Megagame Makers

The following paragraphs describe combat resolution for unit against unit combat in tactical turns. Siege engine deployment uses more or less the same rules. Raid resolution (during strategic turns) on the other hand has an entirely different resolution mechanism.

All units have multiple steps and therefore can take a specific number of hits. When all steps of a unit are lost, the unit is eliminated and removed from play. As long as a unit still has steps, it will fight at full strength. Steps cannot be recovered unless by magic.

The combat system has the following phases:

• Ranged phase (in parallel):
  • Ranged weapons (weapons that launch a projectile, such as bows and wands).
• Melee phase (in parallel):
  • Attack
  • Defend

All combat resolution with weapons (ranged, melee attack and melee defend) are based on a single modified D6 die role. Thus, the result of this die role is based on:

• Unit base score
• Modifier table
• The actual D6 role

To give the combat result, all three are added.

The result of the role determines the number of hits taken by the attacked unit:

• on a 14 or higher: 3 hits
• on a 10 or higher: 2 hits
• on a 6 or higher: 1 hit

NOTE:

1. The modifier table is not based on the specific attacked or attacking unit.
2. The hits are not cumulative (a role of 15 is 3 hits not 3+2+1=6 hits).
3. If both units want to attack both will throw on the attack table. If both units defend nothing will happen.
4. For every unit a die is cast. Hits are taken evenly by the units (Defender choice).
5. There is a stacking limit of 8 units per side in open combat and 4 units per side for a combat to storm the wall or on top of the wall.
6. When a raiding unit is attached to a combat unit, it gives a +1 bonus, both in defense as in offense.

Each unit in the game is represented by a counter that looks like:

The above unit is a typical example of an Urr Wall militia unit. The background color of each counter indicates the affiliation of the counter. Special units that are used for raids or that use magic in combat have stars for their ranged and melee scores.

A unit consisting of humans, elves or undead typically has 100 men. A Dwarven/Gnomish unit usually counts 70 men to offset the fact that they are hardier and stronger then most men. Moreover Dwarvish/Gnomish units always have good weapons and armour.

The following table gives an idea of the typical units in units against units combat:

Note:

• The above table gives typical values: actual values may differ.
• 1D,2D: Use Defense table only.
• 3A: Use Attack table only.
• We assume that archers will always have some kind of dagger to defend themselves in close combat but will not engage in close combat.
• Undead units can only be stacked with Halflings, Kobolds, Ogres and other Undead units. If the Grand Necromancer dies, all undead immediately go berserk and spend the rest of the game attacking the nearest sentient lifeforms around.

All Dwarven units and the baggage train of the invaders can serve as an Engineer Corps. It takes an Engineer Corps 1 strategic turn to do any project. A Dwarven unit can take only 1 project at a time, the Prince of Darkness's baggage train can do up to 2 simultaneously. A typical project may be one of the following actions:

• Build a palisade & ditch around something, including gates and a couple of watchtowers, for example to surround an army camp. We assume that pitching tents and digging latrines (and similar stuff) is something any soldier can do. A palisade gives a +2 defense bonus, that falls to +1 automatically after a strategic turn of siege warfare.
• Repair a part of a wall, restoring 1 step. This can be done repeatedly to fully restore a wall. It can only be done if the engineers can work on both sides of the wall without being interrupted, for instance by an invading army.
• Build a gigantic hollow wooden horse or rabbit. Wheels under it are optional. Large enough to hold a raiding party.
• Build a pontoon bridge. Indicate it on the map. An army can cross the river on this point from now on. Alternatively, build a bunch of rafts. That allows an army to cross a river only once. However, you can pick the precise point later. These are easily destroyed. Crossing takes long enough for entire units that it must be done as part of a strategic turn.
• Immediate flood repair. This might be needed if a spot where people live is inundated with water or lava. If flooding occurs, an engineers corps has to be freed up to do this task, or the place will turn uninhabitable for a long time.
• Build a crane large enough to lift an ambassador, a raiding party, or some freight over the city wall. This wouldn't work for the invaders, way to Obvious, way to vulnerable and way to exposed, but Urr might have use for such a contraption.
• Dig a temporary tunnel, about a chain (20 m.) long, large enough for a raiding party to go through. Not good enough to circumvent the walls of Urr. Also not through solid stone.
• A Siege Tower. This is the big one. Week 1, you have to build a set of massive shields on wheels. Those are there to protect the normal troops that are going to build the ramp. Week 2-4, 2 ordinary units are building up a ramp to the city wall, each taking 1 ranged attack each week. During this period the actual siege tower is build, a 1 week project for 1 engineers corps. Week 5, the actual assault. Stacking limit inside the tower is 2. 1 unit can only do ranged attacks and the other only close combat. The advantage of all this? It neutralizes all wall strength modifiers for the units in the tower.

