The top of the 11th page of this campaign journal / thread going back to 2009. Good times!
A few points of reminiscence:
- Item creation feats allow one to specifically tailor one's magical gear to one's tastes. They should not be construed as justification for doubling one's "WBL". After all, the rest of the adventuring world that doesn't have those feats 'make do' with the stuff that they loot/find and up to a low gp price point are able to purchase. This more often than not means less than optimal magical gear load-outs.
- if your spellcaster wants to make tons of gee pees by whoring the "sell my spellcasting services / fabricate gobs of stuff to triple my gee pees" rules set of the game, do not be surprised if any of a number of bad things / inconveniences occur. There are legitimate 'balance' reasons for the WBL guidelines. End running around them is a sure ticket to seriously nasty bad guys. Increase your party's APL at your own risk. And that of your fellow adventurers...
- if you make certain elements of game play effectively a non-issue (for example, this group's trapfinder, the several "uber Diplomacy" twinkies, the overabundance of stupifyingly high Knowledge bonuses), the GM is forced to adhere to the letter of the rules rather than the spirit of the rules. As we all know, this is not in your favor.
Specifically for Kingmaker's mass combat system I will be posting my own bastardization / hybridization of these rules. More specifically, lifting the bits and concepts I liked from the JBE supplement, the official printed rules and the semi-official expansions of those rules presented on the Kingmaker Mass Combat sticky thread. (Posting these here first for peer review, naturally.)
None of these address the difficulties that should be associated with raising non-conventional forces. So far I've adressed these on an ad-hoc basis, although a more "Kingmakery" feel to them is something I would like to take a crack at.
A lot of the nonconventional forces that are awesome on paper are laughably easy to obtain for most kingdoms by the time of WotRK. Examples using just the "as written" rules include hound archons, pixies, rust monsters, various aberrations, dragons, spell casters and so on and so forth. Frankly, as the GM you have to nip the worst of the madness in the bud.
Outsiders - of which elementals and the aforementioned hound archons are the nastiest - beg for requirements of diety-appropriate Cathedrals and Temples plus the extremely high Consumption costs that would occur using the costs from lesser planar ally as a firm guide. It is true that the planar binding spells would also suffice. My suggestion is to remind via Knowledge (planes) checks that nabbing even a dozen or two of some very powerful entity's servtiors is one thing - hundreds or thousands is an order or two of magnitude different. Angry CR 20+ extraplanars can quickly do all sorts of Very Bad Things to your kingdom in very short order. The unrest from a district leveled by the "wrath of the Gawds" will disintegrate the kingdom instantaneously.
Pixies on paper look to be exceptionally effective as one or more army units. GM common sense says otherwise. They are NG fey 'tis true - but they're fey, not men. You could justify forming such an army - up to a maximum of Huge I would say - to defend the forest they call home, and that would be it.
Other than constructs and simulacrums, there a a few appropriate army critters that can reasonably be convinced to band together into army units in the realm of Kingmaker: animated dead (which has its own sets of costs and control issues); wyverns; hill giants, perhaps some stone giants; trolls (if they've not been exterminated);boggards; lizard men; centaurs; kobolds; mites (if you've gone mad); tatzylwyrms (if you didn't wipe them all out); owlbears (ditto); and the trap-door spiders of the eastern plains.
Despite the considerable up-front costs and construction times, constructs and simulacrums of the player characters are probably the best "shock troops" that can be had, especially the latter. Well, that and piloted apparati of Kwalish or whatever they're called. Toss a bottle of air or two in each apparatus and a supply of chow, you have some (expensive) amphibious units. The upside to high upfront cost units like these is that you usually have no weekly consumption costs of significance. No pay, no training, only housing and equippage. Well, except the kobolds driving the apparati.
Here's what has been put together so far:
Cribbed from JBE's "Book of the River Nations"
- Table 1-2 'How Big is a Hex?' - gives enough of a perspective on the size of the various kingdom threshholds to put them in some perspective.
- Building Types: Castle Additions, sans 'Wards'. The others are unnecessary and are often underpriced for the benefit. Most are expansions of the regular Tradesman building.
- 'Develope Open Spaces' in its entirety. Note that the 'apiary' improvement probably also represents locally built mills to grind grain, terrace farming in the hills and the like. I like that there are options to remove claimed hexes from the consumption cost via 'royal preserve'.
- Kingdom Events: while I would have preferred a percentile-based chart, the ones here are easy enough to convert.
- Mass Combat: the Close Quarters tactic is a sensible addition. The fortification builders, shields and ships resources are also sensible and worrthwhile. The mercenaries special ability is especially appropriate to Kingmaker.
The main thrust of my changes center around mass combat, specifically in the raising and consumption costs of armies.
From the Mass Combat sticky:
- Profession (soldier) is the key skill. Every 5 full ranks that an army's leader has adds +1 to OM and DV. This is a circumstance bonus for that army, should it matter.
- At the beginning of a battle, each involved leader makes their Profession (soldier) check. Lowest check declares tactic first, which enemy army they are attacking and their strategy during the onset of the melee phase(s). This is effectively 'reverse initiative', reflecting that those who are highly skilled in war will anticipate and act accordingly.
- Raising a conventional army requires buildings based on the army's size: a watchtower for Medium or smaller (permitting small armies to be raised at any of the kingdom's Forts); a Barracks for a Large army; a Garrison for a Huge army - 2 Garrisons in the same district for a Gargantuan army; 4 Garrisons in the same district for a Colossal army. The army's CR x2 is added to the kingdom's control DC to determine the required Loyalty check DC. Success means a BP cost of twice CR to raise the raw body of men and its basic equipage. Failure means a BP cost equal to the CR and a +4 bonus on this check the following month.
- Armies can be quartered in proper buildings (as noted for what is required to raise them to begin with), reducing their consumption cost from weekly to monthly.
- When determining an army's speed, retain any fractions of 0.25, 0.5 or 0.75 - the 40' speed horde of lightly loaded barbarians should be faster than an army of infantry, but not quite as fast as 50' speed cavalry.
- Each attempt to raise an army counts as one of the kingdom's buildings for that turn. Each army requires its own "pool" of building(s) be tasked to raising that army.
- Each army requires that a specific leader be assigned to that army until it is defeated or disbanded. This is where the 5th, 6th and even 7th level followers from Leadership come into play, as they form the kingdom's "officer corps".
- Mercenaries come with an NPC leader as determined by the GM. 'Default' is a leader with 5 ranks of Profession (soldier), a +10 bonus in that skill and a +2 Cha bonus. Mercenaries may or may not be combat experienced - with higher than the standard starting Morale of +0 and one or more learned Tactics - at the GM's discretion. Such established mercenaries should come with a consumption cost corresponding to that greater capability.
The BP costs for army resources is all fine and dandy for a Medium or smaller army, but wholly inadequate in reflecting the equipage costs for larger armies. I suggest the following for determining resources and consumption costs:
- Siege engines and ships have specific costs that are not directly tied to the size of the army they are "attached" to.
- Siege engines cost 15 BP each to construct and have a consumption cost of 5 BP per week per engine. A small army can have 1 siege engine attached, a medium army 2, a large army 4, a huge army 10, a gargantuan army 20 and a colossal army as many as 40 engines. NOTE: these limits largely assume that a city's full DM applies, rather than any reductions not yet made "official". Most armies will not have more than 4. Siege engines halve an army's speed, although ponying up for mounts will effectively return the speed to normal. Siege engines require exotic craftsman buildings to construct them. They are "attached" to a specific army. When quartered or that army is resting, the engines can be attached to a different army.
- Ships are 10 BP x army size multiplier to construct and half this cost to maintain. They must be constructed in a city with a waterfront. They can be 'quartered' in such a city, in the same manner as ground troops, with a limit of 20 ships per qualified waterfront plus/or 2 ships per pier in a given city.
- The 'healing potions' resource has insufficient utility, although it should require access to suitable buildings - alchemist, herbalist, shrine, temple, cathedral or academy would all suffice. The consumption cost for these would only matter after a battle during which they are used, or AFTER a battle in which they are used. They can also represent potions of make whole for construct armies and potions of inflict wounds for intelligent undead. Consumption cost 5 BP per battle they are used x size multiplier.
- Consumption cost for improved armor, improved weapons, ranged weapons and shields is 1 each per week per item. Improved armor and weapons includes a supply of cold iron, alchemical silver and alchemical splaish weapons. As always, quartering reduces this to monthly.
- Magic armor and weapons have a consumption cost of 2 x size multiplier. This category also includes expensive materials (adamantine, mithril).
- Consumption and resources costs scale to the size of the army above Medium, as follows: Large x2, Huge x5, Gargantuan x10, Colossal x20.
- An obvious question is "why use really big armies instead of gobs of smaller armies"? The answer is hinted at above: a kingdom's officer corps. There are not very many able leaders (5th level+), and these should be drawn from the kingdom's followers as provided by the Leadership feat. If the entire group has this feat, they can field a very well-led army. The other catch is the permanent penalties from the defeat of an army. Army hp are simply greater for the larger sizes. All else being equal, despite the costs the bigger army will defeat smaller armies. Action economy will dictate otherwise - but who fields a lone army?
- The 'rout' threshold of army hp is awfully low, equal to CR in remaining army hp. I suggest that threshold instead be set at 25% or CR, whichever is greater. Mindless creature armies cannot be routed, since they automatically make all Morale checks. They must be defeated in detail.
- Mounts for a particular army have a BP cost equal to (mount CR x size multiplier) to raise and change the army's base consumption cost from (half CR plus equipage consumption/week) to (rider CR + mount CR) plus (equipage consumption) per week.
- Poisons as a resource (instead of a special ability) have an equippage cost of 6 x size multiplier plus an identical per-battle consumption cost. You need access to alchemists and herbalists to supply them.
- Healing potions can be used after a battle. For healing potions and poisons I suggest that a certain number of battles' on-hand be "attached" to each specifically equipped army.
Training time for the army is also required, at full consumption cost per week. The rules of thumb are as follows:
- Once raised, an army and its attendant building(s) are tasked with undertaking basic training. Time requirements are based on whether the new soldiers are monsters with racial hit dice [giants, dumb dragons, centaurs], are trained in PC class levels or are trained in NPC class levels.
- Monsters are generally the most difficult to train. Most are ill-suited to taking the field or are simply unavailable in sufficient numbers in close locale to each other to be even viable. Use your judgement as the GM! For suitable monsters, however, training time is army CR x army CR x3 for how many weeks are required.
- For armies comprised of PC class leveled creatures without racial hit dice, training time is level x level x2 in weeks, with a cap of 3rd level (resulting in 18 weeks of intense training).
- For armies comrpised of NPC-classed individuals, training time is level x level in weeks with a cap of 4th level (16 weeks).
- Once trained, the army can be moved to suitable quartering. If moving not more than 4 days' march to their new quarters ignore the higher consumption cost.
- Additional training time of 1 week per resource is also required.
When an army is "on campaign", the consumption cost applies weekly plus any incurred "per battle" costs.
EXAMPLE 1:
His Majesty decides to raise a professional army of 3rd level fighters. He has 2 Garrisons in the same district of the capitol, so he goes for a Gargantuan army. At a CR of 8, the DC of the Loyalty check to recruit volunteers is 16 over the kingdom's control check. He is successful, spending 16 BP and sets them up as the force he will personally lead into war.
First step is equipage: improved armor (30 BP), improved weapons (50 BP), ranged weapons (20 BP), fortification builders (20 BP), war-trained horses (10 BP), shields (10 BP) and healing potions (100 BP) for an equipage cost of 240 BP. The consumption cost is (CR 2 + CR 1 x10 army size) 30 for the mounted troops plus 10 each for armor, weapons, ranged weapons and shields for a weekly consumption of 70 BP. Each "battle" supply of healing potions costs 50 BP as well. It takes (18 +7 for the number of resources) 25 weeks' time to train this army at a cost of 1,750 additional BP for a total cost of about 2,000 BP. Hrm ... this seems a bit steep ... maybe just quartering costs during training is more accurate: 16 +240 +438 (70 x6.25) for a total cost of 694 BP.
25 weeks later, however, His Majesty has a crack force under his personal command. While quartered they only cost 70 BP a month. Army hp: 44, OM +11, ranged capable (8+1 weapons +2 mounts), DV 22, 23 during ranged combat phase (18 +1 +2), Morale +0, Tactics: none, Leader: the King - Profession (soldier) 15 ranks = OM +14, DV 25, 26 during ranged combat; total Morale bonus from the King is a +10, with a soldier check bonus of +20 (or higher). Nasty! Attach siege engines and a good supply of healing potions or even poisons for extra naughtiness! (Without going the poisons route, I would place an additonal 6 battles' supply at hand for an even 1,000 BP cost for this army - spread out over 6 or 7 months this is very doable.)
Oh, excellent! Thanks for posting this.
I haven't released the Mass Combat rules to my players yet, so I'll definitely be incorporating some of your ideas. (I also have the JBE book).
Oh, excellent! Thanks for posting this.
I haven't released the Mass Combat rules to my players yet, so I'll definitely be incorporating some of your ideas. (I also have the JBE book).
Thankyas! I plan to revise the training costs a bit before releasing them to my group. The armchair general in me just can't abide by the super-simple rules. Otherwise it becomes too much of a "who has more BP" situation. These rules at least make it important to have an officer corps - and to hold to the medieval / rennaissance tradition of ransoming those officers.
