Author Topic: Warfare playtesting  (Read 3060 times)

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Offline Godur

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Warfare playtesting
« on: August 13, 2013, 11:56:07 AM »
Hey all!
So I thought it would be prudent to do a bit of playtesting of the massed combat system I mentioned in the PBP idea thread, and so here I am creating a thread about it.
If the test is successful and people seem to like it we could use the system for a pbp based on a military campaign, and/or add it to Kingdoms if people so wish.
Now, without further ado:

First off we have the commanders, who, for the purpose of this test, should be feudal lords (counts or dukes), raising troops in response to a peasant rebellion, and possess a two key stats:
Leadership and Warfare.

Leadership is the ability to keep up morale and to make sure that your officers know what they're meant to do before the battle, and warfare is the ability to organize troops, issue the correct and precise enough orders for the sub-ordinates to understand them. (Warfare also deal with organizing supplies and marching orders, but we'll ignore that for this test).

These stats have values from 5-20 and you have 18 points to spend on these.

If your commander have any special abilities, like magic for instance, then that should be added to the sheet as well.
Spoiler for Commander sheet:
Name:
Rank:

Warfare:
Leadership:
Special:

Moving on to the troops!
Units of troops also have a number of stats to keep track of, but in their case they're fix rather than set by you.
The stats are:
Combat skill, or Cs: Is the unit's general awarness of tactics and their ability to follow commands as specified, and their ability to use terrain and formation.
Offensive value, or OV: The unit's ability to deal damage in melee. If the unit is equipped with ranged weapons then their ranged value will be displayed within parenthesis.
Offensive chock value, or OCV: is principally the same as the above, but is only used for when the unit is charging.
Defensive value, or DV: Simply put this is the general stat used when resisting attacks.
Mobility, or M: How fast the unit make it across the battlefield. This is used primarily during certain tactical moments or during pursuit.
Morale, or MO: How much pressure the unit can take before they rout.
Special: If the unit has some special skill or equipment that give them a bonus.

Additionally each kind of soldier will have a cost associated with them. This cost is per soldier and not per unit of troops.
For the purpose of this test you'll only have "regular human" troops at your disposal, for everything else you'll have to make requests.
Spoiler for troop listings:
Longbowmen:
CS: 12  OV: 9(14)  OCV: 9 DV: 7 M: 12 MO: 11 Cost: 20 Special: Shields
Crossbowmen:
CS: 12  OV: 9(15)  OCV: 9 DV: 7 M: 12 MO: 11 Cost: 20 Special: Shields
Peasant rabble:
CS: 5  OV: 6  OCV: 6 DV: 6 M: 10 MO: 10 Cost: 10 Special: N/a
Militia:
CS: 10 OV: 9  OCV:9 DV:9 M:12 MO: 8 Cost: 15 Special:N/a
Spear militia
CS: 10  OV: 12  OCV: 9 DV: 9 M: 12 MO: 8 Cost: 15 Special: N/a
Archer militia
CS: 10  OV: 9(12)  OCV: 9 DV: 6 M: 12 MO: 8 Cost: 15 Special: n/a
City guards:
CS:11  OV: 15  OCV: 15 DV: 7 M: 12 MO:10 Cost: 20  Special: N/a
Spearmen:
CS: 12  OV: 12  OCV: 12  DV: 7 M: 12 MO:11 Cost: 20 Special: Shields, Spears
Light infantry:
CS: 12  OV: 9  OCV:9  DV:9 M: 12 MO: 11Cost: 20 Special:
Medium infantry:
CS:12  OV: 12  OCV: 12 DV: 12 M: 11 MO: 11 Cost: 20 Special:
Heavy infantry:
CS: 12  OV: 12  OCV: 12 DV: 18 M: 10 MO: 11 Cost: 25 Special:
Dismounted knights:
CS:14  OV:15  OCV: 16 DV: 24 M: 8 MO: 12 Cost: 70 Special:
Light cavalry
CS: 12  OV: 12(12)  OCV: 30 DV:9 M: 28 MO: 11 Cost: 35 Special: Riders
Medium cavalry
CS: 12 OV: 12  OCV: 55 DV: 11  M: 23 MO: 11 Cost: 45 Special: Riders
knights:
CS: 14 OV: 15 OCV: 75  DV: 24 M: 14  MO: 13 Cost: 90 Special: Riders
You get 3600 points to spend each. How you decide to spend them you decide for yourself, whether you only have one unit type or if you go well rounded.
Appropriate unit sizes number somewhere between 60-200, so if you have 400 spearmen (for instance) then it may be prudent to split them up into smaller units.

Spoiler for Army sheet:
Commander:
Total number of troops:

Units: (make a separate entry for each unit)
Unit name:
Unit type:
Numbers:
Statline:



“The lesson is this - the game is rigged. The cards are stacked. The dice are loaded. And that’s why we don’t play their fragging game. We don’t swallow their drek sandwich and politely ask for another. It’s why we run the shadows…”

Offline Tobbs

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Re: Warfare playtesting
« Reply #1 on: August 13, 2013, 12:27:48 PM »
Why is equipment listed in Special? Wouldn't it be easier if we established the equipment for each individual unit type and put abilities such as formations or special ammo in Special? For example, Spearmen have spear, shield and light mail as equipment, and as a special they can form a schiltrom formation to protect against flanking forces. Or heavy cavalry have lance, sword, heavy mail (or plate depending on what medieval era we are talking about) and a horse as equipment, and as a special they can form a wedge to break through enemy lines.

Keep calm and move along.

Offline Godur

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Re: Warfare playtesting
« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2013, 12:41:07 PM »
Why is equipment listed in Special? Wouldn't it be easier if we established the equipment for each individual unit type and put abilities such as formations or special ammo in Special? For example, Spearmen have spear, shield and light mail as equipment, and as a special they can form a schiltrom formation to protect against flanking forces. Or heavy cavalry have lance, sword, heavy mail (or plate depending on what medieval era we are talking about) and a horse as equipment, and as a special they can form a wedge to break through enemy lines.
Well, in the case it's not the equipment in itself that give the special, but rather special training in using them effectively. Spearmen, for instance, have Shield and Spear as specials to represent the fact that they form tight formations using shield and spear walls, and thus resist both arrows and cavalry much more effectively. Notice how the spear militia doesn't have the Spear special; even though they do have spears they lack the training and discipline to effectively form a spearwall or schiltron.

That being said I'm always up for making adjustments to the system to make things clearer, or to give more specific special abilities to certain units.  ^-^
“The lesson is this - the game is rigged. The cards are stacked. The dice are loaded. And that’s why we don’t play their fragging game. We don’t swallow their drek sandwich and politely ask for another. It’s why we run the shadows…”

Offline LordNecross

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Re: Warfare playtesting
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2014, 11:04:27 PM »
THis is old but I am willing to test this out to see how it works, it can be useful possibly in our other games, and if Kingdoms ever wakes up again.

Offline killer rin

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Re: Warfare playtesting
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2014, 11:18:25 PM »
THis is old but I am willing to test this out to see how it works, it can be useful possibly in our other games, and if Kingdoms ever wakes up again.
I'm in agreement. I'm willing to test and help adapt it into Empires if we can find it usefull