My Experience Running the Battle of the Queens

[Arcadiagt5]

OK, I have now run this for my group with the Hippogriffs and it went OK...ish.

Background:

Warnings: spoilers ahead & I was using the sequence of events from this post: 

I was informed by this discussion, and thank you again to those who participated in it:

General Mechanics:

Comments on the various suggestions, or additional suggestions, are welcome. 

I kinda-sorta adapted the Pendragon battle system which, as I think I've noted previously, I've never been entirely comfortable with. I basically used Battle rolls as transitive augments. By which I mean the results of Queen Leika's roll would augment the unit commanders, but the followers rolls would only be augmented by their unit commander's roll. 

So if Queen Leika fails (e.g. in the round when Prince Kallyr) is killed, the PC unit commander got a -45% penalty to their unit commander roll. However if they then manage a special under that penalty (which happened, it was impressive 😃), their followers are at +30%. The penalties (or bonuses) from Queen Leika don't carry through. 

One suggestion made by my players afterwards was that a unit commander roll should also be the Unit Commander's follower roll as it would streamline the flow somewhat. 

I also think I need to reassess the battle results table on p176 further. I've already adjusted failures/fumbles to 2x or 4x 1D6 wounds (ignoring armour) instead of a single 2 or 4 D6 wound as the latter is far too easily lethal without player agency. But having players roll on that table 5 or 6 times a day adds up to a lot of unblockable damage.

In view of the damage mounting up, and the idea that each "round" represented an hour of fighting, I was allowing each adventurer 3 -4 attempts to cast healing magic after each round. At least a couple ended up finishing the day with a single magic point, and draining whatever POW storage crystals they had. So for future major battles I may need to look at either reducing the automatic damage amounts (D3/D6/2x1D6), or providing some sort of saving mechanism, e.g. roll to parry each, success halves, special quarters, critical blocks. 

Breaking out of the Battle rounds into full melee combat for special events (e.g. the Assassins) seemed to work well enough, but shouldn't be something that happens every round. 

Mapping out aerial combat with Hippogriffs and Wyverns is something I need to think about more. We kinda-sorta approximated it but I think I can do better. 

Having players in different places/units was also awkward in terms of managing game time - the Babeester Gor initiate doesn't have a hippogriff so she was on the ground commanding the Apple Lane militia whilst the Thane and the other two hippogriff riders were aloft. 

The Hippogriffs

In terms of handling the hippogriffs, the three of them were a skirmishing unit dropping caltrops for the first couple of rounds until they saw the assassins. I basically treated these early rounds as not really different to other battle rounds. Once the assassins happened, I gave adventurers Scan rolls to spot it. The Apple Lane militia commander on the ground failed, the hippogriff riders succeeded and landed to deal with the assassins they saw. 

Now, I deliberately scaled that fight to the lower end because it is in the middle of a larger, draining, battle. So even though it was relatively straightforward (and quick) on the face of it, it did drain adventurer resources for the remainder of the day quite considerably. 

From there, the hippogriff riders decided that their best bet was to jump into the role of rapid messengers to assist Queen Leika in assuming command. Had one of them rolled well enough at this point, I would have moved Queen Leika's countercharge up a round (thus shortening the battle). Alas he didn't quite make it, and the two others rolled badly enough that I ruled that they had been intercepted by hostile wyvern riders (one each as they were scattered). 

Overall, I think it went well enough, and I'll post a bit of a story write-up in the comments. It ran over two sessions. 

[Arcadiagt5]

So, here's a copy/paste of the Battle write-ups from Roll20:

After some planning and consultations with the Colymar commanders, not to mention with their faithful steeds, Terris, Minan, and Vinmelynn took to the air above the battle as scouts and skirmishers, and did so with some success although drawing plenty of arrow fire from the ground in return for their annoying habit of dropping caltrops. 

Meanwhile Starantha hoisted her battle axe and large shield to take command of the Apple Lane militia in Terris' stead, and has been performing remarkably well in that role. Evidently Starantha has remembered her drills in the Temple Guard for formation fighting quite well. 

Early in the fight, our heroes were impressed by a Storm Voice hurling Thunderstones at nearby Lunars. Alas, an opportunity to impress that Storm Voice did not really present itself. 

The clash continued for a while before our airborne adventurers spotted Lunar Assassins being teleported in to attack Kallyr Starbrow. They managed to intercept and defeat one such group, to great acclaim after the battle, but too many other groups got through and succeeded in killing the already gravely wounded Prince of Sartar. Hawkbeak and Chisel Wing discovered the hard way that chewing on Large Shields can sometimes be counterproductive. 

After offsetting the worst of the damage to Hawkbeak and Chisel Wing, Terris raced off on Snow to warn Queen Leika Blackspear of the need to take command. His message was received, if perhaps not in as timely a manner as needed, and the mounted adventurers are now taking messages from Queen Leika to other commanders. 

Meanwhile Starantha was busy extricating Terris' badly wounded militia from the swirling battle and managed to do so in surprisingly good order. 

Terris successfully delivered his messages, but Vinmelynn and Minan were intercepted by lone wyvern riders and must now fight to get their messages through. 

In a mighty display of flight Terris and Snow came first to the rescue of Vinmelynn and then Minan, enabling them to escape and deliver their messages. 

From there they operated in pairs so as not to fall too heavily prey to the marauding Wyvern Riders (of which there were still a few about). This nevertheless gave them an excellent view of Queen Leika's countercharge, which firmed their resolve to never be on her bad side. 

Meanwhile Starantha was successfully leading Terris' battered, bruised, and bleeding militia out of the battle towards rest and recovery. It was clearly due to her leadership that none died, and Starantha may have trouble paying for her drinks in the Tin Inn for a while. 

With the effective incapacitation of Terris' militia until they heal, there was no real opportunity for the adventurers to participate in the pursuit the next day, so they rested as best they could before joining the Colymar's march to Boldhome with Prince Kallyr's body. 

[Grievous]

As an aside, with the very real possibility of aerial opponents appearing in Gloranthan battles, I guess it would make sense for organized armies to keep unengaged troops behind the lines ready to deal with them. These could run the gamut and would of course depend on the army's available resources, but anything from specialized archers, "siege" weapons, to specialized magicians (if the army has these, they're gonna be behind the lines). Not sure Martin's Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass dealt with this, as I am one of those fools who's waiting for PoD options on these things. This isn't going to be a thing that should surprise experienced generals in the setting. Of course, a hill tribe militia is probably going to be ill-equipped for these, unless they have to have a few heroes at hand...

[Arcadiagt5]

On 12/18/2020 at 8:09 PM, Grievous said:

As an aside, with the very real possibility of aerial opponents appearing in Gloranthan battles, I guess it would make sense for organized armies to keep unengaged troops behind the lines ready to deal with them. These could run the gamut and would of course depend on the army's available resources, but anything from specialized archers, "siege" weapons, to specialized magicians (if the army has these, they're gonna be behind the lines). Not sure Martin's Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass dealt with this, as I am one of those fools who's waiting for PoD options on these things. This isn't going to be a thing that should surprise experienced generals in the setting. Of course, a hill tribe militia is probably going to be ill-equipped for these, unless they have to have a few heroes at hand...

Some interesting thoughts there, and things I'll have to think about should I be running the battle again under similar circumstances.