[mlangsdorf]

I had this idea while writing up some ideas for a potential Mass Combat game.

If you've got multiple PC or NPC commanders in a Mass Combat game, there's only a couple of ways to distinguish them. There's skill in Strategy, Tactics, and Intelligence Analysis; there the presence or absence of the Lucky advantage, and there's... nothing else. There's no way to really indicate a preference for certain battle strategies and there's no mechanical advantage for choosing certain strategies.

It occurred to me that Higher Purpose could be used to distinguish commanders. Higher Purpose gives a +1 bonus on all rolls under certain conditions. Here are some sample Higher Purposes:

Higher Purpose: Assaulter (+1 to Significant Action, Battle Strategy, Leadership, and Misfortunes of War when choosing the All-out Attack, Attack, or Deliberate Attack strategies)

Higher Purpose: Stonewall (+1 to Significant Action, Battle Strategy, Leadership, and Misfortunes of War when choosing the All-out Defense, Defense, or Deliberate Defense strategies)

Higher Purpose: Death or Glory (+1 to Significant Action, Battle Strategy, Leadership, and Misfortunes of War when choosing any All-Out or Desperate strategies)

Higher Purpose: Lead from the Front (+1 to Significant Action, Battle Strategy, Leadership, and Misfortunes of War when choosing a Risk Modifier of 3)

Higher Purpose: Cunning Commander (+1 to Significant Action, Battle Strategy, Leadership, and Misfortunes of War when choosing the Indirect Attack, Mobile Defense, Raid, or Skirmish strategies)

Higher Purpose: Slow and Steady (+2 to Significant Action, Battle Strategy, Leadership, and Misfortunes of War when choosing the Deliberate Attack, Deliberate Defense, or Fighting Retreat strategies, but -1 to those rolls when choosing any All-Out or Desperate Strategy or the Indirect Attack, Raid, or Skirmish strategies)

Higher Purpose: <Class> Commander (+1 to Significant Action, Battle Strategy, Leadership, and Misfortunes of War when you have <Class> Superiority Bonus of at least +1 and Class Superiority matters in the battle you're fighting)

I'd allow some of these to be combined, so you could have a Cunning Cavalry Commander (who would get +2 on rolls involving raids and skirmishes when he had a 2:1 Cavalry TS advantage) or a Slow and Steady Engineering Commander (who would get +3 with a 2:1 Engineering TS advantage during sieges).

Would people spend 5 CP to get a minor bonus for certain strategies? Is this a useful addition to the game?