More on the training revisions as well as the ransoming of officers to follow.
Obviously I've not yet touched (other than in previous posts) on non-conventional forces. In game terms, constructs, extraplanars, fey and the like. Such special forces deserve individual scrutiny and GM discretion as befits that individual campaign.
I will probably touch upon PC classed armies in the near future as well.
|
Despite the considerable up-front costs and construction times, constructs and simulacrums of the player characters are probably the best "shock troops" that can be had, especially the latter. Well, that and piloted apparati of Kwalish or whatever they're called. Toss a bottle of air or two in each apparatus and a supply of chow, you have some (expensive) amphibious units. The upside to high upfront cost units like these is that you usually have no weekly consumption costs of significance. No pay, no training, only housing and equippage. Well, except the kobolds driving the apparati.
I fear I have become a bad influence on you. Underwater kobold assault teams? Whatever will become of the world?
:)
Despite the considerable up-front costs and construction times, constructs and simulacrums of the player characters are probably the best "shock troops" that can be had, especially the latter. Well, that and piloted apparati of Kwalish or whatever they're called. Toss a bottle of air or two in each apparatus and a supply of chow, you have some (expensive) amphibious units. The upside to high upfront cost units like these is that you usually have no weekly consumption costs of significance. No pay, no training, only housing and equippage. Well, except the kobolds driving the apparati.I fear I have become a bad influence on you. Underwater kobold assault teams? Whatever will become of the world?
:)
^_^ Well, my group doesn't have any friendly Sootscales, mites, owlbears, tatzylwyrms or much of anything else besides centaurs, lizard men, a small scratch of horse-sized arachnids and of course the standard races.
Besides, influencing each other positively is a good thing. :)
Revisions to the above posted homebrew:
Cribbed from JBE's "Book of the River Nations"
Table 1-2 'How Big is a Hex?' - gives enough of a perspective on the size of the various kingdom threshholds to put them in some perspective.
Building Types: Castle Additions, sans 'Wards'. The others are unnecessary and are often underpriced for the benefit. Most are expansions of the regular Tradesman building.
'Develop Open Spaces' in its entirety. Note that the 'apiary' improvement probably also represents locally built mills to grind grain, terrace farming in the hills and the like. I like that there are options to remove claimed hexes from the consumption cost via 'royal preserve'.
Kingdom Events: while I would have preferred a percentile-based chart, the ones here are easy enough to convert.
Mass Combat: the Close Quarters tactic is a sensible addition. The fortification builders, shields and ships resources are also sensible and worrthwhile. The mercenaries special ability is especially appropriate to Kingmaker.
The main thrust of my changes center around mass combat, specifically in the raising and consumption costs of armies.
From the Mass Combat sticky:
Profession (soldier) is the key skill. Every 5 full ranks that an army's leader has adds +1 to OM and DV. This is a circumstance bonus for that army, should it matter.
At the beginning of a battle, each involved leader makes their Profession (soldier) check. Lowest check declares tactic first, which enemy army they are attacking and their strategy during the onset of the melee phase(s). This is effectively 'reverse initiative', reflecting that those who are highly skilled in war will anticipate and act accordingly.
Raising a conventional army requires buildings based on the army's size: a watchtower for Medium or smaller (permitting small armies to be raised at any of the kingdom's Forts); a Barracks for a Large army; a Garrison for a Huge army - 2 Garrisons in the same district for a Gargantuan army; 4 Garrisons in the same district for a Colossal army. The army's CR x2 is added to the kingdom's control DC to determine the required Loyalty check DC. Success means a BP cost of twice CR to raise the raw body of men and its basic equipage. Failure means a BP cost equal to the CR and a +4 bonus on this check the following month.
Armies can be quartered in proper buildings (as noted for what is required to raise them to begin with), reducing their consumption cost from weekly to monthly.
Housing a Gargantuan or Colossal army is no different than raising one - although if their only billeting is the same barracks/garrisons that raised and trained them, you won't be able to get any more until you correct this little problem. If a kingdom desires several such regiments of troops, it is recommended that each such regiment be ensconced within its own 'mini city' (a presumably fortified single-district city) analagous to modern military bases. Since a city, even a single district city, precludes farmlands and vinyards, it is recommended that the base/fort be of sufficient economic capacity so as to at least be able to pay for its own foodstuffs (Economy bonus of +5 or higher, not hard to achieve really).
When determining an army's speed, retain any fractions of 0.25, 0.5 or 0.75 - the 40' speed horde of lightly loaded barbarians should be faster than an army of infantry, but not quite as fast as 50' speed cavalry. One can also opt to retain fractions of 0.33 and 0.67 if you are so inclined.
Each attempt to raise an army counts as one of the kingdom's buildings for that turn. Each army requires its own "pool" of building(s) be tasked to raising that army.
Each army requires that a specific leader be assigned to that army as its commander until that army is defeated or disbanded. This is where the 5th, 6th and even 7th level followers from Leadership come into play, as they form the kingdom's "officer corps".
Ransoming Commanders: Most armies seek to capture and subsequently ransom enemy officers. Ransom is not sought until after a conflict concludes, whether decisively or by armistice. If all involved parties in a conflict have captured each other's officers, those of comparable rank (level) are evenly exchanged. If victory is attained after capturing an enemy capitol, this most likely results in having liberated one's own officers. Ransom is (officer's level -4) BP per officer.
Most often officers are captured rather than slain when an army is defeated - for NPCs of 7th level or less that fought against sentient armies, there is a 75% chance that officer commanding the defeated army is captured. If not, that officer was killed during combat. NPCs of 8th level or higher should be specifically determined by the GM as to their fate - escaped the conflict, captured or killed in action.
The exception is when an army is defeated by mindless foes - such are more likely to have eaten/killed/smooshed than captured an officer - 01-25% to have escaped, 26-85% eaten/killed, 86-00% captured.
Mercenaries come with an NPC leader as determined by the GM. 'Default' is a leader with 5 ranks of Profession (soldier), a +10 bonus in that skill and a +2 Cha bonus. Mercenaries may or may not be combat experienced - with higher than the standard starting Morale of +0 and one or more learned Tactics - at the GM's discretion. Such established mercenaries should come with a consumption cost corresponding to that greater capability.
The BP costs for army resources is all fine and dandy for a Medium or smaller army, but wholly inadequate in reflecting the equipage costs for larger armies. I suggest the following for determining resources and consumption costs:
Siege engines and ships have specific costs that are not directly tied to the size of the army they are "attached" to.
Siege engines cost 15 BP each to construct and have a consumption cost of 5 BP per week per engine. A small army can have 1 siege engine attached, a medium army 2, a large army 4, a huge army 10, a gargantuan army 20 and a colossal army as many as 40 engines. Most armies will not have more than 4. Siege engines halve an army's speed, although ponying up for mounts will effectively return the speed to normal. Siege engines require exotic craftsman buildings to construct them. They are "attached" to a specific army. When quartered or that army is resting, the engines can be attached to a different army.
Ships are 10 BP x army size multiplier to construct and half this cost to maintain. They must be constructed in a city with a waterfront. They can be 'quartered' in such a city, in the same manner as ground troops, with a limit of 20 ships per qualified waterfront plus/or 2 ships per pier in a given city.
The 'healing potions' resource has insufficient utility, although it should require access to suitable buildings - alchemist, herbalist, shrine, temple, cathedral or academy would all suffice. The consumption cost for these would only matter after a battle during or after which they are used. This a change to the official write up for them - if an army has a supply of healing potions, they can chug them to heal/repair the damage twice per "battle load" that army has available to consume. (See below.) They can also represent potions of make whole for construct armies and potions of inflict wounds for intelligent undead. Consumption cost 5 BP per battle they are used in/after x size multiplier.
Consumption cost for improved armor, improved weapons, ranged weapons and shields is 1 each per week per item. Improved armor and weapons includes a supply of cold iron, alchemical silver and alchemical splaish weapons. As always, quartering reduces this to monthly.
Magic armor and weapons have a consumption cost of 2 x size multiplier. This category also includes expensive materials (adamantine, mithril).
Consumption and resources costs scale to the size of the army above Medium, as follows: Large x2, Huge x5, Gargantuan x10, Colossal x20.
An obvious question is "why use really big armies instead of gobs of smaller armies"? The answer is hinted at above: a kingdom's officer corps. There are not very many able leaders (5th level+), and these should be drawn from the kingdom's followers as provided by the Leadership feat. If the entire group has this feat, they can field a very well-led army. The other catch is the permanent penalties from the defeat of an army. Army hp are simply greater for the larger sizes. All else being equal, despite the costs the bigger army will defeat smaller armies. Action economy will dictate otherwise - but who fields a lone army?
The 'rout' threshold of army hp is awfully low, equal to CR in remaining army hp. I suggest that threshold instead be set at 25% or CR, whichever is greater. Mindless creature armies cannot be routed, since they automatically make all Morale checks. They must be defeated in detail.
Mounts for a particular army have a BP cost equal to (mount CR x size multiplier) to raise and change the army's base consumption cost from (half CR plus equipage consumption/week) to (rider CR + mount CR) plus (equipage consumption) per week.
Poisons as a resource (instead of as a special ability) have an equippage cost of 6 x size multiplier plus an identical per-battle consumption cost. You need access to alchemists and herbalists to supply them. I do not recommend poisoning, as - barring an army being entirely comprised of those able to utilize poisons with impunity (such as by outright immunity or by way of the poison use class feature) - would also incur 5% loss of army hp per melee battle phase (with a minimum of 1 lost army hp per melee phase) due to accidental nickings and the like that is normally associated with poison use.
Healing potions can be used after a battle. For healing potions and poisons I suggest that a certain number of battles' on-hand potions be "attached" to each specifically equipped army. This same suggestion should also apply to poison-using armies.
Training time for the army is also required, at "basic" (1/2 CR or the higher value for units that will be mounted) consumption cost per week. The rules of thumb are as follows:
Once raised, an army and its attendant building(s) are tasked with undertaking basic training. Time requirements are based on whether the new soldiers are monsters with racial hit dice [giants, dumb dragons, centaurs], are trained in PC class levels or are trained in NPC class levels.
Monsters are generally the most difficult to train. Most are ill-suited to taking the field or are simply unavailable in sufficient numbers in close locale to each other to be even viable. Use your judgement as the GM! For suitable monsters, however, training time is army CR x army CR x3 for how many weeks are required.
For armies comprised of PC class leveled creatures without racial hit dice, training time is level x level x2 in weeks, with a cap of 3rd level (resulting in 18 weeks of intense training).
For armies comrpised of NPC-classed individuals, training time is level x level in weeks with a cap of 4th level (16 weeks).
Once trained, the army can be moved to suitable quartering. If moving not more than 4 days' march to their new quarters, ignore the "on campaign" consumption cost.
Additional training time of 1 week per resource is also required. Apply the full consumption cost for the army as if it were "on campaign" for the final week of training. While not quite accurate, it is simple enough to apply the training costs all at once at the end of training.
Note that it is possible to "attach" siege engines and ships at a later date to an army. However, doing so incurs full consumption cost for that week of training and 'ties up' the requisite buildings for housing them. I suggest appending 'siege trained' and 'ship trained' to armies that are trained in such methods of warfare without benefit of having them attached for ease of reference.
The cost to raise the army, the equipage costs (including additional 'per battle' supplies of poisons and potions) should be spread out over the entire time that army spends in training.
When an army is "on campaign", the consumption cost applies weekly plus any incurred "per battle" costs as normal.
EXAMPLE 1: His Royal Majesty's Imperial Guard
His Majesty decides to raise a professional army of 3rd level fighters. He has 2 Garrisons in the same district of the capitol, so he goes for a Gargantuan army. At a CR of 8, the DC of the Loyalty check to recruit volunteers is 16 over the kingdom's control check. He is successful and sets them up as the force he will personally lead into war.
His Majesty decides to go all-out on this army's training too. Other armies at the kingdom's disposal are already trained in using ships and siege engines, so he detaches those siege engines and ships in order to attach them to this army during its training.
Equipage: improved armor (30 BP), improved weapons (50 BP), ranged weapons (20 BP), fortification builders (20 BP), war-trained horses (10 BP), shields (10 BP) and healing potions (100 BP) for an equipage cost of 240 BP. The consumption cost is (CR 2 + CR 1 x10 army size) 30 for the mounted troops plus 10 each for armor, weapons, ranged weapons and shields for a weekly 'on campaign' consumption of 70 BP or a monthly 'quartered' consumption cost of 70 BP. During training they will not be using the high-end stuff (as is the norm for basic training), so the training time costs 30 BP per week of training plus the full consumption cost for the ships that they trained on for a week (50 BP) and a "battle load" of healing potions (50 BP) and practice with a battery of siege engines (5 BP) plus 40 BP for their normal equipage.
It takes (18 +9 for the number of resources) 27 weeks' time to train this army from the fresh meat recruited.
The first 26 weeks' training costs 30 BP per week for a total of 780 BP. Add in 16 more BP for drafting/raising/recruiting the 1,000 men and/or women that comprise this force. Lastly, the 'big week' tacked on another 240 BP in equipage costs and 145 BP in resources training costs. Altogether this army cost His Imperial Majesty a grand total of 1,181 BP over the course of 27 weeks - call it a full 7 months' time from recruitment to graduation. Each month His Majesty's kingdom spends 169 BP in funding for this army (rounding conventionally) {168.714). Provisioning this army with four such "battle loads" of healing potions increases the monthly BP cost to 197 BP per month for those 7 months.
