Heroic actions in GURPS mass combat

What's less fun (and consistent) with the rules as written

In the rules as written, the odds of a character influencing the odds of a battle are set to a flat 5 (on 3d6). The modifiers are:

1. +risk level
2. +1 if one relevant skill is 15+
3. +1 if the character is a force commander
4. +1 if part of a fanatic or impetuous element
5. -1 if part of a support/logistic unit and in presence of fanatics/impetuous friendlies.

This is less fun because there is no sense of scale: same odds for a D-day invasion or for a 10 vs 10 men battle. This is odd, and left people around the table feeling a bit cold about the mass combat rules. 

The crux of the problem for us is that I often encourage people to color key checks with one "supporting check": some action that will positively influence the outcome and may be performed by someone else (or not). The fix below aims to replace the heroic action check for the more commonly used supporting check mechanism.

K26 - The Rising Hall

Taking a breather

Bain took a last look at the rabble across the unending well. Hundreds of ancestors, pulled from their tombs to jeer and gesticulate offensively at his dwarves. He headed back up to the East Gate Hall and ordered the rotation of the Mithril-Attack out of Khazad-dum. Bronze filled in, with strict order to avoid descending to the first deep except for a skeleton crew to keep a watch on the Hall of Trees.

Khazek left with Donarik and his Goldleaf rangers. Thordar reported to the hospital camp to have the wound in his thigh bandaged. The festering, unhealing gash in his cheek that was made by the Ghouls months ago started to tingle. The poison spread to his blood and made him very sick. He vomited for the whole of the following day and missed on the slow slug of the Silver-Attack up the Marzabul stairs.

K22 - War in the East

This session picks up at a cliffhanger in the campaign where the dwarves of the Emerald-Unit have finally entered Khazad-dum.

Strategic Situation

The invasion of Khazad-dum began about 1h ago.

Area 1 - Level 1 - East Gate Hall

One lot of the Mithril-Attack (49 dwarves) is tasked to remove the standing bodies of dwarven ancestors from the hall. The viceroy, Bain Stonetongue, is on site.
PC: Bain

Area 2 - Level 1 - Marzabul Way

Two lots of the Mithril-Attack (98 dwarves) have been caught by surprise by the orc hunters. The front unit, the Trapeze-lot, is shattered and in a rout while the second one, the Galley-lot, is shocked. A stream of orcs is pushing them back to the East Gate.
PC: Thordar, Khazek

Area 3 - Deep 1 - The bridge of Khazad-dum

Three lots of the Mithril-Attack are tasked to proceed to the site of Durin's bridge in the First deep. They are lead by Kiro Rockdigger.

Area 4 - Dimrill Dale - East Gate

The Silver-Attack is stacked and ready to barge in. At their head, Gror, son of Bain, Commander of the Emerald.
PC: Gror

Area 5 - Dimrill Dale - Bank of the Mirrormere

The Ardacer-Attack is tasked with camp upkeep and area security. Thordar found that the Ardacer is the weakest link in the command structure, which is not a surprise since it is a free company from the Iron Hills.

Area 6 - Dimrill Dale - Caradhras's foothills

The last Attack of the Emerald, the Bronze-Attack, is tasked with area security in the mountain areas (a terrain for which it is rated as competent).

Fractal combat resolution in GURPS

s to define, as a first draft, a way to smooth the transition from personal to mass combat such that a PC at the head of 7 dwarves will be presented with interesting challenges.

Key Principle

The cohesion of a unit is a matter of the tactical skill of a unit's direct commander. The abstraction here is that the higher the tactics skill of a commander is, the more predictable and sound the squad will behave. 

This is assuming that the commander has trained the squad. If not, a penalty should be applied on the tactics skill. 

Key Mechanics

Who does what?

Each turn, a passive tactics check is made to determine whether subordinates are going to act according to doctrine (In practice, moved by the commander). If the Tactics check is failed, the NPCs are going to act on impulses that are randomly determined (using a Roll20 table).

The maximum movement is limited by the tactics' MoS and the Adjusted Move of the subordinates.

K10 - The orc with the plaid sash

Prelude: What Khazek knows about Sarn Goriwig
The hunters from Thranduil hall reported to the Ark-lot, via Khazek Strongmoss, that the obsidian tower of Sarn Goriwig appeared to be occupied again. Khazek has heard of this tower from the Lore of Mirkwood. He knew that the tower was a large glass construction which was built by Morgoth in the first age. It seved as an outpost in Mirkwood and a gate to the underdeep. When the Necromancer was expelled from Mirkwood, the tower was deserted. However, the presence of "fresh" orcs suggested that Sarn Goriwig was occupied again by a new overlord. 

