WoA-Actions

Strategic Planning

The construction of battle plans is a necessary part of any engagement. Though troops may take to the field of battle without any previous intentions, those who are careful to lay plans invariably have the upper hand - at least at the beginning of a conflict.

Formulate Battle Plan (Dramatic Action)

Creating a battle plan requires an Intelligence + War roll. The difficulty is a base of 1, with the following modifiers:

X

Assistance: Most armies take advantage of having multiple strategists on hand, all contributing their advice. These men and women are not always battlefield experts in Creation: they may be historians who can lend suggestions based on battles in the past, diviners and occultists who perform divinations and auguries, specialists in troop morale and intelligence and ambush specialists. All of these individuals can suggest tactics and lend their advice in the crafting of a battle plan.

In game terms, one character acts as the strategist, performing the Intelligence + War roll. Before the Formulate Battle Plan roll is made, however, his advisors must roll their own Ability rolls, with a difficulty equal to the difficulty for constructing the battle plan. On a success, that advisor adds one die to the strategist's Formulate Battle Plan roll. A strategist may benefit from no more extra dice from advisors than his Intelligence + War dice pool (though this does not count as dice gained from Charms). Applicable Abilities include:

• Athletics: Specialists in terrain navigation can offer advice on dealing with difficult terrain, or making terrain more difficult to navigate.
• Bureaucracy: Bureaucrats can suggest ways to take advantage of an enemy's infrastructure, chain of command and maintenance.
• Lore: Historians can lend perspective on similar battles fought in the past.
• Occult: Augurs can read portents for the battle, choosing the ideal times to engage, and those with knowledge of local gods and elementals can make suggestions to placate or even curry favor from them.
• Performance: Specialists in morale-building and communication can suggest ways to improve troop spirit, or dishearten the foe.
• Ride: In a battle where horses are involved, a skilled rider can suggest tactics for spooking enemy mounts, and preventing one's own mounts from bolting.
• Socialize: Those who understand the nuances of culture might suggest traditions and customs of the enemy to take advantage of, and help arrange things to keep one's own troops happy and motivated.
• Stealth: Specialists in ambush can help set clever tactical traps for the foe, as well warn of likely dangers of such on the battlefield.
• Survival: A skilled outdoorsman can give advice on fighting in a specific terrain, and help an army prepare for the sort of difficulties the weather presents.
• War: Other strategists are always valuable in pointing out flaws in one's plan, or suggesting tactics the primary strategist has missed.

Allocating Successes

Successes generated in the Formulate Battle Plan action are divided into two pools: the Duration Pool and the Effect Pool.

Duration: The Effect Pool remains available for use by a general for a single action after the Join War roll. For each success placed in the Duration Pool, the Effect Pool remains available for one additional action beyond the first. Battle plans must be put into effect immediately following the clash with the enemy, for rare is the battle plan that survives prolonged contact with the enemy. Thus, allocating three successes to the Duration Pool grants the leader of the unit access to the Effect Pool for a total of four actions.

Effect Pool: Every success that goes into the Effect Pool acts as a non-Charm-based bonus die that may be withdrawn to augment actions during the planned for battle. Rather than requiring a player to actually come up with a specific plan, it is simply assumed that the War-using strategist comes up with an appropriate strategy, and the bonus dice from the Effect Pool reflect the preparation for performing those plans. A unit commander may not add any more than his War rating or the Drill of the unit he is commanding (whichever is less) to any given action, and multiple units on the same side in the same battle must use the same Effect Pool.

Unexpected Surprises

X

Espionage

X

In-Battle Actions

Attack (varies/–1)

Unit attacks using Wits + War + Accuracy of the Unit.

Bolster Troops (3/–1)

Charisma + War, diff 1 + Wound Penalties + Magnitude; each success allows expenditure of one Morale to negate one point of Wound Penalties for [Drill] actions.

Change Formation (5/–1)

Charisma + War, diff based on Formation; +1 diff if attacked last action; +2 diff if currently engaged

Charge (varies/varies)

Must be at least 1 Movement away from target; Unit charges target Unit, gaining a +2 to damage rolls, but inflicting double normal DV penalties (min. 2); inflicts Moral damage equal to Fatigue of armor (min. 1)

Dash (3/-–3)

Charisma + War, diff (Magnitude – Drill); success doubles movement, inflicts Morale damage equal to Fatigue of armor worn (min. 1).

Disengage (0/-0)

(Wits + War + Drill) – Magnitude roll, diff opponent's (Drill +3) to disengage; otherwise Unit suffers DV 0 against next attack by enemy.

Envelop (5/-2)

The unit envelopes and completely surrounds the enemy unit, limiting his ability to defend himself and escape. This action is performed as an attack, using Wits + War + Accuracy, but it inflicts no damage. The unit being used to perform this action must be at least one Magnitude higher than the target unit. If successful, the target unit has a DV of 0 against the first attack of the enveloping unit in each action; if the enveloping unit performs a flurry, this only applies against the first attack of that flurry. Individuals may not gain the benefits of this action as attackers, but individuals acting as Magnitude 0 units in their own right can be surrounded and affected by this maneuver.

Flurry (varies/varies)

Multiple actions as single action; Spd = highest speed of actions; DV = cumulative DV penalties; multiple action dice penalty = #actions, +1/action in flurry.

Guard (3/None)

Defending; interruptible.

Join War

Initiates long ticks; Commanders roll Wits + War – Magnitude of Unit; Solo Units roll typical Wits + Awareness.

Merge Units (3/–1)

Charisma + War, diff (Magnitude – Drill); add smaller unit to larger; each success heals one Health Level of damage taken by larger unit; if new unit numbers are large enough to increase Magnitude by one step, first Unit gains +1 Magnitude.

Move (0/None)

Unit moves 1 Movement; total movement may be modified by Formation and other modifiers.

Rally Troops (4/–1)

Charisma + War/Performance, dif (Magnitude – Drill) +3; each success allows Unit to heal 1 Morale damage.

Scatter Opponent (4/–1)

Manipulation + War/Performance, dif (Magnitude + Drill of target Unit); each success inflicts 1 Morale damage.

Set to Receive Charge (3/0)

Interruptible; Unit prepares to receive Charge action; Considered an Aim action; additionally, Unit set to receive Charge may act on exact tick that Charge hits, allowing them to retaliate before taking any penalties for effects of Charge.

Signal Unit (3/–0)

Send relay across battlefield. Must flurry Signal Unit action into any action taken to command a Unit of higher Magnitude than Commander’s War rating.

Solo Unit Action (varies/varies)

As per a normal action.

Split Unit (3/–1)

Divide unit into multiple units; Charisma + War, diff (Magnitude – Drill) to avoid becoming Unordered; +2 diff if engaged.

Target Commander (varies/-2)

This modifies an attack on a Unit. Such attacks receive an external penalty of –2, but once the Unit Commander has inflicted a number of Health Levels of damage equal to the Magnitude of the target Unit, he reaches any unit that is part of the target Unit, and may engage them directly. This damage need not be inflicted all at once, but all the damage must be inflicted over consecutive actions. A Commander may take Disengage actions to avoid the enemy hacking his way through the soldiers looking for him.