GURPS (4th ed.)-Mass Combat.pdf

C OMBAT TM

Written by DAVID PULVER Edited by SEAN PUNCH

Illustrated by ANGELA BOSTICK, GUY BURWELL, ERIC HOTZ, and DAN SMITH

An e23 Sourcebook for GURPS ®

STEVE JACKSON GAMES

Stock #37-0131

M ASS

Version 1.0 – January 2009

C ONTENTS

I NTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Publication History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

About GURPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Preparations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Forces in Motion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Reconnaissance Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Environmental Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

B EFORE THE B ATTLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Initial Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Basic Strategy Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Reconnaissance Adventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Troop Strength Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Defense Bonus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

F IGHTING THE B ATTLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

1. Risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

2. Significant Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Examples of Heroism and Blunders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

3. Choose Battle Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

4. Battle Strategy Roll. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Desperate Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

5. Misfortunes of War. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

6. Victory? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

S PECIAL B ATTLE S ITUATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Sieges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Amphibious Assaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Naval Battles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Three-Sided Battles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Subordinate Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Weapons of Mass Destruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Exceptional Powers in Battle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

1. E LEMENTS AND F ORCES . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

T HE B ASICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

What an Element Represents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Mini-Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

B UILDING AND M AINTAINING Y OUR F ORCE . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Element Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Troop Strength (TS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Special Class (Class) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Neutralizing Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Transport Weight (WT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Mobility (Mob) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Optional Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Unliving Troops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

R AISING A F ORCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Cost to Raise a Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Time to Raise a Force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Economic Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

T HE L OGISTIC F ORCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Statistics for Logistics Troops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Maintaining a Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Super-Healing and Force Replacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

A PPENDIX A: S AMPLE F ORCES . . . . . . . . . 42

A N Y RTH M ILITARY F ORCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

A M ODERN M ILITARY F ORCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

A PPENDIX B: T ABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Features and Quality Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Travel Speed Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Reconnaissance Contest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Relative TS Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Special Class Superiority Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Battle Length Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Battle Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Battle Strategies Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Battle Strategy Roll. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Combat Results Table. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Misfortunes of War Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

2. E LEMENTS : TL0-5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

O RGANIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Cavalry vs. Infantry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

L AND E LEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Reading the Element Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

N AVAL E LEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

F ANTASTIC E LEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

3. E LEMENTS : TL6-12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

L AND E LEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Reading the Element Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

N AVAL E LEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Naval Combat Elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

A EROSPACE E LEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Air Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

B IBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

I NDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

4. F IGHTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

C AMPAIGNING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Type of Campaign. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

GURPS System Design

❚

STEVE JACKSON

Managing Editor

❚

PHILIP REED

Marketing Director

❚

PAUL CHAPMAN

GURPS Line Editor

❚

SEAN PUNCH

WILL SCHOONOVER

Production Artist

❚

Director of Sales

❚

ROSS JEPSON

e23 Manager

❚

STEVEN MARSH

❚

NIKOLA VRTIS

FADE MANLEY

GURPS FAQ Maintainer

❚

Page Design

PHIL REED and

JUSTIN DE WITT

Indexer

❚

NIKOLA VRTIS

–––––––

VICKY “MOLOKH” KOLENKO

❚

Prepress Checker

❚

MONICA STEPHENS

C ONTENTS

Art Director

Errata Coordinator

❚

I NTRODUCTION

GURPS Mass Combat contains rules for the abstract reso-

lution of battles between armies containing from hundreds to

tens of thousands of warriors. Its focus is cinematic – it empha-

sizes dramatic clashes over the duller (if no less important)

business of logistics and campaigning that often win real con-

flicts. Nevertheless, it does provide simplified rules for moving

and supplying troops, and for raising and maintaining armies.

This system is not a set of “war game” or “skirmish” rules

for tactical combat, nor is it focused on grand strategy. It’s

designed to resolve a big battle that features massed compa-

nies of troops quickly – with a few die rolls – while still giving

commanders scope to make important decisions that could

decide the fate of a battle, an army, or even an entire war.

These rules work best when the PCs command their side, or

at least a significant portion of that force, in battle. However,

they give all heroes – commanders or otherwise – some control

over their own destiny.

30. This in turn was a codification of rules first published in

GURPS Horseclans, by Steve Jackson and Jerry Epperson,

and which later appeared in various forms in GURPS Conan,

GURPS Japan, and GURPS Vikings.

You cannot simultaneously

prevent and prepare for war.

– Albert Einstein

A BOUT THE A UTHOR

David L. Pulver is a freelance writer and game designer

based in Victoria, British Columbia. He is the coauthor of the

GURPS Basic Set, Fourth Edition and the author of

Transhuman Space, GURPS Spaceships , and numerous

other gaming products. David has a history degree from

Queens University, and once upon a time was taking graduate

courses in military history at the Royal Military College before

he left to design games.

