Pike & Shotte: The War, Part 2

So, the War. My previous post contained possible causes and scenarios for the War itself. This post will get into the nitty-gritty of creating the armies.

This post contains precious little in terms of historical accuracy and instead focuses on implementing a set of easy-to-follow guidelines to create a warzone that your PCs can frolic, adventure and be horribly killed in. It originally contained a number of sections, but I've limited it to Armies & Battles due to the length it was reaching. Be warned that this post is incomplete and will contain references to things that have been left to later posts.

I'll be making subsequent posts on:

1. Creating the Map
2. Battles & Sieges
3. Campaign Event Cycle & Timeline

As in my previous post, this assumes an Early Modern style of warfare, but can be easily tweaked.

'Rocroi, el último tercio', by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau

There will be at least two armies in any region of Pike & Shotte. Armies may be created, altered or destroyed by events in a campaign. I classify armies as any armed group with more than 500 members, and an organised command structure. Smaller groups represent noble retinues, bandit gangs or smaller mercenary bands that, while potentially violent and aggressive, don't have the same power to disrupt a region like a true army does. However, larger armies may split off into smaller groups as part of their campaigning.

Armies have the following features:

General Characteristics

1. Health: An abstraction of the number of soldiers and units in an army. Higher current health means more units are at full-strength, lower health means many units need reinforcement. Maximum health refers to the overall size of the army.

2. Leadership: The ability of officers and generals to meaningfully plan and command the army.

3. Morale: The will and confidence of an army's soldiers. This tends towards a median over time.

*4. Mobility: How quickly the army is able to move on the campaign map, and how good they are at running down fleeing enemies in a rout. The higher the proportion of cavalry in an army, the higher this is. Artillery always reduces it, and larger armies are always slower.

5. Supplies: How well provisioned the army is. Each army must have adequate supplies for their troops or suffer Morale & Health penalties.

6. Cost: Soldiers don't fight for free. This is the monthly cost in gold pieces (not silver) of fielding the army.

Combat Characteristics

1. Skirmish: How good the army is at irregular warfare and harassment. Roughly reflects the proportion of light cavalry and skirmishers in the army.

2. Shock: The army's ability to deal and absorb heavy punishment in battle. Roughly proportional to the amount of line/heavy infantry, heavy cavalry and artillery in the army.

3. Siege: The army's effectiveness in besieging settlements and fortifications. Large amounts of artillery and infantry will increase this.

*4. Mobility: How quickly the army is able to move on the campaign map, and how good they are at running down fleeing enemies in a rout. The higher the proportion of cavalry in an army, the higher this is. Artillery always reduces it.

Creating an Army

Stats
Leadership, Morale and Mobility start at 10. Health, Supplies, Cost, Skirmish, Shock, Siege & Mobility start at 0.

Commander

Roll a statline for the Commander of the army using your system of choice and note their modifiers. Add the average of their Intelligence & Wisdom modifiers to the army's Leadership and their Charisma modifier to the army's morale.

Roll 1d4 + their Charisma modifier to find their Renown - this is their legacy of past actions that has built up as part of their reputation. Winning battles increases it, and losing battles reduces it.

Roll below to find the Commander's speciality and note the bonus, applying it to the army's stats if appropriate:
1. Dogged Attacker: +2 Shock
2. Dreaded Foe: -2 Enemy Morale
3. Military Mind: +2 Leadership
4. Lightning Fast: +2 Mobility
5. Inspiring Presence: +2 Friendly Morale
6. Bane of Cities: +2 Siege
7. Raider: +2 Skirmish
8. Scorched Earth: the Commander's army gains 1 Boon on the results of all foraging actions.
9. Zealous: the Commander's army gains +4 Morale when fighting opponents of a different religion.
10. Reaper: the Commander's army may re-roll their Shock roll during a battle, but must keep the second result.
11. Greedy: the Commander's army gains 1 Boon when rolling to check the outcome of looting a settlement.
12. Cautious: the Commander's army will notice an ambushing foe on a 3-in-6 instead of a 1-in-6.

Give them a name, allegiance and a general description, and maybe some noted past battles. You may end up with Hannibal Barca or Eugene of Savoy, or you might get Quinctilius Varus or the Earl of Cardigan, but don't worry too much either way: incompetent commanders can produce equally interesting results compared to their betters.

Initial Funds

Roll 3d6 x 1000gp to find the army's starting funds.

Initial Objective

Roll below to find the army's initial objective:

The commander wants to...
1. Fortify...
2. Raid...
3. Destroy...
4. Reinforce...
5. Besiege...
6. Reach...

1. A major settlement (roll randomly).
2. A minor settlement (roll randomly).
3. A strategic location (bridge, pass, junction, fortification etc., roll randomly).
4. An enemy army (roll randomly).
5. A specific region (roll randomly).
6. A friendly army (roll randomly).

Some of these results may not make sense, like destroying a friendly army, but my reasoning is that even armies that are nominally on the same side are still divided by factionalism and infighting. Or maybe the objective comes about as a result of shifting orders and allegiances.

