Okay we're back with the next installment of the read through. This week we will be taking a look at some optional rules for Historical Characteristics and Weather, and then taking a look at how to run Sieges. It should be interesting.
Apologies for the delay, I've been all sorts of busy.
In the last post, inspired by Mirke's call-in, I said I would run the battle of the five armies as a finale event for this read through and I encouraged readers and listeners to submit orders of battle and/or scenarios for how they would run the battle. I wanted to provide some clarity on a rough timeline for when submissions would need to come in, and for when this read through will finish (at least chainmail).
At the current pace we're doing about 5 pages per post, after this post we are now on page 25 with Man-to-Man Combat, the final page is number 39, or 44 if we include the tables (but I've been referencing those as they become relevant), or 45 if you count an advertisement for other TSR products. So with some simple math, we're very likely 3 posts away from the end.
I have not been keeping a weekly schedule with these, though its close-ish at times, but lets pad it out a bit. I'll put a deadline on submissions for the end of March. I will then play the battle out in the first week of April and plan to have that released shortly after. I don't actually need submissions to play out the finale, so don't feel pressured or obliged to submit though.
Whilst we're on the topic of feedback, the Pink Phantom continues to call in with excellent commentary of his own. I don't highlight it here on the blog, so please do check out the podcast even if you skip over my section. Even still, I wanted to call it out here again and say thank you and tell you to go listen to his podcast.
So this section is a bunch of optional rules for more historical accuracy, for the most part they seem to be optional because they represent troops or methods of combat that are specific to a certain time period or part of the world (which beckons the question why so much attention was paid to the landsknecht). But then we open up with an optional rule that disallows intermixing unit types except for horses where they are allowed to as long as their types are one apart (so no light with heavy). So this implies that you can have intermixed troops normally, and now I need to find out how I'm meant to handle it.
Then we get a bunch of rules for different unit types, the brave Knight that must charge! The scheming mercenary that might demand more pay or swap sides. To the poorly trained or armed levies and peasants. And then some specific rules and advice for fielding armies of different nationalities. The scots have a special formation type, the spanish knights are 50% light and may split-move and throw darts.
There is some nice flavour and small rules to make an army feel unique or distinct, again I'm no historian so the accuracy of anything is beyond me.
Then we get a rule for commanders. Troops around the leader add one to a single die (this would include missile fire, melee and all types of morale), and optionally a commander may join a unit, then that unit will add 1 to all dice but the commander will suffer the same fate as the unit, the commander will also rally a troop that it joins automatically. Lastly, if the commander were to die all units must check morale at a minus 2 penalty (ouch).
Then we get rules for “baggage” or the big pile of loot that an army typically drags along with it. Both sides secretly choose an area of the map to be the path to this pile, if an opponent finds it they move off the board to steal some. All friendly units close by then move off as well to attempt to prevent it, I assume this is a melee or maybe you actually fight a seperate skirmish, its not clear. This is a weird one, it sounds like a fun scenario though.
Then we get a little table for weather, and its a d66 - which is kind of cool. The d66 is a modern OSR favourite it seems, and here we see one at the start of the hobby.
Basically there are only two bad results, its either raining really heavy or its too hot. The heat causes fatigue and if it rains consitently everything gets muddy and movement slows. Then we get some weather inbetween. So you first roll a d6 to determine if its clear, cloudy or rainy. Then on even turns you roll again to see if the weather changes, pretty simple.
And the last section we'll cover today is Sieges. It starts off by saying that they are difficult to handle, which I agree with, and so the intention here is to provide some rules to help.
We get a list of targets and their defense values (or hit points), bastions range from 40-60 defense points where as a small catapult only has 3 (interesting that fortifications and siege weapons are included here). Then we get the damage values for weapons, a bombard is hitting for 6 whilst a small catapult only 2. I had the same conclusion as the rules, it'll take a long time to bring down the walls of a castle.
Then we get some rules for siege towers and covered rams. Basically they can move further for each man moving them up to a maximum (very similar to catapult firing rate), ditches obviously stop them. Siege towers get a number of men which can start at the top and then also climb the ladder. A ram once touching a target deals 2 points of damage, so the same as a light catapult. Interestingly the tower and covered ram aren't specifically called out as targets, unless you count them as “wooden structures” but a ram can be stopped by defenders on a 9+ on 2d6.
We get moveable mantlets with similar movement rules as above, and they provide cover to a few men with one being allowed to shoot. Further troops only get partial cover. Again this is useful to consider for a dungeon game where players will eventually try this.
Ladders are cool, though I'm not sure how to interpret “One man carrying a ladder moves at one-half normal speed, and two men carrying a ladder with a penalty”, what penalty? Basically onces its up against a wall, the climber fights a melee with any defenders - if they win then they're on the wall, if they lose a die is rolled to see if the defenders can push the ladder away. Notably this combat should be fought using Man to Man which we haven't seen yet.
There are rules for dropping things on defenders, oil and rocks of course. Oil will ruin your day, where as rocks have a chance to kill ladder climbers and deal damage to something like a ram.
Mines and counter mines come next, a referee is required here to keep the fog of war but I'm really confused how this is meant to work, its not terribly important to understand - so I'm going to mostly skip over it. But it looks like this is meant to be played out on paper whilst the real battle actually occurs - the attacker can attempt 2 or 3 mines whilst the defender can attempt 1 or 2 counters - if the counters work then the attacking sappers are killed other wise the mine blows a breach in the target wall. Which leads into the final rule of this section: Breeches.
When the wall is breeched troops may move through at a rough terrain pace. Defenders may block a breech in three turns if there are no attacks, the block will act as movable mantlets for protection/defense values. Attackers can similarly tear it down in three turns if uninterrupted.
Okay and that is a wrap for this part of the read through. Some fun stuff in here, but its all optional or situational so I'm not sure how much play it would actually see. But I can see how this would be useful to handle things when they are applicable.
So we get one new question: How am I meant to handle intermixed troop types because all the combat tables assume the target falls into a single category.
But we also get some clarity on melee, hidden in the rules for mercenary troops. Each turn mercanaries must roll a die, on a 1 they do nothing, 2-5 they obey orders or on a 6 you must roll again to see what they do (demand more pay, betray you etc.) Then we get a note: “Once engaged in melee it is not necessary to check mercenaries until after the melee is concluded”. This to me is a nail in the coffin, melees must span across turns otherwise this quote is irrelevant. So thats my final ruling on the matter, what do you think?
Next week we'll take a look at Man to Man, its only 3 pages (p25 to p27) but it makes sense to just handle that before moving on to the Fantasy Supplement.
Thanks again for reading.