Mass Unit Battles

Yesterday I reworked a page on the wiki, Block Hex, which discusses the use of 145 yard wide hexes to map towns and cities, as well as tactical battle-maps. This is a subject not particularly interesting to a great many "story-based" players, who don't want their character's lives judged by anything as irksome as "randomness" or "total disregard for one's ego"... but for others, there remains the concept that seeks to embrace war and all it's indifference, collateral damage and, well, actual significance, as opposed to the personality needs of a player's blessed character.

Of course, no combat system I've encountered has ever achieved this.  I've read some that claimed to do so, but since D&D players tend to put the individual on a pedestal, it's hard to capture that sense created with wargame set-ups from Avalon Hill in the 1970s, when whole armies evaporated on hillsides like so many mook kobalds before a 17th level fighter lord.  Back when fighters got one attack per level against creatures with less than 1 full hit die.  Remember those days?

The trick as I see it, the solution for which I've not devised either, is to ignore the D&D combat system altogether when resolving large unit combats.  Don't try to represent it exactly.  A combat system, whether its RISK, Axis and Allies or Panzer Leader, is merely a way to resolve moments of strategy and tactics in a believable, methodical way that rewards thinking despite randomness, thus allowing players with experience and foresight to succeed repeatedly against those who think "tactics" boils down to getting there first with the greatest number.  I had a lot of experience in those hex-and-counter games in the 70s, before I'd heard of D&D.  No one needed to convince us that winning demanded a plan of action, not reliance on die rolls.

Of course, nearly everyone who plays D&D right now — particularly those who despise tactical combat approaches — are all in with the "stand-face-to-face-and-roll-dice-til-someone's-points-run-out" method.  The game has been redesigned to death to achieve this end result, which is described, universally, as boring.

But at least no one always wins.

Back in '77-'78, around the time I was in grade 9, we had a fellow who would not miss a session.  His name was Todd.  I wouldn't exactly say he was "accepted;" I remember quite a few contemptuous arguments about Todd when he wasn't present.  This was because when it came time to choose teams, Todd was going to be on either theirs or ours; if ours, we were going to lose in the end; if theirs, we were going to win.

As a general, one has to imagine Daniel Edgar Sickles, who incompetently led his men on the second day of Gettysburg from a strongly defensive position into a spectacular slaughterfest where whole companies were effaced from the planet, for... reasons.  This thankfully ended his military career.  Todd was Sickles right down to the ground.  For Todd, the best way to win a battle against hulled down tanks in forest hexes with infantry was to charge directly across a wide open field, "surprising them," as Todd would have put it.  This would encourage the others to try and explain just why this was stupid and how he might learn from the experience, but none of that went with Todd.  He wasn't there to learn how to play, dammit.  He was there to play.

Modern D&D has made it easier to be Todd because "being Todd" is how the rules work now.

But I digress.  A large-unit tactical game ought not to do this.  There ought to be features that make it matter whether or not I order the units across that creek bed or through this forest, in a relatively predictable, progressively experience-giving manner, despite the necessary die roll.  Numerous war games of that period had this... and this, I remind the reader, is the headspace and culture that embraced D&D and encouraged it's early growth.

Because, like the games we knew, it was tactical.  And we liked that.

But then, we got older, got out of school, had families, got to busy working... and a bunch of kids who were raised on non-tactical video games ruined everything.

I'm not bitter.

I don't know what that tactical large-scale block-hex game would be.  If I stumble across it in the cobwebby parts of my brain where I keep the rules of Car Wars stuffed in the bottom drawer of an unused bureau, I'll let you know.

If we were to install levelled characters into a larger "unit" that moved upon the battlefield, those levels and their skills would have to be accounted for in some manner.  The presence of magic, of course, is the stumbling block.  How do we rate a high level mage within a host of 400, attacking another host of the same size, acknowledging that the mage (at least in AD&D) has limited spell-use over time — and thus, over time, matter less and less in terms of that unit's overall power?

In my game experience, against a large force, running a mass combat precisely how a small combat is run, an 11th level mage runs out of any real significant power in about 20-25 rounds.  By then, most of their big spells are spent, leaving them the tactical equivalent of a third or forth level caster, who might still sting a little but has done what they can to swing the tide of battle.

I don't have an answer for that, either, but we must acknowledge that in larger hex tactical battles, time is far more relevant than it is in a standard D&D fight.  Distance between points of reference requires that.  Time likewise diminishes the strength of OD&D casters fairly quickly... so that, in the end, it's still the waves and waves of fighting combatants that matters.

The only question I can solve is that of "survival."

Let us say we have two mass units of 400 souls each, filled with levels and non-levels, especially the latter.  The fight and both sides experience 25% casualties.  That's not deaths, that's just the reduction of combatants to a point where they can no longer engage.  Naturally, we wonder just exactly who this includes... and the temptation is to nitpick our way through the process of specifically rating the loss of exactly this many soldiers and levels down to the last individual.  A mistake, of course.  We shouldn't care.  The overall unit is re-rated and that's all we need do.  Unit Red Vanguard diminishes from a power of 20 to a power of 15.

BUT... suppose there are leveled players of the party in there?  Are they dead?  We've taken away their right to roll their d20s to hit by shoving them into a mass of others and saying, "Oh no, you're overall contribution is insignificant.  You can roll for the Red Vanguard mass as a whole, but not for yourself individually."

Just listen to the storygamers moan...

But do they survive?  Does the player's 4th level ranger survive?  Or is the ranger part of the general casuality pile, and what state are they in?  Unconscious?  Dead?  Anxious players want to know.

Well, if it's a 25% loss, then we can make that a die number to be rolled and anyone caught in that segment might be either unconscious or dead.  Then, because levelled persons are logically resilient, and higher levels more so, we can assign a base number for whether or not the character has flat out died when the dust has cleared.

Funny how that seems more arbitrary that a dragon unleashing a breath weapon.  Ah well.

We could say, all leveled persons within the casualty pile have a base 50% chance of survival.  This can then be augmented by F1 +50% = unconscious survival, where "F" stands for Fibonacci and the subordinate number equals both the number in the Fibonacci sequence and the character's level.  F1 = 1, F2 = 1, F3 = 2, F4 = 3, F5 = 5, F6 = 8, F7 = 13, F8 = 21, F9 = 34, F10 = 55.  Therefore, a 9th level character would have a 50+(34/2) = 84% chance of being unconscious/wounded and a 16% chance of being dead; while a 10th level would automatically survive.  Or we could impose a necessary 1% to 5% chance of failure, regardless of level, so that there'd always be some chance of death, depending on how hard we wanted to go at this.

