Quick battle rules reference

[Pontifex Maximus]

When the senate sanctions a fullscale invasion of an enemy territory, it is highly recommended that at least three legions be assembled. A Consul or a senate-appointed general will lead the troops. When attacking enemy territory, enemy resistance will be calculated based on historically reliable sources for the muster. A leader from the region being invaded will lead the opposition forces and shall be RPed by either a willing player or game moderator.

Raids: When an enemy army enters any territory the time they spend in that territory will mean a loss of income over time. The longer an enemy army spends in the territory, the more loss will be incurred. For each day an enemy army occupies a territory 10% of the income will be lost for the next term's payday. Game moderators will keep track of affected territories and pass on the specific information to Quaestors and game moderators.

Legionary Replacements: Legions can only be restrenghtened when they reach 3/4 strength or less (4,500). Replacements will take two months in game (1 day) to reach the front. Any legion that loses more than half of its number(3,001) in one battle will lose a star denoting veteran status. Replacements when fighting in a Roman territory shall be recruited at half the normal time. Hiring replacements at the conclusion of a campaign will have no time penalty.

When a territory has been liberated by a Roman Army the conquering general has three options:

Sack: Two dice shall be rolled and the sum multiplied by 500. This sum becomes the amount of money (denarii) liberated from the captured territory.

Slave Sale: Two dice shall be rolled and the sum multiplied by 1,000. Half of the proceeds from this action must be paid to the senate.

Peaceful occupation: The settlement is not sacked or the population sold into slavery. In recognition for this one dice shall be rolled and the number multiplied by 50. This many local levies will join your army free of upkeep and fight for a period of one year for free.

Prisoners: Any prisoners captured in battle may be sold for 20 denarii per head. Half of this must be paid to the senate.

[Magicman2051]

Posting this here, while it is "in utero".

Battle Modding

All battles are laid out in three different stages, Preperation, Ordering and Execution, which will be covered as thoroughly as possible in this guide. If there are any suggestions, amendments or additions you wish to discuss feel free to bring it up via PM or in a post somewhere. Naturally certain battles will have specific modifiers and conditions which this system cannot fairly account for in this general guide, these modifiers and conditions will have to be decided based on the discretion of the moderator or the agreement of the players.

All of these rules use a D20 die, which can be replicated using a random number generator if needed. However the rules can be adapted, if needed, for a 2D6 set up and there is already some work done on that.

Preparation

The first stage of battle, from a moderation perspective, occurs as soon as orders are recieved and confirmed from all involved. Confirmation of orders is not essential but in some cases people miss things in original orders or certain things are unclear, the former being impossible for the battle moderator to account for but the latter being a matter of interpretation and perspective. For the sake of balance all such instances whereby an order is unclear should be confirmed, if there is no amendment or clarification proceed with the battle.

General Influence (GI)

Before anything else is done, you should account for a General being present and for the purposes of these rules General's can only be a Main Player Character. Alt/Aux Player Characters or characters featured in any RP prior to the battle which are identified as the/a General of this army can be considered at the discretion of the moderator but have a seperate and much simpler roll system which will be discussed later. In situations where there is a Main Player Character and an Alt/Aux Player Character in an army, only the Main Player Character is rolled for, the Alt/Aux being discounted. If there is more than one Main Player Character General present for a given side then these rolls are to be done for all Generals on that side and their results averaged to determine their GI.

Any Generals for NPC nations are considered Main Player Character Generals by these rules.

Influence Rolls:

• With the men - D20+(Battles Won/4-Battles Lost/2)+(Average Unit Rank/2)+(Troop Morale/2)+4
• From afar - D20+(Battles Won/5-Battles Lost/1)+(Average Unit Rank/2)+(Troop Morale/3)

Battles Won/Lost - This is determined by the amount of battles, overall, in which this General has been a participant. For NPC generals this will be generated by a D20 roll, D20/4+7 for Battles Won and D20/5+4 for Battles Lost, the first them they are encountered. Their Wins/Losses will then be tracked.

Average Unit Rank - This is self explanatory, all the units involved in the battle layout have their total rank, experience stars, added together and then averaged. NPC enemies have a slight upper hand here in that the troops to which their General is attached to on the field are assigned a 4 star rank by default.

Troop Morale - This is determined by how many battles have been won/lost by this general commanding this army, by default Troop Morale starts at 2. Each battle won by this general commanding that army will increase Troop Morale by 1, and each battle lost decreases it by 2. Furthermore every turn without any activity will reduce Troop Morale by 2 but will not reduce it below the default value of 2.

If at any stage the army is either increased in size by more than 40% or reduced by more than 40% outside of battle the morale is considered to have reset upon the next turn.

For an alt:

Influence: D20+(2-D6)

Results:

(-1 GI) 0-7 = -1 Modifier for all actions, +1 Modifier for enemy actions
(0 GI) 8-14 = No Modifier
(1 GI) 15-21 = +1 Modifier for all actions
(2 GI) 22-28 = +1 Modifier for all actions, -1 Modifier for all enemy actions

General Influence, GI, is significant for a number of reasons but it will very rarely determine the course of battle absolutely.

Unit Size

Once GI has been determined you'll then have to break down both armies into smaller units based on the GI of their general and the unit type. This is done for a number of reasons but the most important of which is the amount of flexibility and accuracy that the battle can be afforded based on orders given. As guideline you should always endeavour to keep unit sizes as outlined below.

Melee Infantry - 400-600
Cavalry - 100-300
Archers/Skirmishers - 250-500
Missile Cavalry - 150-350
Siege Weaponry - 4-12

The higher the GI, the lower the unit size, the more rolls are done. This is obviously a less precise system than GI but it is meant that way to be as flexible as possible. What this means is that the bigger the battle, the more chance for things to go wrong or right depending on how good the general is and the more rolls have to be done for it.

Setting Rolls

This is where those "Unpredictable" elements can enter into the equation. As a rule if you mention something in the setting, which pertains the battle, then you really should roll for it. For instance, is it raining? -1 Visibility perhaps, or -1 Stamina. Are you in a desert? -1 Stamina or -1 Reaction Time maybe. Is it night?

You get the drift, be creative but maintain balance as much as you can. In the event that, while doing the battle proper, you find that these modifiers are dramatically altering events then you may need to review them but at the same time don't be afraid to go for it. If you said "There was chilling and persistent rain" in the set-up, you're damn well sure that this has affected the battle adversely. At the same time if player orders attempt to counteract this effect, give them the kudos they deserve for thinking it through, but in the case of a natural force like rain don't just discount it out of hand because some preparation has been made.

Once you've concluded with preparation you can move on to the examining the orders given and establishing a timeline.