(TFT) Wargame 5 --> Wizards in TFT Wargame

[Rick Smith <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>]

Hi all,
  Some thoughts about Wizards in TFT Wargame I'm
mentally playing with.

  In ITL it says that ~1/200 of the population has
some magical training.  However wizards are so
useful militarily, I would expect that a higher
percentage of wizards in the military.  If the
companies are about 50 people, then many units
could have a wizard (which is ignored as part of
the company) and each side might have 1 or 2 
powerful wizards + apprentices (which are placed 
in their own specialty squads).


  What are the major jobs that magic can serve
in battle?

- Concentrated Firepower:  When the enemy company
has one guy with uber magical armor that no one
can stop, then you create a 7 hex dragon to grab 
him & drop him in the nearest lake.  Sure wizards
can hit with their staffs and summon wolves but
they will have bigger impact taking out the tough
problems.

- C^3I.  Enforcing discipline, helping to transmit
orders, sending long distance messages (on a 
strategic scale) and spying on the enemy.  Several
of these tasks are very difficult to do in a
typical fantasy campaign with out magic.

- Healing.  Disease carried off more soldier than
battles did, in low tech armies.  Cleansing spells
can nip plagues in the bud, heal sick or infected
individuals and help morale.  If a TFT campaign
has some sort of magical healing (most do) then
large units would be able to recover from battles
much more quickly than normal.

- Movement.  Summoned gargoyles can carry and tie
ropes across streams.  Flight spells can have 
tough fighters fly to the tops of castle walls,
etc.

- Defense.  Armor spells, blurs, REVERSE MISSILES!
Generally TFT has a variety of powerful defensive
magics.

- Anti-magic.  Counter enemy magic, prevent scrying
and the like.  If you want magic to have a small
effect in the game make anti-magic easy.  In the
regular TFT rules, anti-magic is fairly weak.

- Combat Preparation. Magic items, exploding gems,
etc.  These can't be done on the battle field but
a side with lots of time and wizards would have a
big advantage over someone that doesn't.

- Questioning prisoners.  Hmmm... this would likely
fall into C^3I.

- Can anyone think of something else?



  Another important fact is the amount of fST the
wizard has.  Let us say we have a few double sided
counters with the values: 0/8, 1/8, 2/8 ... 7/8.
(Four types of double sided counters.)  When a 
unit is fresh (8/8th fST) it has no counters.  If
we assume that most wizards have a 10 to 12 ST and
6 to 4 fST in superscripts, ST batteries or other
bonuses then each wizard and apprentice has 16 fST
to spend.  If we assume a wizard squad has 1 major
wizard and 5 apprentices, then 1 level of fatigue
is ~20 fST.  
  This is a healthy amount of magic that should be
able to make a noticeable battlefield effect.

  It would take 30 minutes to get this fST back so
it would be awkward to recover this much fST in a
5 or 10 minute battle turn.

  However, I want it to be possible to have slower
periods in a battle.  If we have an "Attrition turn"
where there is a pause in the battle, we would have
time to recover 1/8th of a unit's fatigue.


  My idea is to rate the wizard squad for the
specialties above.  Each specialty has a 5 point
rating, with one spell for each rating.  

  For example, the units start the game face down.
You could send a gargoyle scout flying over it,
which lets you look at that unit.  Thus a scout
unit 4 hex range spell.

  A wizard with movement magic could do a spell and
allow any units with it to ignore the movement
penalty of one hex of terrain, etc.

  I expect that some spells would have a 0 fST cost.


  There are some new spells that I would make for 
regular TFT which would be directly applicable for
the TFT wargame.  For example, TFT does not have any
any anti-scrying (anti-magical spying) spells.  

  Anyone have some ideas for new spells that cost 
20 to 60 fST that would be useful for military 
troops of ~50 men?

  In Lords of the Underearth, whole companies could
inter penetrate each other with great ease.  Perhaps
there is a 100 fST spell that allows you and your 49 
closest friends to teleport 20 meters?


  When a wizard squad is attacked it should be able
to fight back or escape quite well, but at high fST
cost.  


  This system I am describing is pretty TFT like.
(A bunch of spells that you cast to do things.)  But
we might wish to say that units stacked with a wizard
squad just get certain bonuses for free and save 
putting some types of information on the counter 
(also saving us from making another batch of 
operational level spells).  Any thoughts on what
branches of magic need specific spells and which 
should become standard powers?


  One question that came up before is what happens
when your wizard squad stacked with a company takes
battle damage?  You want the company to take it.
Your opponent wants the wizards to take it.  I see
several solutions:

- Random.  Roll a die with some modifiers.
- One player or another always picks.
- Combat table specifies.
- Some rules that vary result based on situation.
- Squad is immune from company damage.

  Can anyone think of another way of doing this?  
Do people have preferences on assigning damage?  I
am thinking of other specialty squads so ideally 
the system for answering this question will work
for them as well.


  Does this feel like the best way to go for Wizards
in the TFT wargame?


  Regards, Rick.
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