Re: Legends: how tactics work (and battle question)

From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)

Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1993 02:06:50 +0000

dresnick@athena.mit.edu (David I Resnick):
>I'm contemplating attacking a town but am worried by the
>large reserve slots armed with bows/crossbows.

When I have a choice, which isn't always, I usually attack a
force with a single scout first.  If you've done this, you'll
know whether the archers have been given missile orders or
something useless, like charge or tacticalreserve.  If you're
not sure, assume the worst.  Remember that archers will fire
in the missile round, and the first morale check (to see whether
your initial attack broke them) doesn't take place till after
the charge round -- so if the reserves have missile orders, those
missiles will be fired.

>I'll have a decent force and a 20 tactics advantage.  I'll also kill
>about 30% of the total force in the magic round (ah, 60 points of
>firestorm will really do the job on those MAR 1 slots)..

The 20-point advantage will double your soldiers' AF and DF.  It will
also give your force an overall 20% morale bonus, which means that
you can lose 20% of your force without risk of retreating.  Are you
sure you mean to say that your only spell-caster is third-level?

>1) What exactly determines the morale drop of a slot and a force?

Percent of soldier CF killed or fled, pure and simple.

>2) At what morale% will a slot withdraw?
>3) At what morale% will a force rout (is force morale avg of slot morale??

The percent chance of a slot or force *not* withdrawing is equal to its
morale.  Suppose, for example, that you have two occupied slots.  Suppose
slot 1 has soldiers with a total CF of 400 points, a morale of 120%,
and a slot leader with a tactics rating of 10.  Suppose slot 4 has soldiers
with a total CF of 600 points, a morale of 105%, and a slot leader with
a tactics rating of 15, who is also the force commander.  Suppose that
at the end of the charge round you have taken 200 CF damage in slot 1
and 100 CF damage in slot 4.  Here's how it works:

a. Slot 1 has a modified morale of 120% + 10% = 130%, and has taken
	50% damage, so it has an 80% chance (130-50) of staying and
	a 20% chance of fleeing.

b. Slot 4 has a modified morale of 105% + 15% = 120%, and has taken
	16% damage, so it has no chance of breaking.

c. If slot 1 holds, the force as a whole has a modified morale of
	115% (100% base plus the force leader's tactics), and has
	taken 30% damage, so it has an effective morale of 85%
	(115-30), and would have a 15% chance of breaking.  BUT,
	a force only checks its morale if one of its slots has
	broken, so in this case the force will not flee.  (This is
	one risk of putting a suicide force of one soldier in a
	slot to absorb a round's damage from a strong enemy slot:
	You force a force morale check.)

d. If slot 1 *breaks*, then it is considered to have been destroyed
	for purposes of this computation, so you've taken an effective
	*50%* total damage (400CF from the slot that broke plus 100 CF
	from the one that didn't, out of 1000 total), and have a 35% chance
	(100 - (115-50)) of the rest of the force breaking.  Slots and
	forces that break are still subject to a round of rout damage, but
	you will still own the survivors next turn.

>4) How does slot attacks work once the front line starts to go away?
>For example, if I kill slot 3, does my slot 3 then attack slot 7?  Or
>does it have go fight slots 2/4 first?

I *think* that it will atack slot 7 first, but I'm not sure.

-----
Dani Zweig
dani@netcom.com

Should 'anal rententive' have a hyphen?
	-- unidentified passing t-shirt

References

Legends: how tactics work
dresnick@athena.mit.edu (David I Resnick)
Mon, 12 Apr 1993 12:43:09 +0000
Re: Legends: how tactics work
griffith@xcf.Berkeley.EDU (Jim "The Big Dweeb" Griffith)
Mon, 12 Apr 1993 18:26:01 +0000
Re: Legends: how tactics work (and battle question)
dresnick@athena.mit.edu (David I Resnick)
Mon, 12 Apr 1993 21:48:40 +0000

Referenced By

Legends: how tactics work
dresnick@athena.mit.edu (David I Resnick)
Mon, 12 Apr 1993 12:43:09 +0000
Re: Legends: how tactics work
griffith@xcf.Berkeley.EDU (Jim "The Big Dweeb" Griffith)
Mon, 12 Apr 1993 18:26:01 +0000
Re: Legends: how tactics work (and battle question)
dresnick@athena.mit.edu (David I Resnick)
Mon, 12 Apr 1993 21:48:40 +0000