BoA rules 1-4. Part 4: Battle mechanic (1 of 2)

[Pocus]

4 - Combat mechanic, part 1 of 2.

This is a biggy, so this will be publied in several parts.


The Battle Engine will be called BE hereafter.

Who fights?

One of the first step calculated by the BE is: what armies are fighting initially, and which ones are not fighting. This is determined by the posture of the various armies and where they are in the region (out of a structure or inside).

The first armies to fight are the ones in Assault/Offensive posture, outside the structure. There are several priority criterias, for example non moving armies are choosen first, and then whose which are not too "busy" (already fighting).

If there is not enough opponent armies on offense, then defense, then the passive ones will be picked.

A note on defensive armies: If one of your defensive armies is picked, then all others are commited (they do not engage themselves one by one), for a given region sub-location (outside structure or inside). This can lead to a multi-round commitment though, where at first only your army on offensive fight, and then if you are overwhelmed your defensive ones join battle.

If there is no opponent outside the structure, and you have an army on assault, then the same process is used, but you will be fighting inside.

Who retreats?

Now that we know who will exchange blows, then we have sufficient information to have the BE decide if one side wants to retreat. This is done at the faction level, but each army, if the retreat is decided, will have to make a successful retreat roll to end the battle.
So there is a 2-steps process here:

a) Decide if a faction wants to retreat: This is determined by the ratio of power of the fighting armies, modified by the aggressiveness of the Commander in Chief (the highest ranking, most senior leader of a side), and if some entranchements are set.

b) if the faction wants to retreat, then each army will roll for a retreat, the dice being modified by various parameters (how big or sneaky is the army, if you have some cavalry, if the opponent has some, etc.)

On to the battle!

Ok time, to actually fight. Well not yet... Before starting an hour of battle, the BE will pick a subset of your unit to actually fight. Why a subset? Because you can’t really expect to have 70.000 men actually fighting on a beach if you land, or assaulting at the same time a fort, or even firing in a dense forest. This is where the Terrains Contingencies kick in!

Terrains Contingencies

Some examples:

9 regiments of regular can fight at the same time in clear terrain. Add to that a bonus for each point the Commander of the army has (either in offensive or in defensive, depending of the posture chosen) and another bonus based on the rank he has (so a 3 stars leader can always field a good amount of regiments in plains, even if he won't perform clever tactics!).
The 2 leaders bonus only apply on clear terrain.

The other terrains are simpler to deal with: there is only a TC amount to consider. Take wilderness for example: 3 regiments of regular will fight at a given time there (the elements will be rotated after each hour of battle, so you can wear off the enemy though), but 10+ indians tribes/rangers/partisans can be engaged (that's theoretical, you will have problem finding this number of units in your OOB, but it's to show that you can inflict very serious losses against an enemy in superior numbers, depending of the terrain).

If a unit is adequate to a terrain, few TC points will be used, so you can pile on more of them, or have some more room for costlier units (eg 3 indians tribes + 2 milicias).

Just use common sense, and it will work: dense terrains are not fit for regular units, but are the realms of lighter ones. A fort can't be assaulted by too many men at a given time, etc.

After this procedure, the BE will now actually start to make your units fight. But that will be the subject of the second part of the battle mechanic post.

3 - Military control

Each nation can exerts a military control over the regions. This control can be acquired from 2 sources:

a) by having military units in the region, without any enemy. The more the better. Cavalry and irregular are better at this job.

b) by gaining some ground when attacking an enemy in the region. The army must be on offensive stance for this gain to happen (and only if you take less losses compared to your opponent). This seldom happen in BoA, as this is not a front warfare, but the game engine can handle the case (the 2 armies facing each other at Boston can trigger this effect if one beat the other).

Military control of a region is a rather interesting bonus for a nation:

a) if you have 51% of better, you gain 2 detection points, even without units. You can spot regular units with this value (but dont think you will see the indians or rangers)

b) If you lack sufficient control, you will suffer from adverse effects, in special cases.


These special cases are:

1. you can’t retreat into a region with less than 5% military control. Blazing in enemy countryside can be lethal if you are defeated at some point of your campaign.

2. If you have 10% or less control, then if you land from a ship you are considered from landing on the beach against the enemy fire. Same thing happen if you cross a river and there is a battle: not enough control means not enough territory controled, which lead to a small bridgehead on the other side of the river: you will suffer from the crossing penalty.

=> Military control in BoA, with the options given by the various stances and the fact that a city is another compartment in the same province, try to capture the feeling that a region is not a monolithic block and that many things can happen in many way in it...