Naturally, the manner in which these numbers are assigned, or what the base chance is, can all be debated.  There's no necessary right answer until the system is gametested.

This is what I've got on this subject.  Thank you.

Weird Mass-Combat Rules Proposal

Had a cute idea a little while ago that should be popular with the sort that like dropping dice from a height on a diagram that produces a random result based on where the die actually lands (regardless of the die's result).  I can't remember what that's called - I'm sure the reader has seen it.

This is a mass combat resolution scheme - so we should all know right off that it's silly and fun and shouldn't be taken too seriously.  It might, however, actually work; I have done zero testing, however.  That should not be any reason not to scratch out the idea in words, nyet?

Fine.  Here is what we will need.  A number of dice equal in number to the total number of battle figures that can fit inside a 45-foot diameter hex, times two.  Well, we can use any hex size we want, but since my combat system is based on 5-foot hexes, a 45-foot diameter makes a nice hex circle that will fit 61 well-spaced combatants - an approximate company-sized unit.  Plus most long-time players can mass around 122 total dice.

Yes, 122 because we will need dice for both sides.  There are some fun little details in which dice we pick, but for the moment let's just assume both sides have piled up a bunch of dice that accommodate the number of combatants.

We will need two buckets and an empty table.  Flat-sided buckets are better than round and if at all possible, the sort used for digging in sand (or for office supplies) is better than something you'd use to clean your kitchen floor.  The best sort of buckets are six inches in diameter - these can be gotten cheap from most box stores.

Fill the buckets with the dice.  Take opposite sides of the table.  Now pour your dice onto the table in the direction of your opponent, at the same time.  That's very important.  I recommend that the square edges of the buckets be rested on the table (after a good shake) and that the bucket edge NOT be lifted from the table as the pouring is done (it can be called a mis-battle, like a mis-trial, if someone breaks the rule or there could be a -1 modifier placed on every die rolled by that opponent).

At this point, obviously, it is a good idea to be able to tell whose dice are whose, based on color!  So you want all green and blue dice versus all white and black dice, if possible - the greater the differentiation, the better.

If my imagination sees this right, the temptation to pour your dice out too quickly will cause them to scatter on the table, spreading out your forces and making them more vulnerable when the combat is resolved (getting to that).  On the other hand, pouring them out too slowly will result in too many of the combatants being rendered "behind the lines" and useless to you.  What's wanted is a nice, even line that gets as many combatants into the resolution as possible without there being too many gaps.

Any dice rolled off the table are considered either a) deserters; b) captured by the enemy; or c) routed and available to the opponent for later rolls.

Okay, we should have two masses of dice on the table, having bounced against one another to varying degrees.

Now, if we have the means, we can pick individual dice to apply to specific types of combatants.  We can d6 for pressed recruits, d8 for combat-trained men-at-arms, d12 for levels and d20 for spellcasters (we can also apply adjustments for certain colors, such as saying all the orange d12s on the board are +2 while all the green d12s are read as is, comparing that to levels).  This gives us a nice balance for facing different kinds of trained troops against one another and for comparing one race to another (all the dice from the dwarves are +1, for instance).

Remove all dice that are more than 1 or 2 inches from opponent dice (I say one or two because I haven't tried this, so perhaps 1 inch leaves too few combatants or perhaps 2 inches leaves too many).  This should hopefully leave a line of combatants that have either 'damaged' or 'killed' the other - it depends on how gritty we want our paper work.  We can either resolve the battle to give damage to a long list of numbers we have that make up the companies or we can simply say the result eliminates combatants permanently.

Start with the highest dice on the table; each high die 'kills' an enemy die that the player chooses to kill (the whole battle must be observed carefully, because a good die might potentially kill two or three enemy of different ranks/power or in slightly different positions!  Picking the wrong die might result in losing one of your own combatants from the high die you've left in the enemy's hands.

If two dice match in size, then either side may declare a 'duel,' taking both high dice out of the competition (whether or not the other side agrees to the duel).  On the other hand, both opponents with the high matching dice may opt to agree to take out an enemy each, if that seems to suit them both better.

Conversely, if we prefer the damage variant (rolling damage as it's indicated by the dice) then duels both do damage and multiple higher rolls could all do damage to an adjacent lower roll (potentially having four recruits beating a leveled character hard-core.

Steadily, as we resolve the 'combats,' both the high dice and their 'hits' (plus any duels) should be removed from the table until there are no remaining matches (none are close enough to 'engage').  In all cases, the number of remaining combatants should be noted in number and rank - since both will represent a part of the larger battle.  Suppose we are trying to resolve this in D&D:

Picture Carpenter, Edith, Sir Conrad and Fletcher, et al,
each leading a party of 40-60 combatants. 

Breaks between combat would represent both sides getting tired after a set amount of time, agreeing to retreat momentarily before charging again.  We might employ morale rules to see if one side has to retreat a whole hex.  And if we have the dice, we can have three- or four-way attacks with dice pouring from every side of the table.  Or we can keep with usual D&D and presume each unit faces each opponent one at a time.  Of course, a beleaguered unit fighting multiple fresh units would roll less and less dice each time - though a set of freaky rolls coupled with a higher percentage of d8s or d10s might prevail against a lot of d6s.

The way in which the rolls were performed physically by the players could make a big difference, too, since a scattered roll would mean most combatants would 'stand alone' against three or four tightly rolled dice while there might be many dice that skip over and into the midst of the enemy or bounce right off the table.

Anyway, this is about 60 minutes of thought put towards the idea.  I think it might be fun and it might actually work.

Time in Mass Combat

As a second post on mass combat, I'd like to talk about time.

Over the years, I have settled on 12 seconds as the appropriate time for a combat round to last.  In the beginning of my experience, I adopted the one-minute round with everyone else, though in the early 1980s it was a favorite mocking conversation to talk about how much could be done in the time it took to remove 1 hp from a goblin.  Eventually I had trouble with movement vs. one-minute rounds and I tried adjusting my combat so that it ran in segments rather than rounds.

