How many bodyguards in a Battle situation?

[piersb]

I'm planning to start a GPC up soon in 5.2, and am trying to get my head around the Battle system before my players start to break it in interesting ways.

Most Battle System rolls are one-per-hour - find the opponent, make the checks, get the glory. But in the Special Events section for when a Unit Commander rolls a critical on their Battle skill, there's a chance for the PKs to engage with an enemy batallion commander or hero, plus their bodyguards. But I can't see any way to work out the number of bodyguards.

My gut feeling is to try one bodyguard per PK + the relevant battalion commander or hero, but I'd be interested in knowing what anyone else does in this situation. 

(I'm imagining this might also come into play if a PK spots their hated enemy on the battlefield and his PK knights want to help him out - or do you just say "Roll Valorous, everyone knows the correct way to do that is one-on-one against them?")

 

[Morien]

2 hours ago, piersb said:

My gut feeling is to try one bodyguard per PK + the relevant battalion commander or hero, but I'd be interested in knowing what anyone else does in this situation. 

Depends a bit how difficult I want to make it for the PKs. I sometimes do as you do in the above, and the first to knock their opponent out / off the horse gets to engage the primary target. Other times I might go for parity of numbers and the PKs can try to sort out amongst themselves who gets to engage the boss and who fight the bodyguards.

In the case of the personal enemy, I would do the latter: the PK who has the enemy fight against the enemy, while the other PKs engage the other members of the enemy's unit. He wouldn't be riding around the battlefield by his lonesome, after all.