The Battle for {Insert Name Here} - South Wing

[WaterMonkey314]

The Situation:

An alliance has been called upon by Queen Bea of Unaroyal to attack the city of Orgchart, held by Decrypted Gobwin Knob units. The alliance's strategy is to execute a massive pincer strike--but the southern arm of the strike has been detected and intercepted on a huge, flat plain. A Gobwin Knob force seeks to delay the southern alliance long enough to pull in reinforcements, and their Archon scouts relay constant information back to them, though these scouts never engage the alliance. Though the alliance has an initial advantage in numbers, as the battle wears on, this advantage will vanish slowly. The alliance must capture the base camp of the Gobwin Knob forces to win on this massive plain and force the Knob's troops to pull back--either to the city or to another base camp.

Standard rules for tBfGB2 apply in all cases (reprinted below for your convenience) except for the unit cost formula and attack cap.

Rules:
Mounting:

Spoiler: show

Units may use another unit as a Mount IF the Mount has twice or more the starting hits of the units being carried. For example, a Gobwin with 3 hits may use a creature with 6 or more hits as a mount. This will only be helpful if the larger unit has a higher move value. 3 Gobwins could ride on a Mount with 18 or more hits.

Garrison units may never move, even on mounts.

Design Your Force:

Spoiler: show

As in the Comic, Units have four stats – Move, Attack, Defence, and Hits.

Move is the number of hexes a unit can move on the strategic map – Value 0 to 5.

Attack is the Combat value of the unit, whether attacking or being attacked.

Defence has changed in this game. It now represents the Armour/Dodge value of the unit. It is the capacity of the unit to avoid taking hits. Basically, a value of 5 means that 5 out of 8 hits against a stack will be ignored.

Hits are the amount of damage a unit can take before being cwoaked. Hits are restored to full at the beginning of the side’s turn.

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. Movement of 0 is Garrison. Movement of 1 is Siege; Movement of 2 is Infantry; Movement of 3 or 4 is Cavalry; Movement of 5 is Flyer. Units may not have move higher than 5 in this game.
2. Units may not have Attack values more than (2*Hits) or round up(4*Hits^(2/3)), whichever is lower.
3. Units may have a defence value between 0 and 5, but may not have defence higher than hits.
4. Hits are related to size. So a unit with 1 hit is tiny (like a bat or bird), 3 is small (like a Gobwin), 5 is average (like a Human or Elf), 10 is big (Horse or Twoll), 20 is large (Dwagon or Golem), 30 is huge (Giants, etc). A unit may not have more than 30 hits.
5. The cost of the unit is equal to all the following formula:
Hits*Move/2 + Defense*(Hits^(2/3))/2 + Attack + Special (Move = .8 for Garrison units)

Special is 10 for Scouts, 20 for Commanders. Special = Attack for ranged


Each Player has 500 points worth of units at the beginning of the game. Players must post their unit types and stats on the forum.

Commanders:

Spoiler: show

A Commander is a unit, like Ansom or Zamussels in the Comic. Each Player must have at least one Commander.
In the Comic, Commanders are all roughly “Human”. Therefore, no Commander may have more than 6 hits, or less than 3.

In addition, Commanders have a “Level”. When the Commander is created, the GM will 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:

Spoiler: show

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.

Units fight together in Stacks. In Combat, Total all ATTACK values points for the first eight units in the stack. Flyers may not stack with non-Flyers (unless the non-Flyers are using the Flyers as Mounts).

Commander Bonuses – for each level of the Commander in the stack, increase the Command Bonus by 0.1. Commanders do not have to be listed in the first 8 units to add this bonus. If there is no Commander, the Bonus remains at 1.0.
The Chief Warlord is a Special Commander. In any hex with a Chief Warlord, the Leadership bonus of all Allied stacks is increased by 0.1.

Terrain Bonuses may be included in a later game, but this game will not have any Terrain except flat plains.

