WBS
“War does not determine who is right, only who is left.” – Bertrand Russell
Heavy is the Head, Giving Commands
The fulcrum on which all combat pivots is the skill of Tactics. Tactics determine initiative in large scale battles. Your score in Tactics is also the number of orders you can give per turn.
The process is simple. Initiative is rolled, and the winner gives the first order. Then the opponents, in descending order, give their first order, until all first orders are given. The cycle begins with second orders. A lucky commander may go first. A skilled commander will go more often. And one who is both lucky and skilled will likely crush their opposition. The characters continue in order until every character has given their allotments of orders. Once all orders have been given, any units that have not been given an order follow standing orders. Then initiative is rolled again for the second round. Orders can be given to any unit under a commander’s authority and present on the field. When an order is given, it will be followed until a new order is given. Units who have been ordered to attack, attack the same unit until its destroyed. Then they attack the nearest enemy unit until it is destroyed.
The Fog of War
Representing the myriad factors that keep a commander in the dark, the surprises that can ruin even a well thought out campaign, the Fog of War is the element of combat that is most discouraging to leading units. Your troops have their own skills, but they cannot implement to their fullest without your oversight as commander. No matter the skills of a unit or character in large-scale combat, they cannot use it higher than the commander’s score in tactics.
Ex.
The Lannister’s Lionguard are protecting Lord Tymond Lannister from a bold set of bandits who have caught him on the road to King’s Landing.
Because Tymond is not a very skilled leader, having only a +2 in Tactics, he rolls initiative with a +2 bonus. His soldiers who would normally roll with a +3 to hit, can only use a +2 because of the Fog of War. The bandit leader is only so bold because his +3 Tactics gives him the advantage.
Tymond wisely defers to his more war-like son, with a Tactics of +4 to lead the defense. It costs the Lannisters their first order, but it allows the soldiers to use their full capabilities in the battle
Deferring Command, Seizing Command, and Going without Command – Discretion and Valor
At any point in combat, a leader might defer to a better or more skilled warlord. But, it is the usual practice, absent any decision otherwise, that the highest status noble in an army is the leader. Lord Lannister will take precedence over his sons. His sons over his cousins and nephews, and so forth.
For a lower status commander to take hold, they have to be so named by the original commander. This action takes an order if it occurs in battle, but usually occurs before battles are even engaged, without costing an order.
In combat, a character may seize command by two methods. Firstly, forgoing one order for their turn, and making an opposed Tactics roll to take control through superior tactics. This is a hostile action without force, and browbeats and humiliates the acting commander into being overthrown by desperate troops. An attempt to seize command is treasonous and, if it fails, will likely result in consequences. Even if it succeeds, it will come with a tension born of embarrassment.
Secondly, a slain commander can be replaced, but this is murder of a superior officer. Likewise, it costs an order on the turn that command is supplanted to get the chains of command to function through the chaos.
Should an army go without command, a leader having been slain or fled without concern for his or her troops, units will continue to follow existing orders, defaulting to holding ground until they take damage and find they have no leadership to turn to. In that regard, they rout and retreat until destroyed or have fled. At any point in the round, a player with the standing to do so can try to command the allegiance of a leaderless force. If the army recognizes their authority, there is no need for a roll, but it does expend an order to establish command. If they have reason to doubt the authority of the character, a tactics roll vs. the highest combat value of any units in the army (limited by the tactics of the last leader), is needed to gain control. This also costs an order.
Routed troops that survive then test their attack skills versus the leadership roll of their next ranking commander to see if they return at best speed to whatever haven their allegiance has left, or if they become broken men and bandits.
Bonds of Brotherhood, Units and Squads in Narrative Combat
As a turn progresses, a commander gives their units orders. These orders can be to attack (the most common of orders), to charge (an attack that lowers defense but increases damage), to retreat (essentially the pure defense option for units), to prepare an ambush either by concealing the soldiers or by falsely proclaiming themselves allies, or to focus pressure on an enemy unit.
When a unit attacks or charges, they roll their appropriate skills against their opponents. The winner of that engagement, either attacking or defending, does one level of damage to the loser. It is possible for a commander to force their units against an opponent and have them die before the enemy commander takes an action.
The Attack Order is resolved by rolling the unit’s Fighting or Marksmanship as appropriate, against their target’s defensive scores.
The Charge Order gives a +2 to Fighting rolls, but a -2 to combat defense until the next round. These modifiers last even into subsequent orders. If a commander orders their cavalry to charge the opposition they receive these modifiers. If they use a second order to activate the same cavalry and order them to attack, they attack with these same modifiers until the next round.
The Retreat/Evade Order causes a unit to go full defensive, moving to escape attack or even leave the field entirely. This order gives the unit a +1 to defensive rolls until the next round, and if the order is given 3 times successfully (opposed by any unit that is directly attacking the unit), the Unit may flee the field entirely, being removed from the battle. These three attempts need not be successive. One fled though the unit may not re-engage in this battle.
The Ambush Order causes a unit to hide behind cover or conceal their intentions to lull the opposition into a false sense of security. To do this, the unit rolls its stealth to generate a difficulty number for any unit to discover them. Any unit that passes near them or interacts with them in the case of deception, checks awareness against that difficulty number. If the Ambushing unit succeeds, they gain the benefits of an Ambush as for individual combat on the unit they attack next. Ambushes in battle scale are not limited to one per battle, and can be used repeatedly, taking one order to set up the ambush, and another to spring it.
The Focus Order allows a unit to aid another unit in battle against a target. Every unit that focuses on a target gives one attacking unit a +1 to their attack. If two units of archers fire arrows to aid their own infantry against an enemy unit of infantry, the mechanical effect is the allied infantry gain a +2 to hit their opposition. Narratively, the archers bracket their foes with arrows, stifling movement and applying pressure while the infantry at the front press hard into their enemy ranks.
Gear and Guts, Improving Units
Every Noble House begins with 2 Units automatically. Narrators may award more units to reflect the roles of the Noble House in the story.
Units have the same skills as people do, and begin with two skills at +2, and the rest at +0. Those units that are mounted favor the Equestrian Skill. Close quarters fighters use Fighting, while long range fighters use Marksmanship. Some units of Engineers use Tactics as their ability to fire siege weapons. All units use Stealth to set up ambushes and Awareness to sus them out.
Just as purchasing a unit is a significant Wealth action, so too is training one. Training a unit improves one of its skills by +1. At the end of a battle, each surviving unit can choose one skill to improve by 1, representing veteran experience.
Units begin with appropriate armor, giving them 2 health levels. As a significant purchase, a Noble House can improve a unit’s armor, granting them 4 health levels.
If a commander wins a battle against a house with a greater wealth rating than their own, they may scavenge the field afterwards, claiming trophies equal to the number of defeated or destroyed units.
Siege Weapons
Weapons of war like catapults, battering rams, trebuchets, mangonels, and small groups of scorpions or ballista function narratively as a descriptive way that engineers do damage atop castle ramparts, or that units of warships do damage at range.
In most cases, a siege weapon is wrapped into a unit of engineers. Tactics are used to fire them, and they do the same single level of damage to an enemy unit attacked. Siege weapons are useful at breaching fortifications however. And without them, you’ll never see the inside of the Red Keep, Harrenhal, or any of the great Fortresss of the Realm.
Breaching Defenses
Using a siege weapon, such as a catapult or a dragon, you attack a vulnerable section of the enemies fortifications. Once you’ve done three levels of damage to that vulnerable location, you cause a breach, and allow the armies to engage one another.