Post by Gormonghast on Feb 25, 2006 11:09:05 GMT 1
ADAPTING MIGHTY EMPIRES RULES TO WAR OF THE RING
Battle Casualties, Prisoners of War, Subsistence and Route Rolls
The following rules suggestions are modified from those detailed in Mighty Empires. They are primarily intended for use with my own revised map, but may be adapted for use with the original board.
Battle survival rolls
All characters, minions, Nazgul and leaders involved in a battle or siege must make survival rolls to determine if they survive the combat as follows:
Winners
Roll a d6 for each character on the winning side in a combat. Each roll of 1 means that this character has been slain in the battle.
Losers
Rather than being automatically killed, each character on the losing side is eliminated on a survival roll of 1, 2, or 3. Survivors are taken prisoner.
Retreating
Each character that is part of a force retreating from a battle must also make a survival roll and is eliminated on a 1 or 2. This does NOT apply to individuals withdrawing into a siege.
Sieges
In the case of a siege survival rolls are made at the end of each SESSION of the siege, that is every time the besieger withdraws, the siege is carried, or the attacker decides to make no further assaults this turn. In the case of an unresolved siege characters on both sides are eliminated only on a roll of 1.
Note that each roll is specific to a character: a player may not choose which individuals have been killed.
*In the case of the Witch King, it may be more authentic if he can only be slain when a female character is present in the Free Peoples army.
Prisoners of War
Instead of all characters in a defeated army being killed, they can now be taken prisoner. After making survival rolls as described above, survivors in the defeated army are considered prisoners of war. Prisoners may not be executed, but can be held indefinitely until they escape or are liberated.
Each prisoner must be assigned an escort from the victorious army. This can be any army unit. If no escort is assigned the character makes good his escape. Prisoners lose all their special abilities, cannot take part in a battle if their escort is attacked, and action dice assigned to characters held prisoner should be removed.
In certain circumstances prisoners may escape, and of course they are liberated if their escorting unit’s army are defeated.
An escort may not contribute to an army’s combat value as long as it is watching the prisoner, but may be thrown into the combat after any round. In this case the prisoner escapes and is placed alone in the region, but he/she may not take part in the battle this turn.
A player who has characters held prisoner by the enemy may use an action die to make an escape attempt for each prisoner. On a d6 roll of 6 a prisoner successfully overpowers or outwits his escort and is placed in the open.
Exception: a prisoner held in an enemy stronghold may NEVER escape. He can only be liberated by a successful capture of the stronghold. This applies to strongholds under siege, but an army unit must still escort each prisoner. It is therefore dangerous to hold more than one prisoner in a stronghold, as this seriously impedes the defensive potential of the garrison (escorts still count as army units for stacking purposes.)
In the case of Free Peoples army leaders who have escaped, the rule enforcing the elimination of unaccompanied leaders is suspended until the leader rejoins a friendly army. He/she is immune from attack just like a lone companion or Nazgul.
If using expansion and house rules involving monsters such as Ents, the Balrog and Shelob as combat units, such creatures are not subject to POW rules and if defeated in combat they are regarded as having been slain.
I am assuming that expansions or house rules involving siege engines etc. allow for these to be captured and added to victorious forces, though perhaps these should also undergo “survival” rolls to determine if they have been destroyed in the conflict.
Subsistence
These rules require each ARMY unit to feed itself every game turn. Food is referred to as “baggage points” as armies on the march may carry it around until needed, or store it in strongholds to enable garrisons to withstand long sieges.
Each region produces a number of baggage points; I would suggest something along the following lines:
Unpopulated region 0 baggage points
Populated region 2 baggage point
Region with town 4 baggage points
Region with city 6 baggage points
Region with stronghold 8 baggage points
A populated region is one lying within any national boundary. It may require some adjustments; for example some may consider Edoras should be worth more than Helm’s Deep for baggage points purposes; but this is really just a simple proposal. In ME the baggage is adjusted after every season, so new rules must be devised to make it work here. However I like the idea of armies on the march and under siege having to be provisioned. Other possible rules include the ability of an army to raze a settlement for baggage point’s, leaving it unable to supply enemy forces.
If armies are unable to supply themselves they will lose units to starvation, so the passage of armies across desert lands is realistically limited. Also, armies under siege will have to see that they are well provisioned.
Route Rolls
The following movement rules are intended for use with a modified map in which borders are drawn more closely with rivers, and on which mountain ranges are continuous, e.g. no “open” Moria region.
Mountain ranges (black lines) are no longer completely impassable. However rivers and swamps now also block movement. Units can attempt to cross these natural barriers by making route rolls. Some bridges can be marked on the map, but I would recommend NOT incorporating the ME rule regarding settlements containing bridges and mountain passes, as the maps are drawn in different ways.
Each army (or group of characters) attempting to move over mountains, cross rivers without bridges, or move INTO a swamp region, must roll a d6 and consult the following table:
1. The force abandons the idea and MAY move to any bordering region NOT requiring a route roll.
2. The scouts fail to find any route and cannot move anywhere this turn.
3. A dangerous route is found, lose 1 character or army and 1 bp.
4. A perilous route is found, lose 2 characters or armies and half bp.
5. A disastrous passage is forced, lose 3 pieces including 1 character (if any involved in the crossing) and all baggage.
6. A safe passage is found and all units may move.
Players may choose to lose armies rather than characters or leaders. When they must lose a character, he/she should be chosen randomly.
Armies may attack over difficult terrain using the same table, however during the first round of combat they suffer a –1 combat penalty in addition to any modifiers resulting from settlements or fortifications.
National Advantages
The following proposes certain modifiers for each race in the game, and refer to the use of rules from Mighty Empires on movement when attempting to cross difficult terrain (mountains, rivers and swamps), and subsistence.
Humans none
Dwarfs +1 to route rolls when attempting to cross
Elves +1 to combat strength in forest regions
Orcs, Goblins, Trolls may consume own units as subsistence
Deadmen, Wights, Nazgul require no subsistence
Ents require only fresh water for subsistence (rivers)
Hobbits resistance to magic?
Eagles unlimited movement
Gollum/Smeagol +1 to route roll over rivers and swamp (as guide)
In the above case only one relevant character or army unit needs to be present, for example if Gimli is in the fellowship he adds +1 to mountain route rolls.
As always, suggestions for improving and adding to these rules are welcome.