Combat Examples

Olympia: The Age of Gods PBEM (Oct 4 2000)

## 5.14: Combat Examples

      Example 1: Missile Attacks and the Four to One Rule

      Party One
        2 cyclops (25,75)

      Party Two
        1 noble at behind 0 (80,80)
          10 pikemen (5,20)
        1 noble at behind 1 (80,80)
          5 lt. xbowmen (1,1,15)

The cyclopses attack the nobles. Before the first round, the defenders (the nobles) get a free phase of missile attacks. All five xbowmen get attacks, since there are 10 pikemen (and one noble) in the front row.

The first round opens with another phase of missile attacks from the xbowmen. In the melee phase, the two cyclops (assuming they haven't been killed by the missile fire) attack, and the pikemen plus the noble get eight attacks. Only eight attacks are allowed because in melee one side can outnumber the other by at most four to one. Note that the four to one rule applies only during the melee phase. Whether the noble gets to attack is random; attackers and defenders are chosen randomly from those available. (However, each attacker can attack only once per round.)

      Example 2: "Behind"

      Party One
        1 noble at behind 0 (80,80)
          100 pikemen (5,20)

      Party Two
        1 noble at behind 0 (80,80)
        1 noble at behind 1 (80,80)
          5 lt. xbowmen (1,1,15)

During the initial missile phase and the missile phase of the first round, Party Two will take one missile attack, since the front row of Party Two only has one person behind which a missile troop can shelter. The other four xbowmen do nothing.

In the melee phase, Party One makes four attacks against the noble in the front row of Party Two. Even if the noble is killed, no attacks fall through to the second row of Party Two. Removal of dead units (and hence removal of "rows") occurs only between phases.

A party can lose at most three rows during a round of combat: one row each after the special attacks phase, the missile phase, and the melee phase.