Presuming His Majesty is not some inbred swine barely capable of pointing the four compass directions, he will be able to competently lead these crack troops into battle.
First Imperial Guard - nublet army stats (as in, no baptism of fire has been undertaken)
Army hp: 44 (rout threshold 11 hp); OM +11, ranged capability, ship trained, siege engine trained (base 8 +1 improved weapons +2 mounts); DV 21, 22 during ranged phase (10 +8 base +1 improved armor +2 mounts - +1 shields); increase OM and DV by +1 per 5 full ranks of the commanding officer's Profession (soldier) skill. A 15th level King would result in OM +14, DV 24, 25 during ranged! This does not account for strategy used nor tactics learned either ...
Speed: 3.25 <3.33 if you're of the mind> (50 ft speed horses = 40 miles a day) - attached siege engines reduces speed to 1.5 <1.67 if you're of the mind> (20 miles a day).
Resources: fortification builders, healing potions, improved armor and weapons, mounts, ranged weapons, shields
Morale: +0, the same for any nublet army - with no Tactics yet learned either. It seems likely that such a promising unit is likely put to work rather swiftly.
Consumption: 70; "Per Battle": 50 for healing potions
Potion Supply: 4 battle-loads (cures 16 army hp twice per battle-load)
EXAMPLE TWO: Desperate Times and desperate measures
His Majesty is desperately struggling to win some war or another decisively, resorting to drafting / conscripting mobs of barely trained militia. He needs vast numbers of men and he needs them quickly. Perhaps he needs troops to secure the rear lines of his vanguard. More likely, he is increasingly desperate to win and is willing to send thousands to slaughter if it means a decisive victory can possibly be attained. Or at least an armistice... His officer corp is large enough, its the BP and time that are winding to a close far faster than his liking.
As such, he scrapes together enough commoners to push through a mere week of bare-bones basic combat training before slapping them in padded armor, clapping leather helms on their noggins and pressing spears in their hands.
A Colossal Army of 1st level Warriors only takes a week to train, is a CR 7 force and is dirt cheap (14 BP to raise; consumption cost 3). His Majesty has 5 Castles available to quarter them in - and, as it so happens, he also only has 5 barely-competent officers remaining at his disposal to command these troops. It is unlikely that these militia will see their quarters for very long given His Majesty's dire straits.
Each is easy enough to raise, so he spends 70 total BP plus 15 BP for training. Total cost: 85 BP, 1 week of training.
Barely-Trained Militia Regiment, CR 7
Army hp: 38 (rout threshold = 9 remaining army hp); OM +7 = +8 with a barely-qualifying officer <5 ranks/ 5th level>; DV 17 = 18 with a barely-qualifying officer. Speed: 2; Consumption: 3
Not too bad ... while only 6 fewer hp than the First Imperial Guard, the 4 fewer points of OM and the 4 or 5 fewer points of DV are already telling. The likely result of a battle between the two example forces does not favor the militia however, even IF their respective leaders, tactics and strategies are equal. Sure there will be attrition - and likely not in the militia's favor since the Imperial Guard are mounted - and the militia are not...
On the flip side, if you think you can absorb the permanent penalties to one's Kingdom ability scores (-2 to all 3 per defeated army), the same 1,381 BP that it cost for the 1,000-man regiment of crack troops after a 7-month delay would raise and train three (3) 2,000-man regiments of very cherry militia every single week <39 BP per week x4 weeks/month = 156 BP/month x7 months = 1,092 BP> of those same 7 months in very rough numbers. 84 2,000-man conscript regiments against a single 1,000-man elite regiment does not result in favorable odds unless one is in extremely defensible terrain (such as a strategically-placed "fort-city" in a very favorable mountain pass).
Some times raw numbers counts for a great deal - and this explains WHY conscriptions, levies and such were so prominently used historically.
However, when all is said and done, militia always disband when the war is over (unless you start another one right away ... err, something egregious happens that provokes hostilities once more, OH NOES!!). Professional fighting forces are another matter. It would all depend upon one's officer corps pool in breadth and depth as an estimation.
If one's kingdom has but few officer-qualified persons, crack troops are likely to be considered essential in order to capitolize upon one's small officer corps. If one's kingdom has a vast pool of officers to draw upon, militia armies are more likely to be the norm, with elite units commanded in the field by PCs and/or cohorts.
Since the militia barely qualified as armed and armored, they have a very low Consumption cost - one can afford to field 23 militia regiments for the same consumption cost as the Imperial Guard (69 as compared to 70).
One last topic of consideration is the duration of the battle phases. The JBE supplement's times are far too short!
Two examples that should be familiar:
The Two Towers: defenders comprising 2 defending units are in a castle with a wall (one of those city-forts) whilst the Urukai of Saurumon are 5 colossal orc armies sans siege engines.
The defending armies are an odd assortment - one Large human militia with ranged weapons, and a veteran Huge army of elves with ranged weapons, improved armor and improved weapons, a +4 Morale and a pretty good leader. Aragorn is probably a better field commander (and, more importantly, he doesn't get killed).
However, they face 10:1 odds against the five colossal Urukai armies (glorified orc militia in game terms). They know that the G-man is coming with reinforcements the next morning ... but they gotta hold on until then.
Tactics Phase: drums are beaten, howls are hollered and such.
Ranged Phase: the old one-eyed guy's fingers finally loose the first arrow. Arrows and bolts fly. An exchange of ranged weapons fire as the orcs approach the defenders' walls.
Here's the real catch - the defenders hold on for a good 8-12 hours' time - dusk to dawn - in the Two Towers at Helm's Deep before the Big G finally shows up with the colossal army of Rohirrim at his back. This of course doesn't count the unexpected gob of 'ents at the orcs back. The gunpowder bombs that blasted the single wall were the equivalent of a single-use siege engine or two that rolled either really well or average (depending on whether it counts as one or two siege engines for purposes of reducing DM).
I'm thinking that battles, especially pseudo-historical ones such as these, should be measured in hours per phase.
For a simplistic approach, let's go with the following approach:[list]
Using RotK's Battle of Minas Tirith, that is a heavily defended city with its own siege engines - against a number of armies. The forces of Shadow brought along probably 10-12 siege engines - perhaps more, although I'm only going on a memory count from what was shown on screen. Even "the Eye" had a budget to operate with. The nasty part was the 8 ringwraiths and the Witch-King himself - and the oliphaunts of course. Based on that, the Colossal oliphaunts' diminutive were close to an even match, perhaps even 1 or 2 CR higher, than the 3 or 4 armies of Rohirrim cavalry before the Deus ex Machina Army o' Ghosts kilt themselves bucketloads of bad guys.
At a rough guess, there was a Tactics Phase (Relentless Brutality vs. Cautious), a Ranged Phase and quite a few Melee Phases, with the cavalry forces coming into play one melee phase apart. All in all, from the silver screen, I have a distinct impression that particular battle lasted a good 2 or 3 days' time before it was finally decided. I'm no expert in LoTR lore, so take that for what it's worth. :)
You have my congratulations once again. This one is also listed.
One thing that working all of this mess up has me convinced of is that a sane military will probably have three tiers of forces:
- Catapult Fodder: Militia, with or without ranged weapons. Likely to comprise the bulk of a kingdom's military forces. Rarely trained beyond 3rd level, often trained only to 1st. Vast numbers of regiments can be quickly trained and fielded with sufficient garrisons and is only limited by the kingdom's officer corps and the depth of the kingdom's coffers. Likely to be conscripted and barely trained (1 to 4 weeks) before being sent off to eat boulders.
- Standing Army: PC-classed or Adept-classed regiments (1,0000 or 2,000 strong) or brigades (200 or 500 strong). Better equipped, this tier comprises the standing armies of a kingdom. Often developed with specific subsets of equipage rather than the "Imperial Guard" example given above. Raising, training, equipage and resources for these units is likely to take 2 to 3 months in total. It is advised that several 'templates' be developed by one's General to facilitate proper city developments and resource allocations.
- Special Forces: The cream of a kingdom's crop. In PFRPG/D&D terms, these range very wildly, from the Imperial Guards unit above (on the lower end) to "wings" of dragons, battalions of giants, regiments of constructs, allied extraplanar companies and just about anything else.
- Mercenaries are outside of the purview of most kingdom's standing and militia forces unless that is all that they rely upon. They have the advantage of being payable in both coin and BP, can cover a wide gamut of creatures outside of those indiginous to one's territories and the good ones stay loyal once bought - and of course so long as they continue to be paid promptly. The other "good thing" about them is that you do not need to stress your own officer corps to command them.
- The downside to mercenaries is that they are mercenaries. Sufficient financial incentives can cause the loss of mercenaries - and see them bringing their battlefield advantage against you.
You have my congratulations once again. This one is also listed.
Where? ^_^
Where? ^_^You have my congratulations once again. This one is also listed.
On a currently public list of his main identity, Sir Turin...
Good to know, Sir Charles. I don't see it anywhere in his main identity's profile though. Care to post a linky?
Various and asundry constructs:
Armies entirely comprised of golems - which would have to be led by one of those involved in their creation - I caution against greater than Huge size. Adherance to time and crafter requirements is highly recommended. Magic Immunity, in mass combat terms, grants the spell resistance special ability against spellcasting armies.
Fast and Cheap Golems
* Flesh (base CR 7) - 20.5 days each; faster is possible. Requirements: caster's tower or academy, graveyard, dump, Kingdom alignment non-good. Recommend quartering in a defensible building. Cost: 2.625 BP each. Drawback: guaranteed to go berserk during their first battle - treat this as the flesh golem's automatically gaining the relentless brutality tactic on their first melee combat phase. (Clay golems also go berserk, but cost more and take more time to craft.) Be prepared to fight your own golems if they succeed in routing or defeating one's enemies. Gains +5 DV from DR except against armies equipped with magic weapons (or equivalent).
* Ice (base CR 5) - 18.5 days each; faster is possible. Requirements: caster's tower. Recommend they be quartered in an academy or perhaps a garden, park or similar area. Vulnerability to fire negates any possible DV bonus from DR. Breath weapon special ability. Cost: 2.375 BP each.
* Wood (base CR 6) - 20 days each; faster is possible. Requirements: caster's tower or academy withaccess to a mill in the same city and claimed forest hexes for the lumber. Vulnerability to fire negates DV bonus from DR. Splintering special ability bears consideration, as wood golems in tight formations will obliterate each other almost as fast as armies they engage. Suggest 1d6 per melee phase dealt to enemies, 1d4 per melee phase dealt to themselves. Cost: 2.2 BP each.
* Carrion Golem (base CR 4) - 10.5 days each; faster is possible. Requirements: academy, caster's tower, cathedral, temple or shrine plus graveyard; non-good kingdom. Disease is a 1d3 day delay onset of the poison special ability against each enemy army dealt damage to - in other words, not really worth it. Cost: 1.375 BP each.
Good (neither cheap nor fast to make, but not the vault breakers that the high-end golems are)
* Clay Golems (base CR 10) - 41.5 days each. Cursed wound is nasty business - it takes very powerful magic to heal the damage such an army dishes out and they don't heal naturally. Since they also go berserk ... be FASTER than them and prepare to waste them after the battle. +10 DV from DR against most armies. Cost: 5.375 BP each. Use at your own risk! :)
* Alchemical (CR 9) - 33 days each, ranged capable, no DV from DR due to the commonality of bludgeoning damage. Cost: 4.5 BP each.
* Glass or Stained Glass (CR 8) - 33 or 40 days each, DV +5 against armies not equipped with magic weapons, dazzling brightness equates to fear special ability once per enemy army engaged in melee. Bleed equates to poison special ability. Cost: 4.25 or 5 BP each.
The other golems from Bestiary 1 and 2 are "high end" golems, taking months or perhaps even years to craft and costing vast sums.
OoooOOOooohhhh .. spiffy lists, nice stuff. "Another ridiculous build by Turin" - and I see I've made the list thrice!
Amazing that Gargadros didn't make the list. That might have something to do with his comparatively crap-tastic Will bonus though...
^_^ I'll take making wraithstrike's list as a massive compliment.
Interesting times loom ahead for the bad guys. Preliminary indications are that Her Majesty will want an army of ice golems to command. Fairly nasty, relatively cheap and they can be crafted relatively quickly (2 or more per month with capable assistants).
Going purely on memory, Starfall should have an officer corps of roughly 20 qualified followers altogether. (Most of the PCs have a Leadership score of 25+.) Nasty considering how many regiments that represents. The Nomen centaurs and lizard men are vassal states, so they provide their own leadership. At first they can expect one regiment of each. Depending upon the resolution of Chapter 4, Starfall may well potentially be able to call upon as many as 2 or 3 centaur regiments and from 5 to 10 regiments of lizard men come Chapter 5 ... eeewww.
This could be Bad News for certain hostile parties. Let's see what Our Rulers elect to do on this front!
As things presently stand, I expect our next full attendance session to be 17th July. I'm hoping to pack the lot off to get some followers on a rescue mission in a stinking hole of a town in Ustalav... I guess we'll see!
