Battle Guide

[yanosaudren]

As the name suggests, we now have a warfare guide on the forum. This contains almost everything I know and understand about warfare. However, it is made specifically for this forum, and is really a guide for warfare on this forum only. Because our rules are unique to this site, many of the things you can do here you could not do anywhere else, and while some of this guide may be useful to you in all situations, please understand that much of it won't for any other forum apart for this.

Now I am not a genius (but not insane either). So For some of this I might be wrong. However I think that everyone on this site would gain something from reading this. Even if you understood warfare perfectly and you were as smarter than Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi together, you should read this because it also helps explain how battle work here, and what you can and cannot do.

If I have missed anything, or you think I should add something to it, then please PM me and tell me about it. Each different thread is a different part of the guide. So that should make it easier to tell the different part apart.

Prologue- Main points to consider when reading this!

Throughout the battle guide, I shall be explaining things to my best ability. If you do not understand then PM me with a question. But while you read through this guide, take the following things into account. Many of you already understand them, but read them anyway because these are all important.

1. GOLDEN RULE, THINK THINGS THROUGH- This is the most important thing I am going to say here. When you are planning something, here is what to do. You make your plan, then you try to imagine you are there at that very moment when the plan starts to happen. Think what the effect will be on everyone in the battle. You may (and probably will) find that your plan is insane and would never work and would actually hurt you more than them. I am not joking and I have seen this happen.
For example, trying to fire burning arrows up a cliff to hit an enemy supply depo. Sounds good, except when the arrows don't fly straight up, hit the cliff edge and come falling back down and hit your men, and set the flammable stuff you have on fire.

2. Exceptions- To every single thing I say here, there is usually some exception to that. I don't mean lots, but just a few exceptions. Something may happen different to how I say, or you may do something that should not work but it does. This is because it is impossible to mention everything about warfare, and so you may find exceptions to some of what I say.

3. Within Reason- Please understand that some of the things I say here are not written in stone. Use your common sense please!

4. Ask if it will work- I have tried to make this as realistic as possible. But for fairness, as well as making things easier and not take years not everything is realistic or allowed. If you are trying to do something really clever but not sure if we allow it, then ask the moderator for the battle.

5. This is not Dynasty Warriors- Yes, the site is called dynasty warrior roleplay, and yes it is based on the game dynasty warriors. However it is about reality. I don't care if your character is Lu Bu. If you charge by yourself into a bunch of enemies you will get injured and maybe captured. A great warrior in reality would kill a few soldiers, don't say your character kills 200 men by himself. Your character can be a great warrior, and may be the match for 5 men at once. But overall your soldiers will kill more than you so don't go thinking your invincible and all that. If you don't think somebody would survive it in real life then don't do it, because they won't survive it here.

6. Not giving you all of the answers- While you read the guide, you will notice that apart from examples, I almost never tell you what to do in a situation. All this guide does is to show you how you should think. You still have to make up your own strategies, but I am showing you how to do it and what to consider.

[yanosaudren]

Part 1- Maps

Personally, I have never seen any other site you anything similar to this, so you had better listen up and make sure you understand it. Or at least that was before, now its pretty normal

On DWRP Central, there are two different types of maps.
First, the country map. This map Shows every different region we have, and who owns it. If a region has a border with a region belonging to the enemy, then you can invade that region with the troops in your region. For example, if I had troops in Han Zhong, and it had a border with Chang An (which Wei owns) Then I could send out the troops in Han Zhong to invade it. For the Wei regions next to Chang An, they can send reinforcements to Chang An that will eventually get there. Likewise, if Shu had another region that was next to Chang An, I could get reinforcements from it.

Finally there is the second map. When two forces meet they will enter a battle map. Only on the battle map can fighting be done.

Every single soldier in China is on one of these maps. They can freely move between them. It takes about a week to move from one region to another.

Once every enemy soldiers has left the battle map, it is over and the map will be stored. Then on the country map Chang An would go green if Shu won, or stay blue if Wei won.

This is how the map system works. It is up to you to think how you can use it to bring victory to your army. Good luck with it general.
If you do not understand how it works, or you have a question about if you can do something then please PM a battle moderator about it (Lu Xiang or Gongsun Zan). Otherwise you might make a clever strategy, then just when you use it you find out we don't allow it here.

