Maelstrom Rules - Downtime: Military Guide

Men-at-arms
If one or more members of your group control a unit of men-at-arms in the New World then your group will be responsible for feeding the members of that unit. You will need to procure sufficient food to supply the men-at-arms each downtime. If you do not provide sufficient food for your men-at-arms then their morale will drop and they will begin to desert.

In addition to this, if your men-at-arms are from a culture in the Known World then you can choose how much to pay them. If you men-at-arms feel they could be earning more money elsewhere then their morale will drop and they may desert. You will be told how much money your men-at-arms expect to receive, if you pay them more than this then their morale may begin to improve.

Your men-at-arms are assumed to be equipped with basic weapons and armour. It is possible to equip your men-at-arms with lammed items, by giving the items to the unit. If you equip your men-at-arms with lammied weapons, armour or shields then they will be able to drill with these items to gain the appropriate skill for using them. A unit will not receive any benefits from having lammied items until they have the skills to use them.

Men-at-arms can only be directed to move to a place that you have knowledge of, either because your character knows the area, or because you have a lammied map of an area in your character's inventory. If you set your men-at-arms to drill at a location then they will defend that area if it is attacked during downtime. The morale of men-at-arms will rise if they win battles and fall if they lose. Drilling allows the men-at-arms to gain simple combat skills as if they were characters studying. It will also improve their discipline and morale.

Men-at-arms will not defend an area unless they are drilling there or they are part of an army that is patrolling the area.

It is possible to remove one or more men-at-arms from a unit. If you do this then the men-at-arms will appear in the list of minions that are controlled or directed by your character. You can form a new unit from any men-at-arms that are not currently in a unit. In this way you can change the size of a unit and reinforce units that have taken losses.

Men-at-arms fight most effectively when they are organized into units of at least eight men all of whom are armed and equipped with similar weapons. The correct way to use complementary troops in battle, for instance bowmen and heavy infantry is to have one unit all armed with bows and another equipped with armour, not to have a single unit with both mixed in. Units that contain a mix of different skills and equipment will fight at reduced effectiveness.

Forming A Force
Any character may choose to form a force as an army or a fleet. That character automatically becomes the leader of that force and they decide who can join the force and they are responsible for issuing orders to the force. An army can be formed anywhere in the New World, but a fleet can only be formed at a deep water port that your character has permission to use.

Characters and men-at-arms can request to join either an army or a fleet, but ships may only request to join a fleet. Men-at-arms and ships must move to the current location of a force before they can request to join it. Once they have requested to join a force, they cannot receive any orders that would require them to move independently until they leave the force. While a ship or a unit of men-at-arms is in a force they may only move when the force moves.

The downtime system does not track the location of characters, so characters can always request to join a force and being in a force never restricts the actions that they can take.

Only the character that is in control of a force can issue orders to the force. Like a ship or a unit of men-at-arms, all orders must be issued sequentially in date order, starting from the first date that every member of the force is available. Orders that are issued are undertaken by every member of the force, but they can only be deleted by the character in charge of the force.

Maps
The map that a force uses to take an action is formed from the best knowledge of every character that has joined the force. Initially, this will be the geographical knowledge of the character that forms the force, including any lammies for maps that they have registered to their character. If more characters join the force, then their knowledge of the geography of the New World and any maps registered to their character become available to the character in charge of the force when they issue an order to the force.

The more knowledge that you have of the location that your army is operating in, the better off you will be. Moving an army through unfamiliar terrain is very slow and dangerous. If you are attacked by an enemy that knows the location you are in significantly better than you do then you will be at a considerable disadvantage in the ensuing battle.

Army Orders
Aggressive land-based actions can only be undertaken by an army. Armies can be ordered to attack the area of land that they are in, or any adjacent area. The army will then attempt to seize control of the area. The action will be opposed by any defenders that are able to reach the area. If there are no defenders, or the defenders are defeated, then the leader of the army will gain control of the land in that area.

An army may also be ordered to seize buildings in an area or to seize ships that dock at a port in the area. Like attacking an area of land, the action will be opposed by any units of men-at-arms that are able to defend the affected buildings or port. If there are no defenders, or the defenders are defeated, then the leader of the army will gain control of any buildings or ships that are seized.

