Trot Run Sprint
none 6" 12" 30" 50"
light 6" 12" 30" 45"
medium/none + barding 6" 12" 25" 40"
heavy/light + barding 6" 10" 20" 40"
plate/medium + barding 5" 10" 20" 35"
heavy + barding 5" 8" 15" 30"
plate + barding 4" 6" 15" 30"
Attack by rider:
+1 for standing, walk or trot (height advantage, works on stairs, too)
against people on the ground.
By weapon for charge.
Defense for rider:
+1 for standing, walk or trot (again, height advantage) against people
on the ground.
+2 for charging (moving target, etc) against anyone.
Attacking horse:
>6 on 2d6 for frontal attack, no barding
>8 for frontal attack with barding
>5 for side attack with no barding
>7 for side attack with barding
Damage to Horse:
0 Spooked horse, rider loses one attack; horse moves 1d6 inches away
from the attacker.
1-2 Dismounts rider, roll for damage; horse cannot move at more than a
walk.
>2 Rider wounded in dismount, in addition to damage roll; horse lame.
Dismounting rider:
Roll 2d6, subtract 2 if horse is moving faster than 20" per round. If
value is greater than base armour class, rider is not wounded, else
the rider is wounded--2 wounds is dead. Time to stand up is armour
value minus 1d6, as is time to remount horse (different roll). While
person is down or remounting, they cannot attack and are -1 on defense.
Note: If the horse is wearing blinders, it will not be spooked; however,
if the rider is dismounted, there is a -2 on the damage roll to account
for the increased chance of the rider being run down by the horse.
Simulating dragons in a realistic mannar is an interesting task... Just what IS a real dragon? Along that line, here are the rules for several different ways of handeling dragons.
I) assume few enough dragons that keeping score on each isn't a pain...
1) Sane dragon 50 pts damage to death
Location Armor Str/Cap
head 10 6/12
neck 10 6/10
belly 9 15/40
back 15 20/50
arms 10 5/10
legs 13 6/10
tail 15 8/20
2) Real dragon 150 pts damage to death
Location Armor Str/Cap
head 16 15/35
neck 15 12/30
belly 16 60/80
back 19 90/150
arms 15 15/30
legs 16 25/40
tail 18 20/60
Str-- this refers to how many points damage they take before the
body part is noticably damaged. If the head or neck gets to
this point the dragon will genrerally retreat.
Cap-- this refers to how many points damage they take before the
body part is severed. If the head or neck is cut off the
dragon dies (well duh!).
Real dragons (and cute ones too) can use weapons as well!
The system was play tested with batles of aprox. 30 vs 25 several times. Save for a few games with only 10 total people, we never used fatigue. As a point of curiousity (and in an attempt to confirm the values for the different weapons and armor) we ran computer simulations of 200+ people. A pain of a program, but it gave us a good feel for the combat system as a whole.
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