P UBLICATION H ISTORY

This is the latest version of the GURPS “Mass Combat

System.” It’s significantly revised from the rules in GURPS

Compendium II (compiled by Sean Punch), which were them-

selves adapted from an article by Brett Slocum in Roleplayer

About GURPS

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reached by e-mail: info@sjgames.com . Resources include:

New supplements and adventures. GURPS continues to

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more. To discuss GURPS with our staff and your fellow

gamers, visit our forums at forums.sjgames.com . The

GURPS Mass Combat web page can be found at

www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/masscombat .

Bibliographies. Many of our books have extensive bibli-

ographies, and we’re putting them online – with links to let

you buy the resources that interest you! Go to each book’s

web page and look for the “Bibliography” link.

Errata. Everyone makes mistakes, including us – but we

do our best to fix our errors. Up-to-date errata pages for all

GURPS releases, including this book, are available on our

website – see above.

Rules and statistics in this book are specifically for the

GURPS Basic Set, Fourth Edition. Page references that

begin with B refer to that book, not this one.

Additional Material: Sean Punch

Playtesters: Richard Bing, Charles Bingham, Shawn Fisher, Eric Haste, Leonardo Holschuh, Nathan Joy,

Norman Lorenz, Kelly Pedersen, Christopher Rice, Wayne Roberts, Ryan Williams

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I NTRODUCTION

E LEMENTS AND

F ORCES

Sir Richard? It still seemed like a dream. A blacksmith’s son

turned mercenary, yesterday he’d merely been a wandering adven-

turer and sword-for-hire. Then he and his friends had discovered

Sir Strykland’s assassination plot and saved the old baron . . .

and he’d been knighted!

But it wasn’t over yet.

“Sir Richard,” the baron said, “the rebel lord Strykland and

his host will likely be here tomorrow. Thanks to you, his attempt

to murder me in my bed has failed, but he’s decided to march

before I can call up all my vassals. The captain of my guard is

dead, and the rest of my household are running about like head-

less chickens. I need a new captain. That’s you.”

“Me? I mean . . . my lord is serious?”

“Indeed. Take command of my men.” The old baron turned

grim. “Such as they are. With the orcish mercenaries and bandits

Strykland recruited, that traitor’s forces may have me outnum-

bered. Even so, I refuse to be besieged in my own castle while his

curs ravage the countryside!”

“My lord, I’m not afraid to face Strykland. But I’ve never led

anything larger than a party of dungeon delvers. Adventurers.”

“Huh. You and your friend defeated a dozen assassins.” The

old baron’s eyes flashed. “I trust you. More important, my guard

respect you.”

Richard nodded. He’d saved their lord. Now they had some-

thing to prove. And anyway, what was battle but cut and thrust

on a larger scale? He’d fought in wars before as a mercenary sol-

dier. Second-guessed plenty of idiot commanders as well. Could

he do worse? One way to find out . . .

“My lord, I accept command!” Sir Richard grinned wolfishly.

“I’ll bring you Strykland’s head on a pike, or die trying!”

GURPS Mass Combat is intended to help gamers resolve

situations like the one described above, in which the PCs find

themselves – whether by design or by chance – in command of

a large military force. Before going into detail on troop types

and battles, however, it’s important to establish the basic game

terms used throughout these rules.

T HE B ASICS

Each side in a battle consists of a number of elements, each

of which is trained and equipped to fight in a particular fash-

ion. Every element has a Troop Strength (TS) that reflects its

size, type, and quality. For the purpose of resolving a battle, all

elements on a side are combined into a single force, with a TS

equal to the sum of its elements’ TS.

The force has an overall commander. If the GM wants to

fight lower-level battles, or if part of the force is detached, it

may be divided into smaller forces ( subordinate commands )

under subordinate commanders.

Battles are resolved using a series of Quick Contests modi-

fied by the capabilities of the forces involved. These Contests

determine whether events such as surprise occur, who’s win-

ning the battle, and how many casualties

are taken. At each stage, the command-

ers get to make tactical choices that mod-

ify how their forces perform. While force

commanders make most of the decisions,

other PCs who are assisting or otherwise

participating in the battle also have a few

choices to make – and if they get lucky,

these may influence the battle’s outcome.

This procedure lets the GM reduce a long battle to a few die

rolls. That’s because this is not a war game but a roleplaying aid!

W HAT AN E LEMENT

R EPRESENTS

An element is the basic “building block” of a force. It may

represent:

• A file or squad of soldiers on foot, nominally 10 men but

possibly any number up to about 15 men. For TL0-5 armies,

it’s easiest to think in terms of tens of men; for higher-tech

armies, it works better to regard elements as squads.