For those not familiar with AD&D, there were ten segments to a round.  The 'weapon speed' for individual weapons had been carefully broken down in the player's handbook: daggers had a 'speed factor' of 2 segments, halberds had an SF of 9, morning stars 7, long swords 5, short swords 3 and so on.  For a year (about '84), I tried a system where the time it took to fight with a weapon was the speed factor plus 10, so that a dagger could be used in attack every 12 segments, a footman's mace every 17 segments and a war-hammer every 14 segments, along with other weapons of varying speeds.  Quickly players moved over to faster weapons and the two-handed sword disappeared (even though I was still using special damage against large creatures in those days).  Being able to attack 8 times in the space of 100 segments with a dagger was vastly superior to attacking 5 times with a two-handed sword.

But, it really didn't work.  The actual time element hadn't actually changed and so trying to explain what was going on with all that time was becoming more and more problematic - particularly when I made the decision to slow spellcasters down (see the last post) in order to reduce their power.

So I adjusted my 'rounds' to 6-seconds, the length of the old segment, so that spells that took '4 segments' to cast in the players' handbook became 4 rounds to cast.  This was eventually adjusted too, so that now I use a system where 1st and 2nd level spells take 1 round to cast and part of 1 round to discharge; 3rd and 4th level spells take 2 rounds to cast, 5th and 6th level spells take 3 rounds to cast and so on.  Everything discharges at the same speed.  There are exceptions, such as the 24 hours for find familiar or the gunshot effect of command, where casting and discharge happen simultaneously in the time it takes to speak one word.  Command is a weak spell, however, so I have no problem with it.  As well, I have certain spells where the discharge is automatic because it affects the spellcaster personally, such as sanctuary, shield, shocking grasp, etcetera - the caster does not need to spend movement discharging the shocking grasp, but time must be spent trying to touch the opponent . . . but this is all unimportant right now.

Six seconds was too short, however, particularly as I adopted action points into my campaign from 3rd Edition (I thought them a good idea).  Twelve seconds offered a more refined speed for events, so that a single 'action point' (AP) was anything that required 2.4 seconds to perform (5 AP per round).

Using this scale, however, when we measure the 29 rounds it took to bring the melee in the previous set of posts to the point where I stopped recording the battle, we find that all of that takes only 5.8 minutes.

Ouch.

I don't think that the solution is to return to one-minute rounds.  Granted, 29 minutes seems more reasonable for a mass battle (still pretty fast, though), but it also means that when the mage blinks out of existence, that mage is gone for a full minute of time.  It means it takes the mastodon three minutes to cover a distance of 70 feet once it chooses to flee, smashing through the 15 ft. high palisade wall that surrounds the fort.  The mastodon weighs six tons.  I made the time it took to smash the wall equal an extra 12 seconds; traditional AD&D would suggest it takes the mastodon a full two minutes to smash that wall.  That is as ridiculous as 5.8 minutes of total time for the combat.

No, no, no, the solution is to force the combatants to do what they actually do in real life:  hesitate.  At several points in the combat I had the enemy hesitate (or even fail to do the logical thing and rush across the courtyard to shore up a battle), but I did not require the party to follow that principle.  That's a way of giving the party an edge.

But rule ideas I proposed earlier this year could massively slow down a combat like this.  Where both sides of the north gate battle or the west breech battle are steadily losing strength and combat effectiveness, it more or less forces Falyn - who fights virtually every round of the entire combat, when not held - to fall back to avoid passing out from heat stroke.  If the reduction in character abilities across the total force is deep and hurtful enough, eventually the entire force will withdraw out of missile range, to cool down and regroup.  Even if they're winning!  That is the thing about biology - it doesn't care how well the battle is going.

That is only the first consideration, however.  At the time of this battle, I was not playing with the recently proposed biological unit rules that I've lately adopted.  Those rules give another 4 hit points to every goblin and every glaiver all over the field, so that instead of these dying upon hitting zero, as I was doing in 2010, more than half of them would actually be alive and well.  This should result in many of the glaivers who are standing at the back and doing nothing except waiting to get into battle to change their minds in order to walk or carry their still-alive companions off the field.  This is going to produce a different sort of attrition on both sides, one that every real-life commander of a military unit accounts for and accepts as proper behavior from the combatants.  The commander who opposed such action would undoubtedly get 'accidentally' shot in short order.

So as that attrition is happening, simultaneous to the loss of statistical power, the players would have to retreat in light of the fact that while they might be inclined to stay, staying may not be an option.  Once again, by forcing the battle lines to pull back, time is spent, thus more closely reflecting the duration of a battle without changing the time it takes to move or swing a weapon.  We often fail to recognize that most battles that are fought throughout a day are not fought continuously as they are in role-playing.  People take breaks.  Both sides, in fact, acknowledge the need for these breaks and are willing to let a side retreat - simply because they are too exhausted to follow.

Finally, in the mass combat above, I was not applying any meaningful morale system to the events.  Occasionally, for something profound, I would require a morale check (for the druid's animals, for instance, after a fireball) - but I did not employ them unilaterally.

In the fall, however, I began trying to employ a morale check for NPCs, in order to affect the way that followers of the party reacted to combat differently from their own henchmen.  Mostly, it has been an attempt to force parties not to rely upon hirelings to show 100% loyalty in combat.  It has worked, more or less.  Parties still have hirelings, but they are much more conscious of trying to boost the hireling's overall morale while at the same time protecting them, since they know that the hirelings will fold in actual combat if left to themselves.

So far, the morale system is still in its learning stages; there are a number of details that haven't been memorized by the players or even by myself, so that looking up the linked page above has been a chore.  Eventually, however, the rules will stick; they've already proven themselves in terms of increasing the tension and tactical considerations in battle.

If this morale system above is applied to a mass combat, this too will cause whole units to collapse and fall back from battle.  If the reader takes the time, the consideration of sympathetic morale could mean that an entire unit could rout on account of one participant in that unit.  A routed unit would then retreat, again to a point outside of missile range, to reform, cool down, then march back into combat.

Overall, between heat exhaustion, injuries and morale, a battle such as the one detailed in the many posts this week could easily take five times as long to play - particularly if the party wanted to have all three or four fronts hammering away at the fort at the same time.  It is easy to see the Queen drow and other smarter defenders being able to move from melee to melee as this one or that collapses, leaving only one group still actually assaulting the fort.

