Here's my latest idea.
I will continue to run Erfworld Empires, since I think it's great. I want to keep playing in "Lords of Creation", but this is my attempt in the direction of a more "Comic Accurate" game.
That said, it's a long way from "Comic Accurate".
The Battle for Gobwin Bump
A Great Alliance has been called together to defeat the armies of Stanley the Tool. While Prince Ansom and his forces gather to attack Gobwin Knob, a smaller force is dispatched to capture the lesser city of Gobwin Bump.
Design your force, join the Alliance, march on Gobwin Bump, and defeat the enemy.
Premise: The Battle for Gobwin Bump is a multiplayer play-by-post grand tactical campaign. While Erfworld Empires represents the comic at an abstract level, Gobwin Bump tries to replicate the turn by turn manoeuvres of individual units and stacks.
These rules are in draft form only, and comment is invited by any interested person.
The Map:
Spoiler: show
Open Hex – Cost 1 Movement for all units to cross
Woods Hex – Cost 1 Movement for Flyers, and 2 Movement for all other units.
River Hex – Cost 1 Movement for Flyers. It takes all Movement for all other units.
Bridge – Cost 1 Movement to cross.
Mountain Hex – Cost 2 Movement for Flyers – no other unit can enter.
Lake Hex – Cost 1 movement for Flyers – no other unit can enter.
Road Hex – Cost ½ movement to cross for all units except Flyers, who act as if it were open.
Gobwin Bump is in the top left hand of the map – it must be captured for the Alliance to be victorious.
Alliance Town is in the bottom right of the map – it must be held or the Alliance units will lose support and being to disband.
Design Your Force:
Units have four stats – Move, Attack, Defence, and Hits.
For the purposes of this game, Players will design their own unit types. Each Player can have up to five distinct unit types, each with their own stats. These cannot be changed as the game progresses, so be careful in design.
Some simple rules on design:
1. Whole numbers only.
2. Units must have at least 1 point in each stat area (except movement – garrison units do not move).
3. Movement of 1 or 2 is Infantry or Siege. Movement of 3 is Cavalry; Movement of 4 or 5 is Flyer. Units may not have move higher than 5 in the game.
4. Units may not have Attack or Defence values higher than hits.
5. The cost of the unit is equal to all points added. So an Infantry with move 2, attack 2, Defence 2, and Hits 2 will cost 8 points to create.
Each Player has 200 points worth of units at the beginning of the game. Players must post their unit types and stats on the forum.
Commanders:
A Commander is a unit, like Ansom or Zamussels in the Comic. Each Player must have at least one Commander. A Commander is designed just like the Unit Types above, but each stat level counts as 2 points in cost.
In addition, Commanders have a “Level”. When the Commander is created, use the random number generator to determine the level – on a d10, 1-2 is level 1, 3-5 level 2, 6-7 level 3, 8-9 level 4, 10 level 5.
Each time a Commander is in a winning combat (ie, inflicts more hits than the opponent), the Commander gains 1 experience point. The Commander may go to the next level if they have experience points equal to the next level (ie, to go from level 3 to 4, the Commander must have 4 experience points).
Commanders increase the attack and defence values of the units they are stacked with, and may issue orders. Only units in the same hex as a Commander may move in a turn.
Combat:
In the comic, Parson says that Combat in Erfworld has a simple mechanic, and the key to victory is multipliers, not addition. The following system attempts to replicate that.
Attack or Defence – If it is your side’s turn, your units use their attack value for combat points. If it is the opposing side’s turn, your units their defence value for combat points. Total all combat points for the stack.
Stack Bonus – Parson says that the bonus for stacking maxes out at 8 units. For this game, the Stack Bonus is a multiplier from 1.0 to 1.7. For each unit beyond the first in a stack, add 0.1 to the Stack multiplier. For each unit in the stack beyond 8 total, take 0.1 from the multiplier, to a minimum of 1.0.
Commander Bonuses – for each level of the Commander in the stack, increase the Command Bonus by 0.1. If there is no Commander, the Bonus remains at 1.0.