• A similar-sized lance or troop of about 10 riders

and their mounts.

• A single vehicle and its crew.

• A heavy weapon or artillery piece and its crew (plus

draft animals, for horse artillery).

Elements make up the fighting force. The rules treat

rear-area supply forces differently and with greater

abstraction. See The Logistic Force (pp. 13-14).

E LEMENTS AND F ORCES

C HAPTER O NE

U NITS

Elements belonging to a regular military organization may

be grouped into permanent units – companies, regiments, bat-

talions, cohorts, brigades, fleets, legions, corps, armies, and so

on, as appropriate to the period and culture. In game terms,

this means creating several smaller forces (the units) and then

totaling their statistics as a single force before a campaign or a

battle. Existing “unit” distinctions play no role in the rules,

which deal strictly in elements and forces, but often determine

what elements a particular force commander has under his

control.

For instance, an NPC major might tell a PC captain:

Captain, I want you to take your 7th Roanoke Rifles (the cap-

tain’s battalion-sized unit: 16 elements), Battery A of the 2nd

Artillery (another four elements), Graham’s Irregulars (three ele-

ments commanded by another PC, representing a force of local

partisans), and that nut with the balloon (another single ele-

ment) and capture Elk’s Crossing. Questions?

In game terms, the individual elements that make up the

Rifles, the attached Battery A, the local partisans, and “that nut

with the balloon” (a PC inventor treated as a Hero element)

constitute the captain’s force. However, since they’re existing

units, the GM already has their elements worked out, so it’s

just a matter of adding up their statistics.

B UILDING AND M AINTAINING

Y OUR F ORCE

As previously mentioned, these rules distinguish between

the fighting force (combat troops) and the logistic force (rear-

area support). When they refer simply to the “force,” they

mean the fighting force – and that’s the kind of force described

here. Rules for establishing and operating a logistic force come

later (pp. 13-14), as the attendant complications are only rele-

vant to lengthy operations in which PCs are in charge of sup-

ply as well as battlefield command.

E LEMENT T YPES

Elements are the building blocks of a fighting force: soldiers,

crewed vehicles, or weapons teams. Each element type has a

name and is rated for Troop Strength (TS), special class (Class),

transport weight (WT), mobility (Mob), cost to raise (Raise),

cost to maintain (Maintain), and TL. Descriptions of specific

elements (e.g., “Heavy Cavalry” or “Light Infantry”) appear in

Chapters 2-3, along with stats in tabular format, like so:

Element TS Class WT Mob Raise Maintain TL

Light Infantry 2 Rec 1 Foot 40K 8K 1

This shows that for the “Light Infantry” element type, Troop

Strength is 2, special class is Recon, transport weight is 1,

mobility type is Foot, and costs for each squad-sized element

of 10 men are 40K ($40,000) to raise and 8K ($8,000) to main-

tain per month. The element is in use from TL1.

Mini-Glossary

element: The smallest part of a fighting force that’s

assigned game statistics – a squad of troops, a vehi-

cle, a weapons team, etc.

feature: A special trait that an element may have; e.g.,

“All-Weather.”

fighting force: All the combat elements that one side

has in play.

logistic force: An abstract representation of the sup-

ply and support capabilities and personnel that

maintain a fighting force.

mobility (Mob): A classification that indicates how an

element (and by extension, a fighting force ) will

move; e.g., “Foot” or “Fast Air.”

special class or class: Elements that aren’t just foot

soldiers with melee weapons may belong to one or

more special classes; e.g., “Artillery” or “Recon.”

Troop Strength superiority in a particular class can

provide combat bonuses in certain circumstances.

transport weight (WT): An abstract measure of how

bulky and massive an element is. Some elements are

too large to transport!

Troop Strength (TS): A numerical measure of fighting

power that is assigned to each element and added

up for an entire fighting force.

Customization

You can customize stock elements by selecting the follow-

ing details:

Features: Special features added to tailor the element (see

Optional Features, pp. 8-11.)

Quality: The quality of the troops and their equipment (see

Quality, pp. 11-12).

If you customize an element, adjust its TS, costs, and possi-

bly other characteristics based on your decisions, as described

in the associated rules. The GM may wish to create a new ele-

ment record that reflects these changes and gives the element

its own name and description.

For example, suppose we take the bare-bones Light Infantry

element, add the Airborne, Neutralize C3I, and Night features,

and then upgrade quality with both Fine equipment and Elite

troops. The result is a more interesting element that we name

“Airborne Ninja.” Use the following format for customized ele-

ment records:

E LEMENTS AND F ORCES

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: