1. Melee Weapons are Disposable
Although the Iron Age had been in full swing for several hundred years by the 9th to 7th century BC in the ancient Near East, the massive expense of iron working infrastructure and technologies combined with the difficulty in mining and extracting the ore in the eastern Mediterranean, led to it being a somewhat uncommon occurrence on ancient battlefields. When it did appear in any significant amount, it was a dominating force in combat. Unlike in the medieval period where iron and steel formed the bulk of weapons and armor, in the ancient period, bronze was the most common material seen in martial equipment. Bronze’s constituent elements were much easier to work and less costly to shape and maintain, and while bronze could be made to form a lethal edge, the relative softness of the metal meant that it could easily blunt and chip in sustained combat. This weakness was exacerbated on contact with iron which was all together superior for martial purposes. Iron blades could cleave bronze and leather armor in two, turning what would have been wounding blows into killing ones. Iron spears could puncture straight through bronze shields, tearing holes in shielded formations with a thrust. Iron shields repelled bronze tipped arrows effortlessly, and bronze weapons could shatter when put against them. This led to an arms race, as competing empires fought to lay claim to as much iron technology as possible. It was an arms race that the biblical Israelites almost always lost, leading to immense difficulties in their military ventures.
The Way of the Earth captures these historical realities in a few ways. First, martial equipment of common quality is extremely disposable. Common quality weapons and shields can be broken with a single roll; either a bad roll where an item is broken accidentally, or a good roll where an opponent’s item is destroyed in a maneuver. Superior quality items are immune to this danger, and have better offensive and defensive attributes across the board, but are relatively difficult to find and expensive to acquire.
Second, while nothing is more iconic for traditional fantasy than a knight in shining plate armor wielding a long sword, metals in general were much more rare in ancient times. The spear was therefore a much more common weapon, as it required less metal, less smithing expertise, and less training to wield effectively. There are few sword-like weapons in The Way of the Earth, while there are a variety of spear type weapons. Heavy metal armors are present, but again, they are exorbitantly expensive and difficult to come by.
Third, as a way of helping players adapt to the disposability of weaponry, weapons in The Way of the Earth receive various bonuses when fighting against certain types of enemies; bonuses against unarmored opponents, or shield using opponents, or opponents with short weapons, or opponents who are slow, or opponents who are wounded, etc. This encourages players to be more utilitarian about their weapon choices, bringing a few with them and choosing which to use on the basis of the job at hand, and helping players to not feel overly attached to any one in their possession. Many role-playing games encourage players to equip themselves with one or two signature weapons that they use for every occasion, but The Way of the Earth treats weapons as tools best used for specific purposes.
Fourth, and continuing on from the theme of the third, weapons and shields are relatively easy to disarm and pickup in comparison to other role-playing games. If a player’s weapon breaks, they can disarm their opponents to be on equal footing, or steal an adversary’s and turn it against them. In one skirmishing playtest, a player with nothing but a meager short sword was facing down a mounted soldier armed with a shield and spear. With a single roll, the player grabbed hold of the soldier’s spear, threw him from horseback, split the soldier’s shield in two at the cost of his own short sword, and stole away the spear. The drastic reversal in equipment is characteristic of the vicious combat in The Way of the Earth and the general disposability of weaponry that it adopts as a historical theme.
Fifth and finally, The Way of the Earth’s ancient setting allows a few other less common weapons to shine. The sling, for example, plays practically no role in games based on medieval forms of combat, but is a strong contender in The Way of the Earth. Having a range on par with longbows, and being one of the few ranged weapons that can be used with a shield, the sling has a niche where it can excel in combat. There are legendary stories of what slingers could accomplish with their weapons, and records from across the ancient Near East contain references to units of expert slingers deployed with great success in war. Short swords and knives are also weapons that sometimes get pushed into the backdrop of fantasy settings, in deference to the larger and more exciting looking long swords. But light infantry dual wielding short swords or knives could be powerful forces on ancient battlefields, especially when deployed against spearmen. Although spears can thrust from range, the two short swords allows a combatant to parry a spear thrust in either direction, then move in close where a spear loses all effectiveness for the kill. The concealability of short swords also allows them to be used in assassination, something the vaishineph player characters in The Way of the Earth’s setting will likely find themselves attempting. The biblical story of Ehud’s assassination of King Eglan, described so vividly in Judges 3, dramatizes such an incident.
