Yrth: Battle Magic and Tactics

[hal]

Hello Folks,
I'd like to run this thread in parallel with the How many legions does Megalos have thread as they are interconnected of sorts. At present, I believe we're reaching a stage of discussing potential compositions of Legions in that thread. Tactics are dictated by what is or is not possible as well as what the enemy is doing in general that you wish to defeat. Having said that, GURPS MAGIC has certain spells that lend themselves towards the influence of the course of battle.

The purpose of this thread is to discuss the various spells that are present in GURPS MAGIC and attempt to determine how they might influence the course of battle. In presenting these spells to the thread at large, we are not only looking to see how magic might influence the battle itself - but also in how to counter these. Two spells in particular that I'd like to start off with, I'm asking to see what the counters are to the handle the problem.

The first spell is the spell of SHAPE EARTH. If given sufficient time, a defender employing this spell can generate a pretty strong defensive breastwork from which to fight his charging foe. Imagine creating a 6' wide ditch 3 feet deep, to which an adjacent rampart made of the excavated earth is simaltaneously built. An attacker would need to get past the ditch by entering into it, then climb the 3 feet depth of the ditch, and climb an additional portion of the rampart itself - just to reach his chosen target.

The second spell is that of BEAST SUMMONING. It contains the provision of being able to summon ALL animals of a given species specified by the caster. Thus, if the enemy has a large contingent of Horses and depends upon them to create a fusion of Knights/Warhorses - a single spell caster could cast this spell in an attempt to disrupt a cavalry charge. As two opposing battlelines are created, a band of mages with BEAST SUMMONING could stay behind the left flank of their own lines, and summon the cavalry towards the point where they want the Enemy cavalry to congregate. If the mages wanted to, they could wait until the cavalry was about to impact on the point of enemy intent, and then cast the spell - causing the Enemy cavalry to run parallel with the defensive line. If the Side with those mages were to be aware that this would happen, and when it would happen - they could hold their archers in reserve and pepper the cavalry as it rides past.

A third possible strategy with the use of Shape Earth and Illusion Shell is the use of pits that seem to be filled with dirt. This could cause cavalry some unfortunate experiences not unlike that of preplaced caltrops.

Ok, so I'm introducing three spells - not two. Illusion Shell. Imagine too, a stick figure literally made of sticks. Illusion Shell placed upon such "sticks" would look like men standing in ranks - thus making it difficult for anyone to know the true strength of a unit upon visual inspection versus those who were not.

Comments? How does one counter BEAST SUMMONING and "breastworks" on command?

[Anthony]

Step one is to not use cavalry. Yes, it's canonical. Given remotely competent mages, it's also suicide.
Step two is to attack by surprise where possible. Raising earthen ramparts, even with shape earth, takes time and significant fatigue. If you take a unit of a hundred men (with maybe one minor mage), you probably need twenty hexes of earthworks to cover one side, which will require some method of tapping troops for energy, since the mage is unlikely to have 20 (assuming skill 15) fatigue, and is very unlikely to have 40 fatigue.
Step three is to use magic to deal with defensive positions. For example, cast hawk flight, invisibility, might, and fortify on a halberdier (this costs on the order of 30 fatigue, but the work can be split between several mages) and send him forth to kill. Those spells, combined (plus a reach weapon), are enough that he might as well all out attack every round, and his attacks will be very hard to either defend against or stop with armor, which will likely allow killing 50+ people in a minute, and makes him very hard to stop. There are other plenty lethal combinations.

[Big Bear]

Sort of a magic OGRE, then? I've always been fond of suicide missions... They're great for the medal rack :)

[hal]

Ok - You've nailed one consideration in the use of tactics and Magics. How many mages are available to do the work. As you point out with your hawkflight invisible warrior - it would require a team of mages working on handling that situation. Magus Shelby listed here would act as the counter to the flying invisible assassin. As a magery 0 spell, this would be realatively easily countered as far as the invisibility aspect.

