Again: I am forgoing the round 1 Morale Check for the barbarians--the fact that half of the fallen were retrieved is the sort of Big Damn Hero moment that's good for morale. Also, note that 1 hour time period for folks who need to re-charge magic juices.
NOTE: Most of this is the same, but you have a couple key changes:
Enemy bonus is lower due to losses suffered and player actions.
You may now assist with either Defense or Offense (see below).
There is no cap to the total bonus/penalty you can provide in either roll, so big rolls means big success.
With the reclaimed forces, you now have 7 Tokens: 3 LongTooth, 3 Moon-Hunter and 2 Edienos
The Xiticix now have 9 Tokens (i'm subtracting an extra one for the total slaughter of the hunting group, in addition to the three Fox scored.).
Modifiers:
Bugs:
Numeric Advantage: +2
Light Air Support (they can all fly, after all): +1
Moon-Hunter Terrain Knowledge: -1
Total: +2
The Queen is a Wild Card with a d10 Knowledge: Battle. She also has an NPC rolling to assist, similar to your characters. (This will be a different NPC--you guys have killed her chief Huntsbug, so I have to bring out a different one.
Barbarians:
Light Air Support (the Edinos come with their weird, floating crystal starfish buddies): +1
IF SnackHappy rolls Shooting and uses the Missile Launchers (remember to track ammo), you also gain Light Artillery (in addition to the actual benefits of his roll): +1
Total: +2
I believe Fox is rolling for your side. Others may assist, in two ways:
Offensive Assistance: This works as normal: Every success on the appropriate trait (listed below) is a +1 to Fox's roll. In addition, note that there is no cap to this bonus.
Defensive Assistance: Here, you run defense, providing cover and so forth, protecting your own forces. Each Success/Raise is a -1 to the ENEMY's roll. Since the full score applies to both sides, this could theoretically end up saving some of your precious tokens from a repeat of that last round. Defensive Assistance MUST at least use the Committed level of Commitment--you can't hang back and still be effective as a blocker.
You may roll any of the following Skills to assist: Fighting, Shooting, Throwing, Piloting, Arcane Skills. Yes, this is more limited than usual, because with the Xiticix, it's all about putting as much of the swarm down as possible, as fast as possible. Assist rolls are at the same modifier as the Knowledge: Battle roll, with the following additional modifiers/rules:
Commitment
Each assistant must declare their commitment level, before rolling:
Reluctant, Committed, Enthusiastic, Insane. These affect the Resource Expenditures noted in the next list:
- If you roll Shooting, you need to roll as follows for ammunition spent:
- Personal Ranged Weapons (non-explosive): 4d6. You're pretty much shooting constantly to keep the bugs off of you.
- Vehicular Weapons (non-explosive): 3d6. You can put things down a bit easier, so you don't have to burn quite as much ammunition per kill.
- Explosive Weapons: 2d6. It's easier to conserve ammunition when you're blowing up everything.
- If you roll Throwing, use 2d6 Grenades. You get to pick which ones.
- If you roll an Arcane Ability, roll 3d6 to determine the ISP/PPE spent. You then get back 1 hours' worth of Recharge, whatever that is for your character, before the next round. No, there's no Ley Line in the area.
- If you roll Fighting, it means you're getting up close and personal with some of the nastiest fighters in North America. You take a Wound.
- If you roll Piloting/Driving, then you're getting in the thick of things, and just running yourself ragged pounding on the swarming bugs. You take a level of Fatigue. If you suffer a Wound for any reason (either Commitment Level or a bad roll), they are applied to your vehicle (I will roll Hit Location).
The expenditure is modified by Commitment Level:
- Reluctant: For ammo/PPts, reduce to d4s. Pilots suffer no Fatigue, and you get a free Benny to Soak. You also roll at a -2 (so a flat roll for the first round).
- Committed: This is the standard option.
- Enthusiastic: Increase Resource rolls to d8s. If you were going to suffer Fatigue or a Wound, then you suffer one of each, and the Wound is outside the Golden Hour. Assist roll is at +2.
- Insane: Increase Resource rolls to d10s. If you would normally suffer Fatigue or a Wound, then you suffer two of that, and one of the other, and one Auto-Wound is outside the Golden Hour. Assist roll is at +4.
Each Success/Raise on this roll adds 1 to the Knowledge: Battle roll (with a group maximum of +4). You may choose to 'spend' one of these, however, in order to either reduce the ammunition used by 50%, or to eliminate the automatic Wound/Fatigue, depending on which Skill you rolled. You can only reduce ammunition once per roll.
If you got at least a +2 to the aid roll, take a benny and narrate how awesome you are at the thing you do. Keep in mind, no breaching the central tower, but feel free to describe moments of courage, brilliance or combat might.
If you fail the assist roll, take a Wound. If you CritFail, you take 1d3 Wounds.
Then come the Knowledge: Battle rolls, against a Target Number of 4. For every Success/Raise, the enemy loses 1 Token. A CritFail means that your side loses 1 Token, in addition to any losses from the enemy's roll. This is true for both sides, so it's possible to win and still take losses.
Your side loses tokens in a specific order--first the Longtooth lose one, then the Moon-Hunters lose one, then the Edinos lose one, and then back to the Longtooth. This is done this way for each round, so the Longtooth tribe will almost certainly be taking the heaviest losses during the war.
If you also BEAT the Xiticix Queen in the roll, you have temporarily opened a path to the Hive, and can choose to declare that you are entering it. At that point, the Mass Battle is over, and we go to tactical maneuvering through the Hive to face down the Queen. However, I'll warn you now--the more Tokens the Xiticix have at the time you enter the Hive, the greater the opposition you'll face. If there's 10 or more Xiticix Tokens left when you go for the Hive, then there will even be an extra encounter as you have to force your way through the bugs at the edges of the place. So you may want to try to wear them down a bit first, before charging headlong into the depths of the enemy's stronghold.
If you LOSE the round, then Fox will need to roll Spirit to check morale; if he fails, the Tribe with the fewest Tokens remaining will flee the field. Note: The Xiticix are defending a Hive, and will NOT roll for Morale. The Queen can't leave at this point, and the bugs simply will not abandon her.
If you tie the opposed rolls, then there's no after-battle effect, and we just move on to the next round.
So, to be clear, the sequence:
Assistants determine whether they are going on Offense or Defense, pick their Skill, and roll to assist/hinder, accordingly.
Fox rolls Knowledge: Battle.
I roll for Xiticix assist, then for the Queen.
Narration happens, and either Morale checks or Decision Time happen.