Would this drive the players crazy?  Yes.  Would it make them question the validity of this sort of assault?  Yes.  Would it feel like actual mass combat feels, a frustrating, disappointing, disheartening and maddening procedure encouraging both sides to make some sort of treaty rather than going on with the apparently unending attack?  Abso-fucking-lutely.

I love that people have written to say that this combat from 2010 was fantastic and awesome.  But I still think I can do better.

Magic in Mass Combat

If the reader has read the combat that I've posted this week, then its possible that you may have noticed some of the same trends that I did.  I knew when the combat was in place on the blog that I would want to talk about those things - so this is the first of two posts (I think it's going to be two) that I plan to write about that.  If you haven't read over the combat, you may miss much of the nuance here.

To begin, I'll copy a comment I wrote yesterday, describing my spellcasting system:

For my spells to function, the character must first 'cast' the spell, which means to gather the energy and control it within; during this time, if spellcasters are jarred or have their concentration broken (by a weapon, attack, another spell, etcetera), then the spell is RUINED and cannot be cast again that day.

Once the spell is cast and ready (and with high level spells, this can take two to five combat rounds), it must be 'discharged,' which means sent out from the spellcaster's body at the thing to be influenced. Thus, the full procedure of using spells is loading the gun/firing the gun.

Consider the limitations this provides:

1. Spells must be cast from a vantage point where the caster is protected; otherwise, a stray arrow, thrown weapon, splinter from a ballista or some other flying object is going to ruin a critical, valuable spell at the wrong moment.
2. Everyone on the battle field knows that when someone starts moving, chanting, waving their arms about, falling into a state of deep concentration and so on, that the 'gun' is being loaded and that the spell is coming soon after; therefore, seeing this happen will cause an opponent able to free themselves from a melee to hurl themselves at a caster to stop the spell from happening.
3. Nor can the caster stand amidst a mob of friendlies, since as the battle waves and pushes, a shoulder slamming into the caster at the wrong moment will also ruin the spell.
4. Because casters cannot, therefore, stand on the front line of a battle and throw spells, spell power is limited by what the caster can see - which in many cases won't be much if the caster is at the back of an allied mob.
5. Coupled with the spell taking time, so that something like a fireball will take three complete combat rounds to employ in the battle, more of the actual battle is taken up with actual combat and not spell use.

Compare the battle described with a gaming system that allows casters to use spells without having to 'load the gun,' repeatedly, as often as they need to, without any specific concern regarding the environment surrounding them.  Clearly, from the combat, every major change occurred because a caster let loose a spell or fired a wand:  the ladder force at the south wall being extinguished in the first few rounds; the north gate battle being utterly changed by a second fireball; the appearance of ghouls and toads, shoring up the battle after the battle was lost; the north gate being warped so that it couldn't be closed; the brownies being conjured, greatly affecting two troops of defenders; and finally the strongest mage smoking the defenders once free to let loose.  Change this to free, continuous use of magic and we have greatly diminished the effects of ordinary, low level fighters who literally held the situation by sheer numbers and will.

The insistence that magic should be continuous and convenient has, like the creation of the machine gun over the flintlock, eradicated much of the tactical quality inherent in battle.  Magic is altogether too powerful a force in the game to permit an inexhaustible supply of it.  But then, I know that most 'battles' that are being run consist of three or four super-powerful enemies against three or four super-powerful players, so that battle has degraded into endless slug-fests of smashing down hundreds of hit points by small percentages round after round.  Battles are not, as I've depicted, large numbers of contestants, many of which are fragile and easily blown apart.  As such, the defense to the role-playing 'machine gun' has not been the acknowledgement of the meaningless trench war slaughter that followed historically, but the transformation of characters and enemies into thickened rubberized Gumby dolls able to soak up damage.

I learned much from the mass combat, so that today I would play it very differently from a defending point of view.  Today, rather than have the towers populated by archers whose purpose it was to shoot into the crowd of attackers, they would be trained and ready to identify spellcasters on the periphery, keep them under close observation and have means to tag such individuals for other archers.  From the beginning of the combat, these archers would be waiting for a spellcaster to twitch; they would be trained to recognize the tiniest movement or lack of movement (concentration) as spellcasting.  And every spellcaster on the field that had released a spell would be under a continuous barrage of fire, while ordinary attackers were virtually ignored.  Why fire at a man-at-arms when that man-at-arms is not going to win the battle for the enemy?

On a grand, worldly scale, this would produce a combat strategy where casters deliberately kept themselves concealed until the latest possible moment, to get that first, all-important blast off before they were identified - recognizing that once they did, they would be known and afterwards targeted mercilessly, by teams whose sole existence was to be trained to shoot at and hit magic users.  Like other crack teams of trained forces through history, these 'mageshooters' would be deadly shots, +2 to hit vs. spellcasters at least, perhaps +4 if the target is actually casting.

Not that I want someone to run with that and create some goofy character class out of it.

The Goblin Fort, End of the 29th Round & Beyond

There have been two rounds gone by for this image:

A.  The north gate, cleared - except for the Queen drow.  B. The west breech, cleared - the battle is fully in the courtyard now.  C. The southeast breech. stuck - but not for long.

This, I'm afraid, is my last image for the combat.  I hope that the gentle reader does not hold me in too great disdain for not having saved every last round down to the death of the last goblin - this lack of final maps is part of the reason why I had left eventually publishing the whole combat until now.  I hope that my description of the very end will satisfy the reader.

In the end, the party does win.

The Verger eventually takes a position with his back to the NW wall, where he dies.  The dire wolf goes down to elvish arrows and while Ty is stunned at the end of the 29th round, he does live to come help Falun finish off those last three hobgoblins.  Karl kills the giant toad and tears through the goblins that are approaching, while the glaivers kill those that are confused.

The purple figures on the map are the hobgoblins coming from the NE tower; Frederick the mage/thief uses his last spell, sleep, to knock them out.  Ivan kills the giant toad on him and tracks down the Prince, killing him.  He and the Old Man drow go at it for several rounds until well, see below.

At the North, the Queen (out of charges on her wand of fire, sorry party) teleports to the ground, where she fights Pikel (round 28), then Penn, the Pikel again.  Falcon, Lyrial, Pikel and Penn all gang up on her until she goes down.

