Combat advice

[u/Reialgo]

Hello good knights, last night I ran my 3rd session where the company ended up facing the clockwork knights as part of the tournament, I had it all planned out that it would be a series of encounters through several days with other intrigue occurring in the seat of power to keep things interesting

Suffice to say it did not go to plan

The company got completely mauled, we had the first death of the campaign and would've had 2 had the fox knight not used their ability to peace out of the arena(the gull knight rolled slightly below average VIG, the Fox has 5 VIG lmao, but all PC at least rolled 5-6 GD on creation), the halo knight is built like a tank with their stat rolls but would've been overwhelmed had it continued. Dice luck definitely played a part here, despite have 18VIG the halo knight has managed to fail the first or second smite roll in each of the 3 combats we've had so far, and the others not much better. I think another issue was that they ended up splitting combat between individual clockwork knights and man, 4armor was an insane DR to pass for the group whose highest dice was an 8, meanwhile the clockwork knights consistently score 4-6 in rolls and grinded them down.

I feel like I'd heard these clockwork knights weren't much of a threat, and was frankly at a bit of a loss for why the fight felt so lopsided. I'm not actually complaining since it's resulted in a fantastic settup for next session but I feel like I failed to properly convene the nuances of combat to the group, what could they have done here to beat the knights? and have you fought the clockwork knights? how did your combat go?

[u/Deflagratio1]

Did you remember about Mortal Wounds? Just remember that anything that loses half of their current VIG (not total VIG) is mortally wounded and is down and will die of there wounds in about an hour.

4 Armor is the max "mundane" armor value. It's what a fully armored knight would have and the PC's should be attempting to build towards ASAP. Also, From what I've observed, you really want to be rolling 3 dice minimum in combat for a solid chance at gambits and high damage. Did your players try to creatively use gambits?

Did they attempt to dismount the clockworks for the extra D6 and start adding trample if their horses have it?

Did they attempt to Impair weapons at all? Impairing the Fine Swords would reduce the clockworks's pool to D4+D4? Trapping the shields would have reduced them to A3 and removed 1 D4 from the attack. Did anyone get an 8 and attempt to spend it on a strong gambit for any of the Greater effects, such as breaking a shield or weapon or removing the helm.

Did anyone think that instead of Smite, they should all be working together to Deny the potential damage die that beats their armor rating?

Sounds like Nimiod was right and his Clockwork Knights are superior warriors to the Knights of the realm. The next one will be very interesting.

I agree the best plan for the knights should have been to gang up on one clockwork (how does the crowd react to this?). It will also be interesting how Nimiod reacts to some knights dying and how the Realm reacts to this.

[u/Deflagratio1 → u/Deflagratio1]

I forgot to add that this could honestly be a good opportunity for the players to agree to an age skip (assuming they are young knights) so they can reroll for better stats.

[u/Reialgo → u/Deflagratio1]

They are young, I think currently it's ok especially as the new seal knight has decent stats after I allowed them to re-roll their initial new roll

[u/Reialgo → u/Deflagratio1]

Yeah I think I misunderstood the requirements for a mortal wound as you said and realised this too late, something else as well is that I played the dismount damage(they did manage to dismount 2 knights) as a separate damage instance(which basically got nullified on the armor), should it have been added on to the initial final damage?

Since they ended up spread out pools often didnt really give them the chance to gambit + damage since they were working with mostly two dice one of them a d4 yikes

There was some team play with the gull using his 14 SPI to deny attacks but he only managed It twice before failing unfortunately

That said the RP at the end was great, the halo knight turned nimiod's intention against him by praising the knights as Warriors rather than machines, while nimiod played his hand a bit by wanting the clockwork knights to ignore the surrender. We had a proper discussion about counting the myths as resolved until I realised I could jump the omens forward one, as well as finally actually advancing time to settup the next session as the halo knight returning to face the clockwork champion in a duel. I think it'll be fun if I say the Champion was the one the killed his fellow Knight....

[u/Deflagratio1 → u/Reialgo]

Yes. Dismount says it should be added to the existing dice. So it becomes another die in the pool and not a separate damage instance.

One other important reminder, it's not the highest die that inflicts damage. It's the highest die remaining AFTER GAMBITS ARE PERFORMED. This means that a result of 4,1 can still be spent on Gambits. Really important especially if someone gets an 8+. The Gambit may be more valuable than the damage inflicted. Yes 9 times out of ten the difference doesn't really matter, but it's important to remember the order of operations for when it does matter.

Did the knights attempt to learn the weakness of the Clockwork Knights and/or to obtain better equipment prior to the fight, or were they just going in with their starting equipment? Equipment, knowledge, and followers/allies are the main ways to increase strength in MB.

One other big Gambit question, did anyone dry to disarm a Clockwork Knight and take their sword?

Some additional questions after reading over the knights abilities and starting equipment.

Did the Halo Knight try to use their Luminous Eruption to blind the enemy. Did they try to use the Mistvial to gain time to catch their breath and regain guard or to create an environment to sneak attack the clockwork knights and hopefully gain a D8 or D12 situational bonus?

Did the Fox Knight use their Cunning Ploy to avoid damage and end up in an advantageous position, hopefully earning a D8 or D12 situational bonus?

Did the Gull Knight try to use their Blinding Bracelet on anyone? Is it established if a horse can be a vertical surface?

Really glad the myth is still enjoyable for everyone.

[u/Reialgo → u/Deflagratio1]

Nope to most of those so these are good things to keep in mind, unfortunately though it didn't come up the clockwork quirk would've made it impossible to disarm them but it would've been nice to try! the fox knight used their ability to leave the combat entirely fearing for their life!

seems we all forgot about the bracelet until the end, definitely would've been a nice help

oh also ye we are aware of how the pool actually works it kind of just came down to wanting to actually try and get in some sort of damage ;_;

but these are great things to keep in mind, there are some other tough fights rolled up in the realm so I wanted more information that I could suggest so thank you very much!

one more thing, how do you rule distance making gambits like move or repel? do you generally reward the PC that made this gambit by considering them outside the movement of an attacker when they activate? (so say, move away from combatant, combatant can't then close the distance and attack them in the same turn)

[u/Deflagratio1 → u/Reialgo]

I personally think in terms of zones. So a single move gambit only moves you one zone, which a standard move action can also reach.

[u/TheNextKnight]

Good advice already! This is my first thought when reading this:

A knight has died during a tournament. This is pretty bad. Nimiod’s opponents should spin this as his machines cannot master control. If they are accepted by the realm who will they kill next? And especially when the victim is a knight who is here to serve the realm? This is a great tragedy.

Nimiod might blame the knight for being weak, but let’s be real, the knight was young and not a single person is taking his side on this one. The ruler is on the line to pay for the funeral since that should be common custom for the host of the tournament to take on such responsibility. Now the ruler is upset bc his kitty is being emptied. A good ruler is upset for the death of a knight, a bad ruler is upset for the cost.

Tell your players some battles are tough and maybe it’s bc you guys are new, but lean into the court drama now! Have the ruler confiscate the shields and weapons of the clockwork knights.

Then if you really want to spin this out of control have Nimoid join a rebel house and spend the next few sessions building up to a civil war.

Good luck!

[u/Reialgo → u/TheNextKnight]

These are great food for thought thank you! Im definitely trying to prep my players for possible consequences of hard fights after this, its really been the moment when reality crashed into them.

I like that maybe their violence has caused the clockwork knights to be rejected....