View Poll Results: How long should a battle round last? (i.e., a round on the battlefield)
- Voters
- 17. You may not vote on this poll
Results 1 to 10 of 22
Thread: Battle rounds
-
03-04-2005, 10:47 AM #1
-
03-04-2005, 10:49 AM #2
-
03-04-2005, 11:01 AM #3
-
03-04-2005, 11:12 AM #4
- Join Date
- Nov 2001
- Location
- Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Posts
- 3,945
- Downloads
- 0
- Uploads
- 0
First off you need to understand this is talking about the battle system using troops and such and not the individual combat system between small (relatively) groups of characters.
There was a different system because in 2nd ed the battle system was a further abstaction of the already abstract D&D combat round. It was resolved using cards and not dice rolls. The system was based on 200 member units. The number of hits the units had and damage they could deal was likewise simpified instead of having individual hit points for every member of the unit.
Imagine the amount of bookkeeping a DM had to do to keep trackof 200 indidividual combats.
For a visual concept of what this system entails think of the various computer games with massive war units - Rome: Total War (or any of the Total War games), Warcraft, Birthright - the Gorgan's Alliance, etc.Duane Eggert
-
03-04-2005, 11:22 AM #5
- Join Date
- Jan 2003
- Posts
- 10
- Downloads
- 0
- Uploads
- 0
I've voted for 10 minutes - I would actually probably use 5 minutes for preference (and may do so in house-rules) but 10 is an easy figure to work with for the purpose of the standard BR rules.
-
03-04-2005, 12:01 PM #6
I have voted other.
I do not like the thought that a clash of two armies should be resolved in the
standard seconds of battle time as battles between individuals are in 3.X D&D
Not only would that be a horror to roll 200 times for archers shooting their bows
if we would really resolve it all in individual style. It also would be unrealistic - army units in formation always are slower to move or act, than an individual soldier.
More important to me is that a large battle of an army should take a whole day (or at
least 8 hours of daylight).
I like the statement that an army "has won the day" and that armies fought often a whole day before the battle was decided or the night forced them to separate.
If a unit of archers shoots in 3 second rounds most, even major battles of large armies, would be over in half an hour - Waterloo (Belle Alliance), Gettysburgh perhaps in 1 hour instead of a few days - brrr..Michael Romes
-
03-04-2005, 01:54 PM #7
- Join Date
- Oct 2003
- Location
- california
- Posts
- 317
- Downloads
- 2
- Uploads
- 0
Originally posted by Michael Romes@Mar 4 2005, 08:01 AM
I have voted other.
I do not like the thought that a clash of two armies should be resolved in the
standard seconds of battle time as battles between individuals are in 3.X D&D
Not only would that be a horror to roll 200 times for archers shooting their bows
if we would really resolve it all in individual style. It also would be unrealistic - army units in formation always are slower to move or act, than an individual soldier.
More important to me is that a large battle of an army should take a whole day (or at
least 8 hours of daylight).
I like the statement that an army "has won the day" and that armies fought often a whole day before the battle was decided or the night forced them to separate.
If a unit of archers shoots in 3 second rounds most, even major battles of large armies, would be over in half an hour - Waterloo (Belle Alliance), Gettysburgh perhaps in 1 hour instead of a few days - brrr..Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a night. Set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
-
03-04-2005, 02:24 PM #8
- Join Date
- Nov 2001
- Location
- Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Posts
- 3,945
- Downloads
- 0
- Uploads
- 0
My sentiments exactly - why not one of the rounds lasting in terms of minutes vice seconds then?
Note these are rounds and not the entire battle - consider resolution ot follow the standard D&D format of order of initiative and then the individual (unit) performs its action, then the next unit in the initiative order and so on. I didn't see (or say) anything to infer that a single roll (or round) resolves the battle.Duane Eggert
-
03-04-2005, 04:10 PM #9
- Join Date
- Jan 2002
- Location
- Germany
- Posts
- 883
- Downloads
- 0
- Uploads
- 0
irdeggman schrieb:
>This post was generated by the Birthright.net message forum.
> You can view the entire thread at:
> http://www.birthright.net/forums/ind...ST&f=36&t=3019
>
> irdeggman wrote:
> My sentiments exactly - why not one of the rounds lasting in terms of minutes vice seconds then?
>
>Note these are rounds and not the entire battle - consider resolution ot follow the standard D&D format of order of initiative and then the individual (unit) performs its action, then the next unit in the initiative order and so on. I didn`t see (or say) anything to infer that a single roll (or round) resolves the battle.
>
Neither did I understand it so that a single roll resolves the battle,
that is the reason why I meant that a major battle would take hours
instead of days *when the single battle round would take only seconds*.
I did not mean that it would take half an hour if the battle round is
half an hour:
> If a unit of archers shoots in 3 second rounds most, even major
> battles of large armies, would be over in half an hour - Waterloo
> (Belle Alliance), Gettysburgh perhaps in 1 hour instead of a few days
> - brrr..
However I wrongly wrote 3 second rounds instead of 6 seconds but that is
irrelevant as both as far too fast for army units IMO.
Even with a slightly larger battlefield than the 2E 5X3 the armies would
be able to close in 1 or 2 battlerounds. With units being able to take
only up to 4 hits according to the BRCS only for veteran units if I read
that right, even large battles could be decided in less than a day using
even 10 or 15 Minutes per round. The 30 Minutes would be the closest to
what I would like if I had not voted other.
Using for example 1 hour rounds, for 12 (more or less according to
region and season) rounds of daylight, would still see skirmishes of a
few army units finished in one day, but would force large armys to
either retreat and rest to fight the next day - or fight in conditions
of less light or darkness which gives all races an advantage which have
lowlightvision or darkvision.
bye
Michael
-
03-04-2005, 04:35 PM #10
- Join Date
- Jan 2003
- Posts
- 10
- Downloads
- 0
- Uploads
- 0
Not every battle should (or did) last for a day - many Napoleonic battles were over extremely quickly, sometimes after one exchange of volley fire. The length of the battle round should not, in my opinion, be used to artificially extend the length of a battle - it should represent a period of time in which a unit can make one important action (ie, a charge and engage, a manoeuvre to a nearby part of the field, a holding action, a slow retreat).
I am, I will admit, talking here without a good knowledge of either the 2E Birthright battle rules or the playtest version. I'm just lobbing opinions out in my own carefree manner!
A truly important battle, one in which huge armies clash to decide the result of a campaign, could easily last a long time because of the number of units involved. But a battle between up to 1000 soldiers on each side wouldn't last longer than a couple of hours of combat (more if long pauses in the action happen to occur). After two hours of fighting, everyone is exhausted. I've been in 2,000-person LARP battles (hardly the real thing but of some small educational merit, perhaps) where we're only hefting rubber swords around and running relatively small distances but there is no way they would last a day with that number of people. Even in those battles, there are regular pauses as the lines reorganise and taunt each other, etc.
Thread Information
Users Browsing this Thread
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks