Re: (TFT) Wizards at War

["Neil Gilmore" <raito@raito.com>]

> 4) Enchantment operations - of course all the commanders will want their
magic swords and reverse missiles armor, but a few hundred +3 swords don't
win a war.  A +2 Charm for the army commander might, though.  So other than
a few mega-items for the warlord supremos, what else is there?  Well there's
the inevitable Explosive Gems for the shock troops...although I think Dazzle
gems are a better buy' because of the huge area they affect.  It's probably
more cost-effective to give a few dozen enemy troops -3 to hit rather than
to blow up one or two guys.  Create Elemental is another good one, although
not strictly an enchantment.  Unlike all the other summons, this one lasts
for a day or more, not a few rounds.

You contradict yourself here a bit. A few hundred +3 items >which are +3
each blow< is less useful than than putting the everyone except you at -3
for only 3 turns. (I only have Wizard here, but it says ALL sighted
creatures within 5 megahexes). Nothing about facing away, blindfolds, etc.
In fact, it says '... a blinding psychic flash.' No mention of physical
manifestation, which would make it ideal for single person covert
operations...

Anyway, let's get back to those +3 swords. How about some assumptions? Say
both armies are 5000 strong, and are average joe swordsman, ST12, DX12(10),
IQ8, using broadsword, small shield, and leather armor. Furthermore, let's
assume that, for argument that everyone can enagage someone. Without those
magic swords, it's a crap shoot. Whoever rolls better wins. Now let's add
300 +3 swords. First off, those 300 automatically will get the first strike
on their opponents in the first round, with an adjDX of 13 vs 10. That's
about 83.8% hitting. That's about 251 hits right off the bat, 4 points each
adjusted. Now look at damage. 251 is pretty close to the 3-dice 216 rolls.
So we'll get a triple damage, 3 double-damage, and the same for droppinng
weapons. Looking over damage, the important cutoffs are rolls of 8,9,10
for -2 DX (remember armor...) and 11 and 12 for knocking down. That's 21
knocked down, 84 at -2 DX, and 21 not injured at all, not counting multiple
damage hits. We've just damaged about 5% of the other force before they
could touch us. (Historically, this is already a rout, but let's continue).

Now half the normal attacks take place (order based on die roll)(not knocked
down or at -2 DX). That's 2447 for the non-magic, and 2350 for the magic.
50% hit, so that's 1224 and 1175. Sure the non-magical get more hits here,
but they're already 251 hits behind. Now damage. Non-magical knocks down 6
guys with magic swords, and 96 others. They put at -2DX 26 guys w/ magic,
and 382 others. The magic side knocks down 98 guys, and puts at -2DX 392
guys. They also drop and break weapons, nonmagic 34 and 11, magic 33 and 11.
Those guys won't be attacking next turn...

Now the remaining ones at 10DX get to attack. Since we're pairing off for
the attacks, if one side knocked down/DX'd someone in the first 'half' of
combat, they're affected this half. So we have 1957 non-magical attacks, and
1872 magical attacks, resulting in 979 nonmagical hits, and 936 magical side
hits. Nonmagical knocks down 5 gusy w/ magic swords, and 75 others, put
at -2DX 21 guys w/swords, and 321 others. Magical knocks down 78, DX's 312.
Drops and breaks are 27 and 9 magical, 24 and 8 magical.

Now the guys who got DX'd get to attack. They all attack at once, because
none of them is facing another DX'd character. That's 476 nonmagical, 382
magical. They've got only around a 25% chance to hit, so that's 119
nonmagical hits and 96 magical hits. Nonmagical knocks down 1 w/magic and 9
others, and DX's 3 and 37. Magical knocks 8 and DX's 24. Drops and breaks
are nonmagical 7 and 2, magical 6 and 2.

So at the end of the first round...
The side with the magical swords has regular troops: 180 knocked down, 284
DX'd, 63 dropped weapon, and 21 broken weapons. Guys w/+3 swords: 12 knocked
down, 24 DX'd, and 4 dropped weapons. That leaves 4052 regular troops ready
to fight normally next turn, and 260 with magic swords. Of course, I'd lump
in the DX'd magical troops with the normal guys for the next turn, as their
adjDX is now 10, bringing the grand total to 4436 troops fighting normally
(or better next turn).

The nonmagical side has 205 knocked down, 336 DX'd, 68 dropped weapons, and
22 broken weapons. That leaves 4369 troops fighting normally next turn.

That's a surplus of 67 troops to the magical side, and they'll get another
218 hits on this side before it can hit back. If I could wrangle the
movement at this point, I'd leave the nonmagical guys getting up off the
ground, and hit some normal troops. And each turn, it just gets worse...

Neil Gilmore
raito@raito.com
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