Samantha's School of K-nighthood/Chapter 6: Combat
Contents
Combat and Tactics
You're a k-night and a troop leader for whatever realm you serve. That means, you gotta fight sometimes. As a k-night, you'll mostly be following orders from above. Here are some helpful tips about how to directly lead your troops in battle.
- Combat will take place at sunrise and sunset. Battles always take place at the turn of the clock.
Unit Settings
Your men are instructed to act:
Murderous: Your men are foaming at the mouth ravenous for combat, hacking and slashing their way through everyone who steps in front of them....INCLUDING possible allies to your realm. This is a very very bad setting and shouldn't be used unless specifically ordered to. This causes your unit to charge forward into the face of the enemy as fast as possible, possibly even into a vastly outnumbered and heavily defended area...heck...they'll throw themselves into a wall of pikes and spears if they have to.
Aggressive: Your men are itching to get into battle and will move forward as soon as the battle starts. Your men will engage any troops that are part of realms that are not currently federated, allied or at peace with your realm. This includes troops from NEUTRAL realms as well. Your unit will move forward at a normal pace in combat, aggressive, but not overly so. You don't want to set archer units to this unless specifically ordered to. Aggressive settings will move troops forward. You want your archers to hang back so they can drop as much steel tipped death onto the enemy as possible. Since archers don't do great in close combat, you want them to stay away from enemy infantry for as long as possible.
Normal/Defensive: Your men will only engage troops that you are actively at war with or have a hatred for. When on the battlefield, they will stand firm. and are unlikely to move forwards as much or as quickly as others. This is also the standard formation style for when your unit is part of a defensive force that is behind walls or fortifications.
Evasive: Your men will try and avoid all combat. If they are unable to avoid combat, they are more likely to retreat from the enemy once they start taking casualties.
Unit Designations
These are the different jobs your soldiers can perform.
Regular Army: Basic grunt soldiers. They perform standard army duties rpetty well. No pluses or minuses either way really.
Police Force: Not as effective in combat, if your unit is set as a police force, it can take higher casualties when in combat. However, you can perform additional services for your realm by policing the region or territory you are in. You can do this in one of three ways.
- Normal Police Work: Allows your soldiers to go around, rounding up insurgents and rousting the troublemakers. This helps restore the region control.
- Perform Raids: Your guys go out, kicking down doors and dragging people off to jail. Much better at restoring control than normal police work, but also has a much greater morale loss.
- Patrol the Streets: Increases your chance of catching infiltrators and the like. Doesn't help as much with regards to restoring control.
This is the only Unit Designation available for Buros.
Mercenary: When your troops are away from home for a long while, they can suffer from morale loss. If your unit is set to mercenary, they will not be as affected by this. However, they will cost you 50% more in gold per week. They are mercenaries after all.
This is the only option available for Traders.
Vanguard: Lightweight, fast moving troops. When set as a Vanguard, your unit cannot dig in. Also, you can be more susceptible to a surprise attack. Vanguards can also shave time off their travel time. These troops cost you about 20% more than regular troops.
Sentry: More a defensive setting, this is the standard designation you use before dropping troops as militia. Your guys use their knowledge of the region to spot enemy troops and the like.
Combat Tactics
These are the actual orders you give to your men to show them how to set themselves up on the battlefield. Each of the formations below have there benefits and their downsides. I've tried to list them as best as possible.
Line: Your men are spread out in a line, 2-3 deep. This gives you no particular benefits or downsides as it is the standard default settings. However, this formation can be broken by cavalry charges, but not suffering undue casualties from it.
Box: Your men are grouped tightly together, fighting and standing side by side. This allows them to take fewer casualties from close combat and from cavalry charges. Fighting side by side allows them a much better defensive situation. However, this makes them take much higher casualties from archer fire. Also, this formation isn't as effective if you are the attacker. Since you are grouped together in a much smaller area, you don't have as many people on the front line of your formation. Fewer people means fewer swords to cut down those treasonous dogs of the enemy...(grin).
Wedge: The wedge sets your men in a big arrowhead style formation. This allows your unit to slice through enemy lines much more easily than other formations. Makes for a great charge. However, this formation is also easier to break apart and will most likely take more casualties than the others.
Skirmish: Your men are all spread out, keeping lots of distance between themselves. This allows them to take far, far less casualties from archer fire. Unfortunately, they tend to get massacred in close combat since they are spread out so much that they can't support each other.
- Field Position: There are 4 settings: Front, Middle, Back, Rearguard. They are pretty self explanatory. Rearguard means way way way in the back.
Withdrawal Settings and the After Battle Stuff
Withdrawal Rate: This is the settings to determine when your unit retreats from the battlefield. If you are set to 50%, your unit will retreat once that percentage point is crossed. This doesn't mean you will retreat at exactly this number, just once your unit passes this point. For example, if your unit is set at 60%, and in the first round you take 25%, and the 2nd round you take 30%, then in the 3rd round you take another 20% casualties...that is when you'll retreat, since that is when you crossed the 60% mark. But your unit will still take the full 75% of casualties.
- Lowered Morale and cohesion can cause your unit to retreat from the battlefield before the full withdrawal percentage is reached. Also, you getting captured and wounded can cause that as well. So try not to get captured, wounded or killed...capiche???
Rally Your Men: Even if your side wins the battle, your unit may still have been forced to retreat from the field of battle. You'll need to gather up the surviving wounded and unwounded soldiers. This will take one hour. If you wait a while to do this, it is possible that men will flee or be hunted down by enemy troops.
Forage Battlefield: If your unit lasts the entire battle without retreating, the surviving and unwounded members of your unit can go out and pick over the armor and weapons on the dead guys on the field. This will lower your Equipment Damage your unit is currently suffering from. If your unit retreated, you won't be able to do this.
Hunt Enemies: If, after the battle, you have a unit size of larger than 20 men, once the battle is finished, you can send them out to hunt down retreated and scattered members of your defeated enemy. Normally, you'll find smaller groups that will retreat or surrender to you, but sometimes the retreated troops will fight your soldiers, so this can kill even more of your men.
- Wounded Soldiers: Wounded soldiers are put under the care of your healers (see...told ya you should get a healer or two). If you try to travel, they will slow you down and are more likely to die. If you have a cart, you can load 'em up in it and move out, giving them a better chance to survive. Your best bet is to stay where you are, since this will give your men the best chance of survival. But, if there are still lots and lots of enemy troops around, this may not be an option. You should have at east one healer for every twenty men in your group. If you have a really well trained, well armed and cohesive force, you may want to lower that number. I saw one guy who had 30 SF troops but had 3 healers cuz recruiting his troops cost him 130 gold for every ten soldiers he had to replace. But for every 5 wounded soldiers he had, his healers were able to save at least 4, sometimes all 5.
