Book of Battle

Knights are fighting men, and combat is an important part of their lives. Some combats are individual, man to man or man to monster. Others have thousands of men involved. The latter conflicts—great wars and epic battles—are the subject of this book. Battles are not the same as one-on-one combat. In individual combat a knight relies only on himself. But being alone in a battle means death, as enemies will gang up on one man. In battle he’s part of a unit and has friends nearby. The individual is subsumed within a unit, and that unit within a formation.

Individuals are only part of a sum of thousands of other participants. In battle, most player knights are attached to a unit, while non-player characters (NPCs) are followers. A leader, maybe a player character (PC), commands the player knights and perhaps some NPC knights as well. This is because he is either of position and rank (“Yes, he is 21 and has a Battle skill of 10, but he is the Earl so he will lead.”) or because he is skilled at the arts of tactical success (“I give you command today over the mercenaries.”)

This system isn’t about an army commander’s perspective over the field of battle. It is about the perspective of the player character knights, fighting together on a confused, disorganized and deadly battlefield. Overall, a unit of knights is simply one little piece of the battle. For the player knights, this is the battle.