FrivYeti/MCTurnOrder

Back to Simplified Mass Combat

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Turn Order

Each turn of mass combat represents five minutes of pitched combat, during which armies wheel, charge, and tear each other to shreds. Unlike normal combat, mass combat does not follow the tick system.

Step One: Declare Action

Standard Actions

Army units may take the following standard actions. Unless otherwise noted, actions listed below have a Rate of 1. The armies with the fastest response acts first.

• Engage Enemy: If the unit wishes to attack a target they did not attack the previous turn, they must flurry an Engage Enemy action with their Clash. Ranged units do not need to take this action. A unit may only be engaged by up to its Magnitude worth of units.
• Withdraw: If the unit was engaged in a Clash in the previous turn and does not wish for it to continue, they may attempt to Withdraw. The unit's leader rolls Leadership, adding a die bonus equal to the unit's Drill and a penalty equal to its Magnitude. If successful, they are no longer engaged with the enemy.
• Clash: If the unit is engaged in a clash, or if they have flurried an Engage Enemy roll, they may declare a single Clash with any enemy unit they are currently engaged with. Each unit may only Clash once per turn.
• Rally: If the unit is currently routing, the commander must Rally them before they can engage anyone, wasting an action. This is a standard Leadership roll, with a die bonus equal to the unit's Morale and a penalty equal to its Magnitude. The difficulty of the roll is one lower than the difficulty of the unit's last Rally or Rout check. If successful, the unit recovers. If unsuccessful, the unit may take no other actions; instead, it is in full retreat and loses one point of Health for every success that they failed by. A unit may flurry a single Rally attempt with other standard actions, but do not gain those actions if they fail to Rally.
• Special Action: The unit may take one of the special actions that combat allows for.

Step Two: Clash

Clashing is the usual state of affairs. This takes place between any two units that are fighting, unless one of them has decided to Withdraw. In a Clash, each side rolls their Power rating. If the attacker has a higher magnitude than the defender, she adds the difference as bonus successes (up to a maximum of 3 bonus successes). In addition, each side may add their Battle Plans rating as an Accuracy bonus.

• • If the attacker wins the roll, she deals damage to the defender. One automatic point of Health damage is dealt for each success the attacker beat the defender by.
  • If the defender wins the roll, the attacker is beaten off with light casualties. The attacker takes one point of Health damage regardless of how many successes the defender rolled.

Step Three: Determine Damage and Rout

If the unit has taken more damage than its remaining Health, revise its Magnitude downwards as necessary. Then, if one or more of the following conditions were met, the unit must test for rout:

• If the unit lost Magnitude due to damage this action (+1 per Magnitude loss)
• If the unit is currently engaged and outnumbered at least two Magnitude points to one (+1 per multiplier, starting at x2)
• If the unit withdrew from combat at the beginning of the turn (+1 per unit withdrawn from)
• If the unit is currently engaged with an enemy whose total Might bonus is double theirs. (+1 per multiplier, starting at x2)

The leader must roll her Leadership, adding an accuracy bonus equal to her unit's Morale rating and a penalty equal to her unit's Magnitude. The difficulty of the roll is equal to the sum of the penalties listed above. If she fails the roll, her unit is in flight. They suffer a -2 penalty to all Clashes that they take part in, and cannot make any standard actions except for Rally or Withdraw.

If a unit is routing, and takes any of the above rout conditions, use the higher of [the penalties they have taken in the action] or [their previous penalties +1] when calculating their next Rally attempt.

Step Four: Maintain Tactics

Finally, commanders attempt to maintain the tactical advantage that their battle plans have given them in the chaos of combat. This requires a Tactics roll, at a difficulty of the unit's current die bonus due to Battle Plans. If successful, the plans remain the same. If the roll fails, the unit's Battle Plan is reduced by one die. If the roll botches, the Battle Plan is reduced by two dice.