Tactics Skill
 

Can anyone give some examples of abstract uses of the Tactics skill (others than those given in the Basic Set and Martial Arts).

Re: Tactics Skill
 

Ending up with a good flank? Noticing a Feint your warlord warned you about?

Re: Tactics Skill
 

I don't know what 4e says about it, but I've normally used Tactics rolls as follows:

(1) Let the player come up with a plan of action, then roll against the PC's skill. If the roll succeeds, I'll point out flaws in the plan (the better the roll, the more subtle the flaw I'll point out). If the roll fails, the plan will go wrong (the worse the roll, the worse the failure).

(2) A roll against modified Tactics allows the PC some idea what the enemy is up to.

Re: Tactics Skill
 

I usually use it for insight on the enemy's chosen plan of attack, setting up defenses, and dealing with weaknesses in their own plans. It's also used to smaller force sizes. For armies you'd have to use Strategy.

Re: Tactics Skill
 

Analysing terrain.

Speaking of that, sometimes when driving through broken terrain, I habitually try to analyse a given hill's defensive advantages.

Re: Tactics Skill
 

I've gone through this a bit differently in some of my games. The players come up with a plan, and roll Tactics contest with the Bad Guys. If they win by a lot, their plan works, no matter how silly it was. If they lose, the plan suffers complications.

Re: Tactics Skill
 

You're a brave man, Doug.


***

I use Tactics as the general "Good at the mental aspects of combat" kind of thing. I have people roll Tactics as a form of Combat Common Sense when they make a mistake...or if they want to get advice from other players on the best move possible...or to coordinate with someone else in a clever fasion...whatever. Basically, whenever I need to judge some PC's intellectual understanding of tactical combat. Sort of like a Combat IQ score. I prefer to play a little fast and loose, so this makes sense for my game. It also allows for the Big Dumb Guy (IQ 9) with a solid Tactics score (I forget, somewhere in the mid teens) to plausibly do all the clever combat stuff the player thinks of.

Re: Tactics Skill
 

::Piggy-backs a question onto the thread::

Would tactics be appropriate for some type of Special Operations Mission where your character has a loose command over a team via radio or some other form of telecommunications? For a better understanding of what I am thinking of I imagine Willem Dafoe's character John Clark in the movie Clear and Present Danger. Clark leads the covert mission at times by radio link up in a hotel room. Would it be okay for a character, with enough info (perhaps by completed related skill rolls or the simple fiat of enough equipment) to roll tactics to help that squad.

Game Play as Follows:

GM: Your squad tells their position and related intel on the enemy. Uh oh they're under attack suddenly, your squaddie sounds paniced enough that its almost like he's breaking up.

PC: I want to help them by saying "Cool command and control lingo" at them.

GM okays that but with a roll to tactics behind the GM screen to see if that special lingo gives any pluses to the squad's over all skill levels. The roll doesn't give them an ultimate yes or no win, but it adds to their favor in the great game of chance. Almost thought about being nice and stipulating that like Diplomacy it doesn't harm if failed, but bad advice more than likely would slit the team's collective throat a lot quicker in practice.

Your thoughts everyone?

Re: Tactics Skill
 

Its always tough for me to sort out the difference between tactics and strategy. I use this guideline.

Tactic is a Play that a coach may call for a given down.

Strategy is a Defensive or Offensive TYPE.

Run Tackle and Sumo are skills, Blitz is a Tactic and 3-4, Nickle, and Prevent are strategies. Put all that together and you have three layers of a Linebacker.

Run and Dodge are skills, Fullback Draw is a Tactic, West Coast, Run and shoot, and Wildcat are strategies.

To generalize:
Strategy is How you are trying to accomplish your goals in the broadest sense.
Tactics are the individual milestones/steps you take to effect that overal strategy.
Skills are the individual things you do that comprise a tactic.

Large Scale: Defend Helms Deep
Strategy:Hide behind the walls and kill off the enemy at your leisure. If reinforcements show up behind, so much the better.
Tactics: Rain of Arrows, Cavalry Charge, shield wall.
Skills: Bow, Horsemanship

Does that help?

Nymdok

Re: Tactics Skill
 

This may sound dumb, but I give a bonus to basic speed for purposes of determining one's place in the sequence for having the tactics skill. Every 10 full levels of tactics gives a +1.