[yanosaudren]

Part 2- Formations

Formations are one thing that are almost never used on this site. However they can be of great importance. One of the main strengths of the Roman army was its uses of formations. They can be used best on a field battle and can be used to turn the tide from a possible defeat to a easy victory.

Firstly I shall explain what I mean about formations. This is they way in which you set up your soldiers to maximize their effectiveness in a battle. They can be very simple, or very complex.
A simple one would be in a fight against archers, to make your men run in a loose formation, with gaps in between them. This way there is more room for them to dodge, and there is more chance of arrows missing them. However in a fight your men are spread out and cannot help each other, so it is bad in a fight but good against archers. IN this was formations have their strengths and weaknesses. The general in charge must decide on the best formation to use in the fight, even if it is the one they always use.

With more disciplined units (not militia) more complex formations can be used. Once in a battle Jiang Wei defeated Wei by using a very complex formation he learned from Zhuge Liang. He was outnumbered, yet the formations he used led him to victory.

To make a formation, all you have to do is look at the situation, and then think about how the men should act in it. This way there are hundreds of different formations that can be used, and nobody knows them all. You have to use your common sense on this one.
Depending upon how effective your formation is, the losses will be changed. So if your formation is a good one, then you will lose less men, or the enemy shall lose more because of it.

Now into things more complex. Just like in a real fight, the movements of the two armies is linked together. When one moves, the other moves. You can use formations to move the enemy in this sense, and possible draw them into a way to kill them. This is a more complex formation, and in this way it is a formation for the entire army. To achieve this however, every general in it must work as a group and perfectly in sink, or it will not work and you may be in more trouble than you started in. That is why for army formations, you must be able to trust all of your other members in your army to do what they have to do, and at he right times as well.

If the enemy commander understand your formation he/she may do something to counter it, and so you must be careful about this as well. If the enemy does not understand your formation, then there is a better chance of it working. However it is up to you, general to decide on what formations you must use. The ultimate formation is one that is not rigid, and can flow. The enemy will try something, and you can instantly change your entire formation to counter it, no matter the situation. If this is achieved then your chances of achieving your objectives are almost certain.

All together, formations are extremely powerful things, being able to change the entire battle. They can be simple or complex, small scale or large scale, fluid or unmoving. If you do the right one then well done.

[yanosaudren]

Part 3- Troops

As all of you may know, it is the soldiers that decide the battle. You may make up some brilliant strategies, but it will always be those men and woman who bravely decide to kill each other that will pull off the strategy in the end.

But for this, I must stress one of my main points. Despite what I have just said, numbers are not the most important thing in a battle. They can help, and they can let you do a larger range of things, but they often are not the deciding factor in a battle.

I am not going to tell you which troops are good and better than others, or what troops your force should use. If you want something like that then you should be looking at the actual troop guide. This is not about the troops, but how you use the troops.

OK, one of the main things about numbers of troops is not to get daunted by their numbers. The troops they have in their army might be poor, badly trained soldiers, while your army is elite men and you might actually have the advantage.

But what is much more important is how you use your troops. With the right conditions, a small force can easily beat a much larger force. This has been shown in the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the battle at Guan Du, Chi Bi, Hei Fei and so on.

I will go into description of there conditions in other threads, so if you want to know those then read them somewhere else.

The one thing that I will mention is unique units. These are units that have often been created by members, and are used only be their force. You will not know what they do, so be very careful around them, and see what you can understand by the persons post for them.
However, if you capture them and end up keeping them, then at the end of the campaign (even if you lose) you will have access to them just as your enemies did.
Now onto your ones. Unless you managed to let the enemy get one, they might not know what it is. This is an unknown factor for them, and so you can put them to great use. Try and place them where they can do the maximum damage, because there is a good chance that they will not know their weaknesses. But at the same time you must be very careful not to let the enemy capture them. Even breaking them yourselves if preferable to this. Also, watch what you do with them. Throughout the battle, just by using them the enemy force may figure out what they do, as well as what weaknesses they have. The main strength of a unique weapon never used before is its mystery. If the enemy do not know how it works, then they cannot counter it.

