H. Combat

Zone Combat.

Swift Swords Tactica uses an area based (zone) system for combat resolution. Using 15mm figures you will generally have tiles 6”x6” (or 9"x9") in size with a dominant terrain type and/or feature. See the Movement rules for further details.

Zones do not use linear scales, or have any measures other than ‘a zone’ itself. Within the time frame of a round, and the following Status rules, a figure can normally be assumed to be able to move anywhere within a zone during their action.

Combat Time

The length of a Round of combat is variable, depending on the initiative of those involved. In a rough sense it can be seen as between 10 and 20 seconds. The length of a round can be considered to be the total of the sequential actions of those within it, assuming some overlaps.

The term 'round' however is flexible in its interpretation and mostly applies to the individual's actions, not as a unit of time. Everyone will start an encounter with a specific number of action dice (AD), and will expend these as they perform actions. Whenever anyone tries to perform an action, and they do not have enough AD to do it a refresh will be triggered. A refresh will give everyone a new set of AD, based on the number they are each entitled to. In this way combat will become more fluid and not defined by start and end of round flags. A round for a single creature will be until the their first action after a refresh is called. Details will be given below.

Status

Each single individual within a zone will be classed as in one of three conditions, as follows.

Alone

The individual is NOT involved in a group melee, they are standing apart from any enemies in an attempt to perform specific tasks that require this. This is normally displayed with figurines by placing the individual out of contact with any other figurine.

Moving to Alone status from InContact requires the use of the Move (and risk an opportunity attack) or Withdraw action. On the first occasion you enter a zone you are Alone unless part of a Charge.

Friends may stand alone as a group, as long as no enemies are touching them. However if they do and one enemy does move into contact then they all immediately count as InContact. Standing alone as a group has advantages in some Spell Targeting.

InContact

The individual is involved in a group melee, moving amongst the combatants and attacking and defending normally. This is displayed with figurines by placing bases in contact. There may be several different groups InContact within a zone at the same time, they are NOT in contact with each other.

To be InContact there must be an enemy present in the group, otherwise everyone is Alone and just standing near each other and can optionally be separated if the owners want (as part of their action).

InClose

The individual is in Close Combat (hand to hand) with at least one other. By definition this means they are also InContact. This is normally displayed by placing those involved on their side and in base contact. Combatants InClose are considered to be prone unless they are 3x the size of their opponents. A standing opponent can still be brought down if the conditions are met.

Contact example.

Eg: Two sides are in the middle of conflict below, Red Dots vs the Empty. Group 1 are all InContact with each other and form a melee, as do groups 2 and 3. The "A"s are StandAlone, with A1 being allies merely standing next to each other. B's are on the zone boundary in transit to or from the zone. C's are StandAlone in adjacent zones.

As 1 is a melee the members of it are free to move around within the group when it is their action, allowing them to attack anyone else within the melee. They may be able to ‘drag’ an outsider into the melee using the appropriate action. If a figure StandAlone gets in the way of a InContact group it is merely moved away. Actual position generally isnt an issue as you are able to move as part of a normal action and can therefore re-position yourself as required, BUT it may become an issue if your movement becomes hindered. Some directional (missiles or spells) attacks may use your actual position to determine line of sight.

It is quite possible for several different groupings of combatants to form within a single zone. Movement from one to the other is not limited (other than with an intercept action) short of your movement capacity being reduced. Leaving an InContact may require a specific action, such as Withdraw, or risk an Opportunity action free attack.

Combatants will normally move around placing their figurine adjacent to the one they wish to attack. GMs may restrict the total number of people that can attack another based around some maximum number (maybe 4 for a man sized target), or via those figurines that can actually make base contact (and thus have defined sizes and shapes for bases to make them relevant, based on size and shape).

Sequence of Play

a. Determine surprise.

b. Determine battlefield and starting positions

c. Roll Action Dice for the round

d. Take actions in accordance with the Countdown.

e. Repeat c to e until encounter is over.

f. End the encounter.

Initiative, ActionDice(AD) & Actions

All participants of a combat begin with a number of ActionDice (AD) plus or minus any modifiers. For a player this will normally be 4d. They roll the dice and keep them aside. The number of dice you use determines partly how many actions you can perform in a round. Having more dice allows you to choose if you will act first, and will allow you to perform more actions.

Any dice showing a 1 will provide only limited action options, which are listed below. Any dice showing a 6 gives you an extra dice, roll that extra dice and add it to your pool (rerolls do not give you further rerolls).

Minor NPCs do not roll, they are simply given a set number of dice (eg 5,4,3,2 or 5,3,2). Major NPCs may roll at the discretion of the GM.

The minimum number of dice you can have is 1, if you fall below 1 you still get 1 dice set at 3. The normal maximum number of dice you can have is 6, not counting rerolls. Some Advantages increase this.

As a guide: default Heroes will have 4d, as would veteran soldiers and top level predators. Normal soldiers, common predators and omnivores would have 3d. Untrained creatures and herbivores would have 2d.

The following modifiers may apply to the number of AD you use:

The Countdown

The order of action is as follows:

• The most AD (actual dice, not scores)
• Players
• NPCs

So when several creatures have the same AD total a player (any) may elect to act first, which player is up to them. If GM controlled creatures apply then the GM may select which one will go first.