Ranged units on the Defensive inflict hits before the enemy has a chance to attack. Ranged units on the offensive may inflict hits, and, if the unit has move remaining, may leave the hex before the opposing stack retaliates. If a ranged unit attacks a ranged unit, combat is simultaneous. In order to use a ranged attack, the entire stack must be ranged. Non-Ranged Commanders may add a Leadership bonus only to a stack of Ranged units – obviously do not use their Attacks. Ranged stacks must always choose to engage an enemy ranged stack (if possible) before attacking a non-ranged stack.

Special Bonus – Specials include Dancefighting, Ditto-Mancy, etc. Default is 1.0. Rules for these will come as the game develops. In each combat after the first, this Special Bonus is halved. That is, a stack is attacked by two stacks. In the second calculation, the Defender’s special bonus value drops to 0.5. In a third combat, the value would drop to 0.25, and so on.
The only exception to this is if the Defending unit succeeds in ‘wiping out’ the attacking stack – ie, all attacking units are cwoaked. In this event, the Defending stack acts as though it had not fought any combats.

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 (2d6+8)/20, 2 is 50%, 7 is 75%, 12 is 100%, etc.

Use the following formula to work out how many hits have been inflicted on the enemy:

Hits = Total Attack X Command Bonus X Special Bonus X Ambush Bonus X Random Number X (8 - Opposition Average Defence - Terrain Bonus) / 8

Round result to nearest whole number. This is reflected in the Spreadsheet which is also linked to in LTDave's signature, and is the xls file on this page:http://sites.google.com/site/erfworldempires/home/gobwin-bump-two

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.
Exception – a stack led in attack by a Commander may direct hits at any unit in the opposing stack, but the unit takes TWICE as many hits to cwoak as it normally would. Opposing Commanders take FOUR TIMES as many hits to cwoak as normal if targeted. Obviously the first unit in a stack will never need to be targeted.

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. In the event that a Player has not posted orders within 72 hours (three days) of the beginning of a phase, the Chief Warlord may issue orders on their behalf and end the Phase.

Scout Phase:

Spoiler: show

Players may create units with a special scout ability. These units are created as per normal units, simply add 10 points to the Cost.

In the Scout phase, any scout unit in the same hex as a Commander may be given orders to inspect a string of adjacent hexes equal to the unit’s move. The unit remains in the original hex – it simply inspects the hexes (how it does this is left entirely up to your imagination). The Scout unit moves in the Movement phase.

In the Scout Phase, 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. Scout units may then move their full allowance in the Move / Combat phase.

Figure 1:
Scout unit S has three move, and has the following orders – inspect NW (Northwest), inspect SW (Southwest), inspect S (South).

Scout unit S2 has two move, and has the following orders – inspect SW, inspect SE.

(Sorry, image isn't visible. Scouts can inspect any number of hexes that they could move into in the Move/Combat phase, as long as each hex is adjacent to the last hex scouted)

Both units remain in the starting hex, and may move 3 and 2 hexes respectively in the Move / Combat phase.

During the Scout Phase, the Chief Warlord may be given a number of points to distribute between the players. The Players may then nominate a set of units to “pop” at the beginning of the Scout Phase.

Move and Combat Phase:

Spoiler: show

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.

Commanders may move units to pass on orders to other units – so a stack at a distance could be reached by another unit that passes on instructions.

Commanders may move into a hex, issue orders to units there, and then move on again.

Units may be sent to attack enemy units. Players should use the spreadsheet provided to calculate the combat results. Each Unit may attack once per turn.

Units gain advantages 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, Gobwin Knob units heal to full health.

Opposition Turn:

Spoiler: show

The forces of Gobwin Knob move at the discretion of the GM. Any results that impact on the Alliance players will be posted on the forum. Once the Gobwin Knob turn is over, the Alliance players may begin their Scout phase, and all Alliance units heal to full health.

Summary of Changes:
Cost = Hits*Move/2 + Defense*(Hits^(2/3))/2 + Attack + Special (Move = .8 for Garrison units)
Attack is limited to (2*Hits) or round up(4*Hits^(2/3)), whichever is lower.

[Sihoiba]

The Dothwaki Horde of Khaw Dwogo from the Westewos Sea prepares to drives his slaves before him eager to add to them with the forces of Gobwin Knob.

