Editing FANGS: Mass Combat (section)

==Warband Commanders==

In this situation, the PCs are in command of elements of the army. There may be one or more units of troops who look to an individual PC for leadership. 

There are three steps to this resolution: 

A. Determine the Tactics Skill of the PCs. This is a new Skill, and it varies depending on the troops being led. This means if the PC is leading more than one kind of soldier, it can vary per unit. The formula is simple. INT/5 + Character's Skill with main weapon of the unit. If the unit is a mounted unit, substitute the character's Ride Skill if it is higher. 

Example: Saul, one of the five PCs cited above who distinguished himself in the fighting against the barbarians has been given command of some of the Baron's elite troops. Now he has to lead them against the Ice Demons who drove the barbarians out of their homelands. 

Saul has been given command of several units. He has 2 Companies (100 men each) of spearmen, 1 company of archers (another hundred), and 1 troop each of light horse (50 men) and heavy horse (another 50). Saul's skill with Spear is 11, his archery is 10, and his riding skill of 10 is superior to his lance (8) but not his sword (12). His IN is 10. So his tactics with the spearmen is 13 (10/5+11). with the archers is 12, with the light horse (sword users) is 14, and heavy horse (lance users) is 12 (having deferred to his riding skill). 

B. Fight the battle abstractly or put out slips of paper on the tabletop (each slip is a unit, or perhaps a trooper) or get out the miniatures and scale terrain and set up a full scale battle. The Tactics Skill is both the Attack and Defense Skill of the Commander. If a Commander &quot;hits&quot; compare the maximum damage done by the unit's weapon (assuming all the soldiers are STR 10, or the minimum to use the weapon) against the armor worn by the defenders. If the attacking weapon is more, subtract a number of troopers from the unit equal to the difference. Every time a unit takes 10% of its original complement in casualties, make a PW roll for the commander. If unsuccessful, the troops break and run. 

Example of Unit Damage and Defense 

The archers do 12 points with long bow and wear leather jacks for 2 points of armor. The Spearmen do 9 points of damage and wear 5 point Scale armor. The light horse use broad swords for 10 points and wear 5 point mail. The Heavy Horse lances hit for 11 and they wear 8 points of armor. 

The Ice Demons do 10 points of damage and can stop 5 points of damage. Their Attack and Defense Skill adds up to 11. 

Saul has 400 soldiers all together. There are 800 demons bearing down on him in groups of 50. Saul essentially has to protect his archers with the spearmen, rain down death on the ice demons, and be prepared to smash infiltrating demons with the heavy horse and chase down fleeing demons with the light horse. 

Good luck, Saul. 

For speedy resolution where the Commander has many more than one unit, assume that any damage to a unit destroys it as an effective force. 

If one side rolls a Critical on the Tactical Skill roll (either in attack or defense), then the other side's PC Commander has been caught in battle and normal damage from the attacking weapon should be rolled against him. 

C. For more tactical detail, Modifiers can be used to help resolve the battle results. 

• Fighting from cover adds one (1) to a unit's armor value 

• FIghting from a height advantage adds (1) to a unit's armor value 

* A Charge adds 1 to the charging troops' Damage 

• Set vs Charge adds 1 to the defending troops' Damage 

• Horses add 1 to Charging Troop's Attack Skill 

• Horsemen cannot Set vs Charge 

• Attacking from non-shield side adds 1 to Damage value of attacker 

• Attacking from behind adds 2 to Damage value of Attackers (Note that this applies to attacking fleeing troops, who do not get the benefit of shields, either)