Generally players will have more dice than NPCs, other than boss mobs. This will mean it is possible for players to clean up NPCs before they even get an action… well they are HEROes after all.

Actions & Refresh

Each time an action is taken one or more AD will be discarded that equal or exceed the cost of the action. Only one action can be undertaken at a time. Eg: a melee attack with a normal weapon is rated as a 4, this means you must have dice showing a value of 4 or more to perform the action. This can come from one dice, or several, as long as the total equals or exceeds the cost.

Dice showing 1's are limited in what they can be used for, and cannot be combined with other dice to achieve an action cost.

Some actions will allow for the creation of an Action Pool (AP), where AD are accumulated for bonus effects. The most common AP will be Cast (spell). Where an AP is to be used the base Action cost must be paid at the start, then 1 extra dice is added to the pool each time that character is allowed to act. When the character wishes to activate the pool they simply announce this when it is their turn and resolve the Action. A dice showing a 1 cannot be used for this purpose (adding). If you perform any action other than POOL the pool of dice are lost.

When any character uses their last AD and completes their action, they must call for a "Refresh". Everyone else then gets one more option to act. If they have sufficient dice they may perform an Action, or they may take one of their AD and carry it over to the next round. As each creature performs their last action they remove all remaining dice to indicate they have had their last turn. If they are carrying a dice over to the next round simply hold it to the side so no one gets confused. Once everyone has chosen (to act or keep) everyone rerolls a new set of AD. Those that kept a dice (carry over) add it to their normal pool and roll all of them. Creatures with small dice pools will trigger refreshes as they run out of dice, the simple solution to this is to act and prevent them acting.

Action Costs.

Taking an action will use up AD, the number of dice used will depend on the action and the scores on the dice, as shown in the following lists. Dice, other than 1's, may be combined to meet the cost of the action, eg a Break action will cost 4 pips of dice, so you could combine a dice showing 2 and 3 to make 5, sufficient for the cost. Wastage of pips is expected.

Where a P is indicated in the Pip Cost it means the action is pool-able, you can accumulate action dice over a number of actions.

General Actions.

InClose actions.

InClose Combat

Being InClose means you are fighting at close quarters and this has some special conditions.

All combatants InClose are considered to fall prone unless they are 3x the Size of all opponents (or have an appropriate Skill or Advantage). Creatures with different leg structures may gain a bonus, for eg a horse might be rated +1 Size due to having 4 legs (Stability bonus), a spider with 8 legs might be +2 sizes (Stability+ bonus) etc.

The types of weapons available for use in InClose combat are limited to Light and Medium, and Natural weapons. Heavy weapons will be dropped. Light weapons will gain an automatic SL when used in InClose.

Natural human weapons (hands and feet) will count as Light but will not gain the bonus SL unless an appropriate skill or advantage, or equipment, is used. Skills exist to modify this. Other forms of natural weapons (claws and teeth etc) will do their normal damage. Natural weapons designed for combat (claws, talons, beaks, fangs etc) will count as Light unless noted otherwise, and will gain the bonus SL.

Other forms of combat exist within InClose combat, such as wrestling and grappling. These allow 'holds' to be applied to creatures that are not significantly larger (less than 3x times Size). A Hold is inflicted by a successful attack with an Skill that will allow it. Once a Hold is inflicted the opponent has only the following options:

• Break the Hold: a BODY vs BODY roll, if the held victim wins the Hold is reduced one level for each success obtained. If reduced to zero then it is broken.
• Reverse the Hold: a BODY vs BODY roll where the victim wins by 2 or more successes, allowing them to reverse the situation.
• Yield

When the holder has an action they have the following options:

• Inflict damage. A base hold does Light damage.
• Improve the Hold. A new attack is made and if successful the Hold increases one damage class, Light becomes Medium.
• Abandon the Hold and perform some other action.

A subdual attack is possible once a Hold has been made. The level of the Hold is used to roll damage (no extra dice but some Skills may help) and this is resisted by the targets BOD roll plus any Size differences (so large targets are hard to subdue). If the attacker wins then the opponent is OoA.

A knock down is possible against targets that remain standing InClose due to Size. This will be a BODY vs BODY roll plus any Size difference. An opponent who is prone losses any protections they had due to Size and may now suffer Holds. To stand-up they must Withdraw from InClose.

Defences.

Defences are optional active attempts to stop or reduce the affect of an attack. They are gained by taking an appropriate Skill. All defences require a full action dice (use an AD, not a 1) to be expended, this must be decided after an attack is declared but before it is resolved (so the attacker declares the attack and before they roll any dice the defender declares a defence).

There are three main forms of defence as follows.

Dodge:

An attempt to avoid the attack by moving your body out of the way, or using objects to achieve the same thing. Works against both melee and missiles. Against a fired missile the number of successes in the Dodge result is reduced by 1 (eg you roll 3 successes, but they will only count as 2 against a fired missile).

Each successful dodge dice removes one attack dice before they are rolled, so a dodge defence must be rolled before the attacker rolls. The Dodge roll creates a Pool, see below.

If a net number of dodge successes exist (all attack dice are removed) then they can be applied as exposures to the attacker (place them in front of the attacker, set to 1, equal to the remainder of the Dodge pool.

Block:

Blocks exists to try to stop the incoming attack (melee or missile). When a Block is used the defender rolls their skill dice and creates a Block Pool. Any success indicates that the Block has worked. If the Block works the armour value of the blocking device is added to the defenders total armour value.

