Hi guys,

I'm playing the GPC, Uther phase, we're at the Battle of Lincoln and I have a few questions concerning our last battle.

1) When a PK is unhorsed, can he just make a squire roll to get his squire's horse and follow his unit? Or do we absolutely have to run an extended melee phase with "Rescue a friend"? If we can just use a squire roll, then the extended melee phase is just used when the squire failed his roll or when the PK has not squire. Am I right?

2) On round 2, Sir Elad succeed his battle roll but the Intensity got a crit and so the PKs choose to "withdraw against 2". In that case, withdrawing gives them a +10 bonus to their combat skills. Is this +10 divided between the 2 ennemies of this round or is it like the +5 height advantage on horse vs footmen where the bonus is applied to both attacks? What if they fight defensively; is the +10 again added to each attack or is it for all the attacks? My current ruling was: +5 height advantage for both attacks, +10 withdraw bonus and +10 fight defensively bonus to be splitted among the 2 attacks (of course, if you fight defensively, it automatically counts as a loss for the battle manoeuver result). Is this ok?

3) When the manoeuver description says: "3 random ennemy units, gamemaster chooses one, and the GM rolls lets say 2 footmen units and 1 archer unit and he picks 1 footmen unit as the current ennemy, does the archer unit roll 1D6 and check if they fire anyway on 1-2? What if the GM chooses the archer unit? Does that mean the archer unit will fight in melee combat? This second alternative would be way easier for the PKs than the first one!

4) The modifiers for the battle of Lincoln are: Merlin frightened the saxons -5, Uther superior troops +5. For use with the battle system, I changed them to -10 battle intensity. Am I ok on this?

Thanks!

Sadly I can't answer your specific questions but I'm sure the BOB veterans on here will be able to do so. In the meantime could I ask how well you thought the battle went? In two weeks time I'm running the very same battle so I'm keen to learn tips and avoid any pitfalls. And see the answers to your questions!

1) When a PK is unhorsed, can he just make a squire roll to get his squire's horse and follow his unit? Or do we absolutely have to run an extended melee phase with "Rescue a friend"? If we can just use a squire roll, then the extended melee phase is just used when the squire failed his roll or when the PK has not squire. Am I right?

Squire roll first, see option 2 and 3. If no squire is available or the roll fails, extended melee phase is possible (not mandatory).


2) On round 2, Sir Elad succeed his battle roll but the Intensity got a crit and so the PKs choose to "withdraw against 2". In that case, withdrawing gives them a +10 bonus to their combat skills. Is this +10 divided between the 2 ennemies of this round or is it like the +5 height advantage on horse vs footmen where the bonus is applied to both attacks? What if they fight defensively; is the +10 again added to each attack or is it for all the attacks? My current ruling was: +5 height advantage for both attacks, +10 withdraw bonus and +10 fight defensively bonus to be splitted among the 2 attacks (of course, if you fight defensively, it automatically counts as a loss for the battle manoeuver result). Is this ok?

You are right. +10 for the melee, not per opponent.


3) When the manoeuver description says: "3 random ennemy units, gamemaster chooses one, and the GM rolls lets say 2 footmen units and 1 archer unit and he picks 1 footmen unit as the current ennemy, does the archer unit roll 1D6 and check if they fire anyway on 1-2? What if the GM chooses the archer unit? Does that mean the archer unit will fight in melee combat? This second alternative would be way easier for the PKs than the first one!

Missile units with a "bow" symbol always fire, unless engaged. Missile units with "bow" symbol + "S" fires on 1-2 on a d6 and sprints if attacked. So, as a GM you are supposed to make this though for the PCs. Pick the best (or most interesting or dramatically appropriate unit) melee unit and fire everything you got at them.


4) The modifiers for the battle of Lincoln are: Merlin frightened the saxons -5, Uther superior troops +5. For use with the battle system, I changed them to -10 battle intensity. Am I ok on this?

If the two modifiers even out, shouldn't that be +/- 0 on Intensity?

Yes, Sir Pramalot, the battle went fine. The PKs nearly died twice, but at round 8, they prevailed by capturing the saxon standard (scripted event, they could have choose to confront Octa himself but prefered to play it "safer"). The bodyguards described in the GPC were not so strong compared to the average saxon ennemies in the Book of Battle so the combat was not as heroïc as I expected, but at that point, the PKs were happy to be alive so everyone was fine with this I guess...

Thanks for your reply Skarpskytten! For question 4, that was the problem. Merlin frightening the saxon resulted in -5 to ennemy's battle roll and troop superiority gave +5 to Uther's army roll. Because of the way the BoB works, I converted both bonuses to one intensity bonus and, since the two bonusses were favorable for Uther's army, I converted both of them to -5 intensity (-10 in all).

Thanks for your reply Skarpskytten! For question 4, that was the problem. Merlin frightening the saxon resulted in -5 to ennemy's battle roll and troop superiority gave +5 to Uther's army roll. Because of the way the BoB works, I converted both bonuses to one intensity bonus and, since the two bonusses were favorable for Uther's army, I converted both of them to -5 intensity (-10 in all).


I can't read properly. I do seem like a good solution. To my knowledge there are no "official" recommendations as how to convert bonuses and penalties from the old battle system to the new one.

In my copy of the GPC it says "Merlin has frightened the Saxons with omens: -5 to King Octa's first Battle roll."

So the superior troops should be a -5, modifier to intensity, but the frightened Saxons means that Octa's effective Battle skill for the first charge is at 14 instead of 19. At least that's what I did.

So the superior troops should be a -5, modifier to intensity, but the frightened Saxons means that Octa's effective Battle skill for the first charge is at 14 instead of 19. At least that's what I did.

But on p.16 of BoB, it is written that the "army commander's Battle skill is opposed by the greater of either: First Charge Intensity or Enemy army commander's Battle skill". Following this rule, the -5 charge penalty you suggest would not change anything (since battle intensity is higher than 14 at the beginning of this battle).

Also, in the original GPC battle system, the +5 to superior troops was applied to the battle skill too, so if we agree to convert it to -5 intensity, then I guess the -5 to ennemy commander's battle skill should be converted to -5 intensity too since both modifiers were previously applied to the same skill (the battle skill of the 2 opposing generals) and both are to the advantage of the PK's army.

But on p.16 of BoB, it is written that the "army commander's Battle skill is opposed by the greater of either: First Charge Intensity or Enemy army commander's Battle skill". Following this rule, the -5 charge penalty you suggest would not change anything (since battle intensity is higher than 14 at the beginning of this battle).

That's true, I forgot about that part.

I guess you could allocate the modifier to either intensity or battle skill. A change to intensity would have a much bigger impact on the entire battle however, while the battle skill will often only affect the first charge. So it's a question of how hard do you want to make it on the PKs.