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Mongoose: OMCS and other TQF questions.
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<blockquote data-quote="Mongoose_Matt" data-source="post: 62404" data-attributes="member: 239"><p>Hi there,</p><p></p><p>A lot of questions!</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>War machines are like any other unit in this game - they can be charged, supported, etc. . . </p><p></p><p>Cavalry will indeed be fired upon as they charge an archer unit.</p><p></p><p>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. . . </p><p></p><p>Theoretically, one round passes between engagments, though GM's may like to extend this if they really do have a sprawling battle.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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. . . </p><p></p><p>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? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Total numbers for outmatching purposes. As for whether HD or members are used here, I refer you to p98, Unit Size <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>In terms of shooting into close combat and taking cover, I would refer you to the main D20 rules. . . </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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 <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mongoose_Matt, post: 62404, member: 239"] 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 :) [/QUOTE]
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