The attacker may use any successes from their attack roll to reduce the number of dice in the Block Pool, with an aim to remove them all and stop the Block. This will of course reduce the effectiveness of the attack.

If a net number of Block successes exist (more than the one needed) then they can be applied as exposures to the attacker (place them in front of the attacker, set to 1, equal to the remainder of the Block total). eg: Your block total is 4 so you can place 3 exposures on them.

Eg: the defender declares a Block and rolls 6d getting 2 successes so the Block is working. The attacker rolls and gets 4 successes. The attacker can continue with the 4 successes but the defender would count their shield as part of their armour and they will gain 1 exposure. The attacker can expend 2 of their successes and reduce the Block to no successes, and the Block fails, but the attacker only has 2 successes inflicting damage.

The options here depend a lot on the weight of the attackers weapon and the amount of armour the defender has and the number of successes rolled.

Parry:

Try to force the attacker to expose themselves.Using a weapon or shield, to deflect the effects of a melee attack, possibly exposing your enemy. A Parry may be usable vs missiles if the appropriate Skill+Mod is taken.

A Parry defence does not Pool.

Each successful parry roll will convert a miss result (normally 2-4) by the attacker into a 1 result. These will be treated as exposure dice. If all the attackers dice hit (there are no misses to convert) then a Parry will have no effect.

The defender may elect to take all the opponents exposure dice (all of them) and use them to make an immediate attack roll with them.

Pools.

Maintaining a Defence Pool When you make a Dodge or Block you should keep the roll in front of you (the successful dice), it will be used to defend against any further attacks made against you that the defence would work against.

The defence roll is only discarded if you elect to do some other action other than Pool. If you perform a Pool action you may add 1 dice to your defence pool (counts as a success) upto the number of dice you would normally roll. If you became stunned or suffer trauma or worse you would lose the defence pool.

After each use of your defence pool against an attack you must discard one dice from it, including the first attack.

Eg: Roland is being attacked by 3 goblins but help is a few moves away. On the first goblins attack he decides to Dodge, his Dodge pool being 4d (Skill) + 1d (Adv). He rolls and gets 4 successes. The first Goblin only has 4d of attack so all of them are cancelled by the 4d of Dodge. Roland discards 1d of the 4 (the cost). The second goblin attacks and misses with a 3, having 1d left of his 4. Roland discards a dice, down to 2d of Dodge. Roland takes an action and uses a Pool, adding 1d to his Dodge Pool. The third goblin attacks with a net 1d (4-3) and rolls a 1 which is a Fumble.

Eg: Roland is being attacked by 3 goblins but help is a few moves away. On the first goblins attack he decides to Block with a Medium Shield (Block=2), his Block pool being 4d (Skill) + 1d (Adv) + 2 from the Shield. He rolls and gets 2 successes, making a Block Pool of 4. The first Goblin has 4d of attack and scores 2 successes, not more than the Block pool of 4 so the shield works and reduces the number of successes by 2, so the goblin misses plus he suffers 2 exposures (net 4-2=2). Roland discards 1d of the 4 (the cost to Block). The second goblin attacks and gets 2 hits vs the Block=3, so again the shield works and reduces the number of successes to 0, plus the Goblin suffers 1 exposure. Roland discards a dice, down to 2d of Block. Roland takes an action and uses a Pool, adding 1d to his Block Pool, back upto 3. The third goblin attacks and manages to get an amazing 4 successes, which is higher than the Block pool of 3 so the shield is ignored and the 4 successes become 4 hits. Rolands Block Pool is reduced to 2d.

Specific tactics exist to remove Defence Pools (eg Break).

Ranks.

All creatures are rated for Physical and Mental standings - Ranks. The Ranks go from +9 to -3 and represent various levels of capacity. The system is an abstraction, so although a big powerful monster will be rated fairly highly, heroes can rate equivalent or better due to skill, training and morale. The system goes from being a bash them till they drop dead from wounds, to one where you bash them till they admit they are beaten. In this system physical wounds are removed from being the primary means of defeating an opponent, and overall state of defeat becomes the over-riding objective. Along the way 'wounds' can be inflicted that will have debilitating effects, but these will be far less frequent, and much less likely against big monsters. Opponents that are 'beaten' will be assumed to run away or surrender rather than forming a big pile of blood soaked corpses. Killing an opponent will be much less frequent, and more a choice of victory.

All creatures will be ranked from 1 to 9 for Physical and Mental status. A strong physical rating can reflect not only size and power but skill and resourcefulness. A strong Mental rating is not about intelligence, it is more about morale, drive, training and stubbornness. Both can be varied on the fly based on circumstances and situation.

The following tables have some guidelines for determining starting ranks.

The numbers given under the size/Physicals column are merely possible examples of where to place various monsters. Players/heroes should be boosted one level automatically compared to their numerical values (they are Heroic). Other factors may raise or decrease the scores as you see fit.

Determining Ranks

Apart from the straight numerical Size (or Physical/Mental scores) values listed in the tables below there are a number of other factors that can alter a creatures rank, mostly at the whim of the GM.

Players should always be given an extra level over what they may rate as numerically, they are heroes after all. They will automatically gain a Feat called Heroic which does this. The extra level can be taken either on the Physical side or the Mental side at the beginning of each event.

Magic will play a big role in altering rank.

