BattleSystem - Troop Losses

The problem:

You spend your life in pursuit of that elusive "stronghold plus level" requirement in order to finally make a roll on the followers table.

You spend time getting to know each and every one of your followers.

You get caught up in a war, and some quirky BattleSystem rules wipe out your followers on the basis of a few unlucky d10's.

The solution:

Use some d10 rolls to mitigate those losses, using the infamous, "Killed, body lost" table for PC casualties in a BattleSystem game.

The details:

Failing that armor check, thereby reducing Hits to 0 for a counter in a BattleSystem tabletop does not have to mean that every one of the 10 soldiers it represents is irrevocably deceased.

Meaningful characters in a campaign should never really live or die on a handful of cheap rolls that could go either way. There should be a number of ways to avoid the roll, mitigate the fallout, or post-death options for resurrection or rebirth.

There also should not be such a risk to the special troops that you just don't want to ever use them in battle, or in a war.

The first rule to mitigate would be that, for every troop represented by a counter loss, a roll on the "Killed, body lost" (KBL) table can be made.

1 Killed; body is lost

2-3 Killed; body lies on field

4-7 Badly wounded (1d6 hp left)

8-10 Unwounded, but unconscious for 10 rounds or (in the scenario) game turns

This means that only 10% of your losses are likely to be permanent.

Although 20% are still "killed", there should also be mitigating factors for this.

The second rule will be that having healers on the field will allow them to quickly respond to the fallen, and grant a re-roll for all of those in the KBoF category, with 1 - 3 being that the fallen companion is not revivable with cure spells.

The third rule will be that, rather than having followers "never to be replaced", followers can indeed by recruited. The assumption would be that, so long as the character continues adventuring, their reknown continues to grow, and more followers will be in the wings.

However, to take advantage of this, the campaigning followers, and the PC leader, must return to a stronghold within their dominion. For "normal" followers, they will fill the ranks with the passage of time alone. For special troops, some further time in training, and some commitment in terms of gold may be required to get them battle ready.

Comments

[TheDM]

In Battlesystem, rules that relate to using unconverted heroes in combat, state that a hero must remove 10 Ogres in order to remove 1 counter.
This suggests that when looking at partial losses a counter can still operate 1 short.
Therefore, I think the best solution is that Hits pro rata on that particular counter, round up.
So a 2 Hit counter needs to lose 5 dudes before there is any impact.

[Aki]

Also: what are the rules if you don't have enough dudes to field a full 'counter'? If I have 9 guys, but 10 go into a battlesystem token, are they omitted, or do you field a counter that has less hits, or what?

[Aki]

Yep, I think these rules work well. Taran has used them for a couple of small battlesystem skirmishes, and losses to 'special troops' are mitigated significantly. I'm still loathe to commit them to risky, or even toe-to-toe engagements for fear of large losses, but this helps at least. I guess these mechanics means that your special troops are likely to be sent home after one rough battlesystem fight. Which is fine, I think.

Useful to define 'special troops'... any NPCs coming from follower rules I'm thinking.