Quote:
Originally Posted by lordabdul
It occurs to me that:
1) 30 yards away gives -7 to shooting. Even with All-Out Attack, you probably need to aim a round or two to be able to effectively target a limb (like I said, shooting arrows at torsos is ineffective because it probably takes 2 arrows to get an NPC to half move, whereas you can cripple a leg in one arrow).
2) On a pure gaming practicality aspect, most combat mats I've seen don't have enough room to handle scenes that require a, say, 50 yards radius... so it means either starting the combat scene without the minis for the ranged combat preamble, and then taking out the mat/minis when everybody gets closer... or somehow use a different scale/mat for the beginning of the combat, or something like. It's clearly possible, but that just never occured to me before :)
Well that's the problem I think -- and why I'm considering this "All-Out Ready" maneuver... how can the archers keep their distance from the melee guys running at them? They can't reload their bow while running away... so they either have to run away (doing nothing else) until they somehow get in a place where they can spare standing still for a round so they can reload... otherwise you basically have characters running after each other in a silly way until someone runs out of FP?
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The range penalties are a little harsher than I remember (for some reason I assumed it was 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 rather than 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 22, 33). However, the idea is that some of those rounds spent aiming are also spent moving up for the melee guys. Aiming a round or two is fine under those circumstances, the rounds will probably go faster if it's melee guy moving and ranged guy aiming.
Also focus fire. It probably takes 2 shots in the torso to get someone to half-move, so have two people shoot him.
As for the hit-and-run tactics, it depends how much armour each side has. I'd assume the melee guys would be more heavily equipped, or maybe the ambushers have hidden some of their gear in a concealed stash so they will be less encumbered than the PCs. Or they lead the chasing party into disadvantageous ground or hazards or traps (have them take a strange route and see if the PCs try to mimic the route or take a shortcut).
If there's more of them, they could scatter, and therefore the melee guys can't chase everyone. The ones not being chased can then continue shooting.
Or, they can stick together while running. If only the faster party members can catch them, then that faster party member has left the rest of the group behind, which means the enemy can turn and gang up on the one guy who managed to catch us.
In Pathfinder, I used to use Bleeding Attack with hit-and-run tactics, because enemies would keep taking damage while chasing me. I know the bleeding rules for GURPS are not quite so brutal, or if you use them, but you could create a "chase" encounter in which an extended pursuit could lead to HT rolls for bleeding damage or similar problems.
And by the way, give the PCs chance to use similar tactics against their foes where appropriate. Have your NPCs act suitably irate when it happens.