[StevenH]

Originally Posted by hal

Eventually - whether in this thread or in a different thread - I'd like to discuss what "Things" mages can do to help or hinder their armies in battle using ANY of the three different versions of GURPS MAGIC (ie GURPS FANTASY 1st edition - where we have Yrth first introduced), GURPS MAGIC 2nd edition, as well as GURPS FOR 4e.

I've put a bit of thought into this. Not as much as I need to, but sometime I am going to sit down with some friends who have been in the military and go over all the spells and try to see how useful they would be.



But until then....


The best spells I have found for military use are various Comm&Emp spells, mainly for communication, and Illusion/Creation spells to A) hide your forces from the enemy; B) make the forces the enemy sees larger or smaller (depending upon the tactics used); C) change up the appearance of the terrain to hide nasty surprises; D) change the apparent force type of your army (so that the enemy doesn't know how many archers you have, for example); E) Augment any other casters to make their magic seem bigger and badder and nastier. Even Simple Illusion can hide a group of soldiers by using an image of what's behind them as a camouflage screen.



Glen Cook does a lot of this kind of thing with his Black Company wizards (Goblin and One Eye, who are barely more than charlatans, but what they lack in power they make up for in panache, chuzpah, and devious cleverness). Smoke and mirrors.



Circles can also be easy to get in an army; most soldiers will be willing to be spectators for a big spell, especially if it's helpful. Such as a Q&D enchant of a Cook pot (a decent hot meal? what soldier doesn't want that?) or Umbrella spells, or a big Mud to Earth spell to get rid of the mud in the camp and make it solid earth. There's plenty of grunts who will gladly aid a spell like that.



Create Food: fairly easy to learn (few prerequisites). Castable by Magery 0 mages. Favorite people of the common soldier. Weevils in your hardtack? No problem. Cast Create Food on it, and your problem is now a sandwich with more protein. And again, with plenty of spectators willing to help power it, large amounts of good food can be made.