(TFT) Wargame 5 and Mark's comments...

[Rick Smith <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>]

On Thu, 2006-08-24 at 11:32, dwtulloh61@cox.net wrote: 
> Rick,
> 
> here is what I wrote earlier ...
> 
> But note that 'magical training' does not necessarily 
> translate to military utility, ie: merchants/thieves 
> with Lock/Knock. 

  True.  It depends on how the military is looked on
in their society, the pay, etc.  Does your military
system concentrate magical ability into its ranks or
drive away sensible, wizards.  I can easily imagine
societies where both types of behavior occur.


> > However wizards are so useful militarily, ...
>  
> A true military wizard would be of tremendous utility: 
> I doubt if you'd see any of them on the front lines. 
> Rather, I'd expect them to be in the more traditional 
> support roles: gathering/denying information, healing, 
> etc.  Another use would be in 'battlefield shaping', 
> walls, shadow, etc could be use to isolate forces, 
> channel avenues of attack, etc. 

  Battlefield shaping...  I like the sound of that.
However most of the examples you give won't last long
enough to really 'shape' a battle.  They would give 
an advantage during an intense little fight.

>  
> > What are the major jobs? 
> > Concentrated Firepower 
>  
>   Sounds like an argument against letting uber-heroes 
>   lead your legions!  Overwhelm the enemy with numbers. 

  Give one guy $50,000+ in defensive magic items 
and it gets VERY hard for the average soldier to
hurt him.  (Especially if you dump the pole weapons
do *2 on charge rule as some people have suggested.)
Having one person chopping down your friends with 
no chance of you hurting him is very demoralizing.

  I've tried to come up with tactics for little
guys to deal with such figures, but realistically
the people using them have to be really brave and
expect to lose a lot of people.  (I throw them at
my PC's from time to time to keep them on their 
toes but realistically the sensible militia man 
would just run.)

  Of course if your militia is running from Mr
Uber armor your own magic item hero will head over
to deal with it.

> > Movement 
>  
>   So rivers/gorges will no longer impede movement. 
>   Walls: ugh - these seem to be of marginal military 
>   utility now. 

  Sigh, it is true.

>  
> > Defense 
>  
>   Sure, as long as your fST holds up ... but note that 
>   those spells are cast upon INDIVIDUALS, not upon a 
>   group.  ...

  I mentioned this in a previous post.  TFT does
have some mass offensive spells but little in the
way of mass defense.

> ...And here's a good question: if someone hurls 
>   a boulder at you, can it be countered with Reverse 
>   Missiles?  ie, is (or should there be) a weight/force 
>   restriction on the Reverse Missiles spell? 

  In my campaign if you get hit by something big and
fast it stresses the magic item and their is a chance
that it will fail or become less powerful.  So if you
were hit by a 6 die ballista bolt, your item might 
fail.  Usually however the bolt would be turned side
ways or miss you as part of the item's dying gasp.

>  
> > Anti-magic. 
>  
>   I don't have a rulebook handy - but I remember Spell 
>   Shield being a pretty powerful spell. 

  Yes but it protects an individual.  We have the
mass effect "Word of Command" but what mass defensive
spells are there?
> 
> 
> > One question that came up before is what happens when 
> > your wizard squad stacked with a company takes battle 
> > damage? 
>  
> Same applies to your hero who is leading the company 
> or squad.  But also note that certain damage affects 
> the company in different ways.  For example, an arrow 
> affects an individual - gas affects a whole host at 
> once. 

  True, but the vast majority of damage is sword blows,
burns and arrow wounds to individuals.

  I think that this subject deserves its own monograph.

>  
>  
> IIRC, ANYone can attempt to disbelieve an illusion. 
> This means that any illusion cast in the presence of an 
> enemy army has NO chance of lasting for any length of 
> time whatsoever. 
>  
> 
> Dan 

  What is IIRC again?

  Yes, in battlefield situations, Illusions have a very
short lifespan in my campaign.  I actually use Images 
more for scouting since they can't be disbelieved.


  Warm regards, Rick.
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