2. Chariots are King on Land
The chariot was an ancient super weapon. The immense cost of fielding chariots combined with the devastation they could cause in charges and as mobile archery platforms, led them to be the premier tool of warfare in much of the ancient Near East. Chariots were considered so invincible that accounts like Judges 1 indicate that without divine intervention, they would be impossible to overcome. The actual effectiveness of chariots in ancient warfare is somewhat less glamorous. Chariots could only be used on a limited amount of terrain and were susceptible to all sorts of maintenance issues, but their psychological value was unparalleled even if their actual value left something to be desired.
The Way of the Earth places chariots on a pedestal, less because of their historical power, and more because of the mythic hold they had on the ancient imagination. Chariots are, in a mechanical sense, intentionally overpowered in The Way of the Earth, not because they were actually invincible in the ancient world, but because they had the feel of invincibility to many soldiers who fought against them. Chariots are in The Way of the Earth are the smallest epic damage unit in the game. Epic damage is a type of damage typically dealt and received by entire armies, naval ships, siege engines, and the most powerful magical Whispers and supernal creatures. It is a type of damage an entire order of magnitude above the more common lethal and bashing damage dealt by weapons. Epic damage units cannot normally be harmed by lethal and bashing damage, and a single point of epic damage counts as ten points of lethal damage when applied to a mere mortal. This makes chariots tank-like in The Way of the Earth’s combat mechanics, and forces players who try to bring them down to employ cautious and creative strategies.
3. Naval Combat is Close and Personal
When someone thinks of pre-modern naval combat they likely think of broadside cannon fire on the high seas. But The Way of the Earth’s historical setting takes place thousands of years before such technology would be prevalent. The ancient world still had furious naval combat, especially in the Mediterranean Sea, which was absolutely essential for ancient economies and aspiring empires. But naval combat had a very different look and feel than the pirate ships and man-o-wars of the 17th -18th centuries. In ancient times, naval combat was up close and personal. The ram rather than the cannon was the primary weapon of war making vessels. Bireme vessels, with doubled layers of oarsman rowing with all their strength, propelled massive ships of wood and metal through the water like a spear. Naval combat was all about positioning, maneuverability, judging distance and the waves, and lining up ramming runs aimed at the sides of enemy ships. A clean shot could cut a vessel in half, while grazing blows might cripple a ship’s structure or kill enough of its oarsman to put it dead in the water. Large scale naval warfare turned into a dizzying dance of darting ships, as enemy forces tried time and again to skewer one another on the raging seas.
Ramming was assisted by onboard archers, firing both conventional arrows and ones of an incendiary variety, to fell oarsman and commanders and set fire to wood, rigging, and sails. Small catapults, and arrow launchers that preceded the roman ballistae, also provided covering fire and could be used to siege cities near the sea. Grappling hooks and spiked bridges could be thrown out once ships drew near one another for boarding, at which point the fighting turned to close quarters combat with the fate of both vessels on the line. Not many role-playing games attempt to do naval combat, but The Way of the Earth makes it a key part of its historical lore and its gameplay, and attempts to bring the unique, visceral experience of ramming ships to the table with care and historical fidelity.
Wrapping Up
Those are just a few ways that The Way of the Earth tries to bring the look, feel, and historical realities of the ancient world to life its combat mechanics.
See something you like here? Let me know! See something you think is missing? Let me know and I'll get it put in :)
- ABH
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