Building a Dynasty: Combat Resolution

Conflict Resolution: Combat occurs on land and sea in this game, each type of battle has different conditions though all battles are based on phases

Land:

Stances: Armies take a “stance” when engaging in combat and may change their stance on each phase depending on the situations these are:

Hold: Your men hold their ground and wait for the enemy to come to them.
Cautious: Your first attacks on the enemy are cautious skirmishing attacks. Reduces losses for the first round but also minimizes the amount of damage you can do to the opponent.
Balanced: Provides no buffs or drawbacks it is the most basic fighting stance your army can take.
Aggressive: You’re men are eager to close the gap and cut the enemy to pieces. This stance provides a bonus to melee attack but a minus to ranged fire (can’t risk hitting your own men).
Break Through: Your goal is not necessarily to defeat the enemy army entirely but to break it and scatter it enough for your forces to push past them and potentially break away to either plunder more enemy land or fall back to your home. This stance provides a bonus in offensive power and provides a chance of ending the combat on that turn if the die roll is good. However it severely costs in defense as you are giving your enemy a chance to envelope you should your attempt fail.
Fight in the shade: You’re army attempts to close within ranged distance and hold there against the enemy. Provides a bonus to archery but reduces melee.
Dig in: This stance may only be taken before combat begins; your men raise defensive stakes and dig trenches to deal with cavalry. Digging in provides a good offensive boost however players that are dug in have a drastically reduced chance of executing a successful withdrawal or catching a withdrawing enemy.

Forming Armies: Before a battle can be fought the army needs to be arrayed. You array your army in four ranks: Front: The first rank is the first to engage in melee combat if the enemy closes the gap. This line may contain up to 30% of your army.
Second: Second rank can either be ranged or melee troops, if it’s a ranged force it can engage the enemy front ranks as well though there is risk of injuring your own front rank. This line may contain up to 30% of your army.
Third: Third rank would be the last force to engage in the regular line of battle. This line may contain up to 50% of your army.
Fourth: The fourth rank is a player’s reserve force the player can deploy on a dice roll. This force can also be withdrawn independently of the rest of the army if a battle looks to be unwinnable and the player doesn’t want to wait for phase two to attempt to pull back. Note that the fourth rank can consist of no more than 25% of your total force in the battle but may consist of a minimum of 0% of your army.

Land combat takes place in a few different ways which lead to different scenarios occurring. Combat can take place in an open field if two armies meet and either choose to engage mutually or if one party engages and the other cannot disengage (see details in Open Field Battle). Combat can take place in a village, town, city, fort or castle if an army invades the occupied building (See Sieges for details). Combat can also take place in an amphibious raid if you are assaulting from a body of water to land (See Amphibious assault for details).

Field Battles: A field battle takes place when two or more rival armies come together in the same open territory (i.e not a village/town/city/etc). When the armies meet the players are faced with an options:

Engage: Both parties consent to meet in the open field of battle.
Disengage: If both parties choose to disengage then there is no battle. If one party chooses to disengage a die is rolled to see if the withdrawal is successful, if they succeed there is no battle, if they fail than the attacking army gets a boost in attack for attacking a fleeing foe.

If battle is joined then the battle takes part in five phases: Opening: The opening phase sees both armies arrayed in a blind bid (the players private message the gm as to what units are in what ranks of battle).

Phases:

First Combat: The first combat phase sees both sides first rank of battle engage one another as well as exchanges of any ranged fire between the two armies. The fourth rank can be withdrawn from battle during this phase if a player wishes to attempt a roll.

Maneuver: The maneuver phase sees the players attempt to rearrange their units in another blind bid. Frontline units can be withdrawn as second and third line forces move in. Players may also call their reserves if they roll a successful test (otherwise we assume the call for the reserve was lost somehow).

Second Combat: This is the final combat phase; both sides fully engage one another with whatever forces are left in their armies. At this time one or both players can also attempt to disengage.

Resolution: The final winner is determined from either who has the most surviving soldiers on the field or whoever has not fled the field.

Sieges: Sieges occur when an army attacks a population center with a defending army. Unlike open field battles defenders cannot attempt to withdraw from the battle. Attacking players have two options they can either lay siege or assault the battlements.

If a player chooses to lay siege than the number of defensive zones in the settlement determines how long it can hold out (in turns) before it falls without assault.

If a player chooses to assault the battlements then a battle ensues in the same phases as a field battle except for the defender lacks the option to withdraw.

