01-27-2017, 01:12 PM | #1 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Accounting For Race in Mass Combat
I'm looking at doing a mass combat game in a setting inspired by early Yrth (IE, during the banestorm). I want species to be a big deal: Elves are not the same orcs, who aren't the same as goblins, and Halfings really shouldn't do as well when you stick them in a shield wall.
I know mass combat isn't meant for wargaming, but I think at least something can be done to reflect that this unit is made of elves while this one is made of orcs. Ideas I've had so far: A good number of the optional features are very useful: Existing Features: Impetuous: Any race I want to indicate as 'savage' probably ought to have this. Orcs certainly make the list. Of course, this is likely to be the case with a good number of human elements as well. Terrain: A great option. Its almost immediately obvious that elves have the forest terrain ability. The same might be said for dwarves underground. Doubling it in some cases seems a little excessive though. I'm not sure what other terrains different species would have though. Reptile men seem like they might have it for their local environment, but I'm not sure. Nocturnal or Night: This is very promising, though in banestorm the places it shows up are interesting. Orcs (orcs!?), elves, and dwarves are fully handicapped by the dark at night, but goblins are not. Racial TS modifiers: This is for races that are substantially more or less suited for war than humans. This is by and large about size and strength. If it comes up, a bonus or penalty may be given for DX, but I don't see that coming up. I'm not using troop quality for this because I want more range than that, and I don't want to be constantly undoing my math to see if the halfing phalanx has maxed out its bonus. This is also kind of folding in the ogre element to do things besides swing huge clubs, and giving the "Super-soldier" feature a lot more granularity. I'm thinking of applying it twice as hard to some element types as others: primarily those meant to be in the heat of battle, rather than skirmishers. Right now I'm thinking: Halfings: -37.5% Goblins: -25% Reptile men: +50% Dwarves: +25% Yes, it works out to about -12.5% per +1 ST. that was something I arrived at slowly. The Question Any thoughts on the above? Any thoughts on how to make different fantasy races fight differently in combat? Or at least feel like the type of unit is important?
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01-27-2017, 01:23 PM | #2 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Re: Accounting For Race in Mass Combat
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I'm also confused about the reference to "undoing my math to see if the halfling phalanx has maxed out its bonus". What do you mean here? Quote:
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01-27-2017, 01:38 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Accounting For Race in Mass Combat
I'm only somewhat familiar with Mass Combat (read it some, but don't own it myself), but Racial TS Modifiers is the way I'd go - but I'd use different modifiers for different roles. Going off typical fantasy stereotypes, dwarves make great heavy infantry but poor cavalry or skirmishers, while halflings make poor melee fighters but are excellent ranged combatants. In scenarios where stealth is important, halflings might get a positive adjustment to TS, while dwarves might get a negative one. For elves it would depend on how Banestorm elves are - Tolkien elves would basically get a boost to TS regardless of role, because they're better at everything, while D&D elves would be somewhat-similar to halflings.
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01-27-2017, 01:55 PM | #4 | |||||
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Accounting For Race in Mass Combat
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Another concern is that using this scheme I can't raise the lowest level of halfling infantry at all. I have to make something up for when you pull a bunch of halfling peasant levies together. Is that a good place to get heavy infantry? No, but sometimes you need pikes, which are similar, so enemy calvary doesn't make a mess out of you. Quote:
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I'd still like to give some effect to reflect smaller overall weapons, and I love the idea of ogre bowmen showering massive arrows, but I suppose giving the smaller races an edge on their kinds of fighting does make sense. Quote:
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Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
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01-27-2017, 02:05 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
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Re: Accounting For Race in Mass Combat
Another thought to consider, when you have smaller races, halflings, goblins etc you can have a lot denser formations. While a Hobbit pikeman for example might be half as strong as a human you could conceivably pack four times as many into a formation.
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Waiting for inspiration to strike...... And spending too much time thinking about farming for RPGs Contributor to Citadel at Nordvörn |
01-27-2017, 02:45 PM | #6 | ||||
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Re: Accounting For Race in Mass Combat
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I'd say that the Troop Quality levels are pretty agnostic on what actually leads to the quality level - Poor, for example, lists as examples of "'police' or 'parade ground' armies...; units of well-trained but unenthusiastic conscripts; and enthusiastic but very inexperienced troops.". That's a pretty broad range of possibilities, who might need rather different training and leadership strategies to improve them, but they're all Poor. Quote:
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01-27-2017, 02:46 PM | #7 | ||
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Accounting For Race in Mass Combat
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Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
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01-27-2017, 03:06 PM | #8 | |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Accounting For Race in Mass Combat
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That's not the case for this game. This is Banestorm during the Banestorms: populations are being dropped in the middle of a foreign land and having to fend for themselves. So I'm assuming sometimes the best choice IS to build a sheild-wall out of halflings.
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Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
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01-27-2017, 07:31 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Re: Accounting For Race in Mass Combat
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Still, if this doesn't satisfy you, I'd suggest that, rather than making custom racial modifiers which you have to remember, I'd just make up couple new special features, "Role-Suitable" and "Role-Unsuitable". The first would apply to any unit primarily composed of a species that would be particularly good for the role, adds +50% to TS, +50% to Raise, and +10% to Maintain. The second would be the reverse, a unit mostly made up of a race that just wasn't cut out for it, reducing TS by -50%, Raise by -50%, and Maintain by -25%. |
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