The Battle for Gobwin Bump
V3.4
By Lt. D. R. Grounds, esq.
Premise: The Battle for Gobwin Bump is a multiplayer play-by-post grand tactical campaign. While other games represent the comic at an abstract level, Gobwin Bump tries to simulate the turn by turn manoeuvres of individual units and stacks.
The Map:
Open Hex – Cost 1 movement for all units to enter. No Defence advantage.
Woods Hex – Cost 2 movement for all non-flying units to enter. Cost 1 movement for Flying units. Flying units may only be engaged by Archer units in Woods. All Ground Stacks gain 20 Defence in Woods.
Mountain Hex – Cost 2 movement for Flyers. No other unit can enter.
Lake Hex – Cost 1 movement for Flyers. No other unit can enter.
Design Your Force:
As in the Comic, Units have four stats – Move, Attack, Defence, and Hits.
Move
• Number of hexes a unit moves on the strategic map
• Determines Type – 2: Siege, Pikes, Stabbers, or Archers, 3: Cavalry, 4: Flyer
• No unit may have move less than 2, or greater than 4
• Siege units may not move and attack in the same turn – either move, or attack. Siege units may fire into an adjacent hex. Targeted stacks may not return fire.
Attack
• Number of hits a unit inflicts on enemy in combat
• Minimum value of 2
• Only the top 8 units in a stack can contribute their full Attack to a stack
• Units after the first 8 in a stack contribute a maximum of 1 attack only
• Modified by Leadership, Trump, and Other Special
• The combined score of Attack and Defence may not exceed hits
Defence
• Number of enemy hits that are ignored in combat
• Minimum value of 0
• Only the top 8 units in a stack can contribute Defence to the stack
• The combined score of Attack and Defence may not exceed hits
Hits
• Number of hits a unit can take before destroyed
• If not destroyed, units regenerate all their hits at the beginning of the turn
• Units that started a turn with less than half their total hits may not move or fight
The cost of the unit is equal to all the following formula {Round Up to nearest whole number}:
Cost = (Hits^2)/8+Attack+(Defence^2)/4+Move^2
Commanders:
A Commander is a Character, like Ansom or Zamussels in the Comic. Each Player must have at least one Commander. A Commander is a character, not a unit, and has only a level, not stats. Commanders may also have a special ability. Commanders must be a part of a stack at all times. Once all the units in the stack Cwoak, so does the Commander.
Special Abilities:
• Dance Fighting – Leading Stabbers or Pikemen, Attack +50%
• Rockin’ Out – Leading Cavalry or Flyers, Attack +50%
• Ditto-a-mancy – Leading Archers or Siege, Attack +50%
• Look-a-mancy – choose a hex anywhere on the map. Receive a free scout with range of 1 centred on that hex
• Dirt-a-mancy – construct 1 points of Walls per turn per Pikeman or Stabber in stack – stack may not move and use Dirt-a-mancy (see section on Walls)
• Cwoak-a-mancy – gain one half points value of all units cwoaked by this stack for popping or upgrading
• Fool-a-mancy – Add 20 points of Defence to led Stack, or gain 1 additional hex of movement for led Stack
• Shock-a-mancy – in combat, the Defence value of the opposing stack is halved
In addition, Commanders have a “Level”. When the Commander is created, the GM will determine the level – on a d5, 1-3 is level 2, 4 level 3, 5 level 4.
Each time a Commander is in a winning attack (not defence), 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 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.
Costs: Commanders
Commanders cost 50 points + 50 for any special taken. No more than three kinds of specials may be taken per faction. A special may be taken more than once per player faction, at an additional cost equal to the number of times it has already been taken x 50 (so the second of a kind would cost 100, the third 150, usw).
More than one Commander may join a stack, but only the highest level Commander influences combat. Any others are merely observers.
Scouts:
Scouts, like Commanders, are not a unit. They do not have stats. They have a rating, which represents the number of adjacent hexes they inspect at the beginning of the turn. A rating of 3 means that a scout detects enemy units up to three hexes distant. A rating of 4 detects enemy units up to 4 hexes distant.
Terrain blocks scouts – so a mountain, forest, or lake will be scouted, but hexes beyond will not. They are in the “Scouting Shadow”.