Creatures may have powers that modify rank, such as Fear, Dread, Scary and Loathsome etc. Plenty of nasty descriptive words now take on a much more sinister mental meaning.

Morale, mental state and situation may modify rank.

Physical defences can now be assigned a rank bonus, both physical and mental, rather than a more cumbersome set of numeric bonuses. Being behind a wall may give you +2 Physical Ranks and +1 Mental Ranks as a bonus. This makes them resistant to wounds. The downside is that if your enemy breach the wall you bonus levels vanish.

Leadership, both inspirational and terrifying, will have a greater role on the rank of your followers.

The GM may simply need to access minor effects and determine if they accumulate into a significant effect that is sufficient to represent a rank.

Total Ranks: Real Ranks vs Bonus Ranks.

Real ranks are those you normally have based on your scores. Ranks from being Heroic are real also. Some other Ranks may be real but they require a degree of permanence and solidness for be Real as opposed to Bonus.

Bonus Ranks are those gained as a temporary thing, from position, magic or circumstances. Bonus Ranks cannot be used to actually absorb damage, but they do count for determining the level of damage you may suffer. Eg: if you were Rank 3 and had a Bonus Rank to become Rank 4, then you would need to suffer 5 damage to suffer a Trauma or Panicked result.

Level 9.

Creatures on level 9 are special and should be used rarely. They cannot be knocked off level 9 unless some special event occurs that would be most likely story driven. A bane weapon might drop its target off Physical 9, an extended and highly risky debate might knock a Mental 9 down. This is an area left upto GMs to ponder and use. Players should be given plenty of warning however because unless they have the means to knock them down from level 9 they cannot win. It is possible to have a creature on level 9 in one area and not another, which may be their weakness. Creatures of level 9 are GM creatures, nothing gets to this level without the GM intending it, so the maximum normal level is 8.

Level 0.

Some creatures are very small or very weak, or have very weak or primitive minds, and any amount of damage will squash them. The mere effort of damage will be sufficient to defeat them (dont even roll for it, the charcater just spends an attack action and one or more of them are defeated). To make such creatures realistically dangerous you should convert them into a swarm, a mass of many such creatures that acts with a mob mind. Rules for swarms can be found below.

Physical Ranks

Mental Ranks

Damage

Damage is inflicted based on the final number of successes of the to-hit roll, after all reductions.

Depending on the ‘weight’ of the attack each extra success may inflict an extra point of damage.

A Great Sword is an example of Heavy, a Broadsword is Medium and a dagger is Light.

Light weapons use 1+2d as their damage code. This means that 1 successful dice roll will inflict a basic hit, and a further 2 extra successes is required for each extra hit. So to inflict 2 hits will require 3 successes. Light weapons mostly do Rank losses, but can be very handy in close combat (InClose) where they gain a bonus SL. So Light weapons will do damage on 1,3,5,7... successful dice rolls.

Medium weapons need a single success for a basic hit, and 1 extra success for each extra point of damage. This is displayed as 1+1d. So Medium weapons will do damage on 1,2,3,4... successes.

Heavy weapons (generally two handed weapons for humans) need a single success to gain a basic hit and a basic hit does 2 damage, and each extra success does an extra point of damage. This is displayed as 2+1d.

Large weapons (refer to the SIZE table) will do 3+1d. Huge weapons will do 4+1d etc.

Massive weapons only need a single success to gain a roll on the Massive Damage Table.

Damage will inflict a State or Rank loss, and if sufficient may inflict a Trauma or Killing Blow.

Any damage inflicted (not stopped) may result in the taking of a State result (Stun/Shock) as long as they are not already suffering a State effect of the appropriate type. If they already have an appropriate State they must take a Rank loss. You may elect to take a Rank loss instead of a State if you wish. Minor NPCs can be flagged as Stateless, in which case they always take a Rank loss.

If damage greater than the creatures Total Rank level (normal Rank plus any bonus) is inflicted then that creature suffers a Trauma wound.

If damage equal to more than twice the creatures Total Rank level is inflicted, or Massive damage is inflicted, then they suffer a Killing Blow.

State.

A STATE (Physical=Stun, Mental=Shock, Magic=Doubt) is a form a damage you may elect to suffer rather than lose a Rank. You can only elect to do this if you are not in an appropriate STATE already.

A character who takes a STATE loses all dice they may currently have in any ongoing pools (accumulating actions). They may do nothing until they remove the STATE, and cannot start any new pools.

A character must attempt to remove a single STATE each time they would take an action. They may chose to simply expend a dice and do nothing, in which case one STATE is removed, or they may roll to remove it and still use the Action. If they fail the roll then they may do nothing that action and remain in that STATE, the cost of the attempted action is lost. If they pass they remove the State and may use the AD normally (including trying to remove another State).

They can use a 1-AD to roll to remove a single STATE as a Free action between actions.

The roll to remove a STATE is based on the characteristic affected (Body, Mind, Soul). Skills and Advantages may assist you etc.

Physical Damage

When you achieve a successful hit with a weapon you will inflict damage. Damage is then converted into effects as follows:

RANK: what a weapon or spell inflicts as a result of a normal successful attack. More than one form of damage can be inflicted from an attack, but unless the number exceeds the Total Rank of the target this results in only a single Rank loss. If the damage from a single attack exceeds the targets starting Rank (Mental or Physical based on the type of attack) then a Trauma has been inflicted. If it exceeds 2 times its starting rank a Killing Blow has been inflicted. Eg: a base Heroic character has 3 Ranks, so any successful hit that inflicts any damage will take away one rank reflecting small wounds and fatigue. A hit of 4 damage will inflict a Trauma Wound, and a hit of 7 damage will inflict a Killing Blow.