Act 10, Scene 1 - The ranger's raid over an orcs' forward depot.

The Attack-Lord of the Ardacer sent the Ark-Lot North to move to contact with the orc's main body. Gomar Flameaxe, Herd-lot of the Ark ordered his crack ranger guard to open the march. This guard was lead by an impetuous member of the Royal family called Khazek Strongmoss. Training dwarves to fight like elves was a difficult task, but he was getting better at it. Khazek proceeded North off the path, keeping his 13 rangers under close control.

K09-1 - The Battle of Green Creek

This story summarizes the action seen by the Gate-Lot in Mirkwood. Gate is tasked with the improvement of a ford over a small creek. It can be easily forded on foot, but crossing with the heavy carts is more difficult.

Battlefield preparation

Herd-lot Hillar Granitedigger didn't like the look of this: his lot was now lagging by at least 20km behind the main force, in a trackless forest. His force were bound to the old forest road (-1) or else contact would soon get lost. Instead of setting up a thorough screen (-2), he dispatched a guard along the Northward path that had been previously recon'd by the rangers and order all haste in upgrading the ford. The orcs, moving to contact soon figured out that the path was guarded and approached along the creek instead. The margin of success for the recon contest was +7, enough to achieve surprise, but not an ambush.

K09 - The Battle of Browek Bridge

Act 9, Scene 1 - Mopping up Browek Bridge

By 1500Z, the combined Ice and Slammer Lots poured through the defensive positions of the orcs. Drolf pressed on with the Ice-Herd into the ruins while the orcs opted for a Full Retreat option. The command post got a chance at a beheading operation on the orcs' leader. The setup was simple: catch/neutralize the leader in 6 seconds and grant +1 on the MASS combat resolution contest. Kalin, Herd-Lot of Ice ( +Alex Safatli ), Vadek, Sergent-Major of Ice ( +Arne Jamtgaard ) and Drolf ( +Justin Aquino ) , Attack-Lord of Ardacer had spotted the new  field-pomoted commander atop a ruin wall. They set on a charge through a downpour of arrows and a defensive line of spearorcs. To their right, one of the axdwarf suffered a major wound which weakened the PCs flank. Drolf, after a bit of encouragement, engaged on their left while Kalin and Vadek plowed towards the orc commander. 

Vadek eventually managed to strike the last standing orc in the defensive line. The orc, still standing but stunned got bypassed to be picked up by Kalin on Vadek's rear. Vadek slammed into the commander, who by then had started to recoil. He knocked him over, leaving him lying down and winded. By then, the orc archers had abandoned their high vantage points on the walls and were fleeing. Vadek, with cold determination, started to kick the commander until he croaked. As he applied himself to his craft, he beckoned the last remaining archer who decided to slip away while there was still an opening in the rear [ Intimidation-based influence check, MoS=+4, archer turned away ] [+]. Drolf, wanting the commander for an interrogation, dispatched his opponent with a great blow  [ Pretty cool end for this orc, he got slammed in the torso and sent flying due to a knockback. However, a tree was standing behind and the resulting slam damage on his head knocked him unconscious! ] [+]. Unfortunately, he arrived too late to save the commander. Both dwarves argued over the poor strategic value of killing this orcs before interrogating him [ Vadek has bloodlust, and no interest in strategic matters ] [+]. 

By then, the last of the orcs were scurrying into the woods to the West. Some 5 orcs were dead and about 10 left reeling from heavy wounds. The dwarves didn't pursue them as this would have caused a messy scatter [ Ooops, the GM forgot to check for spontaneous pursuit... ] [+]. By Kalin's estimate, about as many escaped. Drolf encouraged his dwarves to make grim displays with the corpses in an attempt to "dehumanize" the foes (de-orcanize?). Two dwarves had to be put on litters with major wounds (out of about 100 fighters) while 4 others had to be rallied after getting lost in the forest during the assault (and being mocked about it for the rest of the day).

Act 9, Scene 2 - Intelligence Gathering, Drolf Style

Option B for interrogation was not exactly commander-quality. Drolf picked the least dumb looking of the prisoner who still had teeth. He interrogated him forcefully and managed to pull a lot of good information [ Magin of Success of +8] [+].  The orcs called this location Browek Bridge and manned it as an advanced post against giant spider raids. He told Drolf the tale of 7m spiders coming in waves from the South to feed on his kin. He couldn't specify how many more orcs there were (he obviously was not a commander), but placed the number between 300 and 2000. He also specified that his kind were in the service of a terrible wizard living in a glass tower in Mirkwood mountains.