2 - Strategic Rating & activations

To simulate correctly some of the issues of the period, each leader has a strategic rating, from 1 (very poor) to 6 (very good). This strategic rating
is rolled each turn with a 6 sided dice. If the result is equal or lower to the Strat Rating, then the leader is active. You always know when you play your turn if the leader is active (bright envelope) or not (darkened envelope).

If the leader was potentially active the previous turn AND has not moved, he gets a -1 bonus toward his activation roll this turn.

A non activated leader can still move (this is to ease gameplay) but at 50% speed. he can’t switch to an assault/offensive posture, and can’t performs special orders (entranching, force march etc.). Basically he will only be able to move slowly some troops.

An active leader has no such restrictions.

Now it has to be understood that this is the leader who is not activated, not the troops under his command. If you detach from the army an activated leader with some troops, they can perform without restrictions.

Some other considerations:
Leaderless troops suffers from the -50% speed penalty and full combat penalty, as soon as one of the unit in the army need one command point (see below).
Naval leaders or embarked land leaders are always active. Naval fleet can have a delay in their order, depending on how good is the admiral.

Seniority:
The commanding leader of an army is not the best one available, its the highest ranked, most senior commander. See Gage (English side, 75 Campaign) in Boston for a bad leader in command!

Command Penalty:
Command Penalty is here to ensure that you can’t discard so easily the bad leaders... Because the game rules are set so that it is slightly better (can depends of circumstances true, if you really want to attack eg) to have an army with a bad leader, compared to an army with a good leader, undercommanded.

Each leader can command x units, that need command.

Units that need command are most of the regular regiments , artilleries and supplies. Indians, rangers, partisans, embarked land units, some naval units (privateers) dont need command point.

A one star leader provides 2 CP
A two stars leader provides 4 CP
A three stars leader provides 12 CP

if your leader can’t command all the army, then the troops will suffer from a command penalty: a reduction in speed, and an increasing percentage chance in combat to loose 1 Rate of Fire and have their initiative halved (you also keep 1 ROF though). Believe me, these penalties are dire: you fire second, and rarely!

Dont hesitate to comment (even on typos) or questions.

1 - The 3 additional roles of Supplies units

Supplies units can be seen as unimportant in many situations. This is because in areas where you controls cities or harbors, these structures are sufficient to resplesnish all units without using up the supply unit.

Not so in some severe conditions (advancing in hostiles regions without any control on nearby cities, in winter, mountain, etc.)

But supplies have usages beside providing with food & ammo. There is also 3 important additional roles for these slow wagons:

1. A supply unit with at least some ammo points remaining give a +10% offensive/defensive fire bonus to all units in battle.

2. A supply unit with at least some general supply points will prevent your troops from surrendering in case of siege.

3. A supply unit can absorb the hit points taken from bad weather by negating 1 hit point damage with an extra 5 supplies points usage (no limit on that, it can dry up your wagon!). Note that the message list the theorical hit points damages, without taking into account this special "supply shielding rule". You will see the difference in your army though



Thanks to all the forumers participating in the proof-reading.

[Elmo]

Thanks for providing the details.

One minor suggestion: Change "activable" to "active" and "non activable" to inactive. It will make the above easier to read.

[Pocus]

ok will do, any other typo?

btw, how you differentiate betwen a leader that can be activated potentially, but was not, and a leader which has been activated? (this is why I used activable, as the action of being potentially activated)

[Elmo]

ok will do, any other typo?

btw, how you differentiate betwen a leader that can be activated potentially, but was not, and a leader which has been activated? (this is why I used activable, as the action of being potentially activated)

A leader who could have been activated and was not is "inactive", or "not activated".

So:

If the leader was potentially active the previous turn AND has not moved, he gets a +1 bonus.

could better be phrased as:

If the leader was inactive the previous turn AND did not move, he gets a +1 bonus toward his activation roll this turn.

Edit - Actually he should get a -1 bonus to the roll since a low roll is better.

[Donan]

In second paragraph under 'Who Fight's':

"The first armies to fight are the ones in Assault/Offensive, outside the structure. There are several priority criterias, for example non moving armies are choosen first, and the ones which are not too "busy" (already fighting ) are also picked first."

The first sentence would perhaps sound better, ' ...are the ones in Assault/Offensive posture...'. Or '...are the ones on Assault/Offensive, ...'

And you have a 'the', instead of 'then' ('...and then ones which...'

