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Subject: SUPPLEMENT: DOG2.3 - tactic battlefield
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Death or Glory
ROLE PLAYING GAME

Battlefield
Medieval Board Battle Supplement v.1.0.

Copyright Notice : These records are copyright (C) 1994 Alexander N. Trofimov.
The entire system or any part of it cannot be used for commercial purpose
without explicit written permission of the author. The basic ASCII file version
1.0 can be copied, printed, referred to and uploaded / stored to any archive
under condition that the file stays unchanged as it is, including this
copyright notice.
Order information : Enhanced formatted edition can be purchased against a
modest contribution of Sfr. 10.- (mostly the postage fees from Geneva/
Switzerland to you + some printing/trouble expenses). The packet mailed
includes the latest version of Death or Glory main role-playing system as well
as all supplements appeared until now. This way you also become a registered
user and all information on the subject - future releases, supplements, etc. -
would be communicated to you directly.
Short Description : this supplement is a set of rules to handle small-scale
fantasy battle simulations. None of the specific technical features of "Death
or Glory" are used in the supplement, i.e. "Battlefield" constitutes an
independent set of rules, which may be easily adopted to any other fantasy
world. This version is being play-tested, so a number of corrections and
additions would certainly appear in the next release. Please send your comments
to (me) : Alexandre Trofimov; 29, av. de Vaudagne, 1217 Meyrin, Switzerland. E-
mail [e-mail]

Changes as compared to the previous version :
No previous version.

Still to be implemented :
fear, fatigue and wounds
elevation and visibility
sudden attacks



CONTENTS:
1. UNITS & THE BATTLEFIELD
2. ARMIES
2.1. ARMY STATISTICS
2.2. ARMY TYPES
2.3. LEADERSHIP
3. GROUND
3.1. TERRAIN TYPES
3.2. RELIEF
3.3. FORTIFICATIONS
4. BATTLE RESOLUTION
4.1. BEFORE THE BATTLE
4.2. MOVE
4.3. COMBAT
4.4. FLEE
4.5. SURRENDER
4.6. HIDE


Units & the Battlefield

The battlefield is a conventional hexmap. One map case may be occupied by one
army unit. The maximum number of fighters in a unit is scale dependent.
Three following scales are generally adopted :
Strategic    max. 200 men-sized fighters per unit
Tactic        max. 20 men-sized fighters per unit
Personal    single fighters
On a tactical battlefield a unit may be composed of only one type of
troops.

Armies

Army statistics

Attack score
Reflects the army's power of close attack assault. The total unit attack
score is (number of fighters) x (attack score).

Defence score
Reflects the army's power of defence as well as of retaliation against an
enemy attack. The total unit defence score is (number of fighters) x (defence
score).

Distance attack score
Reflects the army's power of distance attack (for example bow shooting).
The distance attack score is usually noted as NNxPP:DD, where NN is the number
of "shots" available per battle, PP is the shooting power and DD is the maximal
shooting distance. The shooting distance is measured in hex map cases of tactic
battlefield. On a strategic battlefield a shooting unit may shoot only to an
adjacent case. The total unit attack power is (number of fighters) x (attack
score).

Move
Reflects the speed of army movement, measured in cases per round (
regardless of scale; map scale change induces the time scale change).

Size
Reflects the space one fighter needs to fight correctly, measured in 1 man-
sized soldier spaces. Used to determine the maximal number of fighters per army
unit.

HP [hit points]
Reflects the amount of damage needed to kill one fighter. If a unit receives N
points of damage, N/HP (rounded down) fighters die.

Ego
Is a measure of troops pride. The higher it is, the smaller number of
fighters of this type one can employ. More on Ego below in "Leadership"
paragraph.

Hire cost and Maintenance cost
Reflect (guess what?) respectively hire and maintenance costs in abstract
units of money. Maintenance cost is measured per abstract unit of time.

Army types

Below is an incomplete list of possible army types with the special rules and
historical notes on the armies concerned. The list may easily be adopted to
your RPG system. See Table 1 (Armies) for details on the troops' statistics.