Forces described in this post.

[BLANDCorporatio]

The People's Republic of LOLCat has described its starting forces in this here post.

The PRLC forces stand to attention as Chairman Rofl Mao descends from a Roflcopter. Finding the troops suitably equipped and motivated, the Chairman joins the Alliance's planning table.

Oh and also-

The Dothwaki Horde of Khaw Dwogo from the Westewos Sea prepares to drives his slaves before him eager to add them with the forces of Gobwin Knob.

"What iz meaning of this? Haz Horde treasoned teh Alliance already?"

[Sihoiba]

"The horde will crush and capture all of Gobwin Bumps forces that stand before it, accuse me of treason again and I shall have the tongues of you and you're children."

[Crovius]

The Archnida forces gather, their starting troops described here.

Commander Pinser smacks two of his Scorpiones who were about to start a stinger fight with eachoter, the others fallign in line quickly. Commander Crabfist approaches the other leaders, his motley of Amblypygi scitter aroudn behind him, their extra logn forearms brushing the ground. The massive Tarantula rests with 7 Acarina resting their tiny bodies on it's large back. A pair of Agelenidae sit in the camp, beginning to spin their tunnel-shaped webs to protect the camp from.

Commander Crabfist clicks his mandibles as he speaks, "We should not *click* be fighting amongst *click* ourselves already. We *clickclick* need to work to*click*gether to defeat our *click* foes. My forces *click* are ready to fight."

[BLANDCorporatio]

"Crabfist speakz truth, but if Horde wantz haz LOLCat tonguez they iz asking for fewture troubl. Plz mind where a 'to' goez, it changez meaning in wayz catspeak doez not. We did fighted teh Grammar Naziz over that and did crushed them, we can will do same to all invaderz."

[WaterMonkey314]

Map illustrating the aforementioned featureless plain:



All Alliance units are currently at Alliance Base Camp in J10. Please allow some time for me to compile a unit reference and master unit list.

If you guys would vote on a Chief Warlord, that would be appreciated.

[Sihoiba]

We see no reason why the Peoples Republic should not offer the Chief Warlord.

[HerbieRai]

Can the forces of Evil Imagination Land join in the re-conquering of Orgchart?
Army:

ManBeawPig

Spoiler: show

Move: 4 Hits: 25 Attack: 34 Defence: 5 Special: none Cost: 106
This monster that came from the mind of Awl Gore is half man, half beaw, and half pig.

Cwismas Cwitter

Spoiler: show

Move: 4 Hits: 8 Attack: 16 Defense: 3 Special: none Cost: 38
The most evil and cute monstews anyone could imagine

Stowm twooper

Spoiler: show

Move: 2 Hits: 2 Attack: 3 Defense: 1 Special: range Cost: 9
If we have enough of them, their lack of accuracy wont matter

Fwying Monkey

Spoiler: show

Move: 5 hits: 2 Attack: 2 Defense: 0 Special: scout Cost: 17
Release the monkeys!

Fweddy Kwueger

Spoiler: show

Move: 4 hits: 6 Attack: 12 Defense: 5 Special: Command Cost: 53

Current List

stack 1
3 fwying monkeys


Stack 2
Fweddy Kwueger
2 stwom twoopers (mounted on manbearpig)
2 manbeawpig
3 cwismas cwitters

Stack 3
5 stwom twoopers

Total Cost: 493
Left: 7

[WaterMonkey314]

That will be fine - it'll actually even out the players in both wings.

Herbie, please cast your vote for Chief Warlord either here or by PMing me. We are also waiting for Crovius to vote.

[HerbieRai]

Then I guess I'll put my vote for the peoples republic as well.

[Crovius]

"The Arachnida *click* forces follow orders, we do not *click* command other *click* beings, though they may be of *click* simple form. We too will *click* cast our *click* vote for the People's *click* Republic."

[WaterMonkey314]

Congratulations, BLANDCorporatio! You have been chosen to be CW of the Southern Alliance!