A defending player DOES have the option of attempting to sally forth and face a siege if the attacker is not willing to assault the battlements. If they sally forth than combat ensues in the same phases as a field battle.

Lifting a Siege: Sieges have the special condition that they can be lifted either by the besieging army or if an army comes in to save the defenders and breaks the siege In that fashion. Note though that simply engaging a besieging army does not lift the siege you must be victorious.

Amphibious Assault: This takes place when a player unloads troops onto land contested by an enemy army. The players are presented the same options as an open field battle Engage or Disengage however due to the nature of this battle if there is no opposing fleet the attacker and defender both may withdraw without a roll being necessary.

If battle is joined combat is somewhat different from the Open Field and siege battles:

Opening: Like land battles the two sides array their forces in a blind bid. Unlike Open Field battles however the armies are not yet actually in the field (i.e the attackers haven’t unloaded their ships yet). Disembarking: The first phase in amphibious assault is the attacker bringing the first wave of their force ashore where they are at somewhat of a disadvantage against the defenders. Note however that if the attacker has any warships escorting their fleet they may have their archers from these ships rain arrows down on the enemy army if they get too close to your landing force.

First Combat: The second wave comes ashore as the first is fully engaged with the enemy’s first wave. Warships are still able to provide archer support from off-shore. Either player may attempt to roll and call in their reserve troops at this point. Maneuver: The third wave comes ashore and both players may begin to reorganize their armies in another blind bid. The attacker may choose to attempt to withdraw their first and second wave at this point but must lead the third and fourth (if they call in the reserves) behind to cover their retreat to the boats.

Second Combat and resolution: Unlike the other types of land battle the second combat and resolution take place in the same phase. Either the defenders are driven from the shoreline leaving the victors to establish a foothold or the attackers are slaughtered or withdraw depending on how the maneuver and final combat phase go.

Naval Combat: When two fleets close in on one another players have a choice to engage or disengage just like land battle. If both players disengage the fleets withdraw without fighting if one player attempts a disengage and fails the engaging players gains a boost to attack power.

Arranging Your Fleet:
Unlike armies fleets are not formed into “lines” during battle the way land armies are but are rather formed into squadrons before the opening phase of combat. Another difference is these squadrons are not formed in a blind bid the way the land armies are but rather both players stating squadron composition.

Stances: Like on land players can choose a stance prior to a phase commencing; unlike land battles however these can be applied to specific squadrons.
Defensive: A fleet in a defensive posture tries to hang back from its opponents and trade ranged fire with them. This stance gives fleets a ranged boost but decreases their melee and ramming power as the close quarters ships try and hang in close to the ranged ships.
Balanced: The most basic combat stance provides no boosts or drawbacks as close quarters ships attempt to grapple or ram as needed and ranged ships attempt to provide fire support.
Board them!: This stance is best if you want the best odds of taking enemy ships intact instead of sinking them. This provides a boost to the marines aboard your close quarters ships but provides drawbacks to both archery and ramming (don’t want to break the ships do you?).
Ram them!: This is perhaps the most pragmatic stance though it dramatically reduces your chances of taking enemy ships intact. In this stance your close quarter ships attempt to ram their enemy at maximum speed rather than securing grapplers to board them. Drawbacks here are that you are less likely to take prizes, as well your marines on the assault ships get knocked around so if they are boarded it reduces their effectiveness.
Burn Them: This is one of the riskiest stances though with much risk comes much chance of reward. Your archers use brimstone (or if there’s a fire mage present he can provide the flames for archers and himself) in an attempt to burn enemy warships. Fire is the most deadly weapon at sea but it is a merciless creature and if a bad die roll occurs and the wind shifts you may light your own ships aflame instead of your enemy! Also dramatically reduces the effectiveness of ramming and boarding as it’s not a good idea to bring your ship aside a vessel ablaze.

Phases:
Opening: With the squadrons already formed both players make a blind bid as to which squadrons will be attacking which enemy squadrons. This phase consists of the two fleets maneuvering into position to strike.

First Combat: As the name suggests both fleets engage one another. Maneuver: This phase provides the opportunity for one or both sides to attempt a withdrawal and roll to see the outcome. It also allows both sides to do a blind bid on maneuvers and new orders to the fleet.

Second Combat: The final showdown! If neither fleet successfully breaks away during the maneuver phase this is the all in, both sides commit whatever forces they choose to make a final strike at the enemy fleet.

Resolution: Losses are tallied and a victor is determined, this can be less clear than on land because it depends largely on the goals of the players involved and may lead to both sides claiming victory among their own people.