WoA-Traits

Roles: There are various roles that can be taken by Special Characters in a group.

• Commander: This is the default role. Other roles can only be added to a unit if that unit already has a Commander. A Special Character who joins a unit without any Special Characters immediately becomes considered the Commander of that unit. Prerequisite: War 1.
• Second: This is the Commander's second-in-command. He assists the Commander in controlling the unit. A unit may have no more than one Second per dot of the Commander's War, or per two dots of the unity's Magnitude, whichever is less. Special Ability: For each Second in a unit, reduce the Flurry penalties to that unit's actions by one. A unit with any number of Seconds gains a +1 Drill. Prerequisite: War 1.
• Flagmaster: This is the unit's master of communications, responsible for seeing that the Commander's orders reach everyone in a timely fashion. A unit may have only one Flagmaster. Special Ability: While in a unit, the Flagmaster adds +1 Relay. Prerequisite: Performance or War 1.
• Sorcerer: The sorcerer is a term left-over from First Age military use, describing someone who not only wields occult power against the enemy, but works with the Essence flows of the battlefield and anticipates the actions of supernatural foes. A unit may have only one Sorcerer. Special Ability: While in a unit, the Sorcerer adds +1 to Might. This increases to +[Essence] when fighting foes that are primarily supernatural, or that have at least a +2 bonus to Might from magical and enchanted equipment. Prerequisite: Occult 3, War 1.

Magnitude

A Commander may only effectively command a unit of up to his War rating in Magnitude. In order to command larger units, he must have Relays - those who take as part of their job the facilitation of commands to the unit. Special Characters and Charms provide Relays.

Magnitude	Members	Equivalent
0	1	Solo Unit
1	2 - 10	Fang
2	11 - 75	Scale(s)
3	76 - 150	Talon
4	151 - 300	Wing
5	301 - 650	Dragon
6	651 - 1,250	--
7	1,251 - 2,500	--
8	2,501 - 5000	Legion
9	5,001 - 10,000	First Age Legion

Drill

Rating	Description	Example
0	Undrilled	Solo Units; mobs, throngs, rabbles, warbands, thugs in uniform
1	Barely Disciplined	Poor village militia, gendarmes, low quality troops
2	Disciplined	Good militia, mediocre troops, imperial peltasts, Lintha pirates
3	Crisp	Excellent militia, good troops, imperial foot medium, Seventh Legion reservists
4	Crack	Excellent troops, imperial heavy foot, Seventh Legion line troops, Immaculate monks, Mountain Folk warriors
5	Flawless	The Legion of Silence, Tiger Warriors, Seventh Legion veterans, brass legionnaires, brides of Ahlat, veteran Mountain Folk warriors

Might

Might	Unit Composition
0	No supernatural abilities; strictly mortal troops
1	God-Blooded, trained thaumaturges, young Dragon Kings, average ghosts, Mountain Folk warriors
2	Younger Terrestrial Exalted, neomah and other non-combative First Circle demons, weak gods and elementals, ghost warriors, young Fair Folk nobles, elite Mountain Folk warriors
3	Older Terrestrials or younger Terrestrials with numerous Charms for enhancing one another, Immaculate monks, young Celestial Exalted, erymanthoi and combative First Circle demons, lesser combative deities such as lion dogs and scarab guardians, veteran nemissaries or war ghosts, experienced Fair Folk nobles
4	Experienced Celestial Exalted or very old Terrestrial Exalted, Immaculate masters, Second Circle demons, Dragon King elders, warlike divinities such as celestial lions
5	Lesser elemental dragons, elder Celestial Exalted (Essence 6+)

Bonuses	Equipment
+1	Thaumaturgical talismans and alchemical potions
+2	Basic magical armor and weapons, powerful thaumaturgical artifacts such as gunzosha armor.
+3	Essence-discharge weapons, magical power armor such as warstriders or dragon armor.
+4	Powerful First Age artifacts or divine weapons

Unit Accuracy

• Acts like a weapon’s Accuracy, adding bonus dice to the Wits + War attack roll made by its commanding officer.
• Equals one-half the Dexterity + appropriate Ability; if all soldiers in the unit are using the same weapon, add the Accuracy of that weapon to this total before halving it.

Unit Damage

• Acts like a weapon’s Damage, being added to successes generated over the War DV to determine raw damage dice.
• Equals one-third of average Strength + weapon damage of soldiers in unit

Unit Defense

• Acts like a weapon’s Defense, adding bonus dice to the Intelligence + War-derived War DV of the commander.
• Equals one-half the Dexterity + appropriate Ability; if all soldiers in the unit are using the same weapon, add the Defense of that weapon to this total before halving it.

Unit Rate

• Act’s like a weapon’s Rate, determining how many times that unit can attack in a flurry by the commander.
• Equals one-half Magnitude of Unit.

Unit Speed

• Acts like a weapon’s Speed, determining how quickly the unit can recover from an attack in order to do so again.
• Based on the Unit's Drill

Drill Rating 0 1-2 3-4 5+

Unit Speed 6 5 4 3

Unit Armor

• Acts as normal armor, subtracting appropriate ratings from raw damage dice pools.
• Equal to normal average soaks of soldiers in unit.

Unit Health Levels

• Acts as normal Health Levels; abstractly tracks losses in battle.
• A unit has one normal track of Health Levels, plus one additional track per dot of Magnitude above 0.