Recruitment
Using the tables below, spend the initial funds rolled above on recruiting soldiers and specialists. Soldiers are a broad class of fighters who perform the general parry-and-thrust dirty work on the battlefield, while specialists posses special powers or abilities that can influence an army in battle or on campaign. Specialists do not count towards the army's Health, nor do they have a supply cost:

Soldiers	Combat Stats	Cost (GP)	Supply Cost
Light Infantry (e.g. Jaegers, Irregulars)	+2 Skirmish, +1 Shock, +1 Mobility	500	1
Heavy Infantry (e.g. Tercios, Caroleans)	+3 Shock, -2 Mobility	1,000	2
Light Cavalry (e.g. Dragoons, Hakkapeliittas)	+3 Skirmish, +2 Shock, +3 Mobility	1,500	3
Heavy Cavalry (e.g. Gendarmes, Winged Hussars)	+4 Shock, +2 Mobility	2,000	4
Light Artillery (e.g. Falconets, Sakers)	+1 Skirmish, +1 Siege, -1 Mobility	750	3
Heavy Artillery (e.g. Culverins, Full Cannons)	+2 Skirmish, +2 Siege, -2 Mobility	1,500	4
Siege Artillery (e.g. Basilisks, Howitzers)	+5 Siege, -2 Mobility	1,500	3

Specialists	Effect	Cost (GP)
Chirurgeons	Reduces Army Health loss due to disease or battle damage	1,500
Line Officers	+2 Leadership, multiples don't stack	2,000
Master Smiths	+1 Shock for all Soldiers	3,000
Pioneers	Army movement speed suffers only 50% of the normal terrain penalties	1,000
Sappers	The Commander may attempt to tunnel into or out of a besieged settlement, allowing them to make a single Shock roll against an opponent in a siege	2,000
Skilled Quartermaster	Supply Cost of all Soldiers reduced by 1 (to minimum of 1), multiples don't stack	2,000
Standard Bearers	+1 Army Morale, multiples don't stack	800
War Wizards	+4 Shock, -2 to enemy Morale	3,000

Renown
A commander's Renown allows them to choose a number of entries from the following table. Commanders can choose any number of entries provided that the cost of them does not exceed their current total Renown. If a commander's Renown decreases for whatever reason they must immediately remove entries until they have reached their new cap. An increase in Renown allows a commander to choose extra entries in the post-battle phase. Each entry can only be taken once, unless explicitly noted.

Asset	Description	Effect	Renown Cost
Venerable Chronicler	A scholar and diarist who records the Commander's great deeds.	If the Commander defeats an enemy who had previously defeated them, they gain +1 Renown	1
Crazed Apothecary	Neurotic and erratic, but their brews are potent.	Roll 1d4 before a battle: 1: +2 Skirmish, 2: +2 Shock, 3: +2 Mobility, 4: +2 Morale. 50% chance of dealing 1d4 damage to Commander's Army	1
Battlefield Reliquary	The remains of a saint or holy artefact, borne aloft by the devoted.	+4 Morale	2
Herald of Arms	A messenger who proclaims the Commander's authority.	The Commander gains 1 Boon on all rolls when negotiating with settlements or parleying	2
Embedded Assassins	Masked killers wielding mighty weapons who fight in silence.	+3 Skirmish, -1 enemy Morale	3
Varangians	Barbaric foreign fighters, eager for gold and glory.	+3 Shock, +1 Mobility	3
Great Captain	A pre-eminent military leader offers their advice to the Commander.	+4 Leadership	4
Horse Lords	Wild riders follow the Commander, spitting savage war cries.	+4 Skirmish, +2 Mobility	4
Wallbreaker	A mighty gun inscribed with arcane runes, attended to by wizard-engineers.	+3 Skirmish, +8 Siege, -2 Mobility, 10% chance of misfiring (1d4 damage to Commander's army, no progress on Siege phase)	5
Fey Allies	Capricious sylvans lead a Wild Hunt from deer-back with blades of bronze and bone.	+5 Skirmish, +3 Mobility, -2 enemy Morale, -1 friendly Morale	5
Magical Beasts	Strange and savage products of arcane crossbreeding. Handled with great care.	+4 Shock, -2 enemy Morale, 25% chance of dealing 2d6 damage to Commander's Army	6
Archmage	A master of the arcane arts, and a source of great disquiet to enemies.	+6 Shock, -2 enemy Morale. 25% chance of a devastating magical mishap (treat as doubling the enemy's strength in the current phase)	6

Health

With the army's recruitment completed, calculate its Health by totalling up Hit Dice according to its composition. Roll for each unit accordingly:

Light Infantry: d6

Heavy Infantry: d8

Light Cavalry: d4

Heavy Cavalry: d6

Artillery does not contribute to the army's overall Health.

Thus an army with 2 units of Light Infantry, 3 units of Heavy Infantry, a unit of Light Cavalry and a unit of Heavy Cavalry would roll 2d6+3d8+1d4+1d6, getting a total of 28 Health.

Supplies

Roll 2d10+5 to determine the army's starting supplies.

Please note that this is still being tweaked and that the above tables are not exhaustive - I definitely plan to flesh out the Specialist and Renown tables further. Any comments, constructive criticism and suggestions are welcome. Posts on how to actually use the armies will be forthcoming.