Drolf kept on using enhanced interrogation techniques until the orc could speak no more. He turned to the North and tried to spot the mountains through the trees. He couldn't, but earlier glimpses of them along the old forest road suggested a distance of 10-15 km. He looked south of Browek Bridge: the dwarves from the Ark-Lot had managed to ford in high water and had secured the southern approaches. A forest path to the south had been discovered on the Western bank. Drolf rallied his subordinate commanders for a quick command post chinwag.

Act 9, Scene 3 - Council of Dwarves and FRAGO* to the Ardacer 

Browek Bridge, just after the battle. Click to enlarge.

Drolf gathered the Lot-Herds and senior non-commissioned officers such as Vadek around him. He was in a bit of state of panic, but didn't let on any of it on the surface. There were spiders to the South and maybe up to 2000 orcs to the North. The Bridge would require 3 days of work to bring up to standards and two other sites to the East also required up to 12 hours of work. The Gate-Lot was stationed 25 km behind to make a quick ford over another of Mirkwood's murky streams.  Drolf wanted to reinforce the defensive positions, but Kalin advocated an emphasis on scouting. When asked for advice, Vadek proved rather unable to grasp the operational situation. He muttered grumpily only about what was in front of his eyes.

It was decided in the end that Ledge-Lot was to seek the Fire-Lot to the South, make contact and bring them back to Browek Bridge. Ark-Lot, the scouting unit including Khazek's rangers was to scout Northward until contact was made. Dispositions and numbers were to be reported back ASAP. The other Lots were to prepare defensive position on either side of the former bridge.

Act 9, Scene 4 - SITREP** at twillight

By nightfall, a small party of messengers from the Ark-Lot returned to the command post. Contact with orcs had not been made by the dwarves, but a report from the hunters of Thranduil Halls was passed along. The elves determined that the orcs living in the Mountains were new orcs, rather than orc spawned in the days of  the War of the Ring. This suggested that a new orcs spawning pit was active somewhere. They also reported that Sarn Goriwing, once an outpost of the Dark lord, appeared to be occupied again. The elves specified that the glass tower had been cleared when the Necromancer had been chased from Mirkwood. Its bridge was then taken down.

The messengers from the Ark then returned to the deep shadows of Mirkwood, on their way back to the Ark-Lot. Also, a dispatch from the Gate arrived late into the night to report on an engagement that occurred earlier in the evening. 

*FRAGO: Fragmentary orders

**SITREP : Situation report

K08 - Warmongering into Mirkwood

In this session, we're shifting the campaign to another group of characters. The Ardacer is a military Attack (a kind of unit containing some 350 dwarves). Their task is to open the way and improve the road to Khazad-dum such that the main force will be able to transit when they set out 30 days later. 

The Characters

There are four PCs in the Ardacer storyline. Drolf  ( +Justin Aquino ) is a wealthy dwarf from Iron Hill who has cultivated his personal legend as a hero of war for his whole life. His last feat was to convince the King of Erebor that he was the man to open the march to Khazad-dum at the head of dwarf mercenaries that he himself had bankrolled and outfitted. The first shoe has dropped for Drolf as he got his wish and is now  leading the Ardacer into Mirkwood. Kalin  ( +Alex Safatli ) is an erudite, master crafstman and staunch chauvinist. He has lived his life in the shadows of his brother Gimli and father Gloin. To appease the contingent from Aglarond, Thorin III has granted Kalin the Title of Lot-Herd of Ice: one of the better units of the Ardacer. Khazek Strongmoss is a PC that participated in the previous storyline. Khazek ( +Jason Woollard ) is a young and impetuous dwarf from Aglarond. His demeanor and incredible luck in matter of social interaction has made him a favourite of King Thorin III. As a result, he landed the gig of master trainer for a crack unit of open-sky dwarf rangers (Khazek, unlike Jason, is no teacher yet). Finally, Vadek is +Arne Jamtgaard secondary character in this storyline. Vadek is a straight-laced professional soldier at the head of the Axmens of the Ice Lot, this puts him in charge of 7 guards and overall some 49 dwarves. His main duty is to protect Drolf. Vadek is no politician, he has no sense of humor and functions strictly on a need to know basis.

Approximating GURPS Mass Combat Troop Strength (TS) for Dwarven units

In this post, I'm trying to approximate Troop Strength (TS) for dwarves for the purpose of Mass Combat. It should be 2 according to GURPS Mass Combat p.17, but yet again it should also be 2 for orcs if we follow these rules as written (maybe less due to training and equipment). Let's see: this post is both a thinking aloud post, and way to communicate to the campaign's player how dwarves and orcs compare, and a chance to get shot down by my thoughtful readers. The punchline is 6:1 assuming parity of number and an infinite and unrestricted terrain that +Peter V. Dell'Orto doesn't love at all (and neither do I, but that is material for another post).