OoooOOOooohhhh .. spiffy lists, nice stuff. "Another ridiculous build by Turin" - and I see I've made the list thrice!
Amazing that Gargadros didn't make the list. That might have something to do with his comparatively crap-tastic Will bonus though...
^_^ I'll take making wraithstrike's list as a massive compliment.
That one might have gotten by me since I don't remember it. I will check it out. If the only thing I don't like is the will save I can always modify the monster.
Additional brain droppings from the armchair general point-of-view:
Sieges
With the inclusion of siege engines, naturally one wants to use them to lay siege to something. These are cities or "fort-cities". In the event that you don't have any siege engines, or you don't have very many (or lose them due to enemy special forces action or to the siegebreaker tactic), you certainly don't want to needlessly feed your men and critters into the meatgrinder that assaulting a fortified and defended city represents. Its cheaper - much cheaper - in terms of lives to lay siege to such a city instead.
Naturally, nothing is as easy as it sounds. Maintaining morale is paramount on both sides of the walls. A single adept, cleric, ranger or druid (not counting other spell casters) can indefinitely take care of hundreds of gallons of potable water a day, let alone the assorted wells, cisterns and other water storage that is generally available. Food is the biggest concern (besides plague and fire - those are handled by Kingdom events already, so we won't worry about that here.)
The first step to emplacing a siege is investment: surrounding the city and isolating its methods of resupply. The waterways have to be isolated in some fashion as do the roads leading into the city. Cavalry patrols control the terrain betweeb road and water. Field fortifications are erected first facing the city walls, then facing outward to protect against any enemy forces attempting to releive the besieged city. Supply of the invested forces and communications have to be established.
Isolating the city and getting the basic logisitcs takes a day. Erecting the investment field fortifications takes longer. The longer the siege, the more developed these become. If a besieged enemy is going to attempt to sally forth and strike a blow, the first days are the most crucial.
Once a city has been invested, it cannot raise any additional armies. Armies that are already training within the city walls continue to do so, although for obvious reasons that training is unlikely to continue for very long. The city's own populace has to supply any new armies. 1st level warriors can be culled to form militia units (as noted in the above posts) up to the combined limitations of what remains of the officer corps and a troop limit of 1,000 per fully developed district.
And you thought that a city's population wasn't important? How silly! ^_^
A city has sufficient foodstuffs "on hand" to feed its population for one week. The primary building that represents food storage capacity are granaries. Since the kingdom's farmlands can no longer supply the besieged city, Each granary represents sufficient stored chow to supply 100 BP from the kingdom's treasury towards paying the city's consumption cost (from its districts) as well as supplying the army/armies defending it. A besieged city's consumption cost is added to the consumption cost of its defending units to realize a weekly (instead of monthly) consumption total.
The besieging force(s) must pay their weekly consumption cost +5 BP per week to maintain the investment.
Now comes the fun part: outlasting the enemy. The as-written rules certainly work well enough, although using Morale checks instead of Loyalty checks will result in the "siege" ending in 2 or 3 weeks in almost all cases. Historically, most sieges lasted far longer than that, especially given the tehcnology level of Golarion combined with even a dozen or so 1st level adepts per district (greatly offsetting spoilage, depletion of potable water and the like).
Instead, we need to use Loyalty checks - and transplant a concept called "war exhaustion".
In a nutshell, the populace's love of their govornment is determined by the Loyalty score. As we know from raising armies, Loyalty checks significantly in excess of the Control DC are required (although probably not alarmingly so based upon playtesting and other campaigns' journals).
To declare a war without causus belli requires a standard Loyalty check. Declaring a war with causus belli is automatically sucessful. Declaring a war against a historical ally requires a Loyalty check against the control DC +50 without causus belli. Declaring war upon one's own vassals is just as difficult without cause. causus belli roughly means "war with cause", or "we have an excuse the masses will accept" in modern parlance. This concept also matters to foreign states - the implications are not immediately noteworthy in game terms, but neighboring states' political connectiveness with the nation you declare war upon could see other powers honoring various treaties, breaking those treaties, independantly declaring war on you or simply keeping quiet and watching the "news" of the war's events. Having a long-held claim on a stretch of territory is often sufficient, although doing so on this basis alone also requires a successful Loyalty check. Blindly declaring war is a good way to find onself in far deeper than had been anticipated ...
Declaring war, whether as the aggressor or in response as the "defender", is the easy part. Often a declaration of war includes some semblance of terms that would immediately see hostilities halt before they even begin. Depending on the aggressors in question your kingdom may see a formal declaration delivered by ambassador, a dastardly assault by surprise or - more often - a formally delivered declaration with hostile troops poised to march directly across your borders if you do concede to the aggressor's (often outrageous) demands. The ambassador / diplomat is expected to return with your response in one piece ... but not always. Lack of a response being received within a reasonable time frame - depending on travel time by horse from border to capitol and back - is probably interpreted as being told "nuts!".
In agrarian societies such as these, year-round warfare is the exception, not the norm. Unless a kingdom's military is entirely comprised of professionals and/or mercenaries, most warfare takes place mid-spring through mid-fall (after planting and before harvest). The exception are prolonged sieges. The other exception is recurring warfare, when both sides cease aggression by agreement (informal or formal) in order to attend to the fall harvest, riding out the winter and resuming hostilities after the spring planting. In game terms, this situation is handled by hostilities ceasing at the proper time in the fall and war is re-declared in the spring.
Each month of war requires a succesful Loyalty check, starting at the kingdom's regular control DC and increasing 1 per month. Each army that is routed increases this by 2, while each army that is defeated in detail increases this by 5. Each week a city endures a siege increases this by 1 per city (4 per city per month). Each week one's own forces are besieging an enemy city does not decrease your war exhaustion. Each victorious battle decreases your war exhaustion by 1 if you rout the enemy or by 2 if you defeated the majoirty of enemy forces in detail. it sucks to be on the losing side of a war.
Each time a war continues through the planting and harvest months war exhaustion increases by an additional 2. Each winter month increases war exhaustion by an additional 3. Losing a city adds 1 per district of that city, partially developed or otherwise. Sacking an enemy city decreases war exhaustion by 1 per district (or by 1 per 1,000 population or fraction thereof if you only know the city's population). If your officer corps has been decimated, they are led by someone that adds no bonuses. Such units must be militia (warriors of 1st level), although they could be equipped with ranged weapons.
All of these decreases and increases are "war exhaustion", added to the normal control DC to determine the necessary Loyalty check for the next month's stability check. (During a war, Loyalty matters more than Stability. Stability = peace time, Loyalty = war time.) Since you only make this check monthly, initial setbacks can be reversed. Failed Loyalty checks generate Unrest as normal for a failed control check.
During a war the conflicting kingdoms can claim (but not develop) each other's hexes month to month. If an armistice or cease-fire occurs (such as during the aforementioned 'break' between harvest and planting), hexes that have been claimed AND that are effectively under the other sides' control can be developed. Most such developments would be militarisitc in nature - forts and roads most likely. Annexation of territory is not possible during these lulls. The upside is that such time counts as "peace", reducing war exhaustion by 4 per month.
If war exhaustion is severe enough for one side in the conflict, they will begin to seek terms of surrender once their Unrest (from failed Loyalty checks) reaches 8 or higher. If the enemy's Unrest reaches 20 during the course of the war, the enemy's nation fragments into several smaller bodies and the war ends. Adjudicate the end of the war based upon territory claimed and controlled by the other party or parties, the specific political structure of the disintegrating nation in question and any other factors deemed pertinent.
Terms of surrender are very important - "unconditional surrender" is not common. A lot of this depends on factors such as how war was declared, how many of one's allies are threatened and most importantly the role-playing of all involved parties. The initial declaration of war often outlines the scope of what the declaring party seeks to gain. Some of course include no such declarations other than flavor text preceeding something to the effect of "we are now at war". Have fun with proclaiming any grievances, territorial claims held in the past - such as Brevoy's "claim" over the whole of the Stolen Lands, which can probably be considered as having been claimed in years past but never formally ecercised - as well as religious differences between them and of course political differences that offend the other nation's sensibilities.
That one might have gotten by me since I don't remember it. I will check it out. If the only thing I don't like is the will save I can always modify the monster.OoooOOOooohhhh .. spiffy lists, nice stuff. "Another ridiculous build by Turin" - and I see I've made the list thrice!
Amazing that Gargadros didn't make the list. That might have something to do with his comparatively crap-tastic Will bonus though...
^_^ I'll take making wraithstrike's list as a massive compliment.
Might I suggest any one of the exemplar (+3 CR) or mighty templates (+5 CR)? They make wuss critters into less-wussy critters. Much less wussy ^_^.
Might I suggest any one of the exemplar (+3 CR) or mighty templates (+5 CR)? They make wuss critters into less-wussy critters. Much less wussy ^_^.That one might have gotten by me since I don't remember it. I will check it out. If the only thing I don't like is the will save I can always modify the monster.OoooOOOooohhhh .. spiffy lists, nice stuff. "Another ridiculous build by Turin" - and I see I've made the list thrice!
Amazing that Gargadros didn't make the list. That might have something to do with his comparatively crap-tastic Will bonus though...
^_^ I'll take making wraithstrike's list as a massive compliment.
What books are those in?
The Exemplar is in Book of Monster Templates (Rite Publishing) and it's just... wrong :-)
And thus it comes HIGHLY recommended!! ^_^
The Exemplar is in Book of Monster Templates (Rite Publishing) and it's just... wrong :-)
I will see if it is on the PFSRD site. I don't have any of the Rite company's books.
Found the Mighty tempklate - in "Genius Guide to Simple Monster Templates".
$3 later...
Aha - that's simple and clever. I like it. Not sure if it's worth a +5 though - not in my game :-)
I'm getting some great ideas from the other templates too - thanks for the tip Turin!
I swap out the crappy SR to take the +5 bonus on saves to a +8 bonus on saves. Note that all of those bonuses are untyped and easy to apply on the fly (which is the intent).
Exemplar is my preferred - but for a gob of deathbugs [with more HD of course], Mighty is a nice way to ramp the evil super-roaches up a notch without having to retool the entire stat block. Just add the numbers in the right spot and off they go!
Slap that template on a tyrannosaurus and watch them SQUIRM! (What, the charm monster didn't work? You didn't evil roll a save. A: no, no I didn't ... ) Awakened mighty tyrannosaurs wearing rings of freedom of movement ...
Quick-trained militia (colossal army, warrior 1st) should be a CR 4 not a CR 7... ouchies. Wish I'd caught that - makes the crack troops all the more effective despite the expense.
Training times edit: CR x CR formulae should base on Medium army CR - with 1 x 1 as the minimum multipliers.
I hope to adjust, clean up, edit and formalize my home-brew take on the mass combat and army rules during the next few days' time. Once completed, I'll post it here and on the mass combat sticky.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Fascinating. Comparing areas in square miles between the official scale (125 square miles/hex, 7 miles per hex side, 12 miles to cross) and the JBE scale (375 square miles/hex, 12 miles per hex side, estimate 20 miles to cross) leads me to toss the JBE scale out the window. Sorry JBE!
One, this means I don't have to bork around with estimating army speeds. Second, the former fits pretty precisely with the pre-release indications that the Stolen Lands roughly equate in land area to Indiana. They do - at 280 hexes, that's 35,000 square miles on the 125 square miles per hex ratio. At 375 square miles per hex, the Stolen Lands balloon to ~105,000 square miles.
Taking this further, I've found a few tidbits:
The whole of the River Kingdoms including the Stolen Lands is ~600 miles horizontally by ~420 miles vertically for a total claimable area of ~252,000 square miles resulting in a total of 2,016 claimable hexes. 6 PCs = 336 claimable hexes for each. 5 PCs = 403.2 claimable hexes for each. 4 PCs = 504 claimable hexes for each. This is about 5% more than the entire land area of Texas – and thus comparable to a slightly larger than modern France.
Brevoy measures ~450 miles vertically by ~400 miles horizontally for a total claimed land area of ~180,000 square miles, 20% larger than the land area of California for a total of 1,440 claimed hexes. Brevoy is probably about the combined land area of the Iberian Peninsula.
Iobaria measures ~180 miles horizontally by ~225 miles vertically for a total land area of ~40,500 square miles (on a 45 mile scale for the map-without-a-scale in KM Chapter 3), resulting in 324 hexes for Iobaria.
All three areas together combined to an estimated area of ~472,500 square miles – equating to 3,780 hexes. Iobaria may not be deemed to be worth the effort, as Brevoy and the River Kingdoms combine for a total of 432,000 square miles / 3,456 hexes in and of themselves. Of course, there is the matter of "just being thorough" for would-be conquerers of the known world.
Puts some things into a bit better perspective, eh? :)
I hope to adjust, clean up, edit and formalize my home-brew take on the mass combat and army rules during the next few days' time. Once completed, I'll post it here and on the mass combat sticky.
Update: this *should* be posted and ready for perusal in the next 36 hours or less. "A few days" became "almost a week" thanks to the incorrugible Real Life Monster. That and more than a few "SQUIRREL!!" moments.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Assorted Musings on Kingdom Building, Mass Combat and Armies:
Between the Mass Combat sticky thread, JBE’s combined player-oriented product for Kingmaker campaigns and my musings, I present my combined ‘house rules’ on the subjects of kingdom building, armies and mass combat. Alot of this is rehashed, most has been at least mildly tweaked.