[yanosaudren]

Part 4- Moral

Moral is one of the key things in a battle. For most of you, the main way to raise moral is at the start of a battle to shout some stirring speech, and that's great, it does raise moral, and it is really dramatic and fun to write as well.

You can tell the moral of your army, because on the battle map there will be a moral metre to say how well its going, just like the one in dynasty warriors. Also in the update it shall mention how many moral points your force has.

Yet there are many other different ways of improving moral. I'll get to that later, now I will describe its effects.
Most of you already know this, but in case you don't here we go.
Moral is how determined each soldier is to win. In a way it is the same as determination, as it has the same effects. However it is also different. It makes your entire force do almost everything better. They will move faster (only slightly), they will work as a unit better, and they will fight better. So its a pretty important thing.

Now the ways on raising moral. Like everything in warfare there are hundreds of ways of increasing moral. Firstly, the odds you are fighting at change it. When you outnumber the enemy, or have defeated them before, then your troops will be confident that you will win now and their moral will increase. Just as well, if you are losing a battle, or have already lost several then your moral will drop. This means that whatever action you do, the moral of your troops may be affected, as it can depend on your actions.

How far you push your men may also be a factor. Punishing those who fail or showing acts of cruelty can hurt moral, but punishing those who deserve it may raise it. On the other hand, if the force has lost recently and they need strength, then punishing men may increase moral, as it shows you are strong. It can change greatly, depending on the situation and yourself. How long the men have been fighting also changes moral. Moral will naturally go down for men who fight, as they get tired. Marching at a high speed also lowers moral, and when you do something unexpected it may make the enemy fear you, and lower their moral.

This shows us that moral can be changed in a huge number of different ways, all which depend on the situation and yourself. If you manage to get things right then it will aid you, get things wrong and they will hinder you.

Finally, After the battle for a region is over, all of the troops get their moral restored to even. This means that every time a new invasion begins for a region, the moral always starts being the same.

[yanosaudren]

Part 5- Terrain

Terrain, which is now more commonly known as topography, is the way the land is shaped, and in this case how it can be used to our advantage. We can gain a huge advantage depending on where we are, and it is always one of the most important things we should consider.
Firstly movement. the terrain is not part of the country map, yet is is part of the battle map. Some places you may not be able to travel through, while other places you can move. Depending on what the terrain is, you can move as different speeds, for example, moving on the water is fastest, while moving down a small mountain pass is much slower (and dangerous). Moving on the sea is very dangerous however as there are greater currents and there is always the chance of a storm, which could destroy your fleet. Rivers are much safer, and more predictable.

Terrain can also affect the battle. People battling on a higher ground often have the advantage over people on lower ground. Archers have a higher elevation that the rest of the soldiers if they are on higher ground, and so can fire further than before. People moving downhill will move faster (though may risk hurting themselves) and will hit the enemy faster and so harder, and will do more damage.

This shows us that the terrain can be a very important part of the battle. If you use it well you can out maneuver your enemies and gain a significant advantage.

[yanosaudren]

Part 6- Fire

Everyone will use fire a few times. When I speak about fire attacks everyone thinks about Wu. But almost everyone has done a fire attack at some point. The flames can be a very helpful ally. They can burn the enemy for you, destroy their homes, and you won't lose any men because the fire will be doing it for you. But fire is dangerous, and you have to be careful not to get burnt.

There are several things you have to remember when doing a fire attack; The wind speed and direction, the weather, what is burnable and where, and how are you going to reach it.

The wind first. This blows the flames in a direction. If there is no wind then the fire won't do anything, and it will quickly go out. If the wind speed is very fast, then the fires shall travel very fast. The direction is extremely important. the fires travel in the direction of the wind. At Chi Bi Cao Cao believed that the allies could not do a fire attack because the wind would have sent the fires backwards and Wu would have burned up their own fleet. However the wind changed direction on him and because of that he lost. If the wind is blowing towards your forces you will get burned instead of the enemy. The wind has to be blowing towards the enemy, otherwise it will not burn them.

Then there is flammable materials. You can' set fire to dust. At Yi Ling Lu Xun had to wait until Liu Bei's forces were in a wood before he could burn them. If there is nothing that can be burned nothing will happen. You can only do a fire attack in a specific place. You must also have something with you that can burn.