But the real end of the fight actually happens when Garalzapan moves to the doorway of the tower at the top of the stairs.  For the first time, the mage has safe vantage to throw spells into the courtyard.  His fireball evaporates all those orange goblins in front of Widda and Hig.  He rushes out and fires a 10 hp sheet of death with burning hands gets rid of many more.  Thus, Hig, Widda and Shalar are freed up to attack the courtyard defenders.

It is Shalar, moving at monk speed, that crosses the yard to take out the Old Man with Ivan.  The goblins in the center are decimated - and from there, we called the combat over, simply counting up hit points for the remaining defenders.  We were all quite done.

It's funny that the real key of the combat was to get Garalzapan into a killing position.  No one really thought of that; after the battle, it was discussed that fighting to get into one of the towers and using it as an emplacement for the mage would have been great.  However, the party did not know through this combat that the Queen drow had an arrow of mage slaying in her quiver.  Which she never got to use, because at no time was she opposed by a serious mage.  Falcon was only 1st level, Frederick fought on the SW and west sides and Garalzapan was jammed behind the SE mess.  The party gained possession of that arrow - which I believe remains unused.

In a combat this size, things are going to go right and things are going to go wrong.  The party, though we played this combat for about 10 runnings, often with only 2 and a half rounds a night, never got bored - or they said they didn't.  I urge the reader to read my daughter's essay, that encouraged me to finally take up this task (which has taken me three days).  One thing I did not want to do is bury that essay behind a massive wall of posts - so please, seriously, do read it.

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The Goblin Fort, End of 27th Round

A.  Finishing the north gate battle.  B.  Fighting toads and goblins in the west courtyard.  C. Finished the last goblin slinger at last.  D.  Jammed in the SE breech.

E.  The goblin slingers abandon the wall to join the fight.  F.  A force of goblins crosses the courtyard towards the west.  G. Hobgoblins, goblins and the Old Man drow evacuate the NE tower.

The Verger gets hit, Falun gets hit, both end up being stunned and back to back, though of course they're enemies.  The strangeness of war.  Karl the npc lord stuns the Prince drow but is interrupted by one of the giant toads, who are hopping about.  The goblins are reeling.

I hadn't noticed in the last two posts, but there is a second ghoul, also slowly staggering away, near the NW tower - but both of these are not threatening.  The Youth drow and four goblins approach Pikel warily.  Lyrial the bard uses her command spell against a goblin, for Paul the cavalry fighter to kill.  Neema starts moving towards the SE breech.

Garalzapan casts a shield spell before setting to move into combat. Shalar moves down the tower's ladder while Ariana fights the one goblin left on the tower's middle floor.  On the ground, the SE breech stagnates again.

The defenders, I think, have made so many mistakes - but this SE breech was a big one for the party.  If the pass wall had been used on the NE wall instead of next to the gate, it wouldn't have required forcing their way through a five hex narrow passageway.  But who would have thought it mattered?  The important thing seemed to be making a breech, anywhere - but we learn from these mistakes.

The Goblin Fort, End of 26th Round

A.  Scattered north gate melee.  B.  The line evaporates against the west breach.  C.  Still going.  D.  The southeast breach pauses a round.

Between the toads and the last goblins & hobgoblins, the west breach battle isn't quite won.  Karl the Lord has moved through the opening battle and now engages the Prince drow, who is still at -1 hp.  Falun and the Verger drow fight within 10 feet of each other in different melees.  The battle is quite comfortably inevitable for the party by now, however.  This is finally going to pull the Queen drow out of her tower.

Meanwhile, the elven bowmen unload into the Verger, without much effect.

The Youth drow reverts and is finally free to rejoin the battle.  The cavalry goes after the stragglers (Neema remounts Dumar), while Penn and Falcon harrass the last ghoul, which continues to move away.

Finally, the tough goblin atop the East tower dies.  Hig is stunned and the push freezes for a round.  There's not much else to say.

The Goblin Fort, End of 25th Round

A. Mopping up at the north gate continues.  B. The defensive line at the west breach is gone.  C.  Still skirmishing.  D. A slow, steady forward movement at the southeast breach.  E. The toads hop towards the combat.

There's less and less to say that doesn't sound lie repetition.  The Verger drow continues to fight effectively, but it is slow - and his allies are dying all around him.  Falun is back in it again, and once again Ty the npc fighter moves to support him.  The goblins move to contain Urlgen, Ivan and Loki the npc thief, who has had little impact in this combat (Loki is a henchman of Ty the fighter).  Frederick that mage/thief is casting cantrips at this point, having run out of other spells (only 2nd level).

The ghouls are gone - almost, one has been turned by Neema the paladin.  Took five rounds, and they never paralyzed anyone again after that first round.  At the top of the map, there was a 1st level fighter hench named Dinan, who has been fighting on the edge of this all along. Dinan is killed this round.

The Youth drow is still being pinned, though the nine rounds of the confusion spell should be done.  This is probably the result of bad bookkeeping; so much to keep track of.  That Youth should be free now.  Well, we can always presume the goblins don't trust him.

In the East tower, Ariana has killed the hobgoblin and the goblin behind.  Garalzapan has reblinked to the top of the tower, attacking the 7th level goblin from behind, stunning it.  Below, on the ground, Hig and Widda push another round forward.

The Goblin Fort, End of 24th Round

There is no 23rd round image.  So we pick up with the 24th round, after two rounds have passed.

A. The north gate melee continues to open.  B. The west breach loosens, also.  C. The elven bowmen move towards the breach.  D.  Still this skirmish continues, with only one goblin left on the ground.  E. The East tower attack is not going well, but the breach begins to open.

F. Finally, some of the reserves waiting at the southeast breach begin to move across the courtyard (they didn't really want to fight).  G. Goblins at the north gate turn towards the west breach instead.  H. Summoned giant toads appear.  

While everywhere the defenders are folding, the battle still goes on . . . and the player's dwindling hit points do not make the players feel, at this point, as though they really have won yet.  There may be a lot fewer enemies, but a lucky hit can still kill someone - particularly as everyone's pool of defense has diminished.

There is one slinger left on the ground; Lorel and Helmut suffer a volley of sling bullets and the back and forth goes on.

The ballista on the SW tower releases a shot into the west breach combat.  The ballista arrow misses, splinters and does a little damage to the line behind Falun.  If the shot had hit Falun, the ranger would have been killed outright - but it passes right over her head.