While there appear to be ‘errata’ under consideration for the various buildings, these ‘house rules’ propose no alterations in the BP costs, benefits and/or drawbacks to the official rules. What I am integrating into my own campaign is presented in the following ‘wall-o-text’. Attempts have been made to integrate everything into its proper section.
Well, at least until the sun rose as I was getting done...
Fold, mutilate, spindle and/or staple these to your hearts’ content. Feedback, as always, is appreciated.
Land Areas in the River Kingdoms:
A total of 280 full hexes on the four maps at 70 hexes per map from Chapters 2 through 5 of Kingmaker results in the Stolen Lands encompassing 35,000 square miles – roughly equal in claimable land area to Maine or Indiana (as originally indicated).
The whole of the River Kingdoms including the Stolen Lands is ~600 miles horizontally by ~420 miles vertically for a total claimable area of ~252,000 square miles. This results in a total of 2,016 claimable hexes. This is about 5% more than the entirety of Texas – and thus comparable in land area to a slightly larger than modern-day France.
Brevoy measures ~450 miles vertically by ~400 miles horizontally for a total claimed land area of ~180,000 square miles, 20% larger than the land area of California for a total of 1,440 claimed hexes. Brevoy is probably about the combined land area of the Iberian Peninsula in Europe.
Iobaria measures ~180 miles horizontally by ~225 miles vertically for a total land area of ~40,500 square miles (on a 45 mile scale, although my map for Iobaria does not show a scale so this is a guesstimate), resulting in 324 hexes for the entire area.
All three areas together combined to an estimated area of ~472,500 square miles – equating to 3,780 hexes. Iobaria may not be deemed to be worth the effort, as Brevoy and the River Kingdoms combine for a total of 432,000 square miles / 3,456 hexes in and of themselves.
By comparison, the total land area of the ‘lower 48’ United States (but including D.C.) is ~3,000,000 square miles. If it comes to pass that Our Rulers are able to conquer the whole of Brevoy, Iobaria and the River Kingdoms, the combined land area is 15.75% that of the continental US. Another way to view the size of the three areas combined is that it is roughly equivalent in size to South Africa.
Making Use of Jon Brazer Enterprises’ Kingdom Building Book:
I plan to integrate the following elements of this book into my campaign. There are several concepts introduced in this supplement that are being ‘borrowed’ pretty much as-written, as follows:
Building Types: Castle Additions excepting 'Wards'. The Moat is poorly explained, so I recommend adjusting this as you deem fit. Letting ships bypass a moat is pretty silly, so remove this method of bypassing a castle moat.
'Develop Open Spaces' in its entirety, replacing the ‘farms’ element of the official rules. This is the crown jewel of the entire book and worth the price of the PDF. If you use nothing else, this section is excellent. If there are expansions upon this section, I very much look forward to seeing them!
Kingdom Events: while I would have preferred a percentile-based chart, the ones here are easy enough to convert and add some variety.
Mass Combat:
- Tactic – Close Quarters.
- Resources - fortification builders, poisons, shields and ships.
- Special Abilities – mercenaries.
- ”Friendly Fire” – ranged capable armies firing on an army simultaneously target not just that enemy army but also all other armies engaging that enemy army in melee during that melee phase.
There are several sections here. Armies, Mass Combat and how these systems interface with the Kingdom Building rules. The approach here addresses buildings, mass combat, armies and war exhaustion.
Buildings:
- Army Buildings: Quite a few of the buildings are necessary to facilitate raising and equipping one’s armies.
- Watchtowers, barracks and garrisons are required to recruit, train and quarter your armies. It gets expensive really fast to bivouac armies in the field…
- Alchemists, exotic craftsmen, herbalists, smiths, stables, tanneries and tradesmen are all potentially required to provide your armies with their resources, including exotic resources such as poisons and siege engines.
- Waterfronts construct ships while piers can house them once constructed.
- Academies, caster’s towers and magic shops access magical weapons for the army and supply ‘healing potions’ for armies comprised of constructs.
- A cathedral, temples and shrines provide invaluable medical assistance, aid in the recuperation of armies quartered within the city walls, enchant armor and supply healing potions.
- Breweries supply other buildings with the booze to help keep up morale. They may provide the basis for healing potions – a truly refreshing beverage indeed!
- The soldiers of your armies as well any mercenaries carouse at the arena, brothels, taverns and theatres alongside your citizens and visitors; pay homage to fallen friends at graveyards; draw inspiration from monuments; spend hard-won pay at the shops and markets. In short, there are very few buildings that do not pertain in some fashion to one’s armies.
- City Walls combined with barracks and watchtowers provide your city’s primary lines of defense against hostile armies seeking to loot, pillage and plunder your cities. A castle and any attendant improvements upon it are your city’s final line of defense. For small cities, a castle may be its sole line of defense.
- Granaries specifically provide the city that they are located within the ability to withstand protracted sieges, feeding the people and armies within the city’s walls. Each granary in a city when that city falls under siege permits the kingdom’s treasury to provide as much as 100 BP during a siege towards that city’s combined consumption costs in order to withstand the siege. Granaries also represent within their ‘block’ various stores of potable water in the form of immense cisterns and water towers as well as stores of non-potable water for fighting fires.
Armies fight a battle in three distinct phases: Tactics, Ranged and Melee. The tactics phase takes place during the first hour of a battle. The ranged phase takes place during the next three hours of a battle. There are two melee phases following the ranged phase, each melee phase taking 4 hours. Total time per battle is 12 hours.
At the beginning of each battle during the Tactics phase, each leader involved makes their Profession (soldier) check. The leader scoring the lowest check declares what tactic they will use, which enemy army they are attacking and their strategy during the melee phases of the battle. This is effectively ‘reverse initiative’, although all combat is resolved simultaneously during all ranged and melee phases.
A particular battle can persist for additional melee phases after the first two against foes that do not fatigue, such as constructs and the undead.
The benefits of leadership: An army led by a creature with the Leadership feat and/or with 5 or more ranks of Profession (soldier) contributes the higher of their Strength or Charisma modifier to their army’s Morale. An army led by a creature with ranks of Profession (soldier) contributes a +1 bonus to OM and DV per 5 full ranks.
Routing and Defeat: Armies have a “rout threshold” that is normally one-third of army hp (rounded up) or the army’s CR, whichever is greater. When an army’s hit points are reduced to this threshold or lower, its commander must succeed on a DC 15 Morale check or the army scatters and retreats from battle. When an army is routed in this fashion, enemy armies that have a greater speed, mobility advantage and/or ranged capability can make one final Offense check against the routed army as it departs the battlefield.
An army reduced to 0 or negative army hp is defeated in detail, its few survivors scattered and its commander captured, slain or fled. Most armies seek to capture enemy commanders in order to imprison, interrogate and later ransom them upon the conclusion of the conflict. Commanders that are unable to be ransomed by the enemy are typically executed or exiled. For NPCs of 6th level or lower they have been captured (01-60%), slain (61-85%) or succeeded in returning to friendly lines (86-00%). Unintelligent armies – comprised primarily of constructs, plants, vermin, unintelligent undead and other mindless or animal level intelligence creatures – are not so discriminate, generally eating or otherwise killing almost every creature in any armies that they defeat (75% chance) with the survivors scattering. For commanders of 7th level or higher their fates are at the GMs discretion.
Optional Expansion – Generational Malus:
When an army is defeated in detail, the consequences can be severe for their kingdom. The kingdom suffers a “generational malus” based on the army’s size modifier to Economy, Loyalty and Stability. The value of this penalty is one-tenth of the defeated army’s size modifier. Track fractional totals, as the cumulative effect could matter.
The duration of the penalty is measured in years based on the kingdom’s majority racial population, based on (age of adulthood) + (the class training bracket used for fighters) rounded up to the nearest 5 year bracket. A human-majority population kingdom suffers this “generational malus” for (15 +3 = 18, rounded up to 20) 20 years’ time.
For the sake of simplicity, track this malus from the conclusion of that particular war based upon the total army losses suffered (tracking by unit size). An easy way to do this is total size modifiers defeated during the war, then dividing by ten for the “malus” once the war has concluded.
The “generational malus” does not apply for the defeat of armies that are comprised of mercenaries and creatures that are not of the kingdom’s majority population such as constructs and extraplanar creatures. This malus fades over the course of years, proportionally reducing as time progresses, more babies are made and folk immigrate.
The victor of a war suffers only half of the “malus” accrued during the course of the war.
Example “Generational Malus” durations by CRB race:
- Human & Half-Orc: 20 years
- Dwarf: 60 years
- Elf: 135 years
- Gnome: 65 years
- Half-Elf & Halfling: 30 years
Combat Experience: When an army survives a battle – whether in victory or defeat – they have the possibility of learning from that experience (learning a Tactic) as well as building esprit de corps (improving Morale).
For a victorious army, a successful Loyalty check against the kingdom’s control DC is sufficient to learn one tactic of choice and improved Morale from +0 to +1. An army’s Morale can further improve with such a successful Loyalty check by exceeding this DC by 10 (to attain Morale +2), 15 (+3) or 20 (+4, which remains the cap). It is suggested that the tactic learned be one appropriate to the battlefield and the specific strategy or strategies pursued during the course of that battle. Learning a new tactic requires at least a week without combat or more than a day’s movement and that they have been fully reinforced or its army hp fully healed. An army can qualify to learn several tactics before they are able to benefit from sufficient down time to train in the new tactic. A particular army can learn no more than half of their CR in tactics. Morale can only improve one “plus” per battle regardless of how successful the Loyalty check is.
For an army that is routed, but not defeated, several Loyalty checks must be made. First, a successful Loyalty check must be made for the routed army to reform at a Morale 1 point lower than when it entered the battle it was routed from at an army hp total equal to its rout threshold. Once a routed army has been sufficiently reinforced or otherwise had its army hp fully healed, the army may find it has built some esprit de corps of its own on a Loyalty check equal to (control DC + twice army CR), regaining the lost point of Morale. If this check succeeds by 10 and the routed army had a +2 or higher Morale, it regains its Morale up to a +2. Success by 15 can restore Morale to as high as a previously attained bonus of +3, while success by 20 or more is required to restore Morale to as high as the +4 cap. Learning new tactics from defeat is more difficult, requiring this same Loyalty check to have succeeded by 10 or more (10 +control DC +twice army CR).
Learning new tactics after the first requires increasingly longer time to integrate the new doctrine into that army’s training. A second tactic requires 2 weeks, a third 5 weeks, a fourth 10 weeks and a fifth 20 weeks. Six or more learned tactics requires 40 weeks to learn for each new tactic starting with the sixth.
Army Size Modifiers:
Armies have a size modifier that affects the costs of resources (both to purchase and when paying consumption costs) as well as the “generational malus” suffered by that army’s defeat. A Medium army has a size modifier of 1 and is used as the baseline for almost all resources costs.
The size modifier is based upon the theoretical number of creatures composing that army:
- Diminutive 0.1
- Tiny 0.25
- Small 0.5
- Medium 1
- Large 2
- Huge 5
- Gargantuan 10
- Colossal 20
When purchasing resources for an army as well as when paying consumption costs, multiply the resource cost by the army size multiplier to determine the total BP cost. Since a “fine army” is an individual creature of CR 9 or higher, it does not normally fall under the purview of consumption costs. The effects of imprisoned or slain rulers are already covered in the Kingmaker rules. Such matters are left to GM adjudication. For those that must know, a Fine Army has a size modifier of 0.01.
Armies require manpower, resources (in buildings, equipment and materials access either from within its own borders or by way of integrating itself into a larger trade network), training and leadership.
The building blocks of even the most basic armies are a nation’s manpower and officer corps. The nation’s access to certain buildings within its city or cities determines how large an army can be recruited, what kind of resources it can equip its armies with, its training capacity and its ability to maintain a standing army.
A nation’s Manpower is 1 per 1,000 population. This value determines the totaled size modifiers of conventional armies that can potentially be recruited, trained and led during times of war. Armies in excess of this value must be mercenaries or comprised of more exotic creatures.
A nation’s ability to lead its armies via its Officer Corps can be determined in several ways, such as by the ruling characters’ body of followers that are higher than 1st level. If such information is unavailable, the nation’s Officer Corps is 10% of its manpower. The highest ranking officers, in game terms, are often the 5th and 6th level followers of a particular NPC or player character, contributing at least a respectable bonus on Profession (soldier) checks as well as a bonus to their army’s OM and DV due to their skill and presumably at least a slight bonus to their army’s Morale. Lower level followers can and often do lead armies. It is recommended, when determining the player characters’ nation’s Officer Corps that it begin at the sum of all 2nd – 6th level followers they have at their disposal.
Armies have several steps that they have to go through before the PCs can set them upon their nemesis: recruitment, training and resources. A fourth step is quartering.
Recruiting an army counts as a “building” action for that kingdom turn. Doing so requires a Loyalty check against a DC equal to the control DC plus twice the army’s CR, as determined by the desired nature of the army as modified by the CR derived from the army’s size. If successful, BP equal to twice the army CR is spent, manpower sufficient for the new army’s size modifier is deducted and 1 commander from the Officer Corps is assigned to the new army. If the attempted recruitment fails due to the Loyalty check, only the army’s CR in BP is spent. The same army may attempt to be recruited again on the following month from the same building(s) at a +4 bonus. Once a building or buildings are allocated to recruiting and training an army, they are unavailable to do so for any other army whether the recruitment is successful or not. The building action is spent whether the recruitment is successful or not.
