Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Deuce Traveler" data-source="post: 5984420" data-attributes="member: 34958">I love me some BECMI/RC.  Frank Metzer, the gentleman who created BECMI, has his own Q&A thread on Dragonsfoot.org.I have the RC in front of me, and my own impressions of how the mass combat rules flow.1.) I was always under the impression that once the armies were routed and physically far off, they would have to close the distance once more before fighting again.  This isn't like a small, tactical battle where action is taking place at a pace of a few seconds a combat round.  A mass combat round is taking place in hours or maybe an entire day.  When an army is routed, the troops flee in an orderly or disorderly fashion and the commander of the losing army may try to reorganize and reengage or flee entirely if he can outpace the victor.According to RC: If all of the enemy forces have left the terrain unit occupied by your forces, a day of battle ends. No more fighting occurs until the next day (if applicable).2.) I think your interpretation makes sense, and that you are misinterpreting faction to mean race.  I believe the part where factions perform the same tactics comes into play when an army splits itself on the battlefield in an attempted maneuver.  The two factions of the same army have to act in concert with one another.  Per RC: Dividing a ForceFor you to use the War Machine in a battle, each side must have the same number of forces or armies. If one side has a greater number of forces than the other side, the side with fewer forces must be divided into an equal number of armies. A player may keep the original rating of the force, and simply declare that troops have been split into separate armies.3.) Fatigue does not stack.RC says nothing about stacked fatigue when discussing recovery: Fatigue: Troops will remain fatigued for 1d4 days. "Seriously fatigued" troops become "moderately fatigued" in 1d4 days, and will have their strength restored after another 1d4 days.4.) Of course a side can voluntarily surrender.  Remember, this is a roleplaying game, not a rollplaying game.  As the DM, you supply the narrative if rules get in the way of common sense or reality of a situation.5.) It is not realistic for a winning side to win with no casualties suffered.  Even in complete and utter victories, there are still injuries, fratricides and logistical accidents.  Casualty rules directly from RC: When the winner and loser have been identified, determine the effects of the battle (killed, wounded, fatigued, etc.) as follows:Subtract the loser's combat result from the winner's result. Find this difference in the lefthand column of the War Machine Combat Results Table. Apply the resulting casualties, fatigue, and location to both the winning (W) and losing (L) troops, as noted.Casualties: When subtracting casualties, consider half of them as dead and the other half as wounded. When a force contains mixed troops (such as trolls and goblins), the casualties must be split as evenly as possible between them. If a force retreats from the field, treat all wounded as killed. If a force holds the field after the battle, those wounded troops can return to action in 1d4 months.The RC then goes on to describe the casualties via a chart, such as a difference of 64-80 points results in 30% casualty rate for the victor and 60% casualty rate for the loser.</blockquote>

Verification