The elven bowmen move forward to support while the west breach defense crumbles.  Falyn kills the hobgoblin champion, readies to meet the three hobgoblins coming.  The Verger monk is surrounded. The upper west breach defense disappears, but the goblins at G rush to keep it going.   The Queen drow, however, casts her monster summoning II spell and drums up 7 giant toads.

The ghouls fall fairly quickly.  Neema gets her horse under control for a round as it panics.  The cavalry is hit pretty hard by the defenders and two friendly cavalry are killed.

Down at the southeast breach, Shalar gets hit and stunned for a round.  Ariana is pushed back one floor below.  Garalzapan blinks in, attacks, then blinks out again.  Slow headway is made forward.

The Goblin Fort, End of 22nd Round

A. Smashing apart the north gate defenders.  B. Winning on the west breach.  C. Elves approach the main gate wall.  D. The skirmish against the slingers almost ends.  E.  The southeast breach press makes headway.  F.  Three tough hobgoblins make their way across to fight Falun the ranger.

The slingers on the ground are almost done; but more mount the south wall and load their slings.

Meanwhile, the elven bowmen begin moving forward up the slope to the main gate, their targets all gone.

The goblins at the west breach continue to evaporate.  Falun's enemy now has three wounds, is standing on his last legs (0 hp) and is about to go down.  Meanwhile, Wilhelm, who has been the tiger of the upper west breach, takes a massive hit and drops to -9 hp.  Ivan is fighting over his body.  The party would long remember Wilhelm's contribution to this fight.

At the north gate, goblins dogpile on the Youth drow, come close to killing off the last of the glaivers against them.  The ghouls stun another glaiver; but Pikel and Falcon are restored by a dispel magic wand held by Penn.  Neema dismounts from her horse to fight the ghouls, not wanting her Dumar the warhorse to be paralyzed.  The mopping up continues.

Garalzapan blinks.  Shalar misses the goblin, suffers two attacks (the goblin is 7th level, remember, the leader of all the goblins in the fort).  Ariana, a floor below, fights a hobgoblin.

On the ground, Hig breaks through, pushing the goblins back so more glaivers can get in.  The breach is finally beginning to give way.  The glaiver on the wall kills the hobgoblin and starts down the stairs to the ground, to defend Hig's back.

The Goblin Fort, End of 21st Round

A. The steadily opening north gate melee.  B. Penn the Illusionist steadily making his way, still running.  C. The west breaches, steadily getting the upper hand.  D.  The skirmish against the goblin slingers.  E.  The southeast breach battle.
F. Goblins that have been stopped where they stand by a brownie attack.

Though it's just three goblins, the skirmish between Lorel and Helmut with the goblin slingers (D), Helmut's movement (very slow in plate mail) and Lorel being just a 1st level assassin is dragging out the melee.  The elven bowmen continue loading and exchanging fire with the walls.

At the west breach, the attackers are strengthening their line, despite the Verger drow pushing into it.  Though there are a lot of goblins, they're out of reserves and the party is feeling stronger.  Wilhelm and Ivan are managing the upper west breach and they're soon going to get help from Frederick the mage/thief and Urlgen, another 1st level fighter hench.

At the north gate, Pikel, Falcon, Snuggles the black bear and Pikel's wolf all become paralyzed by the ghouls after failing their saving throws.  Lyrial the bard alone, of the players, is still active, fighting the ghouls with the help of the glaivers.  Neema turns and fights her way towards them.  The rest of the cavalry hack down at the remaining goblins, with one hobgoblin and one cavewight left.  The cavewight has broken its weapon and is limited to attacking by claw.

At the southeast breach, Garalzapan the mage blinks onto the top of the wall next to the goblin fighting Shalar and attacks, very nearly killing it.   Hig, Widda and the glaivers fighting here all miss, as do the hobgoblins fighting them.  Slog, slog, slog.

It is the second brownie, casting confusion like the first, that affects the nine goblins in the center of the courtyard, causing them to stand about confused, taking no actions whatsoever.  Remember that brownies cast spells as though 9th level, so the effect lasts for quite a long time.  Meanwhile, the other group of goblins reach the north gate and engage the Youth drow and remaining goblin still affected by the first brownie.

The Goblin Fort, End of 20th Round

A. The appearance of ghouls at the north gate battle.  B. The breaching men under Wilhelm see daylight.  C. The elven group arrives at the west breach and Falun the ranger is supported.  D.  Penn the illusionist is running full out now.  E. The small engagement against the goblin slingers exchanges blows.  F. The SE breach combat, no real change.

For the first time, the men-at-arms/glaivers at the upper west breach are able to see daylight.  This in spite of the goblins next the Prince hurling their first spears.  Wilhelm is fighting a 3rd level goblin fighter.  Falun is still fighting the 7th level hobgoblin, blow for blow; Ty is now beginning to help with that, as he has cut his way through and the line has caught up to where Falun was once isolated.  The Verger drow has been missing repeatedly, and now he is surrounded.

At the north gate, the Queen drow has used her summon monsters III spell [corrected], creating 8 ghouls (pink).  The players, who were getting excited and finally winning this mess, are suddenly stunned to find  themselves in deep, deep trouble.  At least the cavalry has broken their opponents enough to lend some help, if needed!

Garalzapan the mage finishes casting blink and jumps out of the prime material plane.  Shalar misses.  Hig hits and moves forward.  Widda misses.  The goblins move up towards Ariana.  Apart from this, the southeast breach just goes on and on.

Whatever their troubles, the players are making ground.

The Goblin Fort, End of 19th Round

A. The north gate battle.  B. Penn the illusionist running to join the north gate battle.  C. Elven group under Frederick the mage/thief heading for the west breach.  D. Lorell the assassin and Helmut the cleric fighting the goblin slingers.  E. The SE gate/breach battle.  F. Goblins rushing to shore up attacks on the west and north.

Lorel and Helmut engage the goblin slingers, who fight back with swords.  Frederick and a character named Loki (a player who had been taking a break, joining into this combat mid-stream), continue to move steadily towards the western breach.  Penn the illusionist makes tremendous speed, being unarmored.

Despite the tremendous resources, the points of near success where it looked like the goblins were going to win after all, the glaivers, Wilhelm, Ty and Falun are actually winning out.  The Prince drow sends half the goblins making their way to the north gate to shore up places where his line is breaking.  This is probably poor defensive strategy, but isn't it the sort of thing defenders do?  The remaining goblins continue north.  Ivan successfully avoids the dire wolf and attacks goblins instead, leaving the glaivers nearby to fight the wolf.