Certain buildings are required to serve as the focal point of recruitment as well as where the troops are initially trained.
- A Watchtower (or a Fort from ‘open spaces development’) can recruit, train and/or provide quartering for any army of up to Medium size.
- A barracks is required in order to recruit, train and/or provide quartering for any army of up to Large size.
- A garrison is required in order to recruit, train and/or provide quartering for any army of up to Huge size.
- A Gargantuan army requires two garrisons within the same block.
- A Colossal army requires four garrisons within adjacent blocks in the same city district.
Recruiting Example 1: The Royal Guard
His Majesty desires a regiment of crack troops, so he orders the Warden to recruit a Gargantuan army of 2nd level human Fighters (army CR 7, army size modifier 10). The Warden has to succeed on a Loyalty check against a DC of (control DC +14) to succeed. Before doing so, the Warden confers with the General to verify that the kingdom does have a pair of garrisons available to recruit and train this new army. If the Warden is unsuccessful, the kingdom spends 7 BP and a building action and loses access to those garrisons for recruitment and training purposes until next month. If successful, the kingdom spends 14 BP and assigns an officer from its Officer Corps. Probably a seasoned 5th or 6th level veteran is assigned to lead and train this regiment.
Recruiting Example 2: Militia
His Majesty needs lots of catapult fodder to hurl en masse at his hated enemy. He orders the Warden to conscript as many peasants as he can round up and train sufficiently to fire their crossbows in the same direction without killing each other in the process. Since His Majesty’s Imperial Army is already marching on campaign, the Warden has a paucity of garrisons available to do the deed, not to mention a plethora of freshly minted butter-bars that need some baptisms of fire. The first militia regiment to be conscripted is a Gargantuan Army of 1st level human Warriors (CR 4, army size modifier 10). The recruitment DC is only 8 higher than the kingdom’s control DC (instead of 14 higher for the Royal Guard), costs only 8 BP to recruit but still takes 1 from the Officer Corps.
“Manpower and butter-bars I have in plentiful supply, the time to achieve victory I do not.”
Training an army does not count as any kind of kingdom action and normally begins the same week that recruitment is successful. The building(s) that the army is recruited in are also tasked with training that army, at least at first.
‘Basic Training’ depends on the army’s creature composition. Conventional armies have the following training time requirements. Consumption cost of one-half army CR is paid during each week of ‘basic training’. An army training with mounts has a different consumption cost (covered in the resources section) which should be used instead of this cost.
- NPC-trained creatures without racial hit dice require (level x level) in weeks, with a cap of 4th level NPCs requiring 16 weeks of training.
- PC-class-trained creatures without racial hit dice require (level x level x2) in weeks, with a cap of 3rd level requiring 18 weeks of training. PC-class-trained armies round fractional army hp up instead of down.
- Monsters / creatures with racial hit dice that are not constructs, extraplanar or unintelligent undead require (CR x CR x3) weeks. It is NOT recommended that most monsters even be permitted to be ‘recruited’ into armies except at GM discretion! Creatures that make at least some degree of sense include but are not limited to: centaurs (and similar creatures); dragon type creatures that are not true dragons; giants; certain animals (war dogs of Molthune come to mind), vermin and the less intelligent magical beasts; others I am sure will also make excellent armies without breaking the basic army-from-CR system. One point to bear in mind is that *very* few armies should be comprised of creatures greater than a CR range of 6 – 8 without good reason!
- Mounts ordinarily should be acquired and trained at the same time as the army that intends to ride them, as noted above.
Basic Training Example 1: The Royal Guard army CR 7, size modifier 10
Basic Training time is (2x2x2) 8 weeks at 3 BP per week, or 12 BP per month for each of two months in addition to the 14 BP paid during the first month to recruit these men in the first place.
Since His Majesty desires his Royal Guard be competent horsemen on destriers, he orders that they also be trained in riding heavy horse (CR 2 mounts), the kingdom spends another 20 BP (2 x size modifier) to purchase the horses via the local stables. The consumption cost increases from 3 (half of army CR 7) to 9 (army CR 7 +2 mount CR). With recruitment (14), horses (20) and basic training costs (72 {9 x8 weeks}) the Royal Guard is up to a cost of 106 BP and takes 2 months’ time to train. At this point the Royal Guard is CR 7, OM +9, DV 19, consumption 9, army hp 39 (route threshold 13), Morale +0, resources: mounts, speed: 3.33 (10 hexes per 3 days)
Basic Training Example 2: Militia army CR 4, size modifier 10
Basic Training time is (1x1) 1 week at 2 BP for a whopping total of 10 BP (8 to recruit +2 to train). By comparison to the heavy horse-mounted Royal Guard, 8 regiments of militia can be trained and turned out in the same 2 months, using the same two garrisons for recruitment and training and theoretically costing 26 BP less. The catch is in the quartering (2 more garrisons per militia regiment), manpower draw (80 manpower instead of 10) and drain on the officer corps (10 instead of 1). At this point the militia is CR 4, OM +4, DV 14, consumption 2, army hp 22 (route threshold 8), Morale +0, speed: 2
Resources is where the army size modifier primarily comes into play, as it applies to all resource costs, both ‘purchase’ and the subsequent consumption costs for them as applicable. Unless otherwise specified, multiply all BP costs for resources by the army’s size modifier. The resources assigned to an army are, in game terms, provided at the end of their basic training.
- Mounts: BP = CR, consumption = army CR + mount CR (army is mounted) – required buildings: Smith, Stable
- Improved Armor (+1 DV): BP 3, consumption 1 - required buildings: Smith, Tanner
- Improved Weapons (+1 OM): BP 5, consumption 1; improved weapons includes alchemical splash weapons such as acid and alchemist’s fire as well as cold iron and silver weapons in addition to masterwork weapons – required buildings: Alchemist, Smith
- Ranged Weapons (adds ranged capability): BP 2, consumption 0 – ammunition is subsumed in the normal consumption cost as well as within the improved and magic weapons resources – required buildings: Tradesman
- Magic Weapons (+2 OM): BP 50, consumption 2; magic weapons includes everything provided by improved weapons as well as adamantine and magical weapons – required buildings: Alchemist, Smith; any one of: Academy, Caster’s Tower or Magic Shop
- Magic Armor (+2 DV): BP 15, consumption 2 – required buildings: Smith; any one of: Academy, Caster’s Tower, Cathedral, Magic Shop, Shrine or Temple
- Healing Potions: BP 10 (provides 4 draughts that heal army hp = 2x CR), consumption 2.5 per draught used, otherwise consumption 0; draughts can be used post-battle in addition to during battle; healing potions also represent inflict wounds potions given to armies of intelligent undead as well as make whole oils supplied to armies of constructs to affect self-repair; multiple draughts can be pre-purchased and supplied to a particular army if so desired – required buildings: any one of: Alchemist, Cathedral, Herbalist, Magic Shop, Shrine or Temple
- Poison: BP 6, consumption 6 per battle during which they are used, otherwise consumption 0; multiple “battle loads” can be pre-purchased and supplied to a particular army if so desired; poison resources otherwise act as the poison special ability except that armies not comprised of poison-immune creatures or creatures with the poison use ability inflict a 5% loss (minimum loss of 1 army hp) of their own army hp per phase they make use of their poisons – required buildings: any one of: Alchemist or Herbalist
- Fortification Builders: 2 BP, consumption 0; permits field encampments to provide some measure of defense for an army that does not move its full speed on a given day – required buildings: Smith or Tradesman; additional basic training required: 4 weeks
- Shields: as per the JBE supplement, consumption 0 – note that these seem to represent mantlets and tower shields rather than light or heavy shields, which are subsumed within the army’s regular resources
- Siege Engines, battery of: 15 BP flat cost, consumption 5 BP flat cost; limit of 1 battery “attached” to each army with a minimum army size of Small required; halves speed of the army the battery is attached to; can be detached at any suitable army building, effectively quartering the battery at that location OR they may be detached at any point, abandoning the battery, which removes their consumption cost after the current time period – required building: Exotic Craftsman
- Ships: 10 BP flat cost; consumption 1 per ship; each ship can transport 1 size modifier of troops with or without any attached batteries of siege engines; otherwise as per the JBE supplement – required buildings: Waterfront to construct them & may quarter 20 ships; each Pier may quarter 2 ships
Resources Example 1: The Royal Guard
His Majesty decrees nothing but the best for his Royal Guard. Ranged weapons (20), magic weapons (500, consumption 20, +2 OM), magic armor (150, consumption 20, +2 DV), healing potions (100) with an additional 4 draughts (100) for a total supply of 8 draughts’ worth of healing potions; fortification builders (20, additional 4 weeks’ basic training), a battery of siege engines (15, consumption 5, +2 OM) and ten ships to sail them hither and yon in (100 BP, consumption 10).
The additional 4 weeks of basic training costs another 36 BP (for a total of 12 weeks’ basic training from when they were recruited). All of the resources cost a staggering total of 1,005 BP and increase consumption from 9 to 64 BP (9 +20 +20 +5 +10). Total “purchase” cost is now 1,147 BP (106 +36 +1005). Army hp 39 (route threshold 13), Speed 1.67 (5 per 3 days) or 1 when taking advantage of their fortification builder resource while towing their battery of siege engines; OM +13 (ranged capability, siege engine), DV 21, Morale +0, Consumption 64, 8 draughts healing – each draught restores 14 army hp.
Resources Example 1a: Royal Guard Redux
Given that more than 1100 BP is just plain NUTS, His Majesty wisely elects to not sink THAT much of his kingdom’s economic production into a single regiment. Resources are ranged weapons (20), improved armor (30, consumption 10, +1 DV), improved weapons (50, consumption 10, +1 OM), healing potions – 4 draughts (100; 25 BP to replace each draught), fortification builders (20 +4 weeks’ additional basic training at another 36 BP). Siege engines and ships are best commissioned as the need arises. Total resources cost along with all 12 weeks’ basic training and the initial recruitment cost is a much more tolerable 362 BP (106 +36 +220) spread out over 3 months. The difference between the two regiments: -3 OM = +10, -1 DV = 20, speed = 3.33 (10 per 3 days), consumption 29 (9+10+10) instead of 64. The enormous cost differences permits them to recruit and train 3 regiments instead of one for slightly less BP, albeit at a modestly higher consumption.
Resources Example 2: Militia
The long-suffering militia regiment is not completely left to die like so many flies. The Warden has them equipped with light crossbows and an ample supply of ammunition as part of their basic training – all 7 days of it. (2 x10 size modifier =) 20 BP, for a total of 30 BP from recruitment to the end of training and the issuance of padded armor, quilted caps, spears, light crossbows, clubs and ammunition. CR 4, OM +4 (ranged capacity), DV 14, army hp 22 (route threshold 8), speed 2, consumption 2, morale +0.
Quartering Simply put, providing army buildings sufficient to house an army in the same manner as is sufficient to recruit and train them greatly reduces their consumption cost, literally quartering it (from a weekly cost to a monthly cost). Once an army is to march more than a half-week to a destination that also has suitable quartering, full consumption costs are to be paid every week. Siege engine batteries can be ‘detached’ and quartered in any suitable building or fort whether or not an army remains to utilize it. (Failure to pay the consumption cost for that battery of siege engines results in the permanent loss of that battery of siege engines.) Ships can be quartered in waterfronts and piers.
Other Stuff
When determining an army’s speed I recommend retaining any fractions of 0.25, 0.33, 0.5, 0.67 or 0.75, if only to convert over to “covers X hexes in Y days”.
Mercenaries cost twice as much to recruit and in consumption for a +0 Morale “green” (no tactics) unit led by a competent commander. However, they do not draw upon your nation’s manpower nor its Officer Corps. The ‘default’ mercenary commander has 5 ranks of Profession (soldier) at a +10 bonus and a +4 ability score bonus applied to his army’s Morale. The maximum size, composition and other details of such mercenary forces are left entirely to GM discretion. It takes a month to recruit such a mercenary army.
Seasoned combat veterans with a higher Morale and 1 or more learned Tactics cost more Consumption (but not recruitment). They also take longer to recruit. Add 50% to Consumption per +1 Morale and +100% to Consumption per Tactic learned. For a mercenary unit with more than 2 Tactics, it is highly recommended that a specific NPC of sufficient skill be determined by the GM – as well as the price he demands (and receives) for his services. Add 1d4 weeks for each +1 Morale and/or each Tactic that unit knows.
Sieges and War Exhaustion I will provide the updated goodies on for my next post on this thread.
Declaring war, sieges and war exhaustion I'd already covered satisfactorily above. While it could probably bear cleaning up, I think it will suffice to get the point across.
This coming Sunday 17th July we are slated to detour with 5th level followers to a lovely little module by Richard Pett dubbed "Carrion Hill".
Wherein they have to find out what the heck happened to ol' Oleg Leveton ...
If my players do this right, they'll end up with a free 6th level follower. ^_^
If they die early, I guess it will be a short session, since my players are dragging their feet on bringing Starfall up to the proper point in the calendar.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Update: revised rules/suggestions for sieges, declaring war, war exhaustion, resolving surrender and anything else I could think of that fit under these general headings.