STUN: the first point of damage inflicted from an attack MAY always be taken as a Stun, unless the target is already Stunned.

TRAUMA: when the damage inflicted from a single attack exceeds the normal Physical Rank of the target, then a Trauma has been inflicted. This is a specific injury affect and a roll on the Injury Table is required.

KILLING BLOW: if you suffer more than 2 times your normal Rank in damage in one attack you are knocked unconscious and count as OoA (Out of Action) and you must roll on the Injury Tables. Add +1 to the Injury Table roll.

MASSIVE: some creatures are so big and powerful that any hit results in massive damage and you are considered KIA (Killed in Action). As a further guide if more than 3 times your current rank are inflicted it can be considered Massive Damage.

Mental Damage

Mental defeats are not inflicted by the results of physical attacks, they are based on morale or actual mental functions and thus present with a whole different set of possibilities. Magic spells can be used to disrupt/enhance the mental ranks of opponents/allies. Morale and Leadership can be used to boost or maintain mental ranks, possibly even attack opponents mental ranks. Situation, battle results and numerous other factors can be used to affect mental ranks... creatures which are 'fearsome', undead that can inflict 'dread', creatures that are just plan 'scary'. Intimidation, bluff, overawe and persuasion skills take on a whole new meaning.

RANK: what a mental attack inflicts as a result of a successful attack. Unless the amount of damage exceeds the starting Rank of the target this results in only a single Mental Defeat (or optionally a Shock). If the damage from a single attack exceed the targets starting Rank then they become Panicked (equivalent to Trauma). If it exceeds 2 times your starting rank they become Crushed (equivalent to a Killing Blow). You may try to Soak Off damage and avoid their effects.

SHOCK: effect of a normal successful attack that inflicts at least 1 success. A Defeat results in a State (Shocked) or one Rank being marked as lost. Normally you may only lose one Rank per attack. Trauma and other specials may alter this (such as surprise). A lost rank cannot be used to absorb more defeats and when all are lost you are OoA. A lost Rank does not lower your current ranks for future damage calculations. Bonus ranks cannot be marked as lost.

PANICKED: when a creature suffers more than their starting Mental Rank in a single mental damage roll, they are Panicked. A Panicked creature will take compulsory actions to move as far as possible from the greatest perceived danger, without concern for consequences (such as opportunity attacks or allies). They may try to become un-Panicked by making a Spirit roll at the start of every action after the initial one (or by using a 1 dice to trigger a new roll).

CRUSHED: when a creatures suffers more than 2 times their starting Mental Rank in a single mental damage roll, they are Crushed. A Crushed creature may do nothing. They fall to their knees (if they have any) and take no actions whatsoever, including defensive ones. They may try to become un-Crushed by making a Spirit roll at the start of every action after the initial one.

CrossOver Damage.

Specific amounts of physical damage will result in damage to the Mental ranks of a creature. By default each 2nd rank loss on the Physical side will result in the loss of one Mental rank. This happens both ways, as will be seen below, but such carry over damage does not contribute to further carry over damage. Eg a physical rank loss that results in a mental rank loss that results in another physical rank loss etc. Carry over ranks lost should be marked by a linking arrow from the area that caused it to differentiate it from normal damage loses. Carry over damage is regained if the cause is removed (healed).

Some advantages/spells/events may modify the carryover value from every 2nd to every 3rd or even every 4th.

OoA and KIA

When a normal creature is reduced to 0 or less Ranks it is Out of Action (OoA) and generally either unconscious, cowering, crippled or run away.

Heroic creatures are able to go to negative Ranks as indicated and become OoA at -3 Ranks instead.

OoA creature get no action dice, they act automatically as the GM chooses. Players who are OoA must decide their fate as seems appropriate to whatever defeated them - unconscious, flee, cowering, crippled. The winning side will have the option to recover most of their OoA people, and to decide on the fate of those defeated. If you flee you will escape but you are likely to be alone, and they may pursue you.

Each time an OoA creatures is hit again it must roll its BODY dice (4+level) and achieve a success or become Killed in Action (KIA). The amount of damage inflicted is irrelevant.

Once KIA the character is dying and will need magical or sustained normal healing skills at the end of the event.

General Injury Table

Anyone reduced to OoA or KIA, or who suffers a Trauma effect from damage, must roll on the injury table to see if they have taken a grievous wound and or a permanent injury.

Roll 4d6 and consult the following Location Table. The number that comes up the most becomes the target location. If the result is a draw (2 pairs or 4 singles) then the HIGHEST roll is hit (6s). Once a location is determined you may shift the location one connected area if you rolled a triple, two areas if you rolled a quadruple. Neck and Groin maybe ignored as locations if you wish (they are optional).

Eg: you roll 4d and get 4,4,4,6. A triple of 4’s means that the Right Arm is hit, but the attacker may shift the result one area to the Chest if they wish due to the triple.

Once a location is determined then the attacker must roll on the Effect Table to see what happened. If rolling for a Killing Blow or Massive Damage add +1 to the Effect roll.