The goblins at the north gate are still fighting the confused goblins.  The last of them are starting to fall to the party; 

The brownies, meanwhile, are making no further attacks; they have used mirror image to protect themselves, should anyone attack them.  Neema, in the middle of the cavalry fight, is keeping on her horse (paladin's warhorse, Dumar) and keeping the melee under control.

Shalar is still fighting the goblin on the tower.  Ariana has taken a place on the middle floor of the tower (shown as a second image next to the first tower) where she is now shooting at the ground defenders.  A goblin group is climbing up into the tower (they should have earlier, but goblins are dumb - maybe they didn't know the tower was empty?).

And still the SE gate/breach is moving slow as molasses.  The players in this corner of the map are so very, very frustrated.  It's funny - you get a series of rounds where the players miss, miss, miss, miss again, then miss before finally missing.  That's what was happening here.  Widda, Shalar and Hig ALL blew roll after roll.

The Goblin Fort, End of 18th Round

A. The north gate battle.  B. The west breach battle.  C. Elven group one, headed north.  D. Elven group two, moving to attack the goblin slingers.  E. The SE gate battle.  F.  The Prince drow stops to speak to the goblins moving to the north gate.

Plainly, the battle is tightening, allowing me to more tightly crop the map.

The small force moving towards the goblin slingers near the SW tower (D) are led by Helmut the cleric (npc) and Lorel the assassin, only a 1st level.  The second small force (C) has decided not to attack the main gate, but to move up to the west breach.  This group is being led by Lord Karl and Frederick the mage/thief.  Penn the illusionist has broken off from the others and is heading for the north gate.  The remaining elves are still exchanging missiles with the walls.

At the west breach, Falun and Ty's multiple attacks are winning the day, despite the numbers - but the goblins at the upper breach are winning the day.  Ivan the dwarven thief finishes off his goblin and moves down the stairs, readying himself to attack the dire wolf.

No real changes with the north melee.  The Queen drow is reserving her last combat spells.

Shalar is destroying the goblin fighter.  Ariana decides to slip through the window into the tower.  I had forgotten, but way back in the 4th round, Garalzapan destroyed the archers on the tower's middle level with magic missile.  That was not mentioned, but I've added a note on that post.

Below, Widda and Hig begin to make headway.  The glaiver on the wall knocks back the hobgoblin.

Time and again I had tried through the combat NOT to make the enemy of one consciousness.  In many cases, goblins that could have joined in do not; people pause to talk, rather than knowing what to do next.  Such is the case where the Prince stops the group of goblins heading to the north gate, at a time when they really should be hurrying.  It is realistic.

The Goblin Fort, End of 17th Round

A.  The north gate battle.  B.  The west breach battle.  C.  The elves begin moving forward towards the main gate.  D.  The SE gate battle.  E.  Goblins continue to move to support the north gate.

At the west breach, Falun is standing toe to toe with a 7th level hobgoblin fighter, suffering from two wounds.  Ty is down to half his hit points.  The Verger is smashing the glaivers behind them.  Wilhelm and the glaivers at the upper breach are not doing much better.  Ivan misses against the goblin, blowing the back stab, and they fight.

At the north gate, the cavewight leader stands at -7 hit points.  Goblins press against the glaivers and the small group of the party (Falcon, Pikel, Lyrial).  Pikel's animal friends are stunned and fall back.  Many of the cavalry are dead now but the melee goes on, all milling around each other.

Shalar and the goblin exchange blows.  Ariana the thief is one round away from joining them.

Below, the zombies are gone and Hig and Widda fight the hobgoblins directly, now.  A glaiver gets on top of the wall with the help of his friends and is met by a hobgoblin coming up the stairs.  Garalzapan would throw a spell, but he has no line of sight with any of the enemy.

All in all, a slogging round.

The Goblin Fort, End of 16th Round

A.  The north gate battle.  B.  Ivan the thief sneaks up on an enemy.  C.  The elves, free from hand-to-hand, still fighting the missile combat.  D.  The SE gate battle.

E.  The hobgoblin standard bearer moves to support the goblins against the west breach.  F.  The goblins in the center move north to support the north gate.

It is impossible not to notice that the central courtyard of the fort is empty compared to what there was before. The slaughter continues.

The last of the hobgoblins fighting the elves are gone.  The goblin slingers have suffered and lost numbers.  The debate of what to do is going on.

At the west breach, the goblins are getting the better of the glaivers, Falun and Ty.  Falun has gotten separated from the attackers again (yet still surviving, down to about 30% of the 80 hit points she started with).  The group at the upper breach are being led by an npc named Wilhelm, who is proving himself very lucky with the dice.

Ivan has finished off his enemy and is now sneaking up on the goblin standing on the stairs (A).  That goblin is using his sling against the glaivers and doesn't know that Ivan is there (is about to be surprised).

At the north gate, the confused goblins and Youth drow make a mess of themselves; half disappear.  Snuggles the black bear, supported by Pikel's wolf, Lyrial the bard, Falcon the mage and Pikel the druid smash the toughest cavewight and keep the line.  Neema's cavalry surround the goblins - and there is a confused mass of glaivers, hobgoblins, goblins and horses all fighting together, while the NE tower continues to heap down missiles as they may.  Neema gets another Melf's acid arrow.  These are starting to hurt.  If Neema goes down, the cavalry will have to make a morale check.

Shalar the monk engages the goblin on the E tower.  Ariana the thief climbs the wall to join.  The remaining advance is still bogged down.

The Goblin Fort, End of 15th Round

A.  The north gate battle.  B.  The west breach battle.  C.  The elves continue to exchange missiles with the fort.  D. The SE gate battle.

There are three hobgoblins left at the bottom right and the missile exchange goes on between the elves and the wall.  The main gate is being held by only a few defenders, but the elvish troop is in rough shape.  Remembering that Lord Karl's arm is broken, he is debating with his cleric henchman Helmut about gathering a force to rush the front gate (they have no means of getting over it without the ladders).  The players debate on how they want to use these; get the ladders and go over the south wall?

The Prince drow pulls back while the Verger moves forward; the Verger proves to be a monk.  Ty and Falun still fighting, making hay on the goblins with multiple attacks. The dire wolf by the second west breach (at the top) has been freed from its chain and is attacking glaivers (men-at-arms) as they enter through the upper breach.