Sieges
With the inclusion of siege engines, naturally one wants to use them to lay siege to something. These are cities or "fort-cities". In the event that you don't have any siege engines, or you don't have very many (or lose them due to enemy Special Forces action or to the siege breaker tactic), you certainly don't want to needlessly feed your men and critters into the meat grinder that assaulting a fortified and defended city represents. It’s cheaper - much cheaper - in terms of lives to lay siege to such a city instead. Simply isolate the city from supply and it is a matter of time before they surrender.
Naturally, nothing is as easy as it sounds. A single adept, cleric or druid (not counting other spell casters) can indefinitely take care of hundreds of gallons of potable water a day, let alone the assorted wells, cisterns and other water storage that is generally available. Food is the biggest concern (besides plague and fire - those are handled by Kingdom events already, so we won't worry about that here.)
The first step to emplacing a siege is investment: surrounding the city and isolating its methods of resupply. The waterways have to be isolated in some fashion as do the roads leading into the city. Cavalry patrols control the terrain between road and water. Field fortifications are erected first facing the city walls, then facing outward to protect against any enemy forces attempting to relieve the besieged city. Supply of the invested forces and communications have to be established.
Isolating the city and getting the basic logistics takes a day. Erecting the investment field fortifications takes longer. The longer the siege, the more developed these become. If a besieged enemy is going to attempt to sally forth and strike a blow, the first days are the most crucial. +2 DV on the first day, +4 DV after the first week (with storage for one additional week of the besieging armies’ consumption costs possible), +6 DV after two weeks with the furthest degree of improvement attained at a +8 DV after a full month has passed (with storage for two weeks’ consumption cost for the besieging armies being an option). This presumes fortification builders as a resource for the besieging forces – double these time requirements for besieging forces that do not have that resource.
Once a city has been invested, it cannot raise any additional armies outside of its walls. Armies that are already training within the city walls continue to do so, although for obvious reasons that training is unlikely to continue for very long. The city's own populace has to supply the manpower and officers for any new armies and have all necessary buildings and all of the requisite BP accessible through its granaries. (If the city already has an army in training when it is invested one must determine how far into the training program that army or those armies are to find out how much of the remaining training costs are drained from the city’s granaries. This isn’t perfect, but it suffices.)
A city has sufficient foodstuffs "on hand" to feed its population for one week. The primary building that represents food storage capacity is granaries. Since the kingdom's farmlands can no longer supply the besieged city, Each granary represents sufficient stored chow to supply 100 BP from the kingdom's treasury towards paying the city's consumption cost (from its districts) as well as supplying the army/armies defending it. A besieged city's consumption cost is added to the consumption cost of its defending units to realize a weekly (instead of monthly) consumption total. The benefits of quartering do not apply to a city under siege. Once these supplies run out, the Morale-based siege rules from KM Chapter 5 apply for those under siege.
The besieging force(s) must pay their weekly consumption cost +5 BP per week to maintain the siege and retain clear line of supply. It is possible to a besieging army that has invested an enemy city to find that they themselves have also been invested!
Now comes the fun part: outlasting the enemy. The as-written rules certainly work well enough, although using Morale checks as the only mechanism will result in the "siege" ending in 2 or 3 weeks in almost all cases. Historically, most sieges lasted far longer than that, especially given the technology level of Golarion combined with even a dozen or so 1st level adepts per district (greatly offsetting spoilage, depletion of potable water and the like). Once a city runs out of food (BP from the granaries), the Morale-based rules apply (in addition to war exhaustion).
City Siege Example: “Las Vegas”
For this example, Las Vegas has 10 fully developed city districts (consumption 10) and is ably defended by 10 regiments of crossbow-armed militia (consumption 20). Vegas has 3 granaries holding 300 BP of supplies. Unless Las Vegas is relieved or their commander takes the risk of losing the city sooner, they can hold out at a consumption of 30 / week for a total of 11 weeks’ time before the militia unit’s commanders have to start the Morale check process for resolving their end of the siege. At 11 weeks the besieged city’s country has accumulated 11 war exhaustion (1 per each week Las Vegas endures its siege) plus another 3 for the 3 months’ war up to this point, not counting any other factors.
Subduing a city that capitulates – which is not necessarily the same thing as defeating the nation one is at war with – requires an active garrison at full army hp be assigned to the task. If multiple armies are assigned to pacifying and otherwise ‘restoring order’ (which can be stipulated as ‘going Carthage on their asses’) requires (1 week per city block in the city or 9 weeks per fully developed district) / (combined size modifiers of the army or armies assigned to ‘subduing’ the city). Once a city has been properly subdued, sacked, looted, pillaged and plundered or otherwise brought properly to heel, the conqueror loots 1 BP per developed block that is delivered to their treasury at the beginning of their next kingdom turn.
City Subdual Example: “The Sacking of Las Vegas”
For this example, Vegas has 10 fully developed city districts (90 blocks), resulting in a base time to subdue and loot the city of 90 weeks. The Duchy of Douchebag isn’t screwing around and assigns 5 Colossal armies of Militia to stomp the city into submission (100 size modifiers total). 9/10ths of a week is basically a week (6.3 days), so Duke Douchebaggius eagerly awaits 90 BP of war tribute at the end of that week’s time. None of this so far has touched on the ramifications of war exhaustion.
Declaring War
To declare a war without causus belli requires a standard Loyalty check. Declaring a war with causus belli is automatically successful. Declaring a war against a historical ally requires a Loyalty check against the control DC +50 without causus belli. Declaring war upon one's own vassals is just as difficult without cause. causus belli roughly means "war with cause", or "we have an excuse the masses will accept" in modern parlance. This concept also matters to foreign states - the implications are not immediately noteworthy in game terms, but neighboring states' political connectivity (or lack thereof) with the nation you declare war upon could see other powers honoring various treaties, breaking those treaties, independently declaring war on you or simply keeping quiet and watching the "news" of the war's events. Having a long-held claim on a stretch of territory is often sufficient, although doing so on this basis alone also requires a successful Loyalty check.
Declaring war, whether as the aggressor or in response as the "defender", is the easy part. Often a declaration of war includes some semblance of terms that would immediately see hostilities halt before they even begin. Depending on the aggressors in question your kingdom may see a formal declaration delivered by ambassador, a dastardly assault by surprise or - more often - a formally delivered declaration with hostile troops poised to march directly across your borders if you do not concede to the aggressor's (often outrageous) demands. The ambassador / diplomat is usually expected to return with your response in one piece and alive or otherwise ‘operational’. Lack of a response being received within a reasonable time frame - depending on travel time by horse from border to capitol and back - is probably interpreted as being told "nuts!"
Terms of surrender are very important - "unconditional surrender" is not common. A lot of this depends on factors such as how war was declared, how many of one's allies are threatened and most importantly the role-playing of all involved parties. The initial declaration of war often outlines the scope of what the declaring party seeks to gain. Some of course include no such declarations other than flavor text preceding something to the effect of "we are now at war". Have fun with proclaiming any grievances, territorial claims held in the past - such as Brevoy's "claim" over the whole of the Stolen Lands, which can probably be considered as having been claimed in years past but never formally exercised - as well as religious differences between them and of course political differences that offend the other nation's sensibilities.
War Exhaustion
In a nutshell, the populace's love of their government is determined by the Loyalty score. As we know from raising armies, Loyalty checks significantly in excess of the Control DC are required.
The other use of a kingdom’s Loyalty score besides raising armies and reforming one’s armies after they have been routed is as a measure of one’s subjects’ willingness to be conscripted or trained into armies to die in your wars and generally tolerate life during a war economy. The longer a war rages, the greater the losses one’s nation suffers in defeated armies and sacked cities, the clearer defeat becomes. Success on the battlefield silences critics and bolsters the confidence of the masses in the belief that their boys will be home soon. In short, during war Loyalty replaces Stability as the measure of your nation’s sovereignty.
In agrarian societies such as these, year-round warfare is the exception, not the norm. Unless a kingdom's military is entirely comprised of professionals and/or mercenaries, most warfare takes place mid-spring through mid-fall (after planting and before harvest). The exceptions are prolonged sieges and recurring warfare, when both sides cease aggression by agreement (informal or formal) in order to attend to the fall harvest, riding out the winter and resuming hostilities after the spring planting. In game terms, this situation is handled by hostilities ‘ceasing’ at the proper time in the fall and war is resumed in the spring.
Each month of war requires a successful Loyalty check in place of the normal Stability check, starting at the kingdom's regular control DC and increasing 1 per month after the war begins. Each army that is routed increases this by 2, while each army that is defeated in detail increases this by 5. Each week a city endures a siege increases this by 1 per city (4 per city per month). Each week one's own forces are besieging an enemy city does not decrease your war exhaustion. Each victorious battle decreases your war exhaustion by 1 if you rout the enemy or by 2 if you defeated the majority of enemy forces in detail.
Each time a war continues through the planting and harvest months war exhaustion increases by an additional 2 – March and November respectively. Each winter month increases war exhaustion by an additional 3 – December, January and February. Losing a city adds 1 per district of that city, partially developed or otherwise. Sacking an enemy city decreases war exhaustion by 1 per district (or by 1 per 1,000 population or fraction thereof if you only know the city's population).
All of these decreases and increases are "war exhaustion", added to the normal control DC to determine the necessary Loyalty check for the next month's stability check. (During a war, Loyalty matters more than Stability. Stability = peace time, Loyalty = war time.) Since you only make this check monthly, initial setbacks can be reversed. Failed Loyalty checks generate Unrest as normal for a failed control check with Stability.
During a war the conflicting kingdoms can claim (but not develop) each other's hexes month to month in addition to possible scavenging. If an armistice or cease-fire occurs, such as during the aforementioned 'break' between harvest and planting, hexes that have been claimed AND that are effectively under the other sides' control can be developed. Most such developments would be militaristic in nature - forts and roads most likely. Annexation of territory is not possible during these lulls. The upside is that such time counts as "peace", reducing war exhaustion by 4 per month. Typically, wars are not fought from November through March, leaving the other 7 months of the year ‘wide open’ for conquest and imperialism.
If war exhaustion is severe enough for one side in the conflict, they will often begin to seek terms of surrender once their Unrest (from failed Loyalty checks) reaches 8 or higher. If the enemy's Unrest reaches 20 during the course of the war, the enemy's nation fragments into several smaller bodies and the war ends. Adjudicate the end of the war based upon territory claimed and controlled by the other party or parties, the specific political structure of the disintegrating nation in question and any other factors deemed pertinent.
War Exhaustion fades over time at the rate of 4 per month until your kingdom’s peace-time control DC is once again reached. Once a war is over your nation may have substantial War Exhaustion in effect – this is dealt with by Stability checks instead of Loyalty checks.
There is some times a conference between ambassadors or, more often, Generals during the week or two preceding November’s harvest in order to ascertain the willingness of those one is at war with to press the war during the harvest/winter/planting months. Other times the armies basically just return home, leaving patrols to monitor situations while the important work is attended to at home.
Example of War Exhaustion: “The Vegas Straw Broke My Camel’s Back”
Duke Douchebaggius’ sacking of Las Vegas after a 12 week siege (10 districts, 3 months) following an initial month of skirmishes and dancing around terrain features immediately after his war started just kicked your nation’s pride something fierce. All 10 militia regiments within the city starved to death or were otherwise defeated in detail.
Besides sacking the city, razing it to the ground and carting off everything that was of any value – including slaves – the war exhaustion and other penalties are staggering.
• The loss of 10 regiments of militia penalizes your Manpower by 10, your Officer Corps by 1 and the nation’s Economy, Loyalty and Stability by 10 each for the next 20 years.
• The War Exhaustion from this crushing defeat is a total of 75 (3 additional months’ war +12 weeks’ besieged city +10 city districts sacked +50 for the 10 militia regiments slaughtered) plus the nation’s control DC of (20+size in hexes), resulting in a control DC of (size in hexes +95) that dissipates at a rate of 4 per subsequent month’s time. It will take the better part of 2 years just for the war exhaustion to fade. If the loss of Las Vegas itself is a severe enough blow to the nation’s Economy, Loyalty and Stability, the nation could disintegrate in the aftermath of defeat.
• If it’s any consolation, Duke Douchebaggius only scavenged and looted a mere 110 BP (90 from the sacking of Vegas plus 20 from scavenging the 10,000 militiamen of their arbalests).
Defeat and Surrender
This is generally fairly clear – whether from sufficient Unrest due to the inability to curtail the nation’s war exhaustion, the defeat in detail of all your nation’s armies or the depletion of your treasury and its attendant complications – in when one is defeated.
However, *typically* pseudo-medieval wars such as these are often fought with a specific “wish list” in mind, often as delineated in the proposed terms of surrender that are delivered along with a typical declaration of war. In game terms, a set of hexes of territory are often desired, with the declaration of war making it clear that these hexes are going to be made theirs unless you are prepared and willing to stop them from seizing these hexes.
If surrender terms are negotiated, any unrest from necessary annexations is halved. It is possible that both the victor and the defeated have to annex parcels of territory as part of these diplomatic terms.