Finally, you have to reach the area for the fire attack to begin. Because of everything mentioned before, you will probably have to go to a specific place before you can do it. The enemy might be waiting for you. If you do not reach the area for the fire attack then nothing will happen.

Once all of these things are in your favor, the enemy will burn, the skies will turn red with flames and the enemy shall regret ever turning up.

[yanosaudren]

Part 7- Siege Warfare

Now its all good to wipe out the enemy army on the plain. But when you get to a walled city what do you do, knock on the door and ask them to surrender?

I shall do it for the attackers first. Your objective is probably to take the city as fast as possible and with as few losses as possible. But generally accept this. You will lose more men that the enemy. Its your job to do it without losing to many.
You can get into a city by two ways. Siege weapons and tricks. Siege weapons can get inside a city quickly and easily. However they are slow and will slow down your army, and they also have almost no defense and are very weak to attack.

The other way is to use tricks. This is to use a tactic that will enable you to get into the city. You must be careful that the enemy does not expect it, or they will counter it. However if you do something that has never been done before then be careful, because it probably has not been done before because it would not work. Think it through before you do it.

Now for the defenders. For the most part, your aim is to survive, to kill as many of the enemy as possible and to slow them down. The chances our that you are outnumbered, and so you have to either kill lots of them, or wait for reinforcements to arrive before you can win.
The way for you to win is to think of ways to kill the enemy if they attack. If you think your area will fall then retreat to somewhere else. The enemy will probably try something. Its your job to counter it with something. Again, trying something unpredictable may be effective, or it may not work. If you cannot beat them now then wait for things to change.

[yanosaudren]

Part 8- Duels

Duels can be a major part of battle. I won't bother with the rules here. you can read them in any duel. I am writing about the way you fight, and the consequences of it.

Firstly the way. Here we first have an introduction post, one that introduces both the fighters. There is no fighting, just everything else.

Then you start the fighting. You do not have a horse, and the only weapons you have on you are the ones you mentioned in your profile. However this isn't a fancy first blood thing here. Your aim is to hurt the enemy. I don't care what you do, as long as it is effective. Any cheap tricks are fine, with the only exception of no charges allowed as they give an unfair advantage.
And just because your enemy is Lu Bu does not give him an advantage. The only actual handicap there is is if they are a sorceror. Someone with two charges cannot use them, and will always have a minus of 1 point every turn no matter what. This is why if you are a sorceror with two charges. You have to be very good at duels or don't bother with them.

Also, never ever say you stabbed the enemy in the leg or something. This does not give the enemy a chance to do anything, and your attack will be considered null and you may get a warning for God-modding. Instead, say what your character is doing, like he is trying to stab the enemy in the leg.

Now for the consequences. If you lose, there is a chance that you will get injured, captured or you get away. You can run away in a fight before it is over, and while this will increase the chances of you getting away, if you fail to get away you waste a turn.

However, there is always a major moral change. The loser will have all nearby troops lose moral, while al the troops of the winners will increase in moral. This means a duel can change the tide of battle through the moral, and the possible loss of a general.

Thats all there is to it. Follow the rules, and good luck in your fight.

[yanosaudren]

Part 9- Predictions

No I do not mean being able to predict the future. Firstly I mean predictions in how you guess what the enemy plan to do, and also how we work here.

Firstly how it works here. The battle moderator is the key for this, before it all happens You tell the battle moderator what you want to do and they will make it happen. For example you tell the battle moderator that you want an ambush set up here, then on the map your ambush troops disappear of it. You and the battle mod know where they are, but the enemy doesn't. However in this case the ambush troops are seen, and they reappear on the map. There is always a chance that it will fail.

However, you still have to try to predict what the enemy is doing, and then make your own counter strategy to counter it. You must think about every general on the battlefield, and think about what they will do to whatever your planning. When you can predict this, you can plan against their plans and ruin them, and make your own plan to defeat them. This is how you win a battle. By using the other things mentioned in other parts of the guide, you can bring it all together to make a plan that defeats the enemy.

