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.

There are two parts to an Arete of war roll: first specify what you want to do mechanially (so for instance "Use Command 3 to bring up my spears in front of my bows), then how you do it "My spears and bows have trained so that the bows open ranks and the spears charge through and form on a flag signal". Both are necessary for an effect to happen.

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.

Sense distension

You can tell when your troops are unhappy, and counter the unhappiness caused by enemies.

Minor Inspire and Dishearten

You can inspire your own troops and dishearten your enemies on one part of the battlefield, increasing their devotion in good times and correcting their fear in bad.

Major Inspire and Dishearten

You can inspire your troops across the whole field, or completely change their morale of units on a small part of it.

Supreme Inspire and Dishearten

Skillful deception, terror and discipline can make a defeated army fight to the last, or turn a certain victory into a riot.

Master of Men's Hearts

All across the land, lords fear that their soldiers would prefer to follow you than follow them.

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)

Understand Formation

You can understand how a formation works

Read the Flow of Battle

Your generalship makes parts of your army superior to the norm, better able to fight or maneuver.

Minor Alterations the Flow of Battle

Your leadership and skillful use of reserves and placement of units allows for formations to be quickly changed and re-arranged, setting predesignated reserves where they are needed or drawing enemy units out of formation

Major Alterations to the Flow of Battle

Your leadership is so skillful that you may alter your entire formation on the fly, or cause the enemy to expose themselves and become vulnerable by tricking them into changing their formation.

The Stage of History

The Battlefield is a play and the script is yours to right. Even the very basics of combat maybe rewritten by your plans, allowing units to act out of their usual sequence, and troops to move in ways usually impossible for them.

Construction

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

Understand Construction

You understand how to use and destroy the most basic types of fortification, and what your troops should look out for in case of traps.

Minor Construction

You can create fairly minor works over a part of the battlefield in a militarily useful time frame. For instance, one part of your line could be laid with punji pits or earthworks, or protected by ditches or a palisade. This must be done before battle.

Major Construction/basic destruction

You can rapidly fortify your entire line in a minor way, or part of it in a major way, for instance building a strong earth and wood wall, all but proof against charges. On the offense, you know how to defeat the weak points of enemy fortifications.

Foresighted Construction

You are so canny about your building that you seem to be able to tell the future, creating traps along the enemies line of march and throwing up walls and ditches exactly where needed. You can create major construction at any time in the battle.

Terrain

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

Lay of the Land

You are able to see how the land is lying and alter it to your best advantage, while countering enemy use of it against you.

Modify Minor Terrain

Through skillful battlefield placement you can cause an existing terrain feature to benefit you in one sector of the battle

Modify Major Terrain/Generate Minor Terrain

Often combined with construction, you can modify existing features across the battlefield, or create ones that suit you in a small area. This level also allows you to use the terrain to attack your enemy in some sectors.

Generate Major Terrain

By careful shaping and selection of the battlefield you can almost always call upon the battlefield you require.

Generate Disaster

What need has one who knows the land like a lover for weapons of steel? The land its self is more terrible than any weapon known to man or god.

Prowess

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

Each level allows your personal skill to be boosted against enemy numbers by X amount.

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.