"If there is not enough opponent armies in offensive, then the defensives, and then the passives ones will be picked."

May be better if written like this:

'If there is not enough opponent armies on offense, then defense, then the passive ones will be picked.'

'Defensive armies', not 'Defensives'

Armies instead of 'Army' :

"...If one of your defensive army is picked..."

I might be getting too nitpicky here, so I'll stop and if you want more I can (or other's much more qualified) can chirp in. Of course I wish I could be so fluent in two languages!

[Pocus]

no its great, I take absolutly no offense in having free english (american?) courses

I will correct that too.

[Elmo]

[quote="Pocus"]no its great, I take absolutly no offense in having free english (american?) courses ]

Well in that case... all references to "cant" should be "can't". It's a contraction for "can not".

No more nitpicking, I promise!

[Elmo]

Just to clarify one thing:

Leaderless troops suffers from the -50% speed penalty and full combat penalty, as soon as one of the unit in the army need one command point (see below).

I can see where the whole army would suffer the speed penalty since the units are all stacked, but what about the combat penalty? Does the penalty apply to every unit or just the one(s) out of command? Thanks.

[[FS] Feltan]

Well in that case... all references to "cant" should be "can't". It's a contraction for "can not".

No more nitpicking, I promise!

Common Elmo...give him a break! Half the native english speakers make worse errors than that!

I think all us english speakers could use some French lessons! I took a look at the French forums. I don't speak a single word of French. Funny, sometimes I could kind of understand what was being said. I think.

Things like "Gage le sucko" aren't hard to figure out.

Pocus should post a French word, or French phrase, of the day. See if we can't roll them into our posts on this english side of the forums.....might be good for a few laughs.

Regards,
Feltan

[waynef]

To AGEOD ... from all the gamers who have purchased BoA

C'est un grand jeu. Merci de prendre le temps et l'effort. Im attendant avec intérêt votre prochain projet !

[Donan]

O.k. As time permit's (or someone else see's something or corrects my own
suggestion(!):>):

Under 'Who Retreats'. First line, no 's' on 'information'. However there is a 's'
on 'want'.

a) 'aggressiveness' over 'agressivity' most likely.

'On to the Battle': 3rd line, no comma after 'beach'

'Terrain Contingencies': 3rd line: 'choosen' should be 'chosen'
4th Line: '...in the plains...' and next line, no 's' on 'perform'. And no 's' on 'leader'.

Next paragraph: spelling: 'theoretical' ; add an 's' to 'number' (as in superior numbers)

Next paragraph: '...pile on more of them...'

Next paragraph: '...fit for regular...' not 'to'. And '...too many men', not 'much'.

That's it for now.

[Donan]

I sooo agree with Feltan on this. But I think why he's asking is that he plans to add this to some manual .pdf files and just want's them as correct as possible. But you are so right too, I'm lucky I get a sentence right myself!!

[Elmo]

Feltan']Common Elmo...give him a break! Half the native english speakers make worse errors than that!

....

Regards,
Feltan

He asked for more corrections so I gave him one more, and I admitted it was nitpicking. There are plenty of other grammatical corrections I could have made but didn't. We all realize these guys have English as a second language and we're just trying it help make a better manual.

BTW it's "Come on", not "Common" but I'll bet you knew that already.

[Sol Invictus]

Remember Pocus, Americans speak "American", which is different from English.

[Elmo]

[quote="Sol Invictus"]Remember Pocus, Americans speak "American", which is different from English. ]

Especially if y'all are from Kaintucky...

[Pocus]

Just to clarify one thing:



I can see where the whole army would suffer the speed penalty since the units are all stacked, but what about the combat penalty? Does the penalty apply to every unit or just the one(s) out of command? Thanks.

to all, its a simplification ... well perhaps not. Figure a regiment of redcoats with some indians warriors, without a leader with enough insight so to order the indians to act as skirmishers, or do some other trick, while the regular fire on 2 lines... Then your indians would be rather penalized by this (lack of) tactic, and would suffer a penalty.

[Pocus]

ok, corrected all.

the true reason: its a devious scheme so that you all read several times the extended rulebook

[Adlertag]

Feltan']Common Elmo...give him a break! Half the native english speakers make worse errors than that!

I think all us english speakers could use some French lessons! I took a look at the French forums. I don't speak a single word of French. Funny, sometimes I could kind of understand what was being said. I think.

Things like "Gage le sucko" aren't hard to figure out.

Pocus should post a French word, or French phrase, of the day. See if we can't roll them into our posts on this english side of the forums.....might be good for a few laughs.