Unit Morale

• Acts as a meter to track the willingness of a unit to remain on the field of battle, based on both fear of battle situations and physical exhaustion.
• Derived by adding the average Valor of troops in the unit + Stamina or Resistance (whichever is higher) of unit + Drill of unit.
• Maximum Morale rating can be limited by outside factors, including:
  • Wound Penalties: Subtract current Wound Penalty of unit from maximum Morale.
  • Armor Fatigue: Subtract Fatigue of Armor worn from maximum Morale.
  • Formation: Current Formations may add or subtract maximum Morale.
  • Hard Conditions: Units lose one box of maximum Morale for every day past their (Stamina + Resistance - Armor Fatigue) in days they remain in hard environmental conditions, whether because of weather, food availability or miserable environment. A good Ability skill check by a commander intended to mitigate the difficulty (Survival for environmental conditions, or Performance to keep spirits up) adds +1 per success to the time before the Morale decay begins, but once it begins, additional rolls do nothing.
• Various circumstances inflict Morale Damage; when Morale reaches 0, the Unit flees the field of battle

Source First Engaging with Enemy Unit Enemy Unit is Superior or Led by Supernatural Being Enemy Unit is Overwhelmingly Superior of Composes of Supernatural Beings Receiving Damage Receiving a Ranged Attack Receiving an Essence or Flame Attack Taking a Dash Action Taking a Charge Action Unit Targeted by Sorcery Each Action Taken in Severe Weather/Environment Enemy Unit Performs Successful Scatter Action Commander Channels a Virtue for a War Action Special Character from own Unit defeated in Duel Enemy Unit is Routed Commander Performs Successful Rally Special Character in own Unit wins a Duel

Morale -1 -2 -3 -1 -1 -2 -1 -(Fatigue of Armor; min. 1) -(1 + 1/Circle of Spell) -1 -(Successes) -1 -(fallen's War or Essence; whichever is higher) +1 +(Successes) +(fallen's War or Essence; whichever is higher)

Formation

Using a Change Formation roll, a unit commander can allocate bonuses equal to the unit's Drill rating or successes rolled (whichever is less) between Accuracy, Defense and Movement. Additionally, the commander may inflict penalties to Accuracy, Defense, Movement or Morale in order to add bonuses to other areas as well, on a one-for-one basis.

Formation Types

• Unordered: Troops in this "formation" are not actually in formation; no commander has taken a Change Formation action. This inflicts a -1 to Accuracy, DV and Movement. In this formation, maximum Morale is penalized by -2 points.
• Relaxed: Troops in this formation have been brought to attention and rank. This is the simplest formation, requiring only a single success on the Change Formation roll. This formation grants neither bonuses nor penalties to any Traits.
• In Formation: Troops in this formation have been brought into specialized ranks relative to one another, with a specific purpose in mind. Successes on the Change Formation roll may be used to purchase bonuses to Accuracy, DV or Movement, but bonuses also inflict penalties to other Traits, as chosen by the commander. For each Trait increased, the commander must choose another that is likewise decreased.

Building Formations

A commander gains a number of Formation Points equal to the successes rolled on the Change Formation roll, or equal to the Drill of the unit in question, whichever is less. For every Formation Point allocated to a Trait, another Trait must receive a penalty, based on the specifics of the formation. The bonuses and their concurrent penalties are as follows:

• +1 bonus inflicts -1 penalty.
• +2 bonus inflicts -1 penalty.
• +3 bonus inflicts -2 penalty.
• +4 bonus inflicts -2 penalty.
• +5 bonus inflicts -3 penalty.

Formation Points may be divided among Traits, but the penalties from any given Trait apply only to one other Trait; thus, while 4 Formation Points may be spent to increase Accuracy by +2 and DV by +2, this means a -1 to two Traits (most likely Morale and Movement, although it is a perfectly usable tactic to help reduce a weakness in a Trait inflicted by one bonus using the bonus from another).

A unit may benefit from multiple uses of the Change Formation tactic, though no Trait may have more than the unit's Drill worth of bonuses allocated to it (before penalties).

Increasing Accuracy: X

• Decreasing DV: Troops assume formations that make defending one another harder; attacks find purchase more easily while the troops focus on heroically shattering the defenses of the enemy.
• Decreasing Movement: Every movement is carefully planned and executed in this formation, slowing the unit to a crawl across the battlefield, while focusing their forward momentum into battle prowess.
• Decreasing Morale: The unit commander encourages near-suicidal tactics and formations intended to shatter the enemy's defenses, though unnerving and demoralizing his own troops because of such risky commands.

Increasing DV: X

• Decreasing Accuracy: Troops reduce their combat effectiveness, focusing on defense over offense.
• Decreasing Movement: The unit takes up a tight formation, slowing its progress across the battlefield in its focus on defense.
• Decreasing Morale: Unorthodox defensive techniques keep the soldiers safe, but make them distinctly uneasy.

Increasing Movement: X

• Decreasing Accuracy: Perfection of attack is sacrificed to the wild careen across the battlefield.
• Decreasing DV: The need for free movement overtakes the precision of defense.
• Decreasing Morale: Tactics employing risky maneuverings keep the unit moving quickly, but cause dissent among the soldiers.