The effects are detailed as follows.

Bleeder: A major vascular wound has been inflicted that will cause the victim to suffer extra wounds every round until magical healing is applied or first aid and complete rest is started. The target must make a BODY roll at the start of each Round or suffer an extra Physical Rank loss. Multiple bleeder results to different locations will accumulate, but another bleeder result to the same location will not. If a -2d is indicated then the number of dice used for that roll is decreased by 2, such areas being more prone to this type of wound.

Stun: the victim is stunned, lucky escape. Burn 1 action dice.

Unconscious: the victim must make an immediate Will roll or fall unconscious OoA (assuming they can suffer this state). Where a 2d is indicated the roll is made with -2d. Burn 1 action dice.

Sight: all visual based rolls (and that means most of them) are impaired, apply -1d to all rolls that require sight. Victim looses 1 Mental Rank immediately.

Sound: the victim is deafened and cannot hear, and will have trouble communicating or making coherent sounds. This will make casting of magic with a verbal component more difficult (-2d), as well as other activities as the GM decides. Victim looses 1 mental rank immediately.

Balance: any kind of movement will require a DEX roll or you fall prone. All spell casting is at -2d. Victim losses 1 mental rank immediately. Burn 2 action dice.

Paralysis: roll Body or fall to the ground OoA.

Broken: the target limb has broken bones and rendered unusable. If an arm then anything not strapped on will be dropped. If a leg then the victim must make DEX rolls at -2d or fall prone each time they try to move. Loss an extra Physical Rank immediately.

Wind: the target will lose 1 Mental Rank immediately. Burn 2 action dice

Kill: target must make an immediate Body roll at -2d or they are OoA. Discard all remaining Initiative dice. Lose 2 Mental Ranks immediately.

Hand: the target hand is disabled, drop anything held, cannot be used until healed. Burn 1 action dice.

Foot: the target foot is disabled, reducing movement rate until healed, and they must make an immediate DEX roll or fall prone. Any Battle or Zone movement will require a new DEX roll or fall prone. Any rolls to resolve movement will be at -2d. Burn one action dice.

Flesh Wound: a deep flesh wound resulting in the loss of an extra Physical Rank.

Fracture: a discomfiting bone fracture that doesn’t quite disable but certainly makes it very difficult to use the affected area, reduce all dice rolls related to using that area by -2d.

Sever: a limb is severed, it drops to the ground nearby, blood gushes out. You are permitted to use the line “its only a flesh wound”. You loss 2 extra Physical Ranks immediately and all rolls are at -2d. Burn 2 action dice.

Puncture: your lungs are punctured, either by the attackers weapon or some of those damned annoying ribs. You get to sound like Darth Vader when you talk, and blood will spray from your mouth every now and then. Lose an extra Physical Rank and all rolls are at -1d. Burn 1 action dice.

Maim: to the groin indicates that you are in severe pain and very stressed about your reproductive possibilities. You suffer an immediate loss of a Mental rank, and all rolls are at -1d. Burn 1 action dice.

Where a wound has the effect of "Burn an action dice", that effect occurs immediately AND remains every round until the wound effect is removed. The owner may select which dice to convert to 1's.

Fear

Fear is the most common Mental attack form, and in many cases will not require a specific attack. Fear is an affect that some creatures induce in others and must be resisted rather then inflicted.

Whenever a fear affect is present those who are fearful must make a Spirit roll to avoid the immediate lose of one Mental Rank. Essentially Fear is assumed to make a successful attack apon anyone who enters its area of effect, inflicting one Defeat (or worse). Everyone affected by the attack must either pass a Spirit test, or lose Mental Ranks. This continues every time a creature has an action (discards a dice) until they pass a Spirit test, after which they no longer need to make further rolls.

Where multiple opponents have fear always use the single worst effect and ignore the rest. If you are the target of a Fear attack and you fail then you again become susceptible to automatic fears effects until you pass one again.

Fear generally only affects the zone the cause is in, but Dread and Fell creatures affect adjacent zones as well.

Levels of Fear:

Scary: these creatures are somewhat scary, if you fail the fear roll (a SPIR test), then you will lose one Action dice (the one you just discarded, so you do nothing this action).

Fearsome: pass a Fear roll or lose one Mental Rank, or be stunned.

Dread: as Fearsome, but the SPIR roll is at -1d, stun is no longer an option.

Terror: as Dread but the area of effect is the zone the creature is in plus all adjacent ones.

Fell: as Dread but the SPIR roll is made continuously until passed or the target is Broken... ie win or lose all in a flash.

Fatigue

Travel and work can result in Fatigue, which can be both physical and mental in nature. To keep things simple I would suggest applying a straight -1 rank to either Physical or Mental ranks when you feel that players would be tired or fatigued. If the possibility is doubtful then allow them to make a Body or Will roll (4d+level) to avoid any rank loss.

Severe fatigue will progressively apply more rank losses.

What It All Means.

The Important Bit! : Players dont DIE when they lose, they are defeated.

This will then depend on the GM and the story as to what that means. Defeat could mean they were captured by their enemies and must now escape or be rescued. Defeat can mean they ran away, fled the battlefield, and nothing more than the knowledge of that defeat, which the GM can use in their story. Death will only be an absolute certainty if you take massive damage and fail the roll AND your party is defeated (a failed death roll usually means you drop into a coma). Wounds (actual physical damage as opposed to defeats) become more a feature than an insignificance, the GM can be far more creative in inflicting wounds and what their effects are.