Ok, calculating possibilities:

Each cohort in the legion contains (provisionally) 8 mages of the Elementum path. This presumes in theory, 8 shape earth spell casters standing near the front of any given cohort. Assuming any given Century generally takes up a frontage of about 15 yards (a formation of 10 x 8), assuming 6 centuries to a Cohort - that works out to 1 mage per 15 yards. If each mage has a 10 point powerstone to work off of - that works out to be roughly 5 Hexes worth from the stone, and another 5 hexes worth from the mage himself. Total - 10 yards worth. Not quite that of the 15 required. Hmmm.

If using 8 mages with this spell capability - each able to handle roughly 9 hexes worth of breastwork production, 8 x 9 = 72 yards worth of breastworks. Assuming 1 second to cast, 1 second to move earth, then step sideways 1 hex, cast spell, 1 second to move earth, etc... Call it 3 seconds per yard. Total time invested - 9 x 3 seconds or 27 seconds total. Not BAD for a 72 yard long breastwork using only the energy of a single powerstone plus native fatigue per mage. 45 yards is all that would be required per cohort if 3 cohorts are frontal with 3 cohorts held in reserve say, 15 yards behind the frontal cohort.

There has to be a way to counter the BEAST SUMMONING spell. If there isn't, then the Knights of Caithness will have to fight as dismounted knights rather than mounted knights. I checked the spell description for BEAST SUMMONING wondering if perhaps this can be resisted. As written, the spell is not resisted. I then wondered if a WARD spell could perhaps protect a beast from the summoning. I suspect that it can - but the problem is, it has to be cast as a blocking spell when the other spell is being cast. In addition, it only works within the confines of the ward or great ward spell. Unfortunately - no magic item can be created to act as a defense using the ward concept. I wonder if by casting magic resistence upon an animal, it forces the caster of BEAST SUMMONG to need to succeed by a margin higher than that of the resistence? SPELL RESISTENCE counters a casting mage's spell by the amount of the resistence. Therefore, a Magic Resistence of say 2, means that a spell caster needs to succeed in his BEAST SUMMONING by 2 for it to work?

Comments?

Anthony? How many mages would be required to create that flying assassin of yours? This is a "trick" I'd like to put in the "Bag of tricks" section <g>.

[hal]

Originally Posted by Big Bear

Sort of a magic OGRE, then? I've always been fond of suicide missions... They're great for the medal rack :)

Especially if the warrior was soul jarred in the first place? ;)

One thing I should note:
Although Necromantic spells do exist within the realm of the GURPS Yrth universe - their study and use are forbidden by the religions. Perhaps the Barbarians to the North in Whitehall Mountains and north of the Wall?

[Philomath]

Originally Posted by hal

There has to be a way to counter the BEAST SUMMONING spell.

How about a Delay tied to Suspend Mana or Drain Mana? With an appropriate Information spell (if necessary) this should remove the usefulness of magic in combat.

If that's a little over the top for you, put Delay with either Spark Cloud, Hail, or Create Acid (or mix and match them among your units) on your cavalry before they charge. Create Acid has the added bonus over the area spells in that it has a chance of causing blindness in addition to the damage.

These techniques really come into their own (especially to counter Range penalties) when mixed with good ol' Ceremonial Magic Skill bonus (and possibly Maintain Spell - so they can be "pumped up" well before the conflict).

Beast Summoning is pretty self-limiting for this use IMO. Double the doubled cost because the horses are SM+1 (20 FP will get you two minutes of 'control' if I'm reading this right). Not too bad so far until you take into account that any horses your side may have (if they are within "about a 10 mile radius") also come running at you.