Archers (A)
Human archers. Provide a very good distance support at a reasonable cost.
Arrows are obviously the best way to strike enemy troops without putting the
life of your soldiers in danger. The only problem is that archer troops are
relatively weak in close attack / defence.

Cavalry (Light) (LC)
The mounted warrior coming on at a gallop has a dramatic effect on the resolve
of those in his path. Cavalrymen are not only useful in battle as shock troops,
but can follow up a victory by pursuing the losers and finishing the rout.
Besides the conventional war-horse mounts, this category includes also
dromedary / camel and desert lizards gonga (desert troops, mostly employed as
mount by rakkh - desert folks) as well as battle lizard mounts mara-mara. Same
is also valid for Heavy Cavalry and Knights (below).

Cavalry (Heavy) (HC)
Mounted on huge horses bred for power rather than speed, encased in armour,
braced in stirrups, and charging at a thunderous gallop, heavily-armoured
cavalrymen are a terrifying prospect to the knaves and ruffians on foot. One of
the most dreaded regular war forces, Emperor's Thunder Legions are formed with
elite heavy cavalry and elite heavy infantry.

Knights (K)
Noble heavy cavalry. In addition to good heavy cavalry training are
distinguished by the high quality of armour and weaponry. Apparently, the only
reasonable way to counter charging knights (beside using costly overkill
solutions, such as dragons, battlemage platoons etc.) is to shoot them off the
saddle at a distance.

Chariots (C)
Fighting vehicle first used by the armies to transport archers and other
troops to the battlefield, where they would then disembark to actually fight.
But it may also be a fearsome offensive weapon, when spearmen or archers fight
from the car of the chariot itself. One chariot may carry one archer or one
light-armoured infantryman (or equivalent) without extra Size usage. In this
case the attack and defence power, as well as HP of the fighter carried are
added up to those of a chariot.

Infantry (Light) / Swordsmen (LI)
One of the most common fighting forces of the Eastern Continent, the Light
Infantry units have an advantage of being easily raised and trained, not
mentioning the cost, to counter heavier armoured troops with relative success.

Pikemen (P)
A military formation of pikemen is usually a large block of men in ranks and
files, generally ranging from 10 to 30 men deep. All are armed with long pikes
The first five ranks of men present their pikes outwards, forming a bristling
barrier of spearpoints, while the others keep their pikes upright to deflect
missiles. An enemy has difficulty closing with the men behind the pikes. On the
attack, the enemy is faced with this densely-packed body of pikemen advancing,
often at the run, and usually has to give ground or being impaled en masse.

Infantry (Heavy) (HI)
Heavily armed and heavily armoured infantry is the force that has conquered
and holds the Northern Empire for already eleven centuries. A legion of heavy
infantry approaching enemy troops has, in all aspects, the allure and
appearance of a slowly approaching concentrated death (FOOTNOTE: The only
historical precedent of heavy infantry being stopped is the famous Daerquwa
battle, when the joint forces of Elven archers and Dwarven elite guards
defeated the Emperor's Thunder Legions near the Daerquwa forest on the north-
eastern edge of the Spine of the World mountains. Some say that the price of
the victory was too high, as nearly two thirds of the best troops of the
dwarven king have been slain, leaving the River Passage without defence. The
barbarian invasion from Ashland desert followed and it needed twice seven years
to clean up the North-Western Realms from the savage hordes.).

Peasants / Militia (PE)
The cheapest military units are simply the citizenry armed with whatever tools
and weapons they could grab. Although militia units are inexpensive to organise
and maintain, they are not effective against trained armies. However this type
of army is frequently in use due to the speed in which they can be raised. They
are often useful for stopgaps while superior units can be assembled or brought
forward, and are certainly better than no defence at all.

Barbarians (B)
People of plains, forests and mountains that do not build towns and rarely
build villages. Hard life makes tough fighters, but these guys, unfortunately,
have no idea of loyalty. If they are outnumbered, they flee. On the other hand,
if a barbarian cannot flee, he fights to the death.

