I am a little confused. Somehow it is just me vs 4 armies? I was thinking others were moving to stack with me...
IF I withdraw then each get a free attack? I need to better understand my options to make a good call.
It is unfortunately appears so. Being the fastest, your mammoth rush ahead northeast on day 1 and took out 2 armies, while the elf and the riftwarden head southeast and handle the other two armies. That we know of.
On Day 2, you're locked down in combat since the enemy won initiative.
Since the slower army (Dwarf, Warpriest, Golem) only have movement speed of 1, they can't reach you whatsoever. So they decided to move to a nearby hex with other teammates' armies.
Among the two faster army with Speed 2 (Riftwarden and Elf ), the Riftwarden suffered heavy damage day 1 and decided to rest up and heal for this day. The Elf move back to stack with the Warpriest, who left the hex with the elf to be in the same hex as the Riftwarden.
And that's how we come to this 1 vs 4 situation.
Withdraw*: Your army tries to escape from all armies attacking it. The army attempts an opposed Morale check against each army attacking it to maintain discipline (any army may voluntarily fail this check), but doesn’t need to attempt the usual Morale check to change tactics when switching to withdraw. If all of these checks are successful, your army may withdraw from the battlefield or treat the phase as a Ranged phase. If only some are successful, you may withdraw or treat the phase as a Ranged phase, but enemy armies in the battle may attack you as if you were in Melee. Whether or not the checks are successful, reduce your army’s OM and DV by 2 for the rest of this phase.
If you win the opposed morale check against ALL enemy armies, you can withdraw without getting attacked. If you fail any opposed Morale check, ALL the enemy armies get the chance to attack you once before you withdraw. I believe if you somehow failed all the opposed Morale check, you failed to withdraw, and we move on to the 1st Melee phase as normal, but you get to try to withdraw again before the 2nd Melee phase and later Melee phase.
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ok. This would be more fun if I understood the rules better. I attacked the northern most armies to try to avoid getting ganged up on and have not moved since. I feel like I have been thrown under the bus...
How do I make a morale check? Sheet says Mammoths are +2 to Morale. Do I recall something about a bonus based on my charisma?
Yes, you add your Charisma mod in addition to the army's morale bonus on a morale check. d20+2+CHA, essentially.
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ok. This would be more fun if I understood the rules better. I attacked the northern most armies to try to avoid getting ganged up on and have not moved since. I feel like I have been thrown under the bus...
Not so much "thrown," but it is a rough situation. I think this is a unique rule set, and I know I have never seen it before. I have a feeling this is going to go long past the rest of the event.
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I do not mean to whine, and I am by no means an expert in these rules, but with my Mammoth's move of 3 when I retreated could I not get away from the enemy? Does retreat not allow a full move? Could I not at least move on to a friendly stack? I
I feel like it was a miracle I got away from 4 armies and now I have to face 6 solo?
I do not mean to whine, and I am by no means an expert in these rules, but with my Mammoth's move of 3 when I retreated could I not get away from the enemy? Does retreat not allow a full move? Could I not at least move on to a friendly stack? I
I feel like it was a miracle I got away from 4 armies and now I have to face 6 solo?
Withdraw prevent combat but I don't think it grant any additional movement beyond the movement phase.
However, in day 3 movement phase your teammates have the option to reinforce you, so you don't have to face them alone.
Copy straight from Ultimate Campaign...
Withdraw*: Your army tries to escape from all armies
attacking it. The army attempts an opposed Morale check
against each army attacking it to maintain discipline
(any army may voluntarily fail this check), but doesn’t
need to attempt the usual Morale check to change tactics
when switching to withdraw. If all of these checks are
successful, your army may withdraw from the battlefield
or treat the phase as a Ranged phase. If only some are
successful, you may withdraw or treat the phase as a
Ranged phase, but enemy armies in the battle may attack
you as if you were in Melee. Whether or not the checks are
successful, reduce your army’s OM and DV by 2 for the
rest of this phase.
There's only "your army may withdraw from the battlefield". All other instance of 'withdraw' in Mass Combat rules are from other abilities and army stat block that refers to this Withdraw tactics. It does not mention any hex movement at all. Also, your movement in Movement Phase represent an entire day worth of army movement. It wouldn't make sense for an army to make twice as far simply because one is withdrawing from combat.
