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Dunadin777 · 01-22-2011, 03:16 PM

Big Fights--Relating GURPS and Mass Combat TS more closely

So I'm going to muse about Big Fights first. Note that these rules are with my fantasy campaign in mind, so while they'll likely be useful in other low-tech settings, I doubt they will be as useful past TL4. But who knows.

So the process is to add your potential soldier's ST, HP, main Attack skill, main Defense skill, and Soldier skill and divide by 5 to get their average. Then add an extra half-factor for every point of natural DR the fighter has, reduced proportionately for limitations to the DR. Then compare them with the following guidelines to figure out what the approximate Mass Combat quality is.

Average quality (average value of 11-12)

Spoiler:

Inferior quality (average value of 8-10)

Spoiler:

Good quality (average value of 13)

Spoiler:

Elite quality (average value of 14)

Spoiler:

So assuming this system works even half-way decently, a unit of 10 monsters with ST 18, HP 20, Attack skill 12, Defense skill 10, no Soldier skill, and 4 DR(average of 12, plus a factor of 2 for DR, giving a total of 36) should be a match for 3 units of Average quality soldiers. Does this bear out to your sensibilities?

This could also be used to guess at which point a monster should be fielded as an individual unit comparable to a unit on its own, if you just divide its average by to figure out how it would stand on its own or in reduced size units. For instance, a ST 20, HP 26, Attack skill 13, Defense skill 11, a 'soldier' skill of 8, and 10 DR(average of 16, plus a factor of 5, divided by 10 for a solo, for a final total of 10). So such a monster would be a match for a unit of Inferior troops, and therefore might be seen as the floor for a solo monster.

Notes: DR for armor is not figured into this estimation, because equipment is a separate, more easily defined entity, and because equipped armor has more disadvantages built into it as regards encumbrance, chinks, etc.

Also, the reasoning for the DR cost factor is that since natural DR is pretty much going to reduce every hit, a mere DR 2 will give a creature that many more chances to attack and attract a disproportionate amount of attention. The cost factors also ensure that nearly any creature with DR 11 or more is probably going to be treated as a solo monster in Mass Combat, which sounds about right to me considering how hard they'd be for average troops to fell.

Do these figures sound right? Care to plug in your own races, soldiers, monsters into them, see how they stack up in Mass Combat quality?

01-22-2011, 03:16 PM	#2
Dunadin777 Join Date: Nov 2010	Re: Big Fights and Long Fights in GURPS Big Fights--Relating GURPS and Mass Combat TS more closely So I'm going to muse about Big Fights first. Note that these rules are with my fantasy campaign in mind, so while they'll likely be useful in other low-tech settings, I doubt they will be as useful past TL4. But who knows. So the process is to add your potential soldier's ST, HP, main Attack skill, main Defense skill, and Soldier skill and divide by 5 to get their average. Then add an extra half-factor for every point of natural DR the fighter has, reduced proportionately for limitations to the DR. Then compare them with the following guidelines to figure out what the approximate Mass Combat quality is. Average quality (average value of 11-12) Spoiler: At the bottom end: ST 10, HP 10, Attack skill 12, Defense skill 12, Soldier skill 10, and no natural DR At the high end: ST 11, HP 11, Attack skill 13, Defense skill 13, Soldier skill 11, no DR So, if we simply add those attributes and average them together(dividing by 5), we get a range of 11-12 Inferior quality (average value of 8-10) Spoiler: For this, I'll just assume the max value to be just below the average quality threshhold. I want a floor for inferior troops, though, to account for micro-TS units that have no place in proper combat, filmateleven. ST 8, HP 8, Attack skill 9, Defense skill 8, Soldier skill 8, and no DR This gives a range for inferior quality of 8-10 Good quality (average value of 13) Spoiler: ST 12, HP 12, Attack skill 14, Defense skill 14, Soldier skill 13, no DR So the Good quality has an average value of 13 Elite quality (average value of 14) Spoiler: ST 13, HP 13, Attack skill 15, Defense skill 15, Soldier skill 15, no DR So this says that an Elite quality soldier should average 14 So assuming this system works even half-way decently, a unit of 10 monsters with ST 18, HP 20, Attack skill 12, Defense skill 10, no Soldier skill, and 4 DR(average of 12, plus a factor of 2 for DR, giving a total of 36) should be a match for 3 units of Average quality soldiers. Does this bear out to your sensibilities? This could also be used to guess at which point a monster should be fielded as an individual unit comparable to a unit on its own, if you just divide its average by to figure out how it would stand on its own or in reduced size units. For instance, a ST 20, HP 26, Attack skill 13, Defense skill 11, a 'soldier' skill of 8, and 10 DR(average of 16, plus a factor of 5, divided by 10 for a solo, for a final total of 10). So such a monster would be a match for a unit of Inferior troops, and therefore might be seen as the floor for a solo monster. Notes: DR for armor is not figured into this estimation, because equipment is a separate, more easily defined entity, and because equipped armor has more disadvantages built into it as regards encumbrance, chinks, etc. Also, the reasoning for the DR cost factor is that since natural DR is pretty much going to reduce every hit, a mere DR 2 will give a creature that many more chances to attack and attract a disproportionate amount of attention. The cost factors also ensure that nearly any creature with DR 11 or more is probably going to be treated as a solo monster in Mass Combat, which sounds about right to me considering how hard they'd be for average troops to fell. Do these figures sound right? Care to plug in your own races, soldiers, monsters into them, see how they stack up in Mass Combat quality? __________________ Finds party's farmboy-helper about to skewer the captive brigand who attacked his sister. "I don't think I'm morally obligated to stop this..." Ten Green Gem Vine--Warrior-poet, bane of highwaymen Last edited by Dunadin777; 01-22-2011 at 04:02 PM.