Nomads (N)
Mounted barbarian freeriders of plains, that do not build villages at all.
When hired, need only very small subsistence, as they are accustomed to feed
and support themselves and their horses with what Mother Nature offers. These
troops feel themselves very uneasy in towns and castles and despise the town
citizens for their "cowardice" and "laziness". The town people's feelings
towards a nomad army camping in their town / castle are not any warmer.

Dwarves (D)
Children of the race created for battles, dwarven troops are one of the most
effective light assault forces of the known world, fighting perfectly well on
the rocky terrain of hills and mountains. Dwarven mercenaries made proof of
great courage and skill as underground fighters when they fought for the elven
king during the Goblin wars inside the Yarwi mountains.

Dwarven guards (DG)
The cream of dwarven army forces - the guards - are reputed all over the Three
Continents for their loyalty and courage. Dwarven Guards rarely serve a non-
dwarven master. If a unit of these troops pledged allegiance to a master,
either the death of the master or the extermination of the unit may make them
disobey an order. Furthermore, these troops are respected as the only regular
army in the world that is able to counter the Emperor's Legions in an open
battle. The elite of the dwarven guards serves only the dwarven noblemen.

Elves (E)
The history and the traditions of the elven folks, their peaceful nature and
the constitution itself of the elves makes of them poor hand-to-hand fighters.
The elven armies always preferred to flee an open battle and then attack from
an ambush or from behind rather than to counter an enemy face-to-face. That is
the reason why the biggest part of the elven army is formed by archer troops.
After all the infantry is not well trained for conventional battlefields. Large
elven troops are hardly organised under single leadership and are most
effective in guerrillas.

Elven archers (EA)
Elven archers are doubtlessly the most dreaded distance attack force of the
World. Initially raised as popular resistance army during the lizardmen
invasion of the Aerie kingdom in the early fourth epoch, the elven archers soon
got very well trained under the command of Abass the Black (FOOTNOTE:
Historical note - Abass the Black was one of the greatest warriors of marrawi
race equally able with a sword and with an axe and with a bow. He received his
nickname simply because of his skin colour - ebony black. Before having himself
enrolled as a mercenary for May the Hot, Queen of the elven folk, he was a
warlord for the marrawi prince and was reputed for his intelligence and
frankness. Abass falled into disgrace after the prince has heard that the huge
part of the success in the ever-lasting racial wars with dwarves is attributed
to Abass and not to the prince (which was quite true). Being a genial war
master, Abass was the fist to employ the small-unit guerilla tactics for the
elven army instead of conventional battlefield combats. It is believed that he
was the creator of the elven army and the originator of the victory above the
lizardmen, thought he have not seen the results of his deeds slain in an open
duel by a dwarven mecenary also at the service of May. This fact was the cause
of the tension between Elves and Dwarves for a quite a while.END FOOTNOTE).
Elven archers are the only elven mercenaries to fight in foreign armies.

Forestmen (F)

Forestman archers (FA)

Lizardmen / Marrawi (L / M)

Lizardmen / Marrawi guards (LG / MG)

Goblins (G)

Orcs (O)

Ogres (OG)

Trolls (T)

Giants (GI)

Skasi (rat folk) (R)

Tarquee (battle lizards) (BL)

Hoggo (battle elephants) (BE)

Yarzz (battle pterodactyls) (BP)

Battle wolves (BW)

Battlemages (BM)

Wyverns (W)

Lesser Demons (DE)


Elite troops represent only a very small part of the regular armies, are
extremely difficult to find and hire. The attack and defence scores of the
elite troops, as well as the maintenance cost are doubled, and ego and hire
cost are tripled.

