Talk:Sengoku Amahara: Tactical Rules

Sengoku Amahara

Notes

• Commanders should be able to determine basic layout of armies going into battle; units can be placed in the center, the left wing, the right wing, the reserves, and/or some other combination of general positions.
• Since armies are usually in lines, most units can only be engaged by one other unit.

• Basic unit size is 100.

• Battlefields are separated into small, manageable sectors with max x units per side.
• One random roll at the start of a fight, and then the numbers return to default values as luck starts playing less of a roll in masses of troops beating up each other.
• Horses allow movement between sectors and allow such movement to be intercepted.

• All units have a morale. Ashigaru are easier to rout than to kill all of. Monks are easier to kill than rout. Samurai come up somewhere in between.
• Flanking attacks and rear attacks are powerful, but difficult to pull off on most units due to everyone being in a line.

Units

A unit is a body of 100 fighters. Units are the building blocks of any army, but require a general to lead them. Without a general, an army is merely a mob. Units maybe upgraded, but never forget that any battle is fought equally between two commanders as it is between two armies.

Unit Statistics

Unit Statistics are usually not rolled, but instead compared. Over time, without the will of a commander behind them, most combats tend to even out to the expected result. A commander however can change that, and even the most overmatched army may have victory under the control of a skilled general.

In general, each statistic is subtracted from ten to give the difficulty for a general's Arete of war to affect that unit.

Attack Value

How good at a unit is at attacking. Each unit type has a base value, and then an additional value is added onto it by the units weapon. Weapons values tend to be specialist against certain unit types.

Defence Value

How good the unit is at resisting attacks. Each unit has a base value, and a list of armours it can wear, which have a major effect on defence. Each point in which the Attackers Value exceeds the defenders inflicts X causalities on the opposition.

Resolve

Few units except the most dedicated warrior monks and shrine maidens fight to the death. Resolve is how dedicated a unit feels. A unit has a number of morale hit points based on its resolve x10. Each causality removes one MHP. At 0, the unit breaks and runs, though it may later rally.

Manoeuvre

Battles are not static affairs, manoeuvre is extremely important. Match manoeuvre against the difficulty of a zone crossing check to see if a unit may manoeuvre into a new zone.

Move Forward into an empty or enemy occupied zone when out of combat

Move backwards into an empty Zone

Move sideways into an empty zone

Move forwards into a friendly occupied zone

Move forward from a friendly occupied zone

Moving back through a friendly occupied zone

Certain units will be listed as skirmishes and use the second value.

Units moving into an enemy occupied zone for combat gain a charge bonus of X to their attack value.

Professional Unit Rules

Professional Units are the best fighters in any army, and the primary standing force in peace time. Unlike the largely faceless regiments of Ashigaru, professional troops have members whose names will be recorded in chronicles, stories and anime for the next thousand years.

Each Professional unit leader must have a name, and each professional unit must have a province of origin, it gains X bonus to action in that province and may gain other bonuses for being of particularly impressive lineage.

Ashigaru Unit Rules

Ashigaru are the foot troops. They're far cheaper than Professionals, so they're easy to create huge hordes of, even if they're nowhere near as good.

Unfortunately, Ashigaru cannot be kept raised in peace time, cannot be customized, and do not have heroes, this makes them much harder to train or turn into heroes, usually remaining in the realm of extras.

Horses

Any professional unit maybe mounted as cavalry, making them vastly more mobile. Cavalry units may cross multiple zones per turn, with each zone reducing their mobility by a value equal to threshold. In addition, horses give a great bonus to mobility.

Light Horses give mobility X

Heavy Horses give mobility X

It is also easier to turn a body of horses than a body of infantry, so mounted units always act as if they are moving forward into a zone, no matter which direction the unit was previously pointed.

Arete of War

Rolling Arete of War

Each general has an Arete of War, which is equal to the number of dice rolled for his arete. These maybe rolled once for each of the three wings of the army (left, right and centre). When applying a sphere to a set of units, the difficulty is (10 minus relevant stat), this means that different amounts of success, than thus different levels of bonus will be applied across different units in the army. For global effects, the difficulty is usually 6, with 10s counting as two successes.

Spheres

Discipline

Your ability to keep your troops from running away, betraying you and drive them into perilous or seemingly hopeless situations. A disciplined force may also be fierce, driving back the unrighteous with their iron resolve.

Level One: Calm

The first part of discipline is to keep troops calm and resolved despite the odds against them. This level allows arete to be used to refill resolve at a rate of 10 resolve per success on an arete of war check.

Level Two: Minor Inspiration

The second part of discipline is to inspire your troops. A successful arete check will prevent a unit from routing. Each success on an arete check maybe used to improve a units attack value by one.

Level Three: Major Inspiration

At the third level, troops maybe inspired to truly heroic lengths, conducting incredible forced marches, fighting to the death against impossible odds and defeating legions of foes with their fanatical attacks. As well as preventing route, any stat maybe raised by two points for every success on the arete of war check.

Level Four: Minor Demoralize

Few wish to face a foe who is unafraid to die. Roll arete of war with a success number equal to your enemies resolve. Each success causes ten morale damage to enemy units in combat with your forces.

Level Five: Major Demoralize

Your reputation is terrifying and legendary. Few normal soldiers or even Samurai are willing to face such a feared group. Roll arete with a success number equal to your enemies revolve, each success causes twenty morale damage to all enemy units.

Command

Your ability to get your troops to perform complex tactical manoeuvres and formations, or control the time of attack (for instance to conduct a night attack)

Level 1: Basic Tactics

Move around the battlefield

Level 2: Advanced Tactics

Flank enemy units, mount ambushes.

Level 3: Formation Fighting

Combine units for mutual support (Pike and shot)

Level 4: Redirection

Force your enemy to move how you want.

Level 5: Heavenly Arrangements

Redirect the entire enemy army as it moves, smash units straight through the enemy lines, allow infantry to move as cavalry.

Construction

Your ability to change the battlefield to your whim with walls, earthworks and spikes

Terrain

Your ability to control the terrain of battle, and your influence with the spirits of air and water.

Basic Use of Terrain

You know it's tiring to run up hills. Improves Defence and mobility

Extensive Use of Terrain

Allows hidden units, cause penalties to enemy stats

Favourable Ground and Weather

Mess with specifically vulnerable types of units (Matchlocks), cause serious penalties to the enemies stats, force individual enemy units to redeploy.

The Wind and Sky

Hide your entire force behind weather, mess up entire classes of units (Cavalry, missiles, melee) through unfavourable terrain, negate vulnerable units (matchlocks) through bad weather force the enemy to deploy how you want them too on an army scale.

Lelouch

Destroy the enemy with rockslides, tidal waves from broken dikes and the like, negate entire classes of units.

Prowess

Your personal skill. A single warrior, if great enough, can turn the tide of armies

Subtly

Your ability in treachery, deception and other such arts.

Logistics

Your ability to bring a large army to the field

Technology

Your ability to utilize new inventions, cannon, fine weapons and armour, and muskets

Religion

Your favour in the eyes of heaven.