In a worse case scenario where they might be fighting a monster who eats its victims, only one of you dies - the last person standing. The rest will have obviously fled.

NPCs

Followers and NPCs become fodder for this system. Most human followers are likely to be average and thus have Normal values – 3 or 4 levels of Physical and Mental and no negative levels. They are able to take a couple of hits then they are mostly gone. They flee or hide or simply collapse. They can be recovered after the event, as long as your side wins.

Some NPC characters are important, they will be rated as Heroic, and will have access to all the levels of the system. These will be important characters, leaders and especially nasty mobs. They should however be few in number.

Mobs, Crowds and Hordes.

When dealing with larger numbers of NPC characters or followers it may be convenient to group them together and treat them as a single entity with some unique benefits, as follows.

A MOB is 3 or 4 creatures, it gains +1 Physical level (so generally humans will be on rank 4). It gains +1d and can attack twice in one round against separate targets.

A CROWD is 2 Mobs (8 men), it gains +1 Physical and +1 Mental levels (so generally will be on rank 5/4). It gains +2d and can attack three times in one round against separate targets.

A HORDE is 2 Crowds (16 men), it gains +2 Physical and +1 Mental levels (so generally will be on rank 6/5). It gains +3d and can attack four times in one round against separate targets.

A COMPANY is 2 Hordes (32 men), it gains +3 Physical and +2 Mental Ranks and comes with an NCO commander. It gains +4d and can attack four times in one round against separate targets.

A UNIT is 2 Companies (64 men), it gains +4 Physical and +2 Mental Ranks and comes with an Officer commander. It gains +4d and can attack six times in one round against separate targets.

Need to think about these some more.... stacking limits?

Its possible that Command skills might allow you to break down a Horde or Crowd into its component Mob parts, but this sort of beats the purpose of having them (less things to control).

Healing

Healing comes in two forms, fast and slow. The fast method is nearly always linked to magical healing, although first aid can sometimes help with very minor wounds. Slow healing is what we refer to as Natural healing, and simply takes time.

Fast Healing

First aid can be used to remove Stun and a wound from a creature that has suffered only one rank lost. Even so the First Aid will take at least 10 minutes to do, so is not applicable to combat healing.

Healing in combat is the realm of magic, see the appropriate spells for details.

Slow Healing

Natural healing takes time, in the realms of weeks. A week with good food and water and no travel, will result in 2 wounds being healed. Remove one of the above and it becomes 1 wound.

After the first week you recover only 1 wound per week, but can do without one of the requirements.

The presence of a trained healer during the entire week, along with a successful Healing roll, will result in an extra rank being recovered.

Grevious wounds may take longer, see the description for details.

Permanent wounds cannot be healed naturally and require some form of magic.

Surprise

If the situation allows for the possibility of surprise then the surprised creature gains no defence dice other than passive armour (no shields).

During a surprise round the surprising side will generally get all of their initiative dice and the surprised will get none (which means the round will Close immediately). No soaking is allowed. If surprise is more severe than more dice may be given.

Free Actions

Some actions are insignificant in the scheme of things, such as yelling a few words, and can be allowed at the discretion of the GM.

Cover

Cover comes in the form of hard and soft.

Hard cover provides armour like protection as well as visual protection making you harder to hit. It is normally an obstacle requiring effort to overcome.

Soft cover generally only provides visual protection. It can hinder movement.

With the zone system it is up to the GM to layout whatever cover is to be made available and how it can be used. Cover should generally run along a zone boundry, being an obstacle between two zones. Anyone firing from one side to the other clearly suffers the penalties of the cover (both ways).

Cover as an area within a zone becomes something that is occupied and the occupant must be challenged to get them out of it. Until then the occupier of the cover counts its benefits. Such cover can be linear or area based. Linear cover is a line behind which someone hides and can be overcome by getting to the other side (a battle move roll) unchallenged. Area cover is occupied and they must all be defeated before they lose its benefits (the cover area becomes an InContact melee area for everyone entering it).

Linear cover that is being defended could allow the defenders to automatically intercept any attacker trying to get past it, but once you run out of defenders any further attackers would penetrate the defence. The defence should probably have a choke value placed on it to make it useful or sheer numbers will overwhelm it.

Modifiers to rolls:

Hard Cover Effect

Light -1d.

Heavy -2d, no rerolls.

Soft Cover

Light (10%+) -1d

Medium(50%+) -2d

Heavy(80%+) -3d

Dual & Multi Weapon Wielding

Characters with the appropriate advantages and training can make use of multiple weapons at once, based around how many tool using appendages they have available.

Dual wielding provides a limited range of advantages, the least of which is an option as to which weapon you want to use at any given time for attack or defence. For this reason it is a good idea to have two different weapons with different characteristics, possibly one for attack and one for defence.

Special Tactics.

ALL OUT ATTACK - no defence, combine both attacks into one, no defence till you have a new action.

DOUBLE STRIKE - two attacks, one after the other, may only use Dodge as a defence till you have a new action.

FOLLOW ON - attack plus possible second attack if conditions are right.

Reach Weapons.

