Disengage vs multiple opponents

[Khamulcalle]

If A are fighting 3 opponens with his great axe and the thre tries to close in on him, he chose to hit em all bu they are still standing after his attacks (did this cost him 3 CA to hit all 3)...now when they are close and still standing he wants to get away an he wants to Disengage can he do this agains all 3 of em and will thias also cost him 3 CA's? or is he simply toasted?

/K

 

[Loz]

If he's used 3 CA to hit all three opponents, he's out of options (unless he spends a Hero Point to gain an additional CA) and he's toast.

 

[Khamulcalle]

so if he use a HP can he get out of the combat (getting free from all 3 unharmed)

/K

So if you are for example are 3 vs 1 you should have have shorter reach and get close, then you will win! right?

 

[Khamulcalle]

...if the big barbarian with his huge Great Axe stumble upon 3 little dudes with knives he is in serious trouble.

The three little amigos will all try to get close to the barbarian, he can try to him en all (will cost him 3 CA's) or keep the distance (which also will cost him 3 CA's) lets say he hits em all, but they are all standing, he does not have any CA's left and they could have 2 CA's each to diliver on him... if he is still standing there will now be a new Combat Round where he can do nothing but be defensive or to try to disengege which will cost him 3 CA's. Or they will have 9 CA's and 6 should be with CM couse he has run out of CA which mean that his actions (which he does not have will count as automatic-failure)

So never fight multiple small dudes with small weapons....

/K

 

[Deleriad]

The again which of the three little dudes wants to be first to try and close with the axe wielder. First little dude is likely to die. Second little dude might die too. Third little dude will possibly make it.

Remember, little dudes want to live too. They want to spend spring nights looking at the stars, they want to provide for Mrs dude and the dudelings. All they have is a little knife and an angry axe man in front of them.

 

[Khamulcalle]

the problem is that the little dudes has ring mail with Proctection III and Bladsharp II on their daggers...

...so now the big barbarian is in serious trouble....dont you think?

/K

 

[danskmacabre]

Regarding Disengaging from multiple opponents.
Personally I would require 1 combat action to disengage from multiple opponents as it's an oposed test anyway. If any of the opponents beat him then he fails to disengage from that opponent (Not sure if that's RAW, but it makes sense to me).

But he has another option, let's change that scenario slightly.
Barbarian with axe vs 3 guys with knives, BUT he knows in a round or so he has reinforcements OTW.
He COULD choose to OUTMANOEUVRE them for the entire round and that only costs 1 CA, if he beats them, they can't attack him, if any beat him then they get an attack, but he still has 2 CAs left to parry anyway.
But I probably wouldn't allow him to attack back as he's trying to outmanoeuvre them unless he gtes a Parry CM and chooses Riposte.

From what I see in gameplay, if you generally just decide to fight toe to toe and fight, you run a high risk of getting hurt.
When I run games I encourage creative thought in combat, so it doesn;t just boil down to opponents standing in front of each other whacking each other.

 

[Khamulcalle]

how does this creative thoughts work in real RQ fight? Do you have an example? Sounds very intresting.

/K

 

[danskmacabre]

Totally varies on the scenario / fight in question, so to keep it simple I'll use an example of a small encounter in the last game I ran of Elric/MRQ2.

The party is raiding a tomb of a long dead hero.
They enter one room, there's 4 skeletons in plate armor in there.
Whilst the skellies don't have a lot of HPs, the Plate armor blocks a lot of damage.

The party backs off to the door and back into the corridor a bit so only one Skeleton can get through at a time.
The main tank in the party uses his Warsword to keep them back 1 at a time.

If they just charged in, they would have been in trouble as all the skellies could have attacked at once.

 

[Khamulcalle]

okay, I'll get it, sounds very good. It's good when your players think and adjust to the situation

/K

 

[danskmacabre]

A quite diferent fight was earlier shortly after it became clear just how dangerous the combat could be.
It was a raid on a small Broo raider camp (like 5 Broo).

2 characters who were good with the bow climbed into trees and hid. The main tank stayed at the bottom of the tree and waited with a bow and a sword / shield combo leaning against the tree ready to be swapped over.

Another fast character lures the Broo out and they chase him.

The 2 characters once they see the Broo closer, fire bows taking out a couple of Broo then the tank drops his bow, changes weapons and charges in.

The guy being chased turns around facing the remaining Broo, as it turned out 2-3 of the Broo were already down or lost CAs by this point so they were nicely softerned up for the melee guys. The remaining 2 Broo who are unhurt are not so keen to charge in now.
The 2 bowmen still continued to take potshots with bows.
This combat turned out really well, although the Bowmen did get some great shots off.
Against smarter opponents this might not have worked, who knows, but the point is if you CAN avoid going straight to toe to toe combat and hitting each other then you should if it gives you an advantage.

 

[Deleriad]

To go back to the original question, I would rule that using the change range Combat Action to attempt to disengage would cost 1 CA for each opponent it is used on. This does mean that if you're surrounded by more opponents than you have CAs that you are in a world of trouble.

I personally would allow all the attempts to disengage to be made at once using a single roll. E.g. Rurik Ruriksson is surrounded by 3 trollkin. He has 3 CAs and decides he wants to flee. He makes 1 roll of his Evade while each of the three trollkin spend 1 CA each reacting. If he succeeds at all three then he can flee and the situation turns into a chase.

The other way to disengage from multiple opponents would be to use Outmanoeuvre on your first action. Then as your second action try to change range against anyone still engaged to run away.

 

[Mixster]

...if the big barbarian with his huge Great Axe stumble upon 3 little dudes with knives he is in serious trouble.

The three little amigos will all try to get close to the barbarian, he can try to him en all (will cost him 3 CA's) or keep the distance (which also will cost him 3 CA's) lets say he hits em all, but they are all standing, he does not have any CA's left and they could have 2 CA's each to diliver on him... if he is still standing there will now be a new Combat Round where he can do nothing but be defensive or to try to disengege which will cost him 3 CA's. Or they will have 9 CA's and 6 should be with CM couse he has run out of CA which mean that his actions (which he does not have will count as automatic-failure)

So never fight multiple small dudes with small weapons....

/K

If they are all standing after being hit with a great axe, I wouldn't call them little dudes.
He could also choose to hit one or two of the guys, and let the last guy get in close, then use his last CA to evade that guy.

But yeah, if one big barbarian guy is fighting against 3 armoured men with knives that have been buffed. He is pretty screwed. I think one dude with knives fighting against 3 barbarians with great axes would be equally screwed.

 

[Khamulcalle]

ROFL!

I guess he would take a look at the barbarians, then look at his knife....and then using the CM "Going away fast"

/K