Not all weapons and not all armour are of the same quality.

Good weapons give a +1 attack modifier. Good armour worn by a defending unit gives an additional step. Good melee weapons and good armour can be bought from the Redbeards and from the Longbeards. Excellent weapons even give a +2 attack modifier while excellent armour worn by a defending unit gives two extra steps. The secret of crafting excellent weapons and armour is only known by the Longbeards. Whether they are willing to sell excellent melee weapons and excellent armour, must be negotiated.

These additional weapon and armour modifiers will be indicated by special +1 and +2 markers.

The Dwarven/Gnomish units always wear good armour and have good weapons. This has already been added to their base scores and steps. This is to reflect the fact that Dwarven/Gnomish units count only 70 warriors, while human units typically have 100 men. The Elves are known to have excellent bows. This has already been added to their ranging base score.

Walls effect the resolution of melee and ranged combat. Urr has an outer wall and an inner wall. The outer wall has 8 sections (See city map), while the inner wall has 4 sections. As the inner wall was built earlier (by some centuries), it encompasses the actual citadel of the city and is a bit weaker than the outer wall. For both the inner and the outer wall separate boxes are on the map indicating their current strength.

The outer wall

The inner wall

Walls can be damaged by:

• Trebuchets
• Dragons
• Sapping
• The Undead Colossus

Trebuchet bombardment, dragons and the Colossus hammering at a wall section are resolved in the same way as unit against unit combat. A trebuchet, dragon and the Colossus have a certain base score. Raids against a trebuchet can result in some damage to a trebuchet and may result in a modifier for the trebuchet. If this happened, the map umpire will know.

Like for a normal combat, a D6 die roll is cast to which modifier and base score are added, resulting in a combat result. Since a stone typically hammers at one particular section in the wall, any total result of 3 or higher gives a wall section hit. This hit is then taken by crossing it off on the appropriate wall section box. Wall sections must be reduced from top to bottom, so evenly from higher strength level to lower. Sapping works completely differently and is discussed elsewhere.

A strength level of 1 for a wall can no longer be reduced. A wall of strength 1 indicates that there are wide enough holes in the wall that will allow a unit to pass through them (but only one per combat round) but some/most parts of it are still standing. There will also be a lot of debris in these holes. Units will have to walk carefully through these holes and and they will also be vulnerable while walking through them.

We have a wall section which is damaged to level two. On the wall we have a defending Wall militia unit and a normal melee unit. This section is attacked by three melee units and an archer unit. They will fight for three combat rounds.

The wall defense unit with a ranged score of 2 and a wall modifier of 2 throws a 1. The result is a 5, so no hit. The attacking archer shoots with a ranged score of 4 and a wall modifier of -2 and throws a 4. The result is a 6, so one hit.

The wall defense unit will defend with a score of 2 and a wall modifier of 2 and throws a 5. The result is a 9 so one hit. The defending melee unit will defend with a score of 4 and a wall modifier of 2 and throws a 6. The result is a 12, so two hits.

The three melee units of the dark prince have a score of 4 with a wall modifier of -2. The results:

• Die role 1: Result 3: no hit
• Die role 6: Result 8: one hit
• Die role 4: Result 6: one hit

Urr troops have taken 3 hits and the prince of darknice 2

The results of three rounds of combat in a table.

In the above table, you should read the numbers in the H column as remaining steps, R as the modifier + die roll and R as final result/afflicted hits. For instance: the unit M2 threw a 4 in the last round and did one hit damage. With a role of 3 or lower no damage would have been done and the defender would have survived the attack, albeit with only one melee unit on its last feet.

Instead of shooting at the wall, trebuchets can also be used to vault stuff over the wall. Doing this also initiates a Tactical Turn. It works best if done as part of a broader attack.

• Zombie units. This damages them leaving them with only 3 steps, but they can still cause quite a bit of panic this way. 1 trebuchet can send 1 unit into Urr in 1 trebuchet phase. Afterwards the tactical turn starts.
• Balls of pitch and hair can be set on fire and hurled across the wall, setting fire to part of Urr. These fires will be in the outer parts of Urr, not the central part of the city. Making the ammo for 1 of these bombardments costs 1 food token, irrespective of the number of trebuchets that participate. 1 trebuchet can set 1 fire in Urr during 1 trebuchet phase. Afterwards the tactical turn starts. Each fire will destroy 1 section of the city, unless it is effectively fought. Each unfought fire will destroy 5% of the current food token and Gold token supply of Urr. It takes 2 units the entire tactical turn to douse a fire. This still means that a handful of buildings sustain serious fire damage. The right magic might provide better and swifter result.