I... erm... actually need to design my own units and place them. You guys can go ahead and start discussing scouting though.

[LTDave]

The Genericans object - not only is your map prettier and more generic than ours, but your target is one hex closer. Outrageous!

[zilfallon]

I agree with you, CPT-GEN Genericus. Our intel is worse, but do not worry. An alliance with Avewnus will not fall behind it's rivals, just because of a prettier map. We shall end this!

[HerbieRai]

I have a few mechanics questions I wanted to check on:

If a ranged unit mounts a non range mount, it loses the range ability while mounted (being in same stack as non range unit)

You can re-stack for free during your turn

Attacking uses 1 move (aka for hit an runs)

If an attacker destroys one stack but others are in the hex, he continues to another stack, or retreats using 1 move

[Nihila]

I have a few mechanics questions I wanted to check on:

If a ranged unit mounts a non range mount, it loses the range ability while mounted (being in same stack as non range unit)Correct.

You can re-stack for free during your turnAlso correct.

Attacking uses 1 move (aka for hit an runs)Attacking costs no move, moving into a hex costs move. However, moving into an occupied hex begins combat, so in effect, attacking costs as much move as the hex's terrain cost. This is currently no different than what you said, but it could become important later and I want us to be consistent.

If an attacker destroys one stack but others are in the hex, he continues to another stack, or retreats using 1 moveUnits can only engage in 1 combat on their turn. Attackers may choose to either stay in a hex, not engaging (but forcing enemy units to engage once the enemy turn starts), or to retreat.

Red is me.

[WaterMonkey314]

I think I actually disagree slightly with Nihila on the explanation of one: (Blue is me)

I have a few mechanics questions I wanted to check on:

If a ranged unit mounts a non range mount, it loses the range ability while mounted (being in same stack as non range unit) Not necessarily - if the mount does not attack in the stack, I believe the stack can still fight as ranged (I think we did this in tBfGB2).

[BLANDCorporatio]

Mmkay, you guys apparently love catspeak so much that you'll want a Chief Warlord that speaks with "can has". Well, I will oblige

Also, welcome HerbieRai and may I compliment you on your taste for references. Plus, ManBearPigs are pretty awesome units to bulk up hitpoints for a stack, and all of ImaginationLand's troops are quite fast.

Most of our troops are quite fast actually, a difference from the original TBfGB. Let's see what kind of problems that will bring, later on ... because unless we do something really stupid/get really unlucky/the GM(s) get particularly evil, we should punch through easily for the first couple of turns, making good territory gains.

Here's what I think, strategy-wise. It's nothing too deep, so why not have it open.

Our troops, this time round, are small. We'll be fighting with many stacks, and unlike the previous TBfGB there will be casualties. No biggy, our popped units can get fast to the front.

Also, the utter lack of structure in the terrain will encourage, nay, force, some more freestyle maneuvering. We'll have, maybe, several columns spread out a bit as opposed to the team main push/Kettwey's artifact claiming squadron situation of TBfGB2.

ManBearPigs are amazing units for an initial softening strike/meat-shielding an Infantry column. (The Cheezburger is a cheaper meatshield, but that's all it is).

The Horde's ranged units are fast and reasonably cheap- will be built in great numbers. Horde Slaves are the better option (as compared to Stormtroopers) to do some basic territory denial. Basically, they are the new Mists, which is obvious from their stats.

PRLC units are jack-of-all-trades, master of none. LongCats make good infantry, LOLCatiushas can concentrate some ranged power.

Archnida forces will provide camp defense, some Siege capability (if needed) and various options for territory denial. None of the Archnida troops look too impressive stat-wise, but they are the cheapest and will provide a reliable rush of units even in times of pop point draught.


Scouting will be done, probably, by Flying Monkeys and Kittehs. Ranged troops will most likely be provided by the PRLC and Horde. ManBearPigs will strengthen infantry columns (unless we can haz enuff Cheezburgers).

So, when do we start?

[WaterMonkey314]

You guys can start discussing scouting while I hurriedly design my force.

BLAND, if you could make a unit reference like last game, that'd be extraordinarily helpful.