[yanosaudren]

Part 10- Natural events

Yes I know the title is a bit vague, but its a vague subject. Every so often, usually during an invasion, something random will happen. When I say random, It does have something to do with your actions, but for the most part its random. It could be good, or it could be bad, or it could be nothing but just annoying
But you must realize that these are serious, and your actions in them may have far reaching consequences. For example, if there was a riot in Wei, and Cao Pi had every single man woman and child in it killed, then he would solve the problem, but there would be a possibility in the future when Wu invades that the people would help the Wu. You can see that these can far very big consequences.

Another example, your in the middle of an invasion, and a group of peasants stands against you. You do a really really good speech and you manage to convert them to your army. Your army then gains a force of militia for free! This is how these things can either be good or bad. In some cases, no matter what you do they will be bad, and in others you don't have to do anything and they are good.

This gives the site a chance of random things happening, just as they would in real life. You don't know what to expect but you have to deal with it, just like in life. So it makes our site a tiny bit more realistic.

[yanosaudren]

Part 11- Humanity and Terror

Yeah you think I will talk about how virtue and stuff are better? Guess again, this is all about how both of these can be weapons in your arsenal. You can use either to help your cause and to raise moral. Or you could do it wrong and make things worse.

First I shall explain the obvious one, humanity. Its all about being nice to the people. You help them, and they may help you later on. You give them a great dream of a better land and the men will have an incentive to fight.
However, in a war you must be strong. If you are not you will fall. If you are too nice, then people will think you are weak, and they may decide to help your enemies. The people will not suffer a weak ruler in a time of chaos. This may rise up against you. This shows us that humanity can help us, or it can cause more problems.

Now Terror. If you are well known for having no humanity, then you can get away with many more things. You can burn and plunder, destroy villages and burn cities to the ground. If the people are afraid of you then they may surrender to you and help you so you don't kill them. They also are less likely to rebel if they are afraid of you.
However, if your actions are too far out of line, they will overcome their fear, and when they do they will rebel. And it will be very hard to stop them. If your enemies know what you will do to their lands, then they will have an incentive to fight you until they are dead.
Again, terror in moderation can be a powerful ally, but overdo it and it can cause many problems.

So what you must be able to do is find a way in between this. Even Liu Bei sometimes killed people who failed him, because he would have been seen as being weak otherwise.
The best example of this is Cao Cao. In his early years before everyone thought him an evil tyrant, he made the perfect line between humanity and terror. The people knew they could trust him, and this was partly why he was so successful.
When you find the right amount between them, you can find that it can be very helpful. But if you get it wrong then it could be your ruin.

[yanosaudren]

Part 12- Ranks

In DWRPCentral we have really brought the ranks to reality here. Many of the ranks we use would have really been used by generals like Zhang Liao and Zhao Yun.

There are two major ranks, and the others are just for bragging privileges
The first one is... THE EMPEROR!!! Not the evil star wars one, but the son of heaven, and the leader of the force. So If I was leader of Wei (that would be a laugh) I would be Emperor of Wei. The leader is really the one who leads the force. They make all of the decisions and so on.

But what happens when our great Emperor gets ill? Thats when the Prime Minister comes in. The Prime Minister is not leader, however if they have been given the power to do so, then they can do it. Lets say that Sima Yi was my prime minister, and I wanted to buy some troops one day but I knew i wasn't there to do it myself or I got lazy or something. I would empower my prime minister to do these things, and in these he could do anything the emperor could. So if I went on holiday, I would empower my Prime Minister to do everything. The only exception to this rule is making ranks. Only the Emperor can make ranks and give new ones out and take them away. Otherwise I could empower Sima Yi to do this, then he would remove me and place himself as Emperor.

Now for the fun ranks. Now you can make these ones up yourself. But because they have to be realistic they must follow certain rules. The first rank is a Captain or general rank. It doesn't matter which one you use, but a general would outrank a captain. Then they also give a cool description of the person as well, which should be realistic.
Another example- Zhang Liao set off to invade Shu and took over a region or two. I would then make him 'General who Conquers the South' The wording can be different but still mean the same thing, like 'General who pacifies Shu'. Or is Zhang Liao killed many men he could be 'General of Unparalleled might' or if he was really smart 'General of ultimate wisdom.' I think you get the picture now.

