GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 4: The Confrontation Between Granmarg The Striking Vanguard and Baron Hugo de Villay

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

The Duel

Granmarg pulled his troops back to the middle of the great bridge, but they were chased down by Hugo's formation, and as the two forces clashed, the commanders and their entourages met in combat on the field.  On Granmarg's side were Swiftbreeze, a twig-like treeman covered in leaves whose left arm was a bow, Groutite, a towering rockman who had carved Terran religious iconography into himself and wielded a greatsword, and Bramble, a rockman covered in brambles who dual-wielded vine flails that wrapped around his forearms.

Hugo was accompanied by Petronilla, his wife, who toted around a giant crossbow, Phillipe, a man in his twenties with thick eyebrows who wielded a shortbow, and Marie, a woman who wore full armour and whose only weapon was the sharpened beak-like visor of her helm.  Granmarg's forces split, with himself followed by Groutite flanking left while Bramble and Swiftbreeze headed right.  Hugo loaded some sort of special magazine into his repeating crossbow while his advisors consolidated around him.

Granmarg moved behind a wooden barricade, one of the few sources of cover on the barren bridge, only for Hugo to fire anyway.  The special armour-piercing bolt rammed straight through the wood and past into Granmarg's side.  As the two sides drew close, they all held just out of reach, daring the other to make the next move, until Swiftbreeze stepped up to Phillipe.  Each fired their bow at the other, but, seeing his opponent was quicker on the draw, Swiftbreeze pushed Phillipe's arm down, causing them both to miss.  Bramble stepped in on the side swinging wildly, but Phillipe nimbly dodged the double flails.

With a burst of electricity, Granmarg surged over the barricade and towards Hugo, but took a bolt from Petronella's waiting crossbow to the chest as he ran by, and the force of the impact threw him off and he fell short of his target.  Hugo followed up replied by using another special attack of his own, this time a giant blunt-headed bolt that knocked Granmarg off his feet.  Groutite fell back and converged with the other two earthling advisors, who all cornered Phillipe.

He frantically fended them off, while Petronilla braced her crossbow on Hugo's arm and fired a bolt into Granmarg as he struggled to stand.  Marie joined in, headbutting him with her sharpened helmet.  The beatdown continued as another blunt shot from Hugo sent Granmarg sprawling onto his back, and while Groutite intervened and pushed Petronilla back, it was too little too late.  With a final bolt to his back, Granmarg collapsed, gravely wounded.

The remaining earthlings all shouted for reinforcements so they could evacuate their leader and retreat, but then Groutite fell as well, and though Phillipe was battered, he was still standing and holding off both Swiftbreeze and Bramble.  With the other two earthlings taken care of, Hugo turned to Phillipe's aid and fired a blunt shot that forced Bramble to the ground.  Seeing the plight of their commanders, the troops broke.  A few personal guards came forward to rescue the advisors, but after that, the earthlings fled the field, giving up the center of the bridge to Hugo.

The Consequences

Hugo prepared his troops to continue their charge into the earthling rear lines, but the officers that had been bribed earlier ensured that the formation was slow enough to reform that they wouldn't get the chance.  Mielikki's troops fired on a rear earthling formation, then charged into Hugo's formation from the side, and they found themselves in personal combat once again.

Swiftbreeze took over command of the remnants of Granmarg's formation and rallied some of their fleeing troops at the rear of their lines.  Meanwhile, Pomegranite and Thicket, who had been kept in reserve for just this occasion, advanced toward the earthling side of the bridge to reinforce Mielikki.

Notes:

Everyone is extremely rusty when it comes to GURPS combat (including me), so there were definitely mistakes made.  It didn't help that my special rules in this campaign are so complicated that not even I can remember them!  In particular was a rather embarrassing moment where I forgot how a greater than symbol works.

Knocking people prone seemed extremely powerful, since it basically causes your opponent to lose 2 turns.  The houserule for now is that going from prone->standing is only a single action instead of 1 plus a step.

The amount of All-Out Attacks being made in this fight was quite unusual for our games; in the last few rounds, almost every character was making AoAs.  This is mostly due to low skill levels, as advisors cap at 13 combat skill, and dodges/parries are around 8 so you're not losing much anyway.

One of the special rules for duels is that after 5 combat rounds, one side can order a retreat at the start of a round (IE at the start of the 6th at the earliest).  They can take no actions that turn, though they can make defense rolls as usual, and, provided their leader isn't "killed" after that round, the duel ends with no victor.  The PC's almost pulled it off, but a lucky hit and bad roll into Granmarg just barely got him past another death check which he failed.

Hugo gained a level in his combat skill for beating Granmarg, so he will slightly better off in his duel with Mielikki.  Nobody else really substantially contributed to taking out a foe stronger than they are.  Petronilla almost got a point for injuring Granmarg and Groutite, but she wasn't the deciding factor.

New Ruling: it's possible to use the orders interrupt from the intrigue phase to interrupt extra actions granted by special abilities, but doing so refunds the use of that ability.  This is why Hugo didn't get to double-charge.

In case they get into multiple duels during a single mass battle, I've ruled that all characters regain 4HP and all FP between every mass battle round.  This means that Hugo's side are all back to full except Phillipe, who's pretty badly wounded.

Possible ruling in the future: currently, when a commander loses a duel, they are removed from the battle and return next round but can't act.  This might change to being able to act but maybe with some limitations, like having to go last, or not being able to use any special actions.

Since this battle system is very slow, we're going with the faster method of war: one battle decides everything.