At the beginning of the turn, players receive a report of everything in range of their scouts. Scouts must be assigned to a stack. Once all the units in the Stack Cwoak, so does the Scout.
Costs: Scouts
Scouts 60 points for rating 3, and 100 points for rating 4.
For the purposes of this rule, all cities and units have a scout rating of “2”.
Stacks:
Units may only form stacks with units of the same type (Pikes, Archers, Flyers, etc) though they may be of different kinds (Heavy Pikes, Light Pikes, etc).
Commanders and Scouts may stack with any type of Stack (they are assumed to be mounted, etc) and take on the characteristics of that unit type (Move, bonuses, trumps, etc).
Allied nations may not stack their units together.
No stack in a hex may be attacked more than once if there any other stacks in the hex with their “one shot wonder.” Once all “one shot wonders” are gone, a stack may be attacked without restriction.
A Maximum of 8 stacks of the one side (Alliance or Opposition) may be present in one hex at a time.
Combat:
In the comic, Parson says that Combat in Erfworld has a simple mechanic.
Units fight together in Stacks.
A stack that is attacked more than once may only fight back against the first stack that attacked. This is called “One Shot Wonder”. An attack is considered valid for the “One Shot Wonder” if the attack managed to inflict hits on the defenders, that is, not all of the attacks were absorbed by the enemy defences. If attacked again, a Stack that has used its once shot wonder would count as having 0 attack and 0 defence. Defences from walls would still be counted.
For Example:
A stack of 8 Gobwins is attacked by a stack of 2 Pikemen. The Pikemen do not inflict enough hits to get past the Gobwins’ Defence value. The Gobwins are able to fight another combat in this same turn if attacked again. Had the Pikemen managed to inflict even 1 hit on the Gobwins, the Gobwins would not be able to retaliate against any further attacks this turn and would not receive their Defence Value.
In Combat, Total all ATTACK values points for the first eight units in the stack. Units beyond the first 8 add 1 Attack per unit.
Commander Bonuses – Gain +10% attack for each level of the highest Stack Commander.
Special Bonus – Dancefighting, Dittomancy, etc.
Trump Bonus –
Units that fight combat against their “Trump” type gain +50% attack value
• Pikes trump Cavalry and Flyers
• Cavalry trump Stabbers and Siege
• Stabbers trump Pikes and Archers
• Archers trump Flyers and Pikers
• Flyers trump Siege and Cavalry
• Siege trump Stabbers and Archers
Random Number – not every combat point means a hit. The Random Number adds a bit of luck to the mix. On 2d5, 2 is 20%, 7 is 70%, 10 is 100%, etc.
Use the following formula to work out how many hits have been inflicted on the enemy:
Hits = ((Total Attack of Top Eight Units +1 attack for each unit after the top 8)+ Command Bonus + Special Bonus + Trump Bonus) LESS (Opposition Defence of Top Eight Units + Terrain and Wall Bonus) TIMES 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.
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.
Guard Stacks
A stack can be ordered to Guard another stack in the same hex. The Guarded stack cannot be attacked until the Guarding stack has lost its one shot wonder (this creates an exception to the “Multiple attacks on the same unit” outlined above). A stack cannot be Guarded by more than one stack. A Guarded stack may not itself be Guarding.
Walls
Walls are defences in a hex that protect defending stacks. Walls have a certain number of points possible to be built in a hex – 20 in a non-City hex, 40 in a level 1 City, 60 in a level 2, 80 in a level 3, and 100 in a level 4 or 5 City) Walls absorb hits from combat. Walls can only be targeted by Siege, and two hits destroys one point of wall. Walls do not receive the Defence bonus of Walls.
The Alliance Turn.
Once the GM has made their actions and reported on what Alliance scouts have detected, the Alliance turn begins. Players may pop new units & characters using points allocated. Players may issue orders to units in the same hex as a Commander. Units & Characters that have been popped may move, fight, and use their special abilities in the same turn.
Units may only move into hexes that have been scouted.
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.
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 that does not contain enemy forces.
End of Turn:
The Alliance turn ends 96 hours after it has begun. At the beginning of the side’s turn, all units of that side that have partial hits are healed.
Opposition Turn:
The forces of the opposition move at the discretion of the GM. Any results that impact on the Alliance players will be posted on the forum. Once the Opposition turn is over, the Alliance turn begins.
