View Single Post
Old 01-25-2011, 12:30 PM   #3
Dunadin777
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Default Micro-TS house-rule

As an addendum to my system for figuring Mass Combat in the post above, I also think that there ought to be some way of representing sub-inferior forces. These might include completely useless civilians, or inferior troops of a race that is normally equated to Inferior quality. In that situation, I suggest the following rule:

If the average stat is worse than Inferior quality when using the system above, make a note of the difference. For every point of difference, adjust the standard unit size necessary to compose an Inferior quality troop, as below.
Spoiler:  


An example:
Suppose a race of small people akin to Willow's brownies. ST 2, HP 2, 12 attack skill, 10 defense skill, 10 soldier skill, and no DR. Similar to GURPS, we'll assume that their small size is equal parts asset and liability in large-scale combat. They are rated at an average of 7, which puts them 1 below the threshold for Inferior quality, and therefore a group of 20 of them forms a unit that is equivalent to a conventional Inferior quality troop, with the same maintainance value. (Though their equipment should probably also be scaled back in quality, due to their size)

Now, what if the brownies' village/dell, filled with civilians, was being attacked? They might be ST 2, HP 2, 10 attack skill, 10 defense skill, and no soldier skill or DR. They'd have an average value of 5, putting them 3 below the Inferior quality threshold. So 50 civilian brownies would need to form a unit to stand up against a standard unit of Inferior quality troops.

This might have been a bad example, due to the size issue, but I'd imagine that supplying odd-sized warriors would be equally difficult for a large sized army, due to the fact that any supplies would need to be specially made(and at fine skill level), and there'd be wasted logistics on them--setting aside a carefully protected section of the camp, far from soldiers' boots. And as regards a small army raising and supplying itself--well, currency is an abstraction of effort, so it would be equally difficult for any society to raise an army, regardless of size. Either that, or maybe a small discount that is not quite proportional to the number increase for supply from large-scale logistics?

What is the general concensus? does this sound like a worthy addition to the guidelines for equating GURPS stats to Mass Combat?
__________________
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
Dunadin777 is offline   Reply With Quote