Hmm. I've been wanting to screw around with some GURPS Mass Combat for a while now, and I think I might as well just go ahead. To make it interesting, I'm gonna run a sort of small little pseudo quest. To start with, Let's figure out what the two sides should be. I tend to like a fair bit of fantasy but also a fair bit of realism. Any elements that people really want to see? Tech level, magic, psionics, species, etc? :P

For myself, I kinda want one side to include a heterogenous alliance of disparate races. Humans, elves, dwarves, Drayds (Complete with entire trees), etc.

For tech level, I'm thinking roughly world war one-two level, or in gurps terms TL 6-7.

@Angle WW2 Skirmish: Nazis with Robot Dinosaurs vs. a local resistance milita with mages and psykers in a French Village.

@Shotagonist Alright, I can dig it. Maybe throw in some dryad trees and an element of dwarven heavy weapons on the resistance side?

@Angle sounds great!

@Shotagonist @hypolite On another note, I'm gonna log this on my forum, to make it easier to find later. https://agora-2866.nodechef.com/forum?post=CoNXcXCyoWccQHEML

@hypolite @Shotagonist @Qwyrdo Heres the first unit: The mobile dryad tree. Not sure what to focus on next. I'm thinking the Militia, maybe? :/

Mobile Dryad
TS: 45
Innate Features: Terrain (Woodland)
Classes: Arm, C3I, Eng, Rec
WT: 3
Mob: 0
Raise: 40K
Maintain: 10K
TL: 5

@Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite Hmm, heres an idea for some of the resistance militia's mages: Barrier mages. Support TS unit that has the neutralize fire and artillery classes. Sound good? :/

@hypolite @Shotagonist @Qwyrdo hey if you want me to stop spamming you just ask and I'll drop you from the conversation. Also, I've updated the Dryads to ditch the armor class and updated their TS to be support (Only counts at full strength for special class superiority) and changed their WT to 4 (Making them harder to move.) I'm starting work on the barier mages now.

@Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite Alright, here are the barrier mages:

Barrier Mages
TS: (20)
Features: Battlefield Control
Classes: (Art), Eng, (F)
WT: 1
Mob: Foot
Raise: 150K
Maintain: 30K
TL: 3

@hypolite @Shotagonist @Qwyrdo Also, heres a superheavy truck element, necessary for actually moving the Dryad element:

Superheavy Truck
TS: 15
Class:T4
WT: 5
Mob: Motor
Raise: 40K
Maintain: 2K
TL: 6

@Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite What pother elements should we add to the resistance forces? Maybe some out of the book - a rifleman militia unit or two, and maybe some dwarven heavy elements? :/

@hypolite @Shotagonist @Qwyrdo Heres what I'm looking at as the resistance forces:

Name, TS
Rowan (Mobile Dryad, Average Equipment, Average Training), (45)

1 Dwarven Transport (Superheavy Truck, Good Equipment, Good Training), 30

2 Dwarven Skirmish Tanks (Light Tank, Fine Equipment, Good Training), 160

2 Militia (Riflemen, Poor Equipment, Average Training, Impetuous), 60

1 Militia Engineers (Combat Engineers, Poor equipment, Average training, Impetuous), 30

1 Militia Command (Command post, Poor Equipment, Average Training, Impetuous), (50)

Simon + Apprentices (Barrier Mage, Very Fine Equipment, Elite Training), (70)

@Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite For the Nazi's, I'm not sure whether to use existing elements, or make up new ones. Is a pack or robo-raptors with built in rifles just some variant on riflemen, or is it it's own unit, with fundamental differences? :/

@hypolite @Shotagonist @Qwyrdo I think I can justr model the nazis as conventional elements:

Name, TS
3 Nazi Shocktroops (Riflemen, Good equipment, Average Training), 180
4 Nazi Robo-Raptor Squads (Light Tanks, Good Equipment, Average Training), 240
3 Nazi Robo-Triceratops (Medium Tank, Good equipment, Average Training), 450
1 Nazi Robo-T-Rex (Heavy Tank, Good Equipment, Average Training), 600
1 Nazi Command (Command Post, Good Equipment, Average Training), (75)

@Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite Anyway that looks like a pretty good write-up. Anyone have any last minute suggestions to make, or should we move on to figuring out the battle? :/

@hypolite @Shotagonist @Qwyrdo I figure the resistance forces would be encamped in the French village, probably having reinforced it as much as possible - which, with a couple units of engineering including a Dryad, would be a lot. I figure a defense bonus of +8, and the terrain counts as woods. Sound good?

@Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite So to start with, the recon contest. The resistance forces get +2, for good relations with the locals. The Nazi's get -2, for using roads and not having good relations with the locals. In addition, theres the matter of special class superiority. The resistance has 90 TS from Rowan, 160 from the dwarven skirmish tanks, and 60 from the Militia. The Nazi's have 180 from their shock troops and 240 from their robo-raptor squads. This gives the two sides respective totals of 310 and 480, which means nobody has recon superiority.

@hypolite @Shotagonist @Qwyrdo The milita I'm gonna say has skills of 12 all round, while the Nazi's have 15's, so the militia rolls against 14 adjusted for their +2 bonus, and the nazi's roll against 13, adjusted for their -2 penalty. The militia rolls a 9, for a margin of +5, while the Nazi's roll a 13 for a margin of 0. Thus, the militia wins, with an overall margin of success of +5. I'm gonna say the Terrain rating here is 4, so that means that the resistance has achieved surprise. They have the option of going for an encounter battle or a pitched battle.

@Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite If they choose encounter battle, it restricts both of their options, but it means the enemy force will start the battle confused. But on the other hand, they're defending a town, which means they probably want to stick to defense options that let them gain the advantage of their massive defense bonus. As such, an encounter battle doesn;t make much sense, as they wouldn't be able to take advantage of the enemies confusion. A such, the resistance opts for a pitched battle.

@hypolite @Shotagonist @Qwyrdo The two troops total TS clock in at 299 for the Resistance and 1477 for the Nazis, giving the Nazis a +6 Relative TS bonus for 3:1 or better.

Special class superiority:

Air: N/A
Armor: 160 VS 1290, Nazis get +3

Artillery: N/A

C3I: 127.5 VS 75: Nobody gets a bonus.

Cavalry: 160 VS 790: Nazi's get +2

Fire: 250 VS 1470: Nazi's get +3

Engineering: 190 VS 0: Resistance gets +3

Thus, the Nazi's get +14 and the Resistance gets +3. But, the Resistance will also be able to claim their +8 Defense Bonus on defensive actions, so they're not at as much of a disadvantage as they might appear.

@Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite For the combat, The resistance commander, Lucie Chevrillon, Has a skill of 12. She gets +3 as a Basic Strategy Modifier, bringing her up to fifteen. She knows she's severely outmatched in terms of troops and needs to claim every advantage she can get, so she chooses Deliberate defense. This allows her to claim her +8 defense bonus, gives her a +1 battle strategy modifier, and would give her an additional +1 if she had Fire superiority, which she doesn't.

@hypolite @Shotagonist @Qwyrdo This still isn't a very big advantage for her, though, so she wants to get tricky. She's going to try and use her experience as an architect and in depth knowledge of the village to her advantage. She rolls both as complementary skills, with a 13 in each. She rolls 9 and 13, succeeding in both and giving her an additional +2, for a total of 26. Additionally, she needs to roll against leadership to restrain her Impetuous militia. She has a skill of 15 at this, and rolls an 11, with a -4 modifier for having troops about 40% impetuous. She succeeds, and takes no penalty.

@Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite On the Nazi side, we have Heinz Paulus. He has a skill of 15, with a +8 Basic Strategy Modifier. He chooses all out attack, for a Battle Strategy Modifier of +2. This brings him to a total of 25.

Neither of them wishes to take undue risks, as having them taken out would cripple their side of the battle, so they both choose risk modifiers of +0.

@hypolite @Shotagonist @Qwyrdo Lucie, however, has a couple of Heroes on her side: Rowan and Simon. Rowan chooses A +3 risk modifier, figuring that as a tree she can shrug of a few rifle bullets pretty easy. Simon is much less willing to take such risks with his life, so he opts for a much more sedate +1. He's with the impetuous Militiamen, however, so he gets an additional +1. This leaves Rowan rolling against an 8 and Simon rolling against a 7 for their significant actions. Rowan rolls a 4, a critical success, giving Lucie an additional +2, while Simon rolls a 10, for no bonus or penalty.

@Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite Heinz could choose to change his strategy because of Lucie's deliberate Defense, but he sees no reason to do so and stays the course.

Lucie rolls a 13 against her 28 (26 +2 for Rowan's significant action). This gives her a margin of +15. Heinz rolls an 11 against his 25, for a margin of 14. Thus, Lucie wins the round with a margin of +1. She takes 10% casualties, and inflicts 15% casualties on Heinze, +5% for her deliberate defense, [i]doubled[/1] for Heinze's all out attack, to -40%.

@hypolite @Shotagonist @Qwyrdo If Lucie had taken an aggressive strategy, she could claim a +1 position bonus, but as it is, she'll just have to settle for an appallingly lopsided casualty count. Meanwhile, poor Heinz is discovering he's sent his army into a meatgrinder, instead of the cakewalk he was expecting - the unfortunate result of underestimating the power of a fortified force. Lucie takes a -2 Casualty penalty on her next round, while Heinz takes a whopping -8, due to losing almost half his force in the initial assault.

@Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite This is where I'm gonna drop this for today. I hope y'all found it interesting! Feel free to comment if theres anything you want to see next time. XD

@Angle @Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite This makes me want to play GURPS some time.

@MeimuHakurei @Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite So I'm thinking about running round two. Probably not tonight, but maybe tomorrow. Is there anything in particular you'd like to see? I'm thinking of either doing a straight follow up, with Heinz pulling in some reinforcements and going back for round two, or maybe something set over on the eastern front, with the Nazis and their robo dinos up against the Soviets and their chimera armies. :/

@Angle @Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite The soviets probably also have water and air elementals drafted from the villages.

@Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite @MeimuHakurei Works for me. What would Said water and air elemental be capable of? Air sounds like it could neutralize other aircraft, and maybe also guns and artillery? Water would probably be heavily resistant to infantry weapons and could serve as a minor armor element? Seems like it would generally be better on the Ocean though. Unless its a freshwater elemental and saltwater is bad for it. Maybe it could push stuff around to do some engineering? And it would probably have the amphibious and Terrain (Freshwater) features. :/

@Angle @Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite Yeah, the water elementals are more common around the black sea and the baltic states, which help with naval battles while also having minor usage on land if there are water sources to transport them with. They're part of the comintern because soviets being soviets.

Fire Elementals are almost only found in the tropical areas (as well as volcanic ones like Japan) and Earth Elementals are too infrequent in Russia to form a squad.

@Qwyrdo @Shotagonist @hypolite @MeimuHakurei Hmm... Could you keep a fire elemental happy in a blast furnace? I guess probably, but if that's worth doing it's worth keeping the elemental back from the front. Also of note, I'm pretty sure the Soviet union stretched far enough south and had allies further south, such that they could conceivably recruit elementals from. Though maybe not very many, not enough to spare from their industry.