I have read and re-read the rules and still am lost. :( After I retreat I cannot move in the move phase? I am sorry to be dense but not understanding these rules is taking away any fun of this encounter for me.
I think, after you retreat, you can move out in the move phase if enemy doesn't initiate new combat with you. But since ALL the enemy are faster than you in move phase, they could just re-initiate combat again.
Hmm. I am speed 3. only the Calvery units are equal and none of our army options are faster. You are saying all the enemy units are faster than 3? As a group we are really really slow then.
Fast as in terms of initiative. They move before you could move.
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I have read and re-read the rules and still am lost. :( ... I am sorry to be dense but not understanding these rules is taking away any fun of this encounter for me.
Tremendous ups to our GM for bearing with us in this one. I feel like I would have had to drop due to frustration if this was a synchronous game.
I have read and re-read the rules and still am lost. :( ... I am sorry to be dense but not understanding these rules is taking away any fun of this encounter for me.Tremendous ups to our GM for bearing with us in this one. I feel like I would have had to drop due to frustration if this was a synchronous game.
Exactly the reason why I try to run this in PbP......I know the rule is subpar, but as something that people spend 10+ scenario preping for, I think it's worth a try running it and experience the story.
The scenario has 2 army combat for you fighting your way through the Worldwound, and then assaulting the command bunker with your real character. Due to the complexity of the Mass Combat rule, we're unfortunately only at the first army engagement and haven't earn any rewards yet.
What I would suggest could be unorthodox or controversial, but I think we should end this game for now and don't even report it; and when I'm available to GM again, I can re-run this scenario and hopefully get the original crew back, then resume at where we are so we can continue and finish the story. Since how complicated army battle is, this scenario rarely got to run despite being one of the finale of season 5, and I would hate to deprive my player the chance to experience the whole story.
Would that be a good compromise?
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I think Colin's suggestion would be permissible in these circumstances. Your options are:
-Colin's suggestion of putting the game on pause for about six months
-seeing if we can find another GM to finish the game now (I could probably take this on if needed; I would need about a week to read up on the rules and where you are now)
-ending the game, no chronicles, no credit; you'd be able to play the scenario some other time
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I have had PBPs go longer than expected in the past. A session of Pact World Warriors went over a year, Crash Down going 14 months. I am cool with waiting on this one.
Of course, as we mention the possibility of another GM taking over... I have access to the scenario, and could run it if we want. I haven't played at this high level before, but I think we could put in a pregen and keep going forward. Or Redelia can take over. Or we can wait for Colin (which I think is the top priority).
My main point is that I will be satisfied with whatever others choose.
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I'd prefer to finish now if that is a possibility. But I would aslo be happy to play later with GM_Colin. He has been patient and done a great job.
Would it work in BPB to combine tactics phase and attack phase to speed things up? This reminds me of ship combat in Starfinder in that there is a lot of waiting for each character to post their actions to finish a turn.
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OK, I see a consensus to finish the game. The remaining question is now or wait for GM Colin.
In terms of that second decision, I see a lot of 'whatever the group decides' and one rather soft preference to finish now.
If anyone has other thoughts or opinions, could you please post in the next day or so?
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I echo the well-wishes for Colin.
It's hard for me to vote now vs later. I don't want Colin to be excluded, and I know how hard it can be to get a group together for PBP. But if anybody else can get into a group, does the wait tie up their character in PBP?
I guess this is me saying "I will do what the majority votes with," with the understanding that it looks like Tarragon is the only clear vote for "now" and nobody has clearly said "later."
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OK, guys, I've been pouring over the rules and what has already happened, and I found several significant GM errors, none in your favor. They are not the sort of thing I can simply retcon. This means that rather than continuing, we would need to go back to the beginning of the first day of combat. And I believe you were not given information you should have been when choosing your armies, so we would need to go back a little further and have you choose your armies again.
Do you still want to try to do this scenario, or should we consider it to have never happened? I'm still willing to run this if you want to play, but starting from basically the beginning is different from continuing from where you are. (You don't need to all make the same decision here; I will continue with some of you if you wish)
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OK, those of you who want to participate in this, almost from the beginning, please come over to this campaign. You can dot and delete from gameplay, and provide the needed info in discussion. I'll try to get us going really soon, but want to make sure I thoroughly understand the rules first.