From what I understand, they add to your constitution, not take away from
enemy strength. It's a minor point, but important.
On page 52, you add the combat spells to total strength and constitution.
So, offensive spells offer all of their bonus, however defensive spells do
the following.
For example, you and your opponent each have 200 HI maxed out in all areas
So, 100 training, armor, weapons, etc (keeping it simple for the sake of
analysis)
So, as we reach step N on page 51 we realize that each army has 2000 str and
4000 constitution.
First round losses should be 100 HI from each,
If we add in a 1000 constitution defensive spell to the first army,
Army 1. Str 2000 Constitution 5000 Army 2 Str 2000 Constitution
4000
Army 1 will lose 80 troops (2000/5000* 200) Army 2 loses 100 troops
(2000/4000 * 200)
In the second round, Army 1 has 120 troops, army 2 has 100 troops.
Round 2
Army 1 str 1200 Constitution 2400 Army 2 Strength 1000 constitution
2000
Army 1 will lose 50 troops, army 2 will lose 60 troops.
Both armies end up disbanding.
If instead, all losses are first taken from defensive spells.
Round 1 Army 1 casts a 1000 Point defensive spell.
Army 1 Str 2000 constitution 4000 Army 2 Str 2000 Constitution 4000
Damage army 1 [(2000-1000)/4000 *200] loses 50 troops. Army 2 loses 100
Round 2
Army 1 Str 1500 Con 3000 Army 2 str 1000 con 2000
Damage army 1 (1000/3000 * 150)= 50 troops Army 2 (1500/2000 *100)= 75.
Army 2 disbands, leaving army 1 with 100 troops.
Admittedly, it isn't often you see this extreme case, but you can see how it
affects things.
Take 400 HI per side with wood weapons and no armor with training of 30.
Currently, if a defensive spell worth 1750 is cast army 1 wins with 193 men
left over.
If we allow all damage to come out of the spell instead, army 1 takes no
damage in the first round, and finshes with 328 HI. A total change of 135
HI left alive. Now, that would certainly affect the outcome of combat and
make mages worthwhile.
Now, if I misunderstand how the whole army combat thing works, please let me
know. I work it out with pen and paper (or excel) instead of using the
combat calculators available on the internet. Could be I'm missing
something here, but hey, that's what the board is for.. right?
···
-----Original Message-----
From: Grey Squirrel [mailto:greysquirrel@blueyonder.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2002 11:16 AM
To: mepbmlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [mepbmlist] Re: ME Second Edition Idea
> That would definitely help out longer fights. But, I
think combat spells
> are fine in the first round, with a little tweaking.
Another thought would
> be to have defensive spells work only the first round, but
all damage is
> subtracted from defensive spells before other damage is
allocated. This
> would allow armies with mages to take pop centers or
small armies without
> taking damage.
Isn't that what defensive spells do anyway, except in a
slightly different
way ? I thought they subtracted from the attack of the
opposing army or Pop
Centre so it was possible to capture pop centres without
losing troops.
Thomas
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