Terrain Bonus – Some terrain increases Combat Points, particularly in Defence. Fortifications also increase this number. In attack, this number is always 1.0. In Defence, Open, Lakes, and Moutains are 1.0, Rivers, Woods are 1.5, Bridges are 2.0. Units that moved along Roads at double speed are considered to be in column – their terrain bonus is 0.5.
Note: in the Comic, Flying units may not be attacked by ground units in woods unless the ground unit is “Woods” capable. For the purposes of this game, all Scout units are considered to be “Woods” capable. Only Scouts and Characters may attack Flyers in Woods, unless Defender Flyers are stacked with Ground units, in which case they can be attacked by any unit.
Special Bonus – Specials include Dancefighting, Ditto-Mancy, etc. Default is 1.0. Rules for these will come as the game develops.
Ambush Bonus – units that enter a hex without scouting can be ambushed. The Ambush value ranges from 1.0 (no ambush) to 2.0 (ambush).
Random Number – not every combat point means a hit. The Random Number adds a bit of luck to the mix. On a d5, 1 is 15%, 2 is 20%, 3 is 25%, 4 is 30%, 5 is 35%.
Use the following formula to work out how many hits have been inflicted on the enemy:
Hits = Total Combat Points X Stack Bonus X Command Bonus X Terrain Bonus X Special Bonus X Ambush Bonus X Random Number
Round result down to nearest whole number.
The opposing stack takes the number of hits inflicted. Units are destroyed based on their stacking order – first unit listed takes maximum hits, before the next is wounded.
The Alliance Turn:
The Alliance turn is broken into two phases – Scout, and Move / Combat. At the beginning of the game, the Alliance players will elect one of their own to be Chief Warlord. It is the responsibility of the Chief to declare an end to the Scout Phase, and to the Move / Combat phase, which will end the turn.
Players may make actions appropriate to the Phase – but if a player fails to perform an action before the Chief declares an end to the phase, they may not perform any actions.
Scout Phase:
Players may create units with a special scout ability. These units are created as per normal units, except that the points cost of the movement stat is doubled.
In the Scout phase, any scout unit in the same hex as a Commander may inspect or explore a neighbouring hex for the presence of opposing troops. Each inspection costs 1 movement, and the units remains in the hex from which it started. Each exploration costs what it would cost to enter the terrain of the explored hex, and the scout will move into the hex if there is no enemy present.
If there are movement points remaining, the scout may inspect or explore further hexes.
All players give orders to their scout units. Once the Chief Warlord declares an end to the Scout Phase, the GM will examine the orders and update the map with information from hexes inspected or explored. Scout units that do not use all their movement in the Scout phase may move in the Move / Combat phase.
Figure 1:
Spoiler: show
Scout unit S has three move, and has the following orders – inspect NW (Northwest), inspect SW (Southwest), inspect S (South).
Scout unit S2 has four move, and has the following orders – explore SW, inspect SE, explore S, explore S. If a unit that is exploring encounters enemy forces it will not move into the hex, and not complete any further actions.
Move and Combat Phase:
Once the GM has reported on the actions of scouts, the Movement and Combat phase begins. Players may issue orders to units in the same hex as a Commander. Units may move into any hex, but if a unit moves into a hex that has not been scouted, it may be ambushed if enemy forces are present.
Units may be sent to attack enemy units. Players should use the spreadsheet provided to calculate the combat results. Each Unit may only fight in one combat per turn.
Units gain combat bonuses by stacking together. It is possible to attack the same stack multiple times, but each stack in a hex must be attacked before any stack is attacked more than once.
For Example:
A hex contains two stacks – Stack “A” of 8 gobwins, and stack “B” of 6 gobwins.
In order for Alliance troops to attack Stack “A” twice, stack “B” must be attacked at least once.
Players may move in any order, and may move and fight with all or some of their units at any one time.
If a stack has movement left after combat, it may move to an adjacent hex.
End of Turn:
The Alliance turn ends when the Chief Warlord declares it over. The Chief Warlord should post on the forum and send a Private Message to the GM. At the end of the Alliance turn, all units on both sides that have partial hits are healed.
Opposition Turn:
The forces of Gobwin Bump move at the discretion of the GM. Any results that impact on the Alliance players will be posted on the forum. Once the Gobwin Bump turn is over, the Alliance players may begin their Scout phase.
nice one