Regards,
Feltan

Yes it's a good thing to speak each other's languages ( at least trying ). The better way to preclude misunderstandings between our nations.
So speak French , guys , you are welcome.

[Sol Invictus]

Elmo, we speak an even more peculiar form of "American" here in "God's Country".

[Lafayette]

Supplies units can be seen as worthless in many situations.

This sounds wrong to me. Do you mean to say "supply units are often unnecessary in many situations"? The term "worthless" implies that supply units not only aren't used in a situation, but that they also have no value at all, potential or otherwise. I would soften the phrase a bit so that it conveys the idea that you just don't always need a supply unit to be in supply.

[Sol Invictus]

I think he meant that supply units can sometimes be seen; incorrectly; as worthless, when in fact they can be very useful even when actual supply isn't really needed. He didn't mean to imply that they are indeed worthless in many situations, quite the opposite.

[[FS] Feltan]

- Supply units are often not fully appreciated for their true value.

- Misunderstood and under appreciated, Supply units trudge around the map looking for friends.

- If Mr. Supply unit misses his medications, he will do odd things -- like charge a full stack of enemy units, or try to lay seige to a town all by himself.

Regards,
Feltan

[Pocus]

ok ok, I will turn the sentence in a different way

[Grell]

Hi Feltan,

Funny stuff that is. I have noticed the same unusual behaviour.

Regards,

Grell

[rasnell]

Manual says one-star = 2 units, 2-star =6 and 3-star = 18. Is the manual out of date or the note above incorrect?

[Pocus]

the notes above are right, the manual need to be updated.

[Donegal]

What about combat mechanic 2 of 2? I,m looking forward for it

[Hobbes]

Agreed 2 of 2 would b great. Can you explain how the protection value works in this?

Cheers, Chris

[Pocus]

Fog of War, Detection and Hide Value.

When the region is in gray it means you have 0 detection points in the region. If the region is not labelled as being in FoW, it means you have at least 1 point.

Points are generated by 3 sources:

a) you have at least 51% in military control: you get 2 points.
b) you have at least 51% in population loyalty: you get 2 points
c) you have troops: the troops with the highest Detection rating give you his points (Add indians or rangers with a regular army, it can be useful!)

these 3 sources are not cumulative, instead the highest is used.

Note that in case of c), each group (an army or a fleet) has a detection value against land units, and one against sea units.

Once the sources are computed, the engine checks if regions adjacents to a source can benefits from it, by using either the highest value between the region, or the best adjacent source detection points with a penalty of 1.

A source won't be able to give points farther than 1 region away (ie adjacents to it).

Being detected, or not:

If a group is in a region with a structure (your or enemy) and is not in passive posture, the Hide Value is 1, and nothing else is checked. This has been done to solve several problems, like a sneaky rangers in defensive outside a structure, who can go unnoticed but still able to prevent the capture of the structure... or indians besieging you, and being so stealthy that you can't even see who is the offending besieger, etc.

A group has the hide value of the unit with the lowest hide value in its rank.

Modifiers:
If you have only leaders, +1
If you have 2 or less units (leaders not counted), +1. This is the number of units a one-star leader can command.
If you have more than 12 units (leaders not counted) -1. This is the number of units + one more than a 3-stars leader can command.
Being in a region with sneak terrain (wilderness, mountain, ...) +1
Harsh weather such has blizzard: +1

The 2 values are checked against each other. If you have a detection value equal to the hide value, you detect the enemy, but with reduced accuracy (you know that there is x leaders and y regulars for example)

Based on the excess of detection points which you possess, the accuracy of the intelligence information you will receive will increase. The game recognizes four distinct levels of intelligence quality.

[Pocus]

5 - Combat mechanic, part 2 of 2.

Range:

[color=Black]Each element (a company in BoA eg) choosen to fight for a given round (= hour) of battle has a range associated with it. Some terrains and climates reduce range, to the point that at time the fight will only start at range 1 (near close contact). On the other hand clear terrain and fair weather allow maximal range, and thus favors artillery and such.

Each element has also an initiative, that can be improved with some abilities, with experience, and be degraded if the army is under commanded. High initiative will make the element fire first, if at range, but not always. There is some luck involved too.

Each element has a Rate of Fire, the number of time the element can fire in a single round. There is a penalty of 1 if the element is under commanded, and another penalty if shaken. Anyway, you always have a minimal RoF of 1 (to prevent endless fight...).