Leadership

A leader (one of the players) has a characteristic (the only player's
characteristic needed in "Battlefield" supplement) called Leadership. The
higher is the leadership - the bigger army a leader can lead. Victories and
defeats influence the player's leadership in the following way : the HP lost by
the player's army are multiplied (divided) by two in case of victory (defeat);
then the enemy army's HP lost in the battle are subtracted, then the result is
divided by 5 (rounded up). And that would be the number of leadership points
lost by the player in the battle. Example: if the players army in a victorious
battle has lost the total of 100 HP and the enemy has lost only 40, then the
leadership will decrease by (100/2-40)/5 = 2 points. The price of the victory
was too high.
The total Ego of the army may not exceed the Leadership of the leader,
otherwise the troops may disobey the orders.


Ground
Terrain types

Different hexmap cases are of different terrain types. The following
characteristics are attributed to every terrain type:

Movement cost
Is the number of movement points a unit must pay to put itself onto a case
of the terrain type.

Defence adjustment
When a unit is defending itself or retaliating on a certain terrain
type its defence score is multiplied by this value (rounded down, minimum 1).

Visibility
Describes the visibility on a certain terrain. Influences mostly the
possibility to hide the troops in the map case of the terrain type (see "Battle
Resolution" paragraph below).

A case of hexmap may be of one of the following terrain types :

None
Movement cost    1
Defence adjustment    1
Visibility    1
"Default" terrain type - nothing special on the surface.

Bushes
Movement cost    2
Defence adjustment    1
Visibility    2
Sa∩va folks soldiers have no penalty fighting in bushes, i.e. movement cost
and visibility are 1.

Forest
Movement cost    3
Defence adjustment    2
Visibility    4
Forestmen troops have a special ease fighting and moving in the forest. An
attack adjustment of x2 is applied and no moving or visibility penalty is
applied. At the contrary, big fighting units such as chariots or battle
elephants (but not ogres or giants) are unable to move through forests.

Road
Movement cost    1/2
Defence adjustment    1
Visibility    1

Sand
Movement cost    2
Defence adjustment    1
Visibility    1
Desert troops have no penalties moving through sands.

Snow
Movement cost    2
Defence adjustment    1
Visibility    1
Arctic troops have no penalty moving through the snow.

Swamp
Movement cost    4
Defence adjustment    2
Visibility    2
Swamp folk troops have a special ease fighting and moving in the swamps. An
attack adjustment of x2 is applied and no moving or visibility penalty is
applied. At the contrary, heavy fighting units such as heavy cavalry, heavy
infantry, knights, chariots, battle elephants, trolls, ogres etc. briefly
anything that has 4HP or more is unable to move through swamps.

Water
Movement cost    5
Defence adjustment    1/2
Visibility    1
As usual, no penalties are applied to water folks while fighting in water.
Heavily armoured units (heavy cavalry, heavy infantry, dwarven guards, knights
etc.) sink. The usage of a bridge or boat is suggested. Battle elephants,
battle lizards and battle wolves can not swim neither. If any unit is in water
in a case of map not adjacent to the ground for more than 3 rounds, 1/4 of
troops sink every next round.

Relief

Any terrain type except swamps or water can be of one of the three following
relief types.

Plains
Movement cost    +0
Defence adjustment    +0
Visibility    +0
"Default" plain terrain.

Hills
Movement cost    +1
Defence adjustment    +1
Visibility    +1
Dwarven troops ignore movement and visibility penalties on the hills.

Rocks / Mountains
Movement cost    +2
Defence adjustment    +2
Visibility    +2
Dwarven troops have +1 and +1 respective movement and visibility penalties.

Fortifications
Fortifications may be erected on any constructable terrain
providing additional defence bonus. The bonus is not cumulative with terrain
bonuses (the terrain is considered to be "none"), but is cumulative with the
relief adjustments - first goes the fortification bonus, then the relief one.

Simple fortification
Defence adjustment    2

Fortress / Castle
Defence adjustment    3

Stronghold / King's palace
Defence adjustment    4

Cavalry and beasts-of-war attacks and defence scores from inside the
fortifications are counted as light infantry attack and defence.