Under conditions of negotiated surrender, one cannot easily nor swiftly declare war upon the same enemy too soon. At any time before half of the generational malus penalty for the general population’s dominant race has passed, declaring war against that enemy without causus belli requires a successful Loyalty check against a DC equal to (control check DC plus [half of malus duration in years - # of full years since surrender terms were agreed to]). If the terms of surrender included terms of permanent alliance, the DC is increased by an additional 50.
Annexation is a peace time activity treated as a Stability check against what your nation’s shiny new control DC would be with all the new territory. Failure has all the normal repercussions of a failed Stability check and contributes an additional 2d4 Unrest.
Today Our Rulers got to play one of their 5th level followers. Each built on a 15 point buy, with 5th level PC wealth-by-level all statted up by yours truly. I left it up to the players to prep their spells / infusions and name their followers.
Mulder Da Cultist: Human Alchemist 5th - discoveries: precise bombs, explosive bombs - his 9 fire bombs/day deal 3d6+5 fire damage with a 10' splash dealing 7 fire damage.
Galen Starmight: Elf Fighter 5th "switch hitter", a lean mean elven curve blade killing machine.
Torsin Tightbutt: female Elf Barbarian 5th (invulnerable rager), just as lean and mean as the fighter with an elven curve blade when raging and as fast as a horse (40 ft speed junps to a 50 ft speed when raging), DR 2/- butt nekkid.
Eirwen Kirsi: female Rogue 5th, mistress of traps and excellent sneak attacker when able to attain flanking. This rogue's Perception bonus of +14 (without trapfinding) is only 3 less than the Queen's bonus.
Hirish Varn: half-elf Cleric of Desna 5th (Liberation and Travel domains), pretty wicked with a starknife and light crossbow and capable channel positive energy wielder.
Zin Serina "da monkette": Universalist Wizard 5th with a rat familiar.
Svetlana Leveton approached Our Followers with the minor task of hairing off to fetch her tardy husband Oleg from his trip to Ustalov to investigate a possible new building material of the mauve persuasion found only in a stinkhole of a city in the middle of a festering swamp known as Carrion Hill.
Our Followers have an uneventful trip to Carrion Hill. Entering town through the gates, town criers announce a "call for heroes" to report to the Lord Mayor's office. Biting dutifully on the big red adventure hook, they traipse to the requisite building. A storm breaks as they trek through town.
The blahblah of flavor text happens, questions are asked and they follow their only lead to the market. Unable to identify the slime-squiggle on the outside wall, they ransack the rubble house before descending into the basement. Traveling through history and fetid, dried slime, the followers make their way down to the rogue ghoul's hidey hole some 300 yards and nearly 3 aeons beneath the surface.
The ghoul puts up a valiant struggle in its efforts to retain the Pnakotic Manuscript, at one point having paralyzed the rogue, the wizard and the cleric before enchanted elven curve blades, magic missiles and other nastiness resulted in cannibal con carne. They looted everything, hauled it to the surface, holed up in an inn and set to deciphering the blasphemous tome and documents during the rest of the night. Zin Serina's wizard contracted ghoul fever...
The rest of Our Followers pitch in and help the Crows in maintaining public order as best they can during the rest of the evening and early night hours.
Our Followers report to the Lord Mayor that they need to whack the 3 surviving idiots that started this whole mess to begin with. One is holed up in his former shrine to Aroden and rumored to be involved in smuggling and/or manufacturing narcotics, poisons and similarly illicit "recreational pharmaceuticals". The second is in charge of the Asylum, where those too dangerous for conventional incarceration are packed off to in order to remove that kind of threat from pubic safety. Third is a chap that is a "middenstone baron" and most likely the source Oleg was to have contacted to procure samples of the stuff to return to Olegton with. This unsavory fellow is believed to be engaged in foulest necromancy - but the Crows cannot prove their suspicions satisfactorily.
Needless to say, the Mayor forks over the 1500 gp for the information and a truckload of magical goodies to assist them in dealing with their nebulous foe. Our Followers choose the middle road and kick in the door to the Elk Way Temple. Descending into the basement they kill themselves an idiot rogue with some nasty violet fungus poison grenades.
Since Crove's Asylum is closer than the middenstone vats, they head their first, the Alchemist eager to not have his Dex mutagen wear off before getting to kill themselves more bad guys.
Booting open the front doors, Our Followers preceed to sweep and clear the ground floor, euthanizing the lunatics and killing the lobotomized orderlies before descending into the basement. There they whack the derro torturer and euthanize another bucketload of lunatics. They also lay the beat down something awful on the old man Creve, grappling, pinning and stomping him to death. Oleg is "liberated" - and the picture of 'Oleg' drew gratifying reactions. They scored major loot, beat a hasty retreat and set fire to the asylum's flammable wood bits as they exited. They skipped the nastier critters by sheer dumb luck.
Next session they go after Bad Cultist #3 and "the thing". If they survive, Our Followers become 6th level followers for Our Rulers and Our Rulers get some nice magical swag.
If they fail, Our Rulers are short a 5th level follower and Svetlana becomes a widow.
Mulder Da Cultist: Human Alchemist 5th - discoveries: precise bombs, explosive bombs - his 9 fire bombs/day deal 3d6+5 fire damage with a 10' splash dealing 7 fire damage.
Really? Did I over look this?
Really? Did I over look this?
Mulder Da Cultist: Human Alchemist 5th - discoveries: precise bombs, explosive bombs - his 9 fire bombs/day deal 3d6+5 fire damage with a 10' splash dealing 7 fire damage.
Sure did. Precise Bombs is your alchemist's 2nd level discovery. I wouldn't play a bomb-thrower without it, especially in a group with 3 effective melee combatants (barbarian, fighter and rogue) such as this one. As I recall, that means your bombs ignore 4 targets of choice that are within the splash radius. :)
Sure did. Precise Bombs is your alchemist's 2nd level discovery. I wouldn't play a bomb-thrower without it, especially in a group with 3 effective melee combatants (barbarian, fighter and rogue) such as this one. As I recall, that means your bombs ignore 4 targets of choice that are within the splash radius. :)Really? Did I over look this?
Mulder Da Cultist: Human Alchemist 5th - discoveries: precise bombs, explosive bombs - his 9 fire bombs/day deal 3d6+5 fire damage with a 10' splash dealing 7 fire damage.
Thanks! Wish I was noted to this, as I REALLY wanted to throw some bombs earlier. At least I have the 3rd part with all my bombs ready for it.
This coming Sunday 31st July Our Followers conclude "Carrion Hill". Will they be able to overcome the invisible horror stalking the streets of this wretched town and return with poor, gibbering Oleg? Will they themselves become critter kibble?
Also, matters of political importance are to be resolved by Our Rulers prior to commencing Chapter 4 of Kingmaker some time in early to mid-August.
Will Our Rulers kowtow to unreasonable demands? Will they tell them to stick it in their ear? Will events unfold in an unexpected manner?
Will there be any character deaths at all? All will be resolved in just 4 days' time. Same hack time, same hack channel!
Carrion Hill - conclusion
Our Followers fared horribly against the Spawn of Yog-Sothoth. The barbarian, fighter and alchemist died. The rogue ran away. The wizard on fire with the cleric in tow, used the teleport spell within the Pnakotic Manuscripts to *bamf* back to Our Rulers, get wxtinguished, healed up and *bamf* back to the middenstone vat. Her Majesty nat-20'd the die roll and disintegrated the Spawn.
Oleg was returned and returned to sanity.
Also today:
Starmight's player has been running Cordelon as his own kingdom on the side. He dtermined that on the 66th month of Starfall's reign (his 54th month) an assassination attempt against his character would take place.
I also had rolled an assassination attempt against Zin Serina "da Monkette" this same month.
After much brainstorming ...
Our Rulers were summoned to speak with the Grand Diplomat of Restov. The attempt was a CR 22 squad of 4 advanced denizen of leng wizard (diviner) 9 / arcane trickster 9 (individual CR 18) - the nastier assets of none other than the Pactmasters of Katapesh.
During the brutal fight Starmight, Serina and Molly Missy were destroyed / killed while almost everyone enjoyed dimensional anchors, Eirwen Kirsi and Torsin's Wizard enjoyed temporal stasis and Da Cultist spent time in not one but TWO maze spells (the only PC not to nom on a dimensional anchor).
The Pactmasters didn't take a single point of damage between the four of them. ^_^
The attempt to make it look like Starfall's Queen disintegrated the Grand Diplomat barely failed. Cordelon ate 9 Unrest from Starmight's 10 day demise. The Pactmasters were most disappointed in the contigency that swept Starmight's phat loot to some extraplanar destination...
Carrion Hill - conclusion
Our Followers fared horribly against the Spawn of Yog-Sothoth. The barbarian, fighter and alchemist died.
And there was Much rejoicing:)
The rogue ran away.
Bravely ran away...
Also today:
Starmight's player has been running Cordelon as his own kingdom on the side. He dtermined that on the 66th month of Starfall's reign (his 54th month) an assassination attempt against his character would take place.
I also had rolled an assassination attempt against Zin Serina "da Monkette" this same month.
After much brainstorming ...
Our Rulers were summoned to speak with the Grand Diplomat of Restov. The attempt was a CR 22 squad of 4 advanced denizen of leng wizard (diviner) 9 / arcane trickster 9 (individual CR 18) - the nastier assets of none other than the Pactmasters of Katapesh.
During the brutal fight Starmight, Serina and Molly Missy were destroyed / killed while almost everyone enjoyed dimensional anchors, Eirwen Kirsi and Torsin's Wizard enjoyed temporal stasis and Da Cultist spent time in not one but TWO maze spells (the only PC not to nom on a dimensional anchor).
The Pactmasters didn't take a single point of damage between the four of them. ^_^
The attempt to make it look like Starfall's Queen disintegrated the Grand Diplomat barely failed. Cordelon ate 9 Unrest from Starmight's 10 day demise. The Pactmasters were most disappointed in the contigency that swept Starmight's phat loot to some extraplanar destination...
Friggin' Beautiful, Turin
Carrion Hill - conclusion
Our Followers fared horribly against the Spawn of Yog-Sothoth. The barbarian, fighter and alchemist died. The rogue ran away. The wizard on fire with the cleric in tow, used the teleport spell within the Pnakotic Manuscripts to *bamf* back to Our Rulers, get wxtinguished, healed up and *bamf* back to the middenstone vat. Her Majesty nat-20'd the die roll and disintegrated the Spawn.
Oleg was returned and returned to sanity.
Well, having nothing but fire damage bombs and spells against something that was immune to fire didn't help too much... XD
Well, having nothing but fire damage bombs and spells against something that was immune to fire didn't help too much... XDCarrion Hill - conclusion
Our Followers fared horribly against the Spawn of Yog-Sothoth. The barbarian, fighter and alchemist died. The rogue ran away. The wizard on fire with the cleric in tow, used the teleport spell within the Pnakotic Manuscripts to *bamf* back to Our Rulers, get wxtinguished, healed up and *bamf* back to the middenstone vat. Her Majesty nat-20'd the die roll and disintegrated the Spawn.
Oleg was returned and returned to sanity.
Fair enough :)
I didn't read the module in detail and botched two of the characters' final designs.
On the upside, each of them is a "bonus" 6th level follower for each of you now. That might come in handy later.
If I do this again, I'll have the group draw up their own followers using the same guidelines I used to make these guys.
Death Tally thus far:
King Maximilian (before ascending the throne): 4
Fmughwa the Deathgorger: 2
Torsin's player: 6 character deaths
Da Cultist's player: 7 character deaths and I believe 2 additional "technical" deaths thwarted by breath of life
Da Monkette's player: 4 character deaths
Da Pimp's player: 4 character deaths
Da Queen's player: 4 character deaths
Cohorts: 4 total (all dolls)
Grand Total of DMPC x4, Fmughwa x2, Cohorts x4, 29x PCs +2x TCDs (Technical Character Deaths).
To keep a thread jacking I just wanted to post a link here about what we talked about IRL.
Death Tally thus far:
King Maximilian (before ascending the throne): 4
Fmughwa the Deathgorger: 2
Torsin's player: 6 character deaths
Da Cultist's player: 7 character deaths and I believe 2 additional "technical" deaths thwarted by breath of life
Da Monkette's player: 4 character deaths
Da Pimp's player: 4 character deaths
Da Queen's player: 7 character deaths
Cohorts: 4 total (all dolls)
Grand Total of DMPC x4, Fmughwa x2, Cohorts x4, 32x PCs +2x TCDs (Technical Character Deaths).
Edited for accuracy.
Comment: Thusfar, from 1st level through now Our Heroic Rulers have racked up a total of 44 effective character deaths. Three chapters to go, gentlecritters! grinning evilly
Starfall's Officer Corps:
Tallying the groups' information, the two pertinent results are as follows:
As of the beginning of Chapter 4: 26 5th & 6th level followers (combined) & 127 2nd-4th level followers. They can command well in excess of the manpower at the kingdom's disposal.
As of the beginning of Chapter 5: 27 5th & 6th level followers (combined) & 133 2nd-4th level followers. Still well in excess of what they can hope to field without quickly bankrupting themselves.
Da Cultist's player: 7 character deaths and I believe 2 additional "technical" deaths thwarted by breath of life
Well, ether I am playing incorrectly or unlucky. What do you think the reason for such a large amount of deaths on my part? Perhaps it is the fewer hit points, AC, and fort save of the Cloistered cleric, while still trying/needed to stay in the front line?