Structure:
- Turn based. Players deploy their units on their first turn and must be within a certain distance of their designated map edge. Units may take no actions first turn other than initial placement. Unless a unit is a Character, it must be attached to a commanding unit or it cannot be placed.
- Turn structure.
At the beginning of a turn, units check morale. Three events may occur. Morale may hold, which means the units may be commanded normally. Morale may flag, which means the units have a chance to flee/charge/remain still, etc. based on their temperament. Morale may break, which means the unit ignores orders and behaves by temperament.
During a turn, the player may order any units to move, shoot, designate a targetted enemy, or use special abilities through the comamnders. Characters are issued commands directly. The commander's Leadership factored with the unit's Morale determines how well orders are carried out. Ranged units must be able to see their target and be within the range of their weapon. At the end of the turn, any units adjacent to any other units are considered engaged and may melee if that unit has been designated as the targetted enemy. For example if 3 orcs surround 1 elf, the orcs will all attack that elf since it is their only adjacent foe. However, if their were 2 elves, the orcs would attack randomly if a specific elf had not been designated. If the attacked unit survives, it is entitled to counterattack, if it has any attacks remaining (IE the 1 elf could only counterattack 1 orc, not all 3).
Engaged units may not move or shoot unless they disengage (by order; moves 1 move away and allows shoot/special) or retreat(by order or by broken morale, move any distance away, no shoot/special).
If a unit reaches the edge of a map, it may opt to flee the battle. Units may also surrender. Generally players probably won't do either since defeated units usually aren't destroyed. But units with broken morale may do either.
- Scoring. Anytime an enemy unit is defeated, flees, or surrender, the commanding general gets points based on the units difficulty. Play continues until either A) a designated time/number of turns elapses or B) a certain point total is reached. If neither victory condition is specified, play continues until one side is utterly defeated. A player may lose the battle and still win, however, since she may have amassed more points than her units were worth. This is unlikely, though, since bonus points are awarded for defeating 50% and 100% of an enemy's units.
Of course there are more detailed rules concerning terrain, equipment, magic, etc. but this is the basic skeleton.
Comments?
-James