Shaken: An element is considered shaken for a given round, if he has sustained losses and fail a morale check. To pass a moral check you have to roll a 10-sided dice equal or less your TQ (troop quality). This is where some abilities shine, like Militiaman that gives +2 to the TQ of militia. When the losses start to pile up and the moral checks are required, this make a tremendous difference.

Excluded elements:
Elements are also excluded from acting in the following cases:
a) Ships without enough ammos (land units can still fire but with a penalty)
b) support element in close combat (artillery eg)
c) leaders
d) embarked troops


Firing (or assaulting):

At last!

Each time an element acts (firing or assaulting) these parameters are determined:

Command bonus:
Each point in offensive, defensive or assault from a leader gives a 5% bonus, substracting the value of the enemy leader, with a minimum of 0. eg if you have a leader with 3 in defensive and your element fire against an element commanded by a leader with 6, you don't have a penalty.
Command bonus is altered with the command penalty also.

Wind gauge bonus:
if a ship and the fleet has the wind advantage.

Battle bonus from an ability:
The battle bonus is a very versatile ability that can be given to any unit, not only to leaders, by the scenario maker. This ability can boost the fire value, assault, rate of fire, initiative, protection, TQ. Some examples: Militiaman is a battle bonus ability, as Artillerist or Cavalryman. These abilities can be tweaked to be restricted to some units, terrains, areas... Cavalryman is a bonus only given to cavalries in clear terrain for example.

Some abilities cumulates, some does not (this would be a whole thread). In BoA these abilities have been set so that even if the leader having it is not the commander in chief, they works. This mean that cavalries in Washington's army (commanded by Washington) benefits from the Cavalryman ability given by a subordinate.

Terrain bonus and penalties:
Terrain can alters the fire, assault, TQ, protection values. If your army is in defensive or passive posture, you get the defensive side of the terrain matrix. If your army is in assault or offensive, you get the offensive side. Note that some terrains still heavily favors some units, even in offensive, and heavily penalize some units, even in defensive. For example when you set an ambush, your party is in offensive, but still get huge bonus for irregulars in offensive and in forest/wilderness etc.
If you are the owner of the structure and the fight is taking place in it, you always get the defensive matrix and the attacker get the offensive matrix.

Entranchments:
Entranchements give a bonus (2 points) of protection for each level (in BoA level is restricted to 1) and a penalty in assault (to the attacker)

Crossing/landing penalties:
If your army is crossing or landing on a beach, you get a penalty.

Failed Retreat & passive penalty:
if your army attempted (and failed) a retreat or is in passive posture, you get a penalty (they do not cumulate though, the highest is used)

Lack of ammos or food penalty:
self explainatory

Forced March penalty:
[/color][color=Black]self explainatory

Supply bonus:
If your element is firing (not assaulting) in an army with a supply unit that have some ammos left, or in a region with a depot with some ammos left, you get a +10% bonus to fire (fire x 1.1)

Probabilities:

The base is the offensive fire, defensive fire or assault value, time 4%, and altered by the various parameters. each point of protection reduces the % chance by 4% too.

A simple example:
English regular (Fire 9) commanded by a leader with a 3 rating: 9 * 1.15 * 4 = 41.4%

If the element hits, the opposing element take a certain amount of hits (it varies depending of the firing units, can be 1 to 3).
The receiving element do'nt fire back immediatly! It will fires only when its turns has come.

Assault:
Assault is handled differently. To assault, the acting element must pass a TQ check, if failed nothing happens.
What's more, the one who has the highest TQ further reduce the probability of the opponent to score some hits.
Finally, assault is a 2 sides affair: if the acting element assaults, the receiver always strike back.
=> When the range close, troops with the highest quality have very big chances to inflict extreme losses. In BoA the english regular has a tendency to have a higher TQ compared to the american militias, this is why american losses tend to be rather heavy if the english close by (if the battle is not too unbalanced...).

Finalizing the action:
if the element kill the receiver, you get VP and the element gains experience. If a leader is commanding the element, a fraction of the experience thus gained is also given to the leader. If the receiver was commanded, a fraction of the experience is substracted from the commanding officer amount.

If you benefit from the Petty War rule and have lost an irregular, you give one additional VP to your opponent.

The battle process like that, range by range, hour by hour, element by element, until one side successfully retreat, is destroyed or 8 hours have elapsed. Each hour enable some "units rotation" meaning that battered units have a tendency to be replaced by fresh ones, if you have units in reserve (meaning terrain contingency prevents you from deploying and using all your army in a given hour).
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comments on typos and rewording appreciated
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