Then there is the second part of the rank. As well as being Prime Minister/General/Captain you can also be governor of a region, and this can be any region under your control. So Sima Yi could be Prime Minister and governor of Xu Chang (if I controlled Xu Chang). But If i lost Xu Chang then he could just be prime minister, until I changed the rank to make him governor of somewhere else. Lastly, the Emperor cannot be a governor, as his governs his entire Dynasty.

Oh and In a battle, a Emperor is highest authority, then Prime Minister, then General then Captain. So the highest ranking officer will be in charge.

So there you go. Make lots of fun and cool ranks, and while you can be creative we will tell you when its to far of track.

[yanosaudren]

Part 13- Mercenaries

Mercs (short for mercenaries) can be very useful in a battle. However there are a few drawbacks. First i shall say how mercs are different, then how to play them, then how to use them as a kingdom.

Every merc force can have several generals just like a kingdom force. they have their own bodyguards and stuff as well. Also, merc forces tend to make their own inventions, and have their own troop types. They have another thing called perks. perks is like a charge attack, and each merc force can have up to 3. they can use all of these in one battle, but not at the same time.
Merc forces are usually very small, however because of their inventions and perks each force in unique and very hard to kill.

Now for the mercs side of the story. Your main goal is your own. You may want to eventually take some land for your own, or mass a ton of gold. How you do these things is also up to you, depending on what you want. However the main way you get gold is by hiring you and your men out to the main kingdoms.

Throughout battles, the one thing you should be aware of is your image. If you totally suck in one battle then people may not hire you again, but if you do well you may be able to get more gold for your services next time. kingdoms will pay more money for good commanders after all.

OK now for the kingdoms side of things. mercs can be very useful, as you don't lose any troops but they do, they have perks and stuff that make them tough, and if you don't have enough men in some place then they are perfect to even it out.

However, mercs can easily secretly take money from someone else, do a bad job, ignore your strategies and do their own thing, quit halfway through the job, or even betray you at the worst time. They do not work for you and can make their own choices. So make sure that when you do hire them you can control them.

Also there comes the nasty part of payment. You can do this any way you want. You can have it so that pay comes before the battle of after it. You can negotiate any deal at all you want. You can even promise to pay them afterwards then refuse after their men have all died. However you may get a bad reputation from that, and never be able to get any mercs again, or worse they decide that they will work for your enemies for free.
both sides are going to want the best deal they can get, so expect to haggle for your price until you can both agree. again anything can happen, but if you betray them or something then you won't be making any more deals. if you have a reputation for backstabbing them then nobody will ever work for you again. think about the long term plan here as well.

[yanosaudren]

Final Part- Strategies

Yes Finally the last one, and it is actually the most important. To make a strategy all you have to do is go over everything I have mentioned above and combine it all together and make a plan that will lead to the completion of your goals. If you realize you cannot complete you goal then simply change the goal.

However I didn't just mean thats it. This is mainly about how you do a strategy here. Before we would have the person RP making the strategy before they did it to everyone at least three turns in advanced. But I think you can see the very clear flaw here. The enemy general reads this and by some amazing coincidence manages to avoid the strategy by pure luck. Yeah right your not meant to do that, but in reality its almost impossible not to on a subconscious level.

So instead you now PM the moderator of the battle (Unless they are away it will be Cao Pi or Lu Xiang in Shu v Wu, Yanos Audren in Wei v Wu and Yan Xiaozhi in Shu v Wei) your strategy, and they will look at it in great detail and then they will say what happens. For Example, if I was fighting Wu and I wanted to spring and ambush on them, I would PM the battle mod and tell him how many of my men were in the ambush, and where it would take place. Lets say I hid them in a bunch of trees. The mod would then remove those troops from your troop count without telling anyone, then when Wu comes by they would look at it all, and see if Wu see the trap before its too late and everything. Lets say in this circumstance, they do spring the ambush, but the Wu troops were a bit to far away and make a slight defense. The ambush would work but with less casualties than before, as well as a reduction in moral. This would all be done in a post in the battle by the battle mod. And while you can argue with the mod, they were chosen because of their understanding or strategy among other things and will probably not change their mind.

So thats it. Now the strategies are secret, but there is always a chance that it could go wrong some way.

If you use everything I tell you, and bring it all together you will probably make a brilliant plan that works perfectly. So congratulations on your next victory General, and good luck in your next one.