Mongoose: OMCS and other TQF questions.

[bramadan]

I just finished reading TQF and am fairly happy (review is in the works). OMCS, while somewhat less detailed then I would desire is actualy quite good. Only thng that I find a bit confusing is the whole everyone can charge anyone else and everyone is in the range of all archers.

-First of all I was wondering how does the system work w.r.t. War Machines ? Can every unit charge every war machine ? Can they be supported the way archers can ? Do they get a A. shot when charged (probably not) ? Do they get the one shot as the unit gets into position or does it depend on their rate of fire ?

-Secondly a question on cavalry: do they still suffer A. when charging archers ?

-Third, is it reasonable to give pikemen and simlliar units some bonuses versus cavalry ?

-Fourth, how many rounds pass between engagements ? Say my gnoll mercenaries just finished slicing the human inantry that charged them, how any rounds will pass untill they can come to help their orkish brethern being battered by the knights on the other side of the field ? As a related question, is it possible to have a reserve and, if yes, how long does it take to bring them in ?

-Fifth, do you think that, for those of us who do not mind a bit more work, it might be reasonable to run the battles on the battle-mat with movement translated from regular d20 combat system. Would it unbalance the rules in your oppinion ?

-Sixth, while I appreciate the fact that one round=one round it might make things a bit unbelievable in that entire battles are bound to be over in the matter of minutes. I know this is best way to seamlessly mash the actions of characters with that of their units but do you think that the shortness of time can somehow be remedied ? Doing things during the night while armies rest between two days of battle is a staple of both history and fantasy and this system makes it impossible.

-Seventh question relates to the Dueling system. I think that idea is great and will use it (in some form of other) in my campaigns from this point on. What bothers me with the rules as written is the fact that they seem to heavily favour fighting with either tiny or large weapons. An attacker armed with those can always take Crowd or Step Back options for an effective +4 on the next dueling check and suffers no greater consequences when the opponent does opposite then if he were using medium weapons.

-Eight, does armour do aything for you in a duel ?

-Ninth, do you think that making cross table of attacking/defending options might be a good idea for a house rule ? Again, for those of us who do not mind a bit more work...

-Tenth, regarding called shots: Beyond BAB requirement is it any more difficult to make a called shot to, say, eye, then it is to make one to the leg ? Would bonuses to AC for the second roll in critical determination maybe do the better job then BAB reqs ? Was there some reason against those ?

I'll probably come up with more as I read the book again but answers to any of those would be most welcome for now...

 

[bramadan]

more questions:

11) In OMCS, if I have a unit of creatures that have 2 or more HD and want to calculate number of creatures downed by the loss of x unit HP (for the reasons of figuring out outmatching, say) how do I do it ? Do I assume that x/2 creatures have been lost or does everybody loses their first HD first and then the second so no soldiers are lost untill damage is over 1/2 of unit HP.

12) What is use, if any, of mounted bowmen ?

13) If a supporting unit is already engaged by two other units can a third unit charge archers ? If yes, is it a reasonable tactics to have a couple of kamikaze 5-10 men units that can engage "suporters" so that main attacking unit can attack archers.

14) If several units charge archers (or supporters) in a same round do archers get more then one A..

15) If two units engage one how is it dealt with w.r.t. outmatching, do allied units add their numbers or is the defending unit split in two or something else ?

16) How does the "size" of HD affect the unit HP. Is unit of zombies (or barbarians) going to have same HP as one of commoners (constitution being equal) ?

17) Can archers shoot at the engaged units and what are the consequences ?

18) Is it possible to gain cover against archery attacks ?

19) If unit A and unit B attack unit Z and unit Y comes to their aid, attacing unit A do we count total sizes on both sides for the purposes of overmatching or is unit A considered to disengage Z so it can engage Y ?

20) If two moral check condition obtain in the same round i.e. Unit is brought down to a half of original score .and. has been reduced by a third in around how is moral determined, are there two checks, is DC increased ?

21) Is size for the purposes of overmatching considered to be unit HP or actual size as in number of men...

 

[Mongoose_Matt]

Hi there,

A lot of questions!

The golden rule to remeber with the OMCS, and one that should answer the vast majority of questions posed is that, unless otherwise stated, _all_ rules used in standard d20 combat also apply to the OMCS. All.