Some weapons have extra long reach, such as spears, polearms and pikes (as opposed to range). The main benefit of Reach is that you can attack an opponent without moving into InContact with them, you can attack them from StandAlone. So a Reach weapon provides the options of being InContact whilst remaining StandAlone. The drawback to a Reach weapon is that it cannot (normally) be used InContact, so once your opponent is able to close on you, you become unarmed.

Slam Attacks, Knockbacks and Knockdowns.

Large Creatures

Special Results.

Where an attack results in more than the required one success, the extra successes can be used to enact one or more of the following special successes

+2d of damage

Disarm attempt

Lose of an action dice

Stun

Break weapon attempt

Expose to next attack

Remove armour from a location

Move out of Contact

Draw into Contact vs Reach

Knockback/down

Hamstring attack

Reduce defence pool

Mounted Combat.

???

Chariots.

There are various types of chariots based on nationality, but they all have some similiarities.

Light Chariots: room for 2 max, each person over 1 causes -1 to driving rolls and pace. Base pace of 9.

Heavy Chariots: room for 4 max (human sized), each person over 2 causes –1 to driving rolls and pace. Base pace of 7.

The horse team counts as one target based on a single horse, but counts as a WC for wounds only (no wild dice). Any wound modifiers applying to the team also apply to any driving rolls.

2 Horse Team: team has +1 Toughness (based on a single horse) and does ST+d4 damage and may attack one target at a time.

4 Horse team: base pace of heavy chariots improved by 2 (to 9). Pace of Light Chariots does not decrease for crew, but handling penalties still apply for crew over 1. Team gets +3 Toughness and does ST+d6 damage and may attack upto 2 targets (see later).

The following is a list of chariot types by nationality.

Egyptian: 2H Light

Kushite: 2 or 4H Light

Libyan: 2 or 4H Light

Carthage: 2 or 4H Light or Heavy

Syrian, Hittite or Mitanni: 2H Light or Heavy

Babylonian/Assyrian: 2 or 4H Light or Heavy

Chariots provide Light Cover except from the rear.

Defensive Driving (see Feat) is controlled by the Driver, but applies to any passengers.

Because chariots may have multiple characters taking actions they may need to co-ordinate their initiative properly so they can all act at the appropriate times, but they don’t have to.

Characters on a chariot cannot melee through their front due to the horse team. They must come alongside a target.

A 2 horse chariot is 2x3 squares in size on the map, with the crew located in the back row.

A 4 horse chariot is 3x4 squares in size and the crew can be located in any of the 2 back rows.

A chariots horse team can be used to attack if they are trained for battle (see p97 of core rules and Trample edge in these rules). Treat them as a single unit that does extra damage as noted above.

A Heavy Chariot may attack 2 targets at once, as long as they are both contacted by the front of the chariot figure (not diagonal).

Chariots are very poor vehicles in rough terrain (-2), or difficult terrain (-4). Steep slopes, rocky ground, very soft sand (as opposed to compacted sand) or marshes are impassable. They are really only meant for nice flat ground, but in the interests of playability you should allow them some plausible disbelief. Particularly for Light Chariots.

Chariot Movement.

Because chariots are multi-square figures on the tabletop it isn’t always easy to work out how to move them. To simplfy things a chariot can use either the Turning Template or a Large Blast Template during a normal move.

The Turning Template allows the chariot to move its full distance (7-9 inches).

The Blast Template assumes the chariot is changing directions. Place the template against any part of the chariots base, then place the chariot anywhere completely within the template, facing in any direction.

When charging or running the chariot always uses the Turning Template and is limited to one 45 degree turn.

A second 45 degree turn can be attempted but this requires a Driving roll, with light chariots at –2 and heavy chariots at –4. Fail and you don’t make the turn and must continue straight onward. Fumble and the chariot flips over.

Flying

Flyers will be rated for zone movement the same way as other creatures, but will have a few extra values that limit or enhance their movement capacity. These extra values determine the following:

Speed: the maximum number of zones the flying can move in one action (not round). For normal flyers this is usually 1, for fast flyers it might be 2 or 3.

Turn Rate: the number of turns a flyer may make during an action. A turn rate of 6 means the flyer is able to circle the zone it is in without leaving and still count as flying.

Dive: the maximum speed a flyer is capable of and still remain in control. This will be shown as a value to be added to the base Speed. Moving faster than this is considered to be falling.

The extra values will be displayed in the following format:

~2/2/3

The above flyer has a flying move rate of 2 zones per action, of which it MUST move at least 1 zone every action or be considered "on the ground". It can turn upto 2 times during an action. It can go to a maximum speed of 3 zones during a dive and still retain control of its flight.

Most flyers that fail to move at least 1 zone in an action are considered to be hovering, or to have landed.

A turn is a change of facing within the zone grid. In a square grid there are 8 facings (four cardinals and 4 diagonals). If you use an offset grid (hex pattern) then there are only 6 facings. Because of this the facing of a flyer is required to be tracked. I would suggest the figurine used have a clearly marked front and be placed to indicate facing.

Flyers can generally only be attacked at the moment they attack, or with ranged attacks.

A flyer circling within a zone is immune to melee attack by ground based creatures. To attack a flyer you will need to hold an action ready. Anyone InContact with the flyers target, and holding an action ready, may attack the flyer at the time it attacks. You can also rely on opportunity attacks as a flyer goes past you, but many of them will have Fly-by-attacks.

Missile fire against a flyer is harder, reduce the number of dice by their speed as long as they are flying.