Inside the NW tower, Ivan is fighting a 4th level goblin fighter, has been for several rounds; but he is getting the better of the fight.  The brownies, having finished their targets at the end of round 13, move to the edge of the tower and cast a confusion spell against the goblins emerging from the north gate.  The goblins turn and attack each other.

The Queen has cast Melf’s acid arrow at Neema and other bows have created a temporary respite in the middle of the goblin line between the right and left sides of the combat.  The cavalry, however, are freeing the three remaining enclosed glaivers.  The cavewight is looking for a new target.

Shalar the monk has gotten into the East tower and come face to face with the 7th level goblin fighter.  They’ve shared thrown missiles at each other (axe and dagger).  Below, Hig the fighter and Widda the cleric are pushing the zombies forward, still trying to break into the fort's courtyard.

The Goblin Fort, End of 14th Round

A.  The north gate battle spreads and gets unstable.  B.  The west breach battle momentarily stabilizes.  C. The last of the hobgoblins are cleaned up by the elves.  D.  The southeast gate battle continues to bog.  E.  The fortress defenders commit their last reserves.

The elves now commit to a missile combat with the goblin slingers on the ground and the hobgoblins on the wall.  I haven't been mentioning it, but the ballistaes on the walls have been firing every six rounds, mostly missing due to my bad rolls.  Those last few hobgoblins have decided to fight to the death.

Falun manages to free himself after being attacked (which breaks the hold person spell, as I run it).  Ty the fighter has driven the Prince drow into negative hit points, but the goblins - no longer being kept down by the incidental damage of the mastodon - are swarming.

At the north gate, the goblins are swarming out and re-starting the battle over again.  The overall combat there has become less tight after the Queen's third fireball.  A group of glaivers has been completely surrounded by goblins, but the cavalry is fighting their way into this pack, while circling around to break the men-at-arms out.

And still the battle at the southeast gate is bogged down.  The players are now very sorry for sending the zombies in first, but those zombies are almost dead now.  The three that are left only have a combined 11 hp.

The Goblin Fort, End of 13th Round

Things were getting serious with the combat and I remember I forgot to save the end of round 12.  So there is no post for that round.

A.  North gate battle.  B.  West breach battle.  C.  Elf-hobgoblin battle.  D. Southeast gate battle.

What has happened at the north gate!?  Well, the Queen drow is a little crazy.  After totalling her own people at the west breach, she does it again (blew her intelligence roll) by burning half the battle at the north gate.  This had the unfortunate effect (for the bad people) of destroying most of the goblins, while the men-at-arms managed to barely survive.  Most of those still showing on the map only have 1 or 2 hit points.

It makes room for the druid's animal friends, Snuggles the black bear and Nibbles sabre-toothed tiger tore into the goblins that were left over.  Then Nibbles got hit and failed the morale check; the tiger has not been with the druid long and has a poor morale for that reason.

At the same time, the cavalry ripped through the goblin slingers and into the back of the goblin/hobgoblin line, doing tremendous damage. They get hung up, however, so that now they're not moving and they're in melee.

The goblins emerging from the north gate now are led by a drow named 'Youth.'  Remember, they're unable to close the gate because of Pikel the druid's warp wood spell.

The SE gate battle has stalled. The zombies are fighting the hobgoblins, while the Shalar the 6th level monk (who has done little in this combat except kill dire wolves) decides to climb the East Tower and fight whatever is there. There is, in fact, a 7th level goblin fighter waiting for him - which the player doesn't actually know yet.

The hobgoblins against the elves are thinning as the elves & humans handle them easily with the help of the illusionist.  Most of the remaining elves are low on hit points and only have daggers for weapons - yet they're doing well.  The standard bearer for the hobgoblins is pulling back towards the SW Gate, recognizing that the sortie is failing. Telling detail, that.

At the west breach, things are going fairly well. The hippogriff has recovered and flown away, the mastodon has been removed from the field (though it is technically still running in the upper left corner)  A glaiver has sacrificed himself to save Falun the ranger (check made), partly because Falun is a very attractive elf.

A second drow elf, the Verger, is helping press the attack with the goblins.

Meanwhile, a second group of glaivers is making use of the second hold made by the mastodon.  

Ivan is finishing off his opponents inside the NW Tower, and the two brownies are now attacking the goblins on the top. So all around a good round for this part of the combat.

This is the end of my in-blog notes.  I wrote the base posts for these back in 2010.  From here on, I'm solely dependent on my memory.  So details will probably get a bit thinner going forward. 

The Goblin Fort, End of 11th Round

A. The cavalry charges.  B. The brownies move up on the tower to help Ivan the thief (who is Pikel the druid's hench).  C.  The mastodon makes another breach.  D.  Engagement at the southeast gate.  E.  The remaining goblins/hobgoblins in the interior move to shore up the west breach after the Queen's 2nd fireball.

There is little to say about the battle between the elves and hobgoblins. Deaths occur on both sides and, if anything, the hobgoblins are keeping Lord Karl out of the main battle. The lines have sorted themselves out, with Helmut the npc cleric rushing in from right.  At least one of the man-at-arms has retreated.

The mastodon makes a convenient second hole as it leaves the fortress at the West Wall. Hathor the hippogriff has been stunned and will soon die if it does not escape - which to do it must both survive one round without being stunned and abandon its master. Falun the ranger is definitely sweating (the ranger is played by my daughter, by the way).

Ty has pushed back the prince and the glaivers are making some headway (the Queen's fireball helped clear the way).  More goblins are coming, so the battle is by no means won.

Ivan is handily killing off his opponents inside the tower, with the brownies coming to help.  They are heading for the ballista on the tower's top, which is in the process of being loaded (9 rounds to go for all ballista).

The flanking movement at the north gate gets to be more of a problem.  The party there is anxiously awaiting for the cavalry charge to hit.  The cavalry is thundering up the hill towards the goblin slingers, who release a volley into the defenders (remember, the gray areas are slopes).  The Queen is climbing the stairs of the NE tower.

The orange bar that has appeared along the SE wall, in front of the gate, is a web spell cast by Garalzapan the mage.  This has trapped most of the hobgoblins that leapt off the wall last round, making them easy to kill.  The zombies are moving awfully slowly.  I felt (unsaid to the players) that it was a mistake to send these through first.

The outer dire wolves are finally gone.