[hal]

As it turns out, BEAST SUMMONING does not have a cost based on the size of the animal, it has a cost based on the species type. Horses, as Mammals, cost 5 to cast for 1 minute of summoning, 3 to maintain. It costs 10 to grab all the horses within a 10 mile radius, and 6 to maintain. In a mana low region, to offset the penalty of a low mana region, the ceremonial spell casting of this spell would take 10 seconds - more than ample time to respond to events as they begin to occur (and thus, less likely to be fooled by the ruse of a feint). Casting this spell roughly 10 seconds before the cavalry charge is expected to hit your front lines - while your mages are at the flank (and the charge is more or less aimed at the center) means that even without maintaining it beyond the first minute, that charge is delayed or disappated by the use of this spell. If used from the center of a pike formation, you're looking at certain destruction of the cavalry unit.

SUMMON BEAST as it is written needs to be countered before the Knights of Caithness or the Knights of Cardiel or Al-Haz etc can fight against the legions with a mounted cavalry. The reason horses were such a force multilpier is because they can be counted upon to act within reasonable control of the knights riding them. Not with BEAST SUMMONING taking them off their planned and controlled charge...

[NorthSaber]

Originally Posted by hal

I checked the spell description for BEAST SUMMONING wondering if perhaps this can be resisted. As written, the spell is not resisted.

I would certainly allow the rider to resist the spell with his Riding skill - just like Apportation is resisted by the wielder of a sword that is the target of the spell. Even this (and it could be easily argued there is no resistance) wouldn't be enough to counter this spell, though, as a single high-skill mage could still summon the great majority of the horses.

Right now I'm imagining some sort of anti-magic or magic resistance "helmets" or the like on the horses of those wealthy enough to afford them - perhaps only the leaders and nobles, etc.

[Philomath]

I should have read Beast Summoning more thoroughly.

Originally Posted by NorthSaber

Right now I'm imagining some sort of anti-magic or magic resistance

Magic Resistance just leads to an arms race (one in which it will lose if it's spell-based).

Anti-magic is the only sure solution I can think of - either piece at a time as in my post above or battle-field at once.

I wonder if Beast Summoning would work on a horse that's mind controlled to think it's a lion or somesuch.

If cancelling magic on the field isn't suitable then perhaps an Animated Object? Animate a wooden horse and it's immune to Beast Summoning or any sort of mind control (as a side note I wonder what the reasoning was behind specifically barring Independence and Initiative from Animated Objects).

[hal]

Originally Posted by NorthSaber

I would certainly allow the rider to resist the spell with his Riding skill - just like Apportation is resisted by the wielder of a sword that is the target of the spell. Even this (and it could be easily argued there is no resistance) wouldn't be enough to counter this spell, though, as a single high-skill mage could still summon the great majority of the horses.

Right now I'm imagining some sort of anti-magic or magic resistance "helmets" or the like on the horses of those wealthy enough to afford them - perhaps only the leaders and nobles, etc.

Ever seen a rider on a horse where the horse has his mind set on going where he wants to go? <g> If you want a contest of strength - horse versus the rider, that might work. The only thing that keeps the horse obedient to the rider's will is the horse's training and the ability to induce pain in the horse's sensitive lips - that plus perhaps the spurs. But in this case, the horse has no will in the summoning - so while the rider might inflict great amounts of pain, the horse isn't going to be able to ignore the summoning.

The ONLY way for this to work is for the rider to have an item enchanted that is a HORSE CONTROL item. At that point, the fatigue cost to use the item is equal to the IQ of the horse modified by its size modifier. NOT cheap. To top it off, it lets you control ALL animals of the species the item is enchanted for. This means, that a Knight with this item can use it on an opponent Knight's horse assuming that his "item" also contained a dedicated powerstone or something. In a low mana region, this means the item must be at Power level 20 as well. Encasing the animal in a no-mana region is a neat trick <g>.

*** PS ***
Imagine if you will, 30 horses all charging forward. Then imagine the SUMMON BEAST spell hitting all 30 horses at the same time. Imagine then, only 1/2 of the horses turning/swerving towards the summoner, and half going straight. THAT is one ugly pileup waiting to happen. *shudder*