Battle resolution

Before the battle
All the parties involved fill in the unit records - one for each
military unit engaged in the battle - specifying the type, number and initial
position of the troops. If a unit is supposed to be hidden in the beginning of
the battle, the chances to discover the unit are noted on the back of the
record. (See "Hide a unit" below).
Then the dices are rolled to see the succession of the moves (just decide
yourself on your way to determine who acts first, who acts second etc.). Then
the first round of the battle begins - the armies are moved.

Move
The leader of an army decides on how his units move. A unit may not pass
near an enemy unit in a neighbouring case without engaging it in a combat - if
a nearby enemy is not engaged, but just passed by, under certain conditions the
moving army is considered as fleeing the combat (see "Flee" below). If an army
wants to combat an enemy, the movement is to be stopped and the unused movement
points for this round (if any) are lost. Of course, the maximal number of hex
cases "steps" a unit may make per round is equal to its movement score.
After the first unit is moved, its record is moved from "unmoved in this round"
 pile to the "moved" pile and the second unit makes his move.
After all units of the first army are moved, the second army makes his moves.
After all armies have made their moves for this round - the combat begins.

Combat
The order of attacks of an army's units is chosen by its leader.
In a round, a unit may (a) attack an enemy army or (b) defend itself.

If the unit attacks the enemy (Attack) - only one attack strike and one
defence strike (retaliation) are allowed. The retaliation may be directed only
against the enemy unit, that has been (is supposed to be) attacked. For example
the army leader says "let my LI unit attack that skasi squadron over there". In
that case, his LI unit later may not retaliate against any attack but the "
skasi squadron"'s one.

If a unit defends itself (Defence), it may retaliate as many times as needed
but no attacks are allowed.

If a unit is being attacked (Retaliation) - The leader of the unit under
attack decides on the unit's action right away and acts accordingly later on.
The retaliation happens right after the enemy attack, without waiting for the
unit's army turn to attack.
Of course, distance attacks may not be retaliated.
The attack and retaliation are considered simultaneous, i.e. for the
retaliation strike force the unit is considered entire and alive - the number
of dead soldiers is subtracted from the total unit's body only after both
attack and retaliation blows have been calculated.

Technically:
A (1/2)d6+3 is rolled (FOOTNOTE: For those of you, who are not accustomed to
the RPG (Role Playing Game) slang here is a simple explanation (I guess the
board games slang has similar terms). You roll a normal (cubic) 6-sided dice,
then you divide the result by 2 (rounded down, so 1 and 2 make 1, 3 and 4 make
2, 5 and 6 make 3) and you add 3 to the result - all that is noted (1/2)d6 + 3.
END FOOTNOTE) and then the result is multiplied by 1/10 (rounded up) of the
actual unit's strike force - that would be the amount of HP lost by the enemy.
That looks rather complicated first time you read it, but in fact it is quite
simple - here comes an example : a HI unit of 18 fighters (1 fighter's attack
strength is 4, total attack strength is 72, one-tenth of the attack strength
rounded up is 8) makes his attack roll. The result of the dice divided by two
is interpreted like this : 1 corresponds to a bad strike, 2 is medium, 3 is
good. The leader rolls 4 with 1d6 (divided by 2 is 2 - the strike is medium),
then the final result is ( 3+(4/2 rounded down = 2) ) * 8 = 5 * 8 = 40 - the
number of HP lost by the enemy. A big table of multiplication - for those of
you who are not so good in arithmetic - may be found in Table 2 - "Strikes".
Note that this is very important to keep track of the HP lost by the armies
fighting to calculate the change of leadership.
The above procedure goes both for attack and defence strikes.
When all the units of the first army have made their strikes - the turn is to
the second army, then to the third etc.
When all the armies have made their strikes the round of battle ends. The
order of moves is changed in the following way - the first army becomes the
last, the second moves to the first position, the third becomes second, etc.
The next round begins - return to "Movement" above and repeat until the total
extermination of one or all of the armies.