Fleet Orders
Aggressive naval actions can only be undertaken by fleets. You cannot seize control of an area of sea, but fleets can be ordered to patrol the waters off a colony's coast. Fleets that are patrolling waters will automatically attempt to oppose any acts of piracy, coastal assaults or blockades attempted in those waters by other fleets.

A blockade attempts to prevent any ships from moving through an area of water. If you successfully blockade a colony, then no ship will be able to enter or leave a port in that colony. The more ports that there are, the harder it is to enforce a blockade. You need at least one vessel in your fleet per port to stand much hope of enacting a successful blockade.

Piracy is the traditional attempt to overtake ships and rob them of their cargo. A fleet must contain vessels fast enough to be able to overtake the target, otherwise it has no hope of succeeding. If the fleet is powerful enough to be able to overcome the victim easily then the defenders will usually surrender, preferring to give up their cargo rather than lose their lives. If the fleet is of similar strength to the target then a battle will ensue. Fleets will not engage in piracy against targets that are obviously much stronger than they are.

A fleet may initiate a coastal assault, attempting to land all men-at-arms that are part of the fleet on a section of coastline. Coastal assaults are highly risky strategies, as moving men-at-arms ashore without the benefit of a port is dangerous for everyone involved. If the men-at-arms are able to overcome any defenders then they will seize control of the area of land that they have assaulted. Assaulting an area of land that is protected by a fortified and garrisoned settlement is particularly difficult.

Battle Resolution
Whenever a force engages defenders, whether attacking an area of land or attempting to engage in piracy then a battle will result. No account is taken of individual strategies or tactics. Casualties are calculated and the winner decided by comparing the total relative strengths of the two sides.

The strength of an army is dependent on the skills of the men-at-arms and any equipment that they have registered to them, as well as their morale. It also includes the relevant skills and abilities of any characters that are present in the army. Characters must have the relevent items in their inventory to make use of pertinent skills but expendable resources such as mana crystals or shots of darkpowder are ignored by the system. Battlefield weapons such as a ballista or catapult can add a significant amount to an army's strength in the right circumstances, provided the owner has the skill to use them.

The strength of a fleet is primarily dependent on the defensive and offensive strength of the ships in the fleet. Men-at-arms and characters that are part of a fleet do improve the strength of the fleet but their impact is significantly reduced. The only exception to this is characters who have the navigator skill. Ships that have a navigator at the helm, especially one with a telescope registered to that character, are considerably more effective in battle than ships without.

Whatever outcome takes place, no player-character that is involved in a downtime battle will lose their life. It is possible for you to lose items that you carry into battle but PCs cannot die during downtime in the Maelstrom campaign.

And so it began......

Dawn breaks, war looms, the evil Lord is gathering his armies to wage a campaign of destruction upon the free peoples of the world. It is up to I, Sir Maximilan Pegasus to stop him, with my trusted band of adventurers we must gather the enchanted sword of Tek, the Shield of Way-Lem and the amulet of Subsidence and together we shall slay this abomination! “TIME FREEZE” And bam, the fantasy world fades away, the enchanted sword of Tek in my hand is a rubber sword smothered in coloured ribbons with a laminated card cable tied to the hilt, I look down and I’m wearing plastic armour and unflattering heropants, and the magical world of my imagination washes away to reveal a field in Wigan, but you know what? It’s larp and I’m a larper, it’s what I do.
I started larping when I was 17, I’d never role-played before, I’d never played D&D or Warhammer, never played WoW or any form of online game, I’d never even read Lord of the Rings, I feel somewhat privileged that I hadn’t done any of those things, I think it gave me an untainted attitude towards what larp could be, I had no preconceptions about saving the maiden fair, slaying the dragon or smiting the liche, to me it was just a new thing to try.
It was cold, really cold, 10am on a September morning, the rain was battering down and I’d been given a faux fur tunic, a mouldy old sword and been pointed towards a man and told, “You’re monstering, there’s the ref he’ll tell you what to do.” I obeyed, I played wave after wave of zombies, orcs and various line monsters and to be honest, was cold, bored and hungry. That is, until lunchtime, the teams switched sides, I got into the kit I’d scrounged up, as with most first timers, a black trenchcoat. I took the mouldy old sword, stood with my fellow adventurers and it hit me, I’m a god damn hero!
Pow, there it was, a new larper was born.