The second rule to keep in mind is the intention of the OMCS - it is not to provide a fully detailed wargaming system, but a quick method to resolve battles of a few hundred characters on each side while maintaining the focus on player characters - this is both the spirit and the aim of the system.

Before I go into your questions in detail, we are providing something called The Cinematic Battle System in our forthcoming book Crusades of Valour. Once again, this concentrates on the actions of the player characters but it opens the scope of battles right open, allowing entire wars to be fought with hundreds of thousands of troops on each side. If you want the larger scale without additional compexlity, The Cinematic Battle System is the way to go.

War machines are like any other unit in this game - they can be charged, supported, etc. . .

Cavalry will indeed be fired upon as they charge an archer unit.

If you want to give pikemen a bonus against cavalry, go for it - given the weapon's reach, I would suggest they can strike first. . .

Theoretically, one round passes between engagments, though GM's may like to extend this if they really do have a sprawling battle.

As for battle maps, a sketch may well prove useful for the OMCS but it is not the intention of the system to go into this level of detail - remember, the player characters are the important guys. Maps are, however, used in the Cinematic Battle System.

Time scale - in the draft rules for the OMCS, we did indeed have a method for increasing the timescale used for round (into minutes and hours) as the number of combatants went up. However, this turnas into an absolute pig when you start factoring the amount of damage player characters can do, especially when spells start flying! The over-riding objective of the OMCS, however, was to provide a quick and easy combat resoultion that took into account the abilities and strengths of various races in the game and so we kept with the 6 second round and smaller scale battles.

Casualties in the OMCS should always be applied in 'full' against single characters, so that if a 2HD unit takes 4 UHP of damage, 2 characters are 'killed.' Remember though, that casualties in OMCS need not necessarily reflect deaths, just a unit's ability to fight. . .

Charging archers - your kamikaze idea may well work, though weak units on the battlefield are likely to be targeted by archers, as they have a good chance of wiping them out. As for multiple units charging archers, how many AOO does someone usually get in a round?

Total numbers for outmatching purposes. As for whether HD or members are used here, I refer you to p98, Unit Size

In terms of shooting into close combat and taking cover, I would refer you to the main D20 rules. . .

Morale checks take place whenever a condition is reached so yes, it is certainly possible for a unit to be forced to take more than one in a round.

The first draft of duelling had precisely the table suystem you describe - and it was a pig to actually use! You would be welcome to use such rules, but we found they somewhat detracted from the cut and thrust of duelling.

Called Shots - the difficulty in making called shots is taken into account with threat ranges and BAB required. Funnily enough, while this system works perfectly well in Fantasy, it proved to be unworkable in Judge Dredd - in the new JD game, we are implementing a more basic system where called shots simply provide a penalty to attack rolls.

Hope that helps. OMCS can be scaled up to reflect battles of thousands of men and, in doing so, is usually easier than breaking out the miniatures or Gummi Bears. However, I always found it best used for 'the defence of the village' or 'the lightning flank attack' scenarios rather than a full blown wargaming system, which was never the intent. As I mentioned earlier, the Cinematic Battle System in Crusades of Valour will allow you to use practically any number of combatants per side but once more, it focuses on the player characters. When Mongoose does a full-blown wargame, you will be the first to know

 

[bramadan]

Thanks muchly,
I was actualy surprised how well system turned out in my first playtest of it. Huge number of questions does not reflect my dissatisfaction, rather I am almost certanly going to use it so I want to do it right.
What I would be realy happy to see one day from Mongoose is the book dedicated solely to warfare in a way "Sands of Death" is dedicated solely to gladiatorial combat. It coluld have all the advice for running the military based campaigns (where PC's rise up the ranks as the campaign unfolds) as well as somewhat more detailed version of OMCS, or maybe some hybrid with "cinematic system". It would ofcourse tie in perfectly with "Dynasty of Heroes" as well as with "Crusades of Valour". You claim that there are milions of tabletop games that do mass combat but that realy is not the case, beyond napoleonics which are obviously inapropriate, there is only warhammer which just has a wrong flavour and chainmail which is skirmish. I do believe that there is a market for d20 wargame that ties in with DnD and that can be done with counters on the battle mat.

I admit, I have particular interest in such a game having come to DnD from wargaming (napoleonics) but am almost certain that it would draw at least as much interest as the gladiators...