Flee
If an army unit leaves a case neighbouring to an enemy case without
fighting to death, the unit is considered as fleeing the combat and receives an
extra (bonus) attack strike from the enemy unit without having the possibility
to retaliate. Note that in that case the enemy unit is considered as attacking
the fleeing army for at least the next round.
It is possible to leave a part (at least 1/4) of the fleeing unit to fight
with the nearby enemy, while the rest continue moving (FOOTNOTE: It also means
that if a unit is surrounded by 4 enemy units eager to fight, it is impossible
to flee even for a part of the surrounded unit safely without receiving some
backstabs.). In that case the unit's record is changed accordingly and a
separate record is filled for the split unit.

Surrender
If a unit surrenders and is not freed by allies by the end of the
battle, once its maintenance cost is requisited by the enemy as loot and the
surrendered unit is permanently lost. The enemy unit receiving the surrender is
occupied for one round disarming the losers.

Hide
If a unit is supposed to be hidden in the beginning of the battle, the
chances to discover the unit are noted on the back of the record. An uninvolved
person is to check out whether the co-ordinates of the hidden units in
different armies overlap - if so, these co-ordinates are signalled to the
leaders and the armies have to be moved. Then dices are rolled to see whether
the hidden armies are discovered before the beginning of the battle. The
chances to discover a hidden unit depend on the number of fighters hidden as
well as on the terrain. Chances = (number of fighters factor) - terrain
visibility. A roll to determine whether the unit has been discovered is made
with 1d6.
The following table resumes the "number of fighters" factor numerically :
< 1/8        4
1/8 to 1/4    6
1/4 to 1/2    8
1/2 to 1        10
Fist column is the (actual number of fighters in the unit) / (maximal number
of fighters in the unit), the second column is the factor. If the chances are 0
or negative, consider 1 anyway.




Table (1) - armies


Army    Combat strength            Move    Size    HP    Ego    Hire    Maintenance
    attack    distance    defense                    cost    cost
Archers    1    10x3:5    1    1    1    2    2    2    2
Cavalry (Light)    3    0    3    5    2    3    4    3    3
Cavalry (Heavy)    4    0    4    4    2    5    6    4    4
Knights    6    0    4    4    2    6    10    8    4
Chariots    2    0    1    4    3    5    4    6    4
Infantry (Light) / Swordsmen    3    0    2    2    1    2    2    2    2
Pikemen    3    0    5    1    1    3    4    3    2
Infantry (Heavy)    4    0    4    1    1    4    5    4    3
Barbarians    3    5x2:3    3    2    1    3    3    1    3
Nomads    2    5x2:3    2    5    2    2    3    2    1
Peasants    1    0    1    1    1    1    1    1    1
Dwarves    3    0    3    1    1    3    3    2    2
Dwarven guards    5    0    5    2    1    5    6    8    3
Elves    2    5x3:5    2    2    1    2    4    2    2
Elven archers    1    10x5:5    1    2    1    2    5    2    3
Forestmen    2    5x4:5    2    2    1    2    3    2    2
Forestman archers    1    10x4:5    2    2    1    2    5    2    2
Lizardmen / Marrawi    3    0    3    2    1    3    3    2    2
Lizardmen / Marrawi guards    4    3x5:2    4    3    1    4    6    6    4
Goblins    1    5x2:3    1    1    1    1    1    1    1
Orcs    3    0    1    2    1    3    2    2    1
Ogres    3    0    4    3    2    5    5    4    3
Trolls    4    0    4    1    3    8    8    2    4
Giants    10    0    8    5    5    30    50    20    10
Skasi (rat folk)    2    0    2    3    1    3    2    1    2
Tarquee (battle lizards)    5    0    4    3    4    6    2    12    4
Hoggo (battle elephants)    5    0    3    4    5    8    2    16    4
Yarzz (battle pterodactyls)    4    0    0    8    2    4    2    12    4
Battle wolves    3    0    3    5    1    3    2    8    2
Battlemages    5    5x10:3    5    3    2    5    20    20    5
Wyverns    20    0    20    10    20    40    100
Lesser Demons    250    50x200:10    250    50    5 to 50    1000    50000

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Unit Record - make a lot of copies

UNIT #..............
Type
Number
